[PLUG] Drum machines

[Miller, Jeremy]

First, here's where to find lots of linux sound apps:
http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/linuxsound/


I've tried every one (drum machine) I could get my hands on and ended up
liking only one.  It has some issues, but is definitely usable.  (But my
needs may differ from yours, so don't take that as gospel or anything.)


The one I ended up using is called Trommler.  Get it here:
http://muth.org/Robert/Trommler/ 

It's a sample-based machine, so if you don't have any already there are some
good freebies here: http://hem.passagen.se/lej97/kalava/index.html .  It
does come with a basic set, so you don't have to grab more unless you need
to though.

Another sample set I use sometimes is here:
http://www.airwindows.com/studio/index.html



Someone else just mentioned it, but didn't know if it was good. So...

Here's my best shot at a review:

Trommler isn't majorly advanced (no tempo changes, limited ability to do
time/sig change) but it is fairly easy to knock something out with.  Basic
interface... sounds are in rows and beats are in columns.  Patterns are
(sortof) numbered sheets.  (Up to 64 patterns per song, I think.)  You set
up a song by punching in all of your patterns, and organizing the patterns
(by number) across the bottom of the screen.  Pretty standard layout for the
most part.

There's a couple very interesting (and useful) things about Trommler:

1.  The data format a song is stored in is plain text, and simple enough to
understand that after setting up the patterns you could just use a text
editor to lay everything out.  Very quickly.  (And even change a beat or two
in the patterns.  It's very clean.) 

2.  Another guy has written some tools that work with Trommler song files.
One converts midi songs to Trommler files.
http://www.geocities.com/eric_brunel/midi2trommler.en.html

3.  The other is a converter that reads a Trommler song file, lets you set
stereo position/room size/reverb level for each sound, and translates the
whole thing into a VSpace script.  (VSpace is a language/processor that
takes sounds and plays them back in a virtual accoustic space.)  Then you
run the script and get a really nice sounding wav file of the whole song.
  http://www.geocities.com/eric_brunel/TromVSpacer.en.html
Note:  On this website the author states that it doesn't work with the newer
versions of Trommler... that isn't exactly true.  It works on version 1 song
files, but not newer ones.  But it's extremely easy to remove the part that
makes it choke by hand in the text file.  I told him, but he's on a new
project now, and some of the features in the newer Trommler have removed his
itch.  Not mine... it still sounds better after running through VSpace.  If
you know Python and agree, he'd probably let you adopt it as the new
maintainer. :)


Back to Trommler... and a few things that suck about it:

1.  It can be a little sluggish.
2.  Playback can skip a beat here and there.  (Probably related to 1)
3.  Uses raw samples, so you have to convert wavs.  (Which is how most
samples seem to be distributed.  Instructions and script for converting is
provided.)
4.  Last time I checked exporting to a soundfile sucked.  But that's OK
because I always used VSpace to render files anyway.
5.  If using VSpace, it is fairly intensive.  Can take an hour (maybe more)
to render a wav file.  Of course that is on my old K6-2 350, so base your
estimate on that. :)
6.  16 bit 44.1KHz only.  But the majority of linux (and windows) sound apps
have that same limitation.  Good enough for most, but not considered current
professional level processing if that's what you're after.  (Though probably
still fine... don't process or bounce it around too and you should be OK.)



Now, there's onother option: Midi.  Compose on the computer and pipe it out
to a real drum machine or sound module.  Jazz is supposed to be a pretty
decent Midi sequencer.  http://www.jazzware.com/cgi-bin/Zope.cgi/jazzware/
I don't remember if it has a good rhythm editor section, though.

Not to mention you could still render a decent sounding wav file by using
midi2trommler AND trom2vspace.



Right now, I'm using a freeware Windows midi editor with a nice rhythm part
editor (http://www.anvilstudio.com/) for knocking out drum parts.  It works
pretty good.

OK, OK.  Why on earth am I using it and windows when I was working perfectly
fine under linux?  Mainly because I never found a good multitrack recorder
that I could figure out how to use well on linux.  Many were easy to use,
but sucked.  The ones that looked promising usually left me stumped.
(Ecasound, etc.)  SLab came close, I'm going to give it another go soon.
And see what has popped up since I quit.  What I'm really waiting for is
Ardour... that is going to totally rock and blow away even my windows stuff.
But till then...

Oh, FWIW, that machine is dual-boot w/Debian.  And all of the other machines
in the house are Debian too, so no knocking my single windows use!  :)



Dirk, if you want to hear samples of drum parts put together that way
(Trommer + samples from Kalava + rendered through VSpace) I can dig some up
and get them your way.  I think I also have some that didn't go through
VSpace, and at least one that was done in Midi.  (Didn't use Jazz, but Jazz
could still do it I think.)  Probably off list would be best.



And after all of that verbage on drum machines, I still think NOTHING can
ever replace a real drummer!  But even if you do have one, drum machines and
Midi (drums only for me) are pretty handy for composing/layout of tunes and
having something practice along with that won't bug the neighbors. 

Jeremy



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dirk Ouellette [mailto:hapibeli at save-net.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 6:04 AM
> To: PLUG
> Subject: [PLUG] Drum machines
> 
> 
> Anyone know of a good drum machine for my Linux box?
> Dirk
> 
> 
> 
> 
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