healer

I think this falls somewhere between Music and Technology, but I think more music...

I'm looking for a program to make beats, specifically for drums. I'm looking to make drum beats/fills on the PC and try to replicate them on my kit.

Anyone know of a program that'll do that for me? I want something simple enough to use immediately, but also with enough features so that I can have all the pieces of kit I need and the ability to save the beats I make.

Any ideas?

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healer

Bumpity-bump.

Really? No one has not even an idea?

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vanblah

Are you going to make the beats manually or do you want something to come up with the beats for you?
If you are going to come up with the beats manually, pretty much any drum-machine software will work. There are a ton out there ... some better than other. Some free. For some you'll need a VSTi host (I use Cakewalk Sonar ... but you might find something free.)

If you want something to come up with the beats for you check out Jamstix ... I've been using it for about a year now. It's not always that easy to work with though.

healer

I'd like to make my own to start with, but having some "suggested" wouldn't be a bad idea either. I'm trying to change the way I think about rhythm. I find myself playing the same beats all the time (or just slight variations of them). I'd like to expand my repertoire, as it were. So, know any free, better ones that don't need that host thing you mentioned?

I'll check out Jamstix tho. Thanks.

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vanblah

Well, whether you're using a piece of software or a real drumkit you're still going to run into the same limitation: yourself.

If you can read drum notation you should probably go check out a couple of books at the library. I know there are a TON of books that talk about different rhythms and have them notated. You could also download a bunch of MIDI drum beats and dump them into a host (free: ardour | the new digital audio workstation).

I don't really know any good PC-based drum machine emulators. In my experience most of the time "free" precludes "good" when you are talking about music software.

Start with a google search for "drum machine emulator" or "pc based drum machine" and check out these two sources:

Pattern Sequencers - The Sonic Spot
KVR: Audio Plug-in Database (Search Page) - VST, Audio Units, DirectX, LADSPA, DSSI

Anormalguy

This post might not be helpful, but here goes. I'm active on several music/musician forums, & one of the best all around forums that I've found is Fender Discussion Page. Don't be mislead by the name, they have very active forums on just about every aspect of music. Unlike some music forums the owner/host & moderators at FDP run a tight ship.

Of course you may already know about FDP.

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In a society where the individual is not free to pursue the truth...there is neither progress, stability nor security.--Edward R. Murrow

PulpMind

If you're not into using warez, one of the best free programs (albeit, it might be more than you need to just create some drum tracks) is called Orion.
It's a full on sequencer/vst host, similar to fruity loops or cubase le. From there, you could use the built in drum machine, or download any number of perfectly good free vsts for making drum patterns.

I use Ableton Live and love it. But it's something for a whone other thread...

biznatch

FL Studio is a step sequencer, you can DL their Demo. I personally like it.

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