Help with DrumKits/Drum Patterns

fvfv · Post by **fvfv** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 2:47 pm

I just moved from the X50 to the M50 and Are quite happy with my new toy. It has endless ways of tweaking sounds.

One of the things I am most interested is in Latin Beats, such as salsa, merengue, Etc.

There are quite a few Drum patterns named Latin.... or that have Latin on their name (like Funk Latin [std]). I just can't seem to make them sound normal.

I understand that the U000-U999 drum patterns have a naming convention so that you know what drum pattern goes with what drum kit. For Instance Pop Ballad 3 [std] means you need to be using a Standard Kit. Like E062 (if I remember correctly) is Studio Standard Kit. There are also a buch of STANDARD KIT's on the G Bank.

Why is is then that some of this patterns sound so bad, like using too much Cymbals. Do I need to change anything else on the drum track to make them sound better ?

There is a SHIFT value that seems to change some of the sounds but in general they sound pretty awful.

This happens either in Combi Mode or Program Mode. I do have checked Load Drum Kit on the global page.

I am pretty sure Korg people designed these 999 drum patterns correctly and I need to do something else I am not doing right.

Thanks all for your help

Critica1 · Post by **Critica1** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:51 pm

you hurt the M50's feelings and until you apologize to it...

it won't "sound" the way you want it to...

hope that helps!

fvfv · Post by **fvfv** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:44 pm

And how did I Hurt his feelings ?

kikedeolivos · Post by **kikedeolivos** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:45 am

fvfv wrote:And how did I Hurt his feelings ?

Because, to the M50, instead of a musician, you have to be Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, hours and hours of tweaking....and tweaking....and tweaking...and tweaking...

CfNorENa · Post by **CfNorENa** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:58 am

kikedeolivos wrote:Because, to the M50, instead of a musician, you have to be Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, hours and hours of tweaking....and tweaking....and tweaking...and tweaking...

Quite the contrary, in my opinion. Just a few edits on the Tone Adjust tab, easily accessible on P0:Play, can utterly transform a sound. Rocket science it isn't.

fvfv · Post by **fvfv** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 2:47 am

Dudes !!! Back to the topic.

How come a user pattern that supposedly ties in with a drum kit does not work.

Perfect example. Go to program mode. Page Select drum Pattern, choose P239 Latin 2 (STD). on Drun Kit choose E062 Stuio standard Kit.

It sounds pretty bad. Actually try patterns from P239 to P243. They were supposedly programmed for a standard KIT, which I am sure E062 is.

CfNorENa · Post by **CfNorENa** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:26 am

Just tried patterns 239-243, and to me they sounded fine with kit E062 (in fact, they sounded awesome). Matching the correct kit to the pattern is very important, but you've obviously got that step down.

Note also that each pattern comes with a recommended tempo (bpm number, shown right before the recommended drum kit). If you dial up a program using one drum pattern, and then change the pattern, it is very likely that you'll need to change not only the kit, but also the tempo. Only by changing both will you have the rhythm track that the Korg programmers intended to go with that particular pattern.

If they still don't sound good to you, then the only option will be to create your own drum patterns. I'm pretty sure Rich Formidoni did an instructional video on that topic (don't have the link handy).

Good luck (and let us know if you make any cool discoveries along the way!).

Cheers.

mocando · Post by **mocando** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:58 am

fvfv wrote:And how did I Hurt his feelings ?

Don't you worry, Critica1 does that

Critica1 · Post by **Critica1** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:44 am

kikedeolivos wrote:Because, to the M50, instead of a musician, you have to be Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, hours and hours of tweaking....and tweaking....and tweaking...and tweaking...

and it's fun!

CfNorENa wrote:Quite the contrary, in my opinion. Just a few edits on the Tone Adjust tab, easily accessible on P0:Play, can utterly transform a sound. Rocket science it isn't.

transformers! robots in disguise!

mocando wrote:Don't you worry, Critica1 does that

reminds me of that song...how does it go? "don't worry...be happy" or something like that...

and i was emphasizing sardonicism...

fvfv · Post by **fvfv** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:28 pm

CfNorENa wrote:Just tried patterns 239-243, and to me they sounded fine with kit E062 (in fact, they sounded awesome). Matching the correct kit to the pattern is very important, but you've obviously got that step down.

Note also that each pattern comes with a recommended tempo (bpm number, shown right before the recommended drum kit). If you dial up a program using one drum pattern, and then change the pattern, it is very likely that you'll need to change not only the kit, but also the tempo. Only by changing both will you have the rhythm track that the Korg programmers intended to go with that particular pattern.

If they still don't sound good to you, then the only option will be to create your own drum patterns. I'm pretty sure Rich Formidoni did an instructional video on that topic (don't have the link handy).

Good luck (and let us know if you make any cool discoveries along the way!).

Cheers.

When you checked these patterns, did you change anything on the EQ or Effects for the drum track ? Or change anything on the MIDI routing for the track ?

May be I'll need to restore factory settings, but I hate to do that with all the changes I've made.

Is there any way to restore just the patterns and not the Combis or programs ?

CfNorENa · Post by **CfNorENa** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 5:22 am

fvfv wrote:When you checked these patterns, did you change anything on the EQ or Effects for the drum track ? Or change anything on the MIDI routing for the track ?

No, didn't change those parameters. It is possible, of course, that we're actually hearing the same thing, and it sounds bad to you and good to me. By your description, though, it sounds like what you're hearing is really, really off (not just not great). Perhaps you could post an mp3 of the pattern in question?

fvfv wrote:May be I'll need to restore factory settings, but I hate to do that with all the changes I've made.

Hmmm. I wonder if this ("all the changes I've made") is the source of the problem. Any chance you inadvertenly mangled a studio kit?

fvfv wrote:Is there any way to restore just the patterns and not the Combis or programs ?

Not sure -- but perhaps one of the power users will know...

fvfv · Post by **fvfv** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:51 pm

The most interesting thing happened to me last night.

One of the patterns that was giving me "problems" was a 6/8 Pop Ballad # 2 [std] which is, of course 6/8 instead of 4/4 . This pattern was missing some bass drum sounds, so it did not sound awful. It just missed bass.

Just for kicks, I added a second track with E062 Studio Standard Kit, and voila !!! The bass drum shows up.

I looked at all the parameters, MIDI routing, effects, Pitch, and both tracks have the same configuration, so I do not understand why the bass drum sounds EXCLUSIVELY on one of the tracks and not the other.

What just came to mind, might be a zone parameter. May be the original drum track is zoned from say F2 to G6 instead of C1 to G6, but I'll have to check it later tonight.

Now if this is not the case, could it be that some of these patterns are meant to be played accross more than one track, and if so, where Can I get a list of the patterns and their intended configuration such as Zone, Pitch Etc.

It would be a pain to go thru 900 patterns and just find out if some of those patterns require a second drum track.