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Consistent drum hits when converting to midi

I've got a drum pattern in Logic Pro which I've made from various different drummer patches. It sounds great! I've converted it to midi so I can have more control over it. However, I've noticed issues around consistency. For instance, I used the rim shot snare sound to get a nice 'crack' on the beat. But, let's say I set the velocity to 115 for a loud chorus, the majority of hits with have the distinctive crack, while a handful won't, even though the velocities are all the same.


Any idea what happening? How do I get a consistent hit? I want a bit of realism, but for certain parts of a song, I want consistency.


Thanks!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.3

Posted on Jun 22, 2022 6:02 AM

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12 replies

Jun 22, 2022 6:53 AM in response to Pancenter

Always on the same notes. Note lengths are all the same. Perhaps it is ghost notes causing this, but if this was trying to replicate a 'real' drummer, sure'y it would be the decay that is affected, not the 'crack' of a rim shot.

I've tried various things, including increasing the volume of each hit to the max, thinking the max 'crack' of a rim shot would surely come through, but it doesn't. And in other parts of the song, I still get the crack of the rim at settings of 100.


I've highlighted the hits below. The other notable thing is it's not consistent itself on playback. When I loop that part, the hits that have the crack I'm looking for change each time round. A hit on one pass of the loop won't always have the same sound the next time round.


Jun 22, 2022 6:35 AM in response to dins75

Interesting problem.

Is it always the same notes, is that consistent?

Are all other parameters of the notes the same... length, etc?

Is there any difference in nearby notes, busier or closer to the notes which do not play full volume?

Is there any change if you mute all other tracks except the drum track?


Velocity levels access different sample layers or blend two (or more) sample layers together.

If the errant notes are consistent try increasing the velocity to 118 and see if that changes the sound.



Jun 23, 2022 4:47 AM in response to CCTM

So here is the issues in more detail, I've added a couple of examples. Both of these examples are running from the same point in my song. I have some ghost notes going on with the snare, but they are 'snare centre' notes. The main beat on the 2 and the 4 and 'rim shot snare'. They are all the same, all the same length, all the same velocity (116 - and I have this same problem whether it 90 or 127 or anywhere in between.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F34_pXJemLM

In this first example, if you image over the length, you have 16 rimshot snare beats (I'm counting fills as one hit for simplicity). In example one, you get the proper rimshot crack on snare hit 3, 7, 9, 12 and 15.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRNEKzIoXG8

On this second example, you get the harsh rim shot crack on snare hits 8 (fill at the end of the bar), 11 and 13.


It's completely different each time round, even though it the same midi pattern.


Perhaps it is a round robin thing...but I'd like to be able to control it so I can make it consistent. If you listen to a real drummer, it's really obvious when they don't pull off a rimshot. Feels the same for me here, I want this bit of my song to have the punch of a rim shot.





Jun 23, 2022 8:31 AM in response to CCTM

I've been doing more digging and I think it could be round robin issues as you suggested:


https://www.logicprohelp.com/forums/topic/129415-drummer-velocity/?fbclid=IwAR1Gb6Nvz1sRac6PY5G1hpeirgVkTgO7ejMBzpfP4nTUVrYCI3jlx-RtrD4#comment-736570


If I switch to the sample option, there is indeed and randomness factor built in...but switching to that from what I can work out means you lose the flexibility you have with producer kits, you don't get access to individual drums.

Consistent drum hits when converting to midi

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