Sonoma Wire Works: DrumCore 3.0

feature offers huge flexibility for tailoring dynamic rhythms or accents to really fit the mood of the composition; and using the grooves as a MIDI template, it's easy to substitute the triggered DrumCore sounds with your own samples! This brings us to the DrumCore Toolkit standalone application, capable of importing loops and samples into the DrumCore database. The Toolkit GUI's layout is similar to that of the DrumCore plug-in window, adding an audio/MIDI "loops and fills" browser and a cool tempo selection slider. Other Toolkit features include the ability to export to user-specified file formats for most popular DAWs and third-party sequencers and software samplers. Export or drag-and-drop anywhere to your hard drive -or just drag-and-drop from the Toolkit application into a supported DAW. MIDI drum kit creation is also possible. So, if you want to construct beats and loops outside of your DAW application, this may be the tool you've been looking for. I used Toolkit to build DrumCore kits with some of my favorite third-party sample libraries. Now I can manage, audition, and export all of my drum libraries with DrumCore database in both the plug-in and Toolkit application. Additional practical uses for Toolkit include live performance and beat construction. As anticipated, I was definitely wowed by DrumCore's workflow, but what really won me over was the natural, uncolored quality of the recorded audio files (24-bit, 48 kHz). In addition to the great selection of drumkit and percussion libraries included with the factory install, an impressive catalog of GrooveSets has been compiled in DrummerPack expansion libraries. All of DrumCore's libraries, including both the factory and expansion packs, feature many drummers you're sure to recognize -like Alan White, Bill Bruford, Luis Conte, and more. DrumCore shuns the toy-like look and clunky functionality of many virtual instruments, instead focusing on servicing the needs of songwriters and composers. Now you can concentrate your efforts on the creative process of making music -and the drummer never shows up late! (DrumCore, $199 street; DrummerPacks, $69 each; www.drumcore.com) Like many project studios, mine doesn't afford enough space or neighborly tolerance to record live drums. Out of necessity, I've learned to achieve acceptable results by constructing drum tracks with software sample players like Native Instruments KONTAKT and Propellerhead Reason, but I never have been comfortable playing drums on a MIDI keyboard. If I'm onto a melody or song form, I want to move fast within the composition to record all of my ideas. For me, drum sequencing slows the writing process, becoming a chore, so I prefer working with loops instead of MIDI. But after wading through loops, then importing and auditioning them, I wake up two hours later totally uninspired. Initially, with drag-and-drop DAW integration and an intuitive auditioning system, it was DrumCore's workflow features that first caught my interest. A week before installing DrumCore, I'd spent a few hours programming a drum track within Pro Tools 7 (not an easy task). I'd been using various drumkit sample libraries with KONTAKT and was curious to test the DrumCore engine and its samples instead. On the existing instrument track containing my sequenced MIDI drums, I inserted DrumCore as an RTAS plug-in, in place of my KONTAKT instrument. Upon first glance, I was impressed at the simplicity of its GUI layout. Many software instruments go "over the top" with flashy graphics and menu design that's both confusing and clumsy. Without reading the manual, I was easily able to navigate through the plug-in interface to audition and select one of over 100 factory drumkit configurations. Within my DAW, I had to move the instrument track's MIDI notes to correspond to DrumCore's mapped drums, which was a minor inconvenience to be expected. MIDI kits can be edited with the bundled Toolkit standalone application (to be discussed later), however a remapping feature within the plug-in window would be a welcome addition in future updates. Despite this minor complaint, I could see that DrumCore would definitely be a step up in productivity compared to an average software sampler. Because I don't like drum sequencing, I was excited to work with DrumCore using loop construction. Within the plug-in's GUI, GrooveSets are categorized in one of two lists by both drummer and style. The second list represents files within each GrooveSet, which are also categorized as Audio, MIDI, Loops, Files, and Hits. To audition a file, simply highlight and play within the GUI. DrumCore locks with your DAW's tempo so it's possible to audition in realtime -my favorite feature really. DrumCore also flags files that may require too much processing (time-stretching, etc.) to sound realistic within the defined tempo. The control area of the Grooves section displays the selected file information and offers an audition button and groove-style filter search utility. Tweaky toy #1 is a Gabrielizer feature that "Peter Gabrielizes" (or shuffles) selected audio and MIDI grooves to create random rhythms that can be saved or exported. Tweaky toy #2 is the LiveDrummer slider that adds dynamic nuances to MIDI grooves. After auditioning 20 or 30 files, I settled on a GrooveSet appropriate for the composition. When auditioning in Audio mode, I was able to simply drag the filename from the GUI's browser onto an Audio track. MIDI mode is also drag-and-drop. Amazing! Using this method, I was able to construct a drum track of the entire song in less than five minutes! In addition to offering performances in GrooveSets as audio files (recorded in different tempos to avoid artifacts from time-stretching), each loop is also mirrored in MIDI grooves utilizing individual drum samples from the same kit/musician configuration. This MIDI feature offers huge flexibility for tailoring dynamic rhythms or accents to really fit the mood of the composition; and using the grooves as a MIDI template, it's easy to substitute the triggered DrumCore sounds with your own samples! This brings us to the DrumCore Toolkit standalone application, capable of importing loops and samples into the DrumCore database. The Toolkit GUI's layout is similar to that of the DrumCore plug-in window, adding an audio/MIDI "loops and fills" browser and a cool tempo selection slider. Other Toolkit features include the ability to export to user-specified file formats for most popular DAWs and third-party sequencers and software samplers. Export or drag-and-drop anywhere to your hard drive -or just drag-and-drop from the Toolkit application into a supported DAW. MIDI drum kit creation is also possible. So, if you want to construct beats and loops outside of your DAW application, this may be the tool you've been looking for. I used Toolkit to build DrumCore kits with some of my favorite third-party sample libraries. Now I can manage, audition, and export all of my drum libraries with DrumCore database in both the plug-in and Toolkit application. Additional practical uses for Toolkit include live performance and beat construction. As anticipated, I was definitely wowed by DrumCore's workflow, but what really won me over was the natural, uncolored quality of the recorded audio files (24-bit, 48 kHz). In addition to the great selection of drumkit and percussion libraries included with the factory install, an impressive catalog of GrooveSets has been compiled in DrummerPack expansion libraries. All of DrumCore's libraries, including both the factory and expansion packs, feature many drummers you're sure to recognize -like Alan White, Bill Bruford, Luis Conte, and more. DrumCore shuns the toy-like look and clunky functionality of many virtual instruments, instead focusing on servicing the needs of songwriters and composers. Now you can concentrate your efforts on the creative process of making music -and the drummer never shows up late! (DrumCore, $199 street; DrummerPacks, $69 each; www.drumcore.com)