February 2005 - Doggiebox - lists.zygoat.ca

MIDI Interaction with Roland SPD-S
by Chris Wicklas 21 Jul '05

21 Jul '05

Hi Everybody, I have read through past posts and haven¹t been able to find an answer to my question. I¹m curious to know if there is a way for me have a Roland SPD-S control the start/stop of patterns in DB. I am just a beginner when it comes to MIDI, so forgive me if this is a simple question. Let me explain. I am using DB as a click to play along with live. I created sections for each of my band¹s songs. Each section consists of a 1 bar phrase that loops with the song¹s tempo... In essence, a database of songs and tempos. When we play live, I create a playlist to mirror our set list of the songs from the sections list. I can then easily start/stop the click for each song by hitting the space bar on my Powerbook and then the down arrow to move on to the next song. This works pretty well, but it would work even better if I could figure out a way to control the start/stop, or maybe even the moving on to the next pattern from the Roland via a foot switch or extra pad. Is this possible? Or is there a way to connect a foot switch directly to the Powerbook which would do the same thing? The Roland is currently connected to a 1ghz Titanium Powerbook via a USB to MIDI controller. I can succussfully use the Roland to record drum parts in GarageBand, so I know the connection works. I haven¹t tried it in DB yet. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Chris -- "If you can't hear me, it's because I'm in parentheses." - Steven Wright Visit me on the web -- http://www.thedrummist.com

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Re: keyboard shortcuts
by Dan Costello 15 Jun '05

15 Jun '05

Hey Ben-- Remember we were talking about keyboard shortcuts a while back. I do actually have a reason for wanting a particular setup, and I'm curious if others would find this useful as well. Right now, with DB's current programming, the best way (imho) to set up the keyboard shortcuts is to have ALL of the same "drum type" under one key, and just cycle through them by hitting that same key multiple times until you get the one you want. This works great for many reasons, one being the limited number of keys you need to remember to be able to access every drum in the kit. The drawback(s) to that, though: you can't "play" that same drum more than once with the key-- because the next time you hit it, it cycles to the next variant. And unless you give each drum its own distinct "drum type" name, you can't play one drum type on one key and then its variant on another key in succession. (Remember the example I gave, in vol. 20, #5 of the digest.) AND if you have a lot of variants for that one drum and you go past it, you have to cycle all the way through all the other variants to get back around to it. AND you can't go straight back to a variant after choosing a different drum type-- the next time you hit that key for that drum, it goes to the default variant, or the top one in the list if no default has been chosen. I've found that actually "playing" the kit from the keyboard is not only fun, but useful. Sometimes my fingers stumble across a groove that I otherwise wouldn't have written (just like on any instrument-- writing FOR it and writing ON it are often very different processes). Then I just try to write down what I played. And, if I have someone else in the room looking for a particular beat, rather than having to write out the beat and hit play every time I adjust it, before I actually write any of it down I can "play" the beat for them live, by using the keyboard shortcuts. Maybe I'm just being silly about it, but I like the ability to play my Mac keyboard as a drum machine, and I think it broadens DB's usefulness to have that ability. It seems like it would be possible to change the KB shortcut assignments section of the code to accommodate this... any chance you could put this on the wish list? Thanks, Dan

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DB as a plug-in?
by Mike Carlyle 03 Mar '05

03 Mar '05

Is there a possibility that Doggiebox would ever function as a AU or VST plug in? This would allow DB songs to be edited within DAW software and to play in realtime without export to file. Is this redundant? Maybe MIDI functionality allows this already, but I haven't figure out how to run DB without an actual MIDI device (nor do I feel the need to bother). It could make the experience of writing and recording much more seamless and spontaneous. Plug-in status could also open up a new market, since record-o-philes seem to gravitate towards plug-ins like bubble gum to your sneaker. This may have been discussed. It may not be feasible. I'm just sitting and pondering.

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samples vs. velocity changes
by Dan Costello 28 Feb '05

28 Feb '05

> On 20-Feb-2005 03:40, Scott Kerr wrote: >> If we could get velocity changes, that would be AWESOME! >> [...] >> The Ludwig Kit Kicks ASS! Man, that's killer (Ghost notes Rock!) > > For _real_ velocity changes, you have to have actual samples of hits at > different velocity I totally agree with you, Carl. That's what's so great about the Ludwig kit (at least the first one-- haven't played around much with the second one). The "flam" and the "buzz" snare aren't just a bunch of louder and softer (but identical) snare hits. They are recordings of those actual techniques; it's their authenticity that sounds so good. Trying to approximate these techniques in any other kit is almost silly, because it sounds far too mechanical. Our ears must be able to tell the difference between a distinct hit and the same hit at a different volume. DC

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more keyboard shortcuts
by Dan Costello 25 Feb '05

25 Feb '05

Adrian wrote: > I thought DB was step input only. How do you record 'live', so to > speak, > other than by > programming a KC as a rest?) > I don't actually RECORD it live. I just play the beat out, normally for someone else, and if they make a suggestion for changing it, I just play it that way. Then I step-enter it in. I guess if you wanted to have a second program like SoundHack running to capture your DoggieBox "performance," you could do that... but it hasn't been my intention (so far) to try to do it that way. Live recording of the keys you press would enter into a completely different realm of user interface and program code... right Ben? DC

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RE: [Doggiebox] Re: keyboard shortcuts
by adrian.delso＠btopenworld.com 24 Feb '05

24 Feb '05

I was thinking along similar lines to Dan and I wonder if an answer might not be to have left and right hand KCs, so that some of the range of variation would be reduced and the stepping-through would too. If you're a right-handed drummer, the accented hits are more likely to be on that side and the hat and ride are more likely to be on the left, etc. Repeat hits would be hhandled with a mouse click. (This is where I reveal my inability to read user manuals! I thought DB was step input only. How do you record 'live', so to speak, other than by programming a KC as a rest?) Adrian Original Message: ----------------- From: Dan Costello stellaswindow(a)earthlink.net Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 13:13:08 -0700 To: doggiebox(a)lists.zygoat.ca Subject: [Doggiebox] Re: keyboard shortcuts Hey Ben-- Remember we were talking about keyboard shortcuts a while back. I do actually have a reason for wanting a particular setup, and I'm curious if others would find this useful as well. Right now, with DB's current programming, the best way (imho) to set up the keyboard shortcuts is to have ALL of the same "drum type" under one key, and just cycle through them by hitting that same key multiple times until you get the one you want. This works great for many reasons, one being the limited number of keys you need to remember to be able to access every drum in the kit. The drawback(s) to that, though: you can't "play" that same drum more than once with the key-- because the next time you hit it, it cycles to the next variant. And unless you give each drum its own distinct "drum type" name, you can't play one drum type on one key and then its variant on another key in succession. (Remember the example I gave, in vol. 20, #5 of the digest.) AND if you have a lot of variants for that one drum and you go past it, you have to cycle all the way through all the other variants to get back around to it. AND you can't go straight back to a variant after choosing a different drum type-- the next time you hit that key for that drum, it goes to the default variant, or the top one in the list if no default has been chosen. I've found that actually "playing" the kit from the keyboard is not only fun, but useful. Sometimes my fingers stumble across a groove that I otherwise wouldn't have written (just like on any instrument-- writing FOR it and writing ON it are often very different processes). Then I just try to write down what I played. And, if I have someone else in the room looking for a particular beat, rather than having to write out the beat and hit play every time I adjust it, before I actually write any of it down I can "play" the beat for them live, by using the keyboard shortcuts. Maybe I'm just being silly about it, but I like the ability to play my Mac keyboard as a drum machine, and I think it broadens DB's usefulness to have that ability. It seems like it would be possible to change the KB shortcut assignments section of the code to accommodate this... any chance you could put this on the wish list? Thanks, Dan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zygoat Doggiebox discussion list - <http://www.doggiebox.com> To unsubscribe, view archives or change your options: <http://lists.zygoat.ca/mailman/listinfo/doggiebox> -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .

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1E8, featuring velocity adjustment
by Ben Kennedy 23 Feb '05

23 Feb '05

Grab 'er here: <http://www.doggiebox.com/distribution/Doggiebox-1E8.tbz> Changes in build 1E8 (22 Feb 2005): • New feature: velocity (volume level) adjustment is finally possible on a beat-by-beat basis! Right-clicking or control-clicking on an existing drum in the pattern editor will pop up an adjustment slider. Velocity adjustments will be preserved (but ignored) when editing songs in older versions of Doggiebox. Note that currently, right-click also requires the command key held down for expected behaviour. • New feature: if a drum kit currently in use by an open song is modified, an alert sheet will now be presented allowing you to immediately re-load the drum kit in the song to reflect any changes. • The Sections List and Playlist are now in a split view so that their relative widths can be adjusted at leisure. • Fixed a bug in legacy (1.1-1.2) song encoding which caused the timing of some drums to be off. -ben -- Ben Kennedy, chief magician zygoat creative technical services 613-228-3392 | 1-866-466-4628 http://www.zygoat.ca

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1E8, featuring velocity adjustment
by Sion Morris 23 Feb '05

23 Feb '05

> • New feature: velocity (volume level) adjustment is finally > possible > on a beat-by-beat basis! Right-clicking or control-clicking on an > existing drum in the pattern editor will pop up an adjustment slider. Great feature - I think this is the most important new features in DB of late. I didn't realise how useful and intuitive it would be until I tried it. I really like the graphical fading of the icons too - that is such a good idea. Well done chaps:-) Sion Morris

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new user
by Paul Schwotzer 23 Feb '05

23 Feb '05

Doggiebox List, Is there a way to view the entire list, to see if my question has already been discussed? I assume there is no way to export separate drums as audio (e.g. only the kick which I normally do not reverb), so I am planning to use MIDI export which will give me more flexibility in Pro Tools. I would have expected an audio file that is exported to line-up in Pro Tools with a MIDI file that is exported, but this is not the case. Anyone know why? Is there a way to change the velocity of a single drum hit in a pattern? Thanks, Doggiebox is just what I was looking for. -Paul

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Feature Request
by Chris Wicklas 19 Feb '05

19 Feb '05

Hi Ben, How hard would it be to allow width adjustments to the Sections and Playlist windows? Maybe you could have the Sections window flush left with the playback controls window and have the playlist window¹s right hand side adjust width-wise as the main window grows or shrinks (flush right with the playback controls window). You could then make the middle column divider move right to left, similar to the way the pattern editor window adjusts top to bottom. What do you think? I¹m not sure how many other people would benefit from this, but it would come in very handy for me. I use DB as a click program for when I play live. The Sections list is a collection of 1 bar phrases at varying tempos. Each section is named whatever the name of the song is. I build the set list from the sections at the left. DB works great for this as it¹s very easy for me to move down the list as the set progresses (that is, until I have a stray stick whack my PowerBookhopefully that won¹t happen). As you can imagine, some of these song names get pretty long. Column width adjustments would make life much easier for me. Anyway, just a thought. Thanks for a great program, Chris -- "If you can't hear me, it's because I'm in parentheses." - Steven Wright Visit me on the web -- http://www.thedrummist.com

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