April 2005 - Doggiebox - lists.zygoat.ca

(no subject)
by Sion Morris 01 Nov '05

01 Nov '05

Nice song Mike. I'd echo what Carl said - I think you can dispose of your vocalist - your voice is in fact great! You remind me a bit of Michael Stipe. Its particularly good when the harmonies come in. Seriously, you should be singing as well as playing. I banged this on my mp3 player this evening, set to 'repeat' and had it on a loop for ages and can't really find any fault. Its the best example yet of a believable 'real drummer' sound - that technique of slight speedup works really well. I'll be looking again at the nskit - it has a great 'clean studio sound. Any chance you could send the drum db over for me to look at for tips? Cheers Sion Morris Liverpool www.cinnamondesign.co.uk/music/music.html ------------------------------------------- > http://webpages.charter.net/mcarlyle/sounds/comealive-01.mp3 > > My singer didn't show up so I gave it a go myself. I don't know if > I'll be doing much more of this kind of singing. I'm going through the > "I hate my voice" thing. > > The drums are all Doggiebox using nskit v.7. I really like the polish > and natural feel of this kit. I need to tone the toms down a little > bit, but one thing at a time. This is an example of "pushing the > tempo" during the chorus to make the thing feel a little more human. > > I had posted this before, but at the time it had no vocals and was > fairly bare bones. This is an all new version using my new gear (MXL > 990 mic, M-Audio monitors, Tascam US-122 interface, Fender Pro > Junior... the list goes on.

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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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Velocity adjustment in main window?
by Sage 15 Jun '05

15 Jun '05

The new velocity adjustment is fantastic. Two questions: 1. Will this actually affect velocity of midi notes when exporting to midi? 2. Would it be possible to place a velocity adjustment bar on the main window (perhaps near the master volume bar) to control velocity of new notes entered into the grid?

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keys question
by Christopher Evans 15 Jun '05

15 Jun '05

Hi everyone I am new to doggiebox and the list. I have a question/observation about keys for selecting drums, I want to know whether this is normal. If I open a new song, add some bars and have a drumkit selected, then change kits the keys continue to call up the sounds/symbols for the first kit, ignoring any keys for the second. If I save, close and reopen, the keys for the second kit then start to operate as they should. also if I assign different keys to variants of one drum I cannot move directly between them, for example if I assign "a" to accent on the snare and "r" to rimshot, if I chose accent I can only get the rimshot by going to another drum, then pressing r, I can't go from one to the other direct. I am using version 1E9 Chris

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Heeere's 1E9!
by Ben Kennedy 02 May '05

02 May '05

Hey all, With no further ado, here are the several long-awaited improvements to beat editing now in build 1E9 which is downloadable for your pleasure at <http://www.doggiebox.com/distribution/Doggiebox-1E9.tbz> : * A new floating inspector window replaces the old options sheet for specifying time signature and tempo. Choosing "Tempo/Time Signature..." from the Song menu or "Song Inspector" from the Window menu will make it appear. In the next build, its state should be remembered for automatic showing/hiding. * New behaviour for Cut and Paste: these operations now apply to the instruments laid down within beats only; the physical song structure will remain unaffected. Thanks to everyone who has weighed in on this design/UI issue recently; this reflects what seemed to be the best consensus on how beat-level editing should work. Now it is possible to move instruments and rhythms around, within and across bars, without regard for disrupting the song structure. Currently when you paste, the resultant patterns will be dropped in over top of whatever is currently there (beginning at the insertion point or the start of the selected region if there is one), resulting in an additive effect. In the next build, the behaviour will be changed to overwrite (replace all drums in) the target region by default, but with an additional "Paste Over" command to achieve this additive effect if desired. * New commands Insert Bar, Insert Beat and Delete Beat(s)/Bar(s) for manipulating the song structure. These are accessible from both the Song menu as well as buttons in the inspector. Beats may be added and deleted with respect to the time signature of the bar; e.g. inserting a beat into a 6|8 will turn it into a 7|8. Only whole beats may be deleted; e.g. in a 4|4 bar if you have an eighth-note region selected, the operation will actually take out the full quarter-note beat into which the eighth-note falls. To delete an entire bar, select all of its beats. Adjusting the time signature using the stepper arrows in the inspector will preserve the duration and geometry of the bar. This makes it possible to e.g. overlay a 3-beat rhythm onto a 4|4 bar by temporarily switching the time signature to 3|4. * Zooming now only affects the selected bars (or the one nearest the insertion point). To zoom everything at once, first do a Select All. I think this default behaviour is a little more helpful. * Drag-selection of beats is now possible when the mouse is in either the "i-beam" or "triangle" cursor mode. Holding the option key will select whole bars. Support for discontiguous beat selection (i.e. command-click with "triangle" cursor) has been temporarily disabled. * Fixed a potential crash that could occur after deleting drums from a bar, and various other bug fixes. I'm interested in any and all feedback on the changes in this build, particularly insofar as the wisdom and usability of the new editing capabilities, inspector palette, keyboard shortcuts, etc. -ben -- Ben Kennedy, chief magician zygoat creative technical services 613-228-3392 | 1-866-466-4628 http://www.zygoat.ca

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Re: Doggiebox Digest, Vol 22, Issue 10
by Sion Morris 28 Apr '05

28 Apr '05

Great new build Ben. Especially good is the copy paste/over function. This will allow a lot of freedom and creativity for the user. Following on from this, and forgive me for harping back to a previous request of mine, but would it be possible to enlarge this function to allow an ascii pattern to be pasted (ie from the wealth of already tabbed patterns on the net). What I'm thinking is say copying a line from a pattern say --o---o---o---o- and have db place a beat space wherever there is a '-' and a default drum or any other character (X or O or whatever). I see it as being used on a scrap bar to see where each beat falls in relation to others and then transcribing from this onto the bar worked on within DB. It would save a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and tedious counting. It need'nt be a fully blown 'feature' but if it were a reasonably simple thing for you to do and if it could work along the lines of the new cut/paste function I think it would be another valuable asset for the user - certainly for me! :-) > New behaviour for Cut and Paste: these operations now apply to the > instruments laid down within beats only; the physical song structure > will > remain unaffected. > Sion Morris Liverpool www.cinnamondesign.co.uk/music/music.html -------------------------------------------

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vocals... and a PatrickCarl...
by Dan Costello 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

> On 10/04/2005 17:28, Mike Carlyle wrote: >> This is my second attempt at vocals... I'm still not entirely >> comfortable with my voice... > Sounds great to me. Your voice might not get you Pavarotti's job :) > but > who's would? The vocals suit the kinda straight-ahead yet laid-back > rock vibe of "Come Alive" and "Flowchart" to a T. And having a Pavarotti-ish voice can actually be a distraction. Instead of the focus being on the words and the melody, the "prettiness" of the voice gets first attention, and a lot of people seem to resist that in this genre of music. I struggle with it all the time, because I have the vocal chops to do opera, jazz, music theater, or classical choral work, but when it comes to singing rock-pop stuff in a bar (at least around here), I have to consciously strip all that stuff out to get people to pay attention. It's like the majority of people listening in that sort of environment want to hear someone singing that sounds more like them. Totally different topic: Ben, I wrote out a quick arrangement the other day, saved it, then tried to export it as an AIFF (and messed it up; I may have had the wrong things highlighted in the playlist...). Anyway, then I closed DB. Later, I opened DB and opened the file, and got a PatrickCarl. Are you still looking for those? Thanks, Dan

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Another song, this time with the Ludwig II kit
by Mike Carlyle 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

I find that, when I'm going for a simple, straight ahead, live sound, David Holloway's kit fits the bill perfectly. It took me a while to figure out how to work with the boomy kick sound. I found that I need to follow a routine: Export the audio, open in Peak for pre-processing, apply a little eq and limiting to maximize the volume without peaking out, then save. That saved file is what I import into Cubase and build upon. This is my second attempt at vocals. I was pushed into singing by some positive influences by my friends at the Fender Discussion Page. I'm still not entirely comfortable with my voice, but I guess it's better than waiting for my unreliable singer friend to show up. http://webpages.charter.net/mcarlyle/images/flowchart.mp3 ____________ Mike Carlyle Wilbraham, MA USA

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porting DB?!?
by Dan Costello 13 Apr '05

13 Apr '05

Adrian wrote: > ... I have a spanking new Dell Inspiron and, try as I might, I can't > find anything like Doggiebox for the PC. (There's some good free > recording software and I suppose I could find a sample player, but...) > > How hard would it be to port Doggiebox for PC, Ben? Dude. You bought a Dell. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!?!?!? ha ha You might try something like "Fruity Loops" for the PC. But I guess I just can't condone porting DB over to Windows. One of the things I like the most about it is that it's a Mac-specific program, with a very Mac-native interface, made by a guy that develops software for the Mac. Dan

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