Virtual Drum Kit is a fun, easy-to-use drum machine for the Macintosh. It uses only your computer keyboard and requires NO additional hardware. Virtual Drum Kit incorporates some of the features found in a real drum machine while allowing you to use your own sound samples. Virtual Drum Kit is a great tool for all musicians to have. Virtual Drum Kit can be used to record simple drum loops, add drum tracks to previously recorded music, or just play along with your favorite CDs.
The Sound Bank
The first thing you will see when you launch Virtual Drum Kit is the Sound Bank selector. This is used to create different categories of sounds and link them to specific keystrokes. You can have 9 different types of drum kits and keyboard layouts. Each sound bank can also be named.
The Keyboard
Once you have chosen the sound bank you want to use, the keyboard is used to assign sounds to the keys on your keyboard. Every key on the keyboard can be assigned a sound. Simply click on the key which you want to assign a sound, then click on the sound in the list to assign it to that key. You can fill up the whole keyboard with sounds if you want, just make sure you have enough memory to load all those sounds. If you are using short drum samples, then each sound bank should not take up too much memory.
The "return key" and "space bar" will play the last sound played. Use them to perform drum rolls.
*TIP: When you set a keyboard layout, it is recommended that you take advantage of the numeric keypad. Set most of your sounds to the keypad, put your right hand on the keypad and your other hand on the main keyboard. This will allow you to use the return and space bar to perform drum rolls and play a lot better. Use your right thumb to play the faster, more repetitive parts of the drum beat, such as the HiHat, this will allow you to use the rest of you fingers to play the other drums. The Demo Bank demonstrates an ideal layout for you to try. Keep playing around with different layouts until you find one that works the best. As you add more sounds you will want to spread them throughout the keyboard and different sound banks.
The Recorder
The recorder is used to record and playback a drumbeat. This pallet contains the basic tools used to assemble your drum beat. When you click on the record button, it will only start recording when the first key is pressed, so don't worry about waiting too long before you start to play. You can record layers of drum beats by clicking the record then the play button. Your drumbeat will play back and anything else you play along with it will be recorded and mixed. You can record as many layers as you want, you are only limited by your computers processor and the amount of sounds playing at any given time, overloading it can cause a significant decrease in performance.
The loop button is used to loop what you have recorded. The content of the loop can be as long or as short as you want it to be. When you click on it, you will have to enter the time you want it to pause between loops. Entering a number too small for the gap may cause an overlapping effect. Keep playing around with different numbers until you find one just right for what you have recorded. The beat will only loop when the loop button is highlighted. The time you enter is measured in 1/60th of a second, thus entering a value of 60 will wait one second between loops. All time is measured this way throughout the program.
Anything you record can be saved as a text file. Everything saved is saved as keystrokes rather than the actual sounds played. Any time you open a file you must select the bank it was recorded in or it will play the wrong sounds. If the sound bank's layout has been changed for a saved file, you must go into the events and change all the keystrokes to the appropriate sounds when you open this sound file.
Events
Once you have recorded something, you may need to try it again a few times before you can get the timing perfect. If you still can't get the timing exactly how you want it, the Events will let you fine tune the exact time of each keystroke. When you open the Events window, what you have recorded will be listed with the keystroke and the time. The replace button is used to replace a specific keystroke when it appears more than once in the list, this is useful if you want to change one sound you used in a recording. You can even replace a keystroke with a bunch of keystrokes, just type in more than one keystroke when it asks you what you want to replace it with.
If you want to replace just one keystroke, or just fix the timing, simply double click on the line you want to change. A window will pop up where you can change the key and time. If you select the recalculate check box all the values will be pushed ahead or moved back depending on the new time you have entered. Any item on the list can be deleted by hitting the delete key.
*TIP: If you want one of your values in the list to become the first value on the list, just delete all the items before it, then set the first time to 0 and make sure to check the recalculate box.
AIFF Player
The AIFF does more than simply play an AIFF file. It allows you to still play drums on the keyboard while an AIFF file plays. Also you can record a drum beat along with the file. To do this, click on the record check box. When the record check box is highlight, once you click the "Play AIFF" button, anything you play while the AIFF plays will be recorded. To play it back, click the play check box (but not the record checkbox) then click the "Play AIFF" button. You can also record layers of drum beats. To do this, record your first drum beat then click the play check box and the record check box before you click Play AIFF, your original drum beat will be played back, and anything else you play will be recorded. Anything you record is recorded separate from the file and cannot be saved as an AIFF file. If you want to save something you have recorded in the AIFF player just hit save on the record pallet. When you want to open it later you must also open the AIFF file you used.
Using Your Own Sounds
The application comes with a few drum samples, but you are not limited to the sounds that are supplied, you can use your own sounds too. To add a sound use the "Import sound" option in the keyboard window which will import sounds from the resource of an application. Another way is to save your sounds into the resource fork(not the data fork) of the Virtual Drum Kit application . This can be done using most sound editing software as well as Res Edit. When using your own sounds, make sure that your sample has no gap at the beginning, but allow the sound to fade out until the end. You can also record your own sounds within the keyboard window, but it is recommended that you use a separate sound editing program to assure that there is no dead space in your sample. You can also get sounds from our web site: http://www.fluidesign.com/interactive in the user support room. If you have any sounds of your own that you would like to share, e-mail them to us at: UserFiles@fluidesign.com and we will put them on our site for others to download.
System Requirements:
Specifications- Virtual Drum Kit can accept sounds of any sample rate. The sounds we provide are all 16bit 44kHz and are located in the resource fork of the application.
Processor- Virtual Drum kit can be run on any Power Macintosh but has not been tested on any 680x0 machines. If you wish to run it on a 680x0 machine expect a somewhat slow key response depending on your processor, and you may want to re-sample the sounds down to 8bit, 22kHz. Virtual Drum Kit is only available on the Macintosh platform.
Memory- Virtual Drum Kit is a real memory hog. The total amount of RAM you will need to run this program depends on the length and amount of sounds you are using in a single sound bank, but 5-7 megs is the minimum otherwise the program may crash. If the program never reaches "ready" mode when you start-up, or if you are loading a sounds bank and the program does not stop "loading" then you don't have enough memory allocated. In this case, quit the program, increase the memory in the "preferred size" box in the "Get Info" and try it again. It is not recommended that you use Virtual Memory.
Hardware- As said before, you need no additional hardware to run Virtual Drum Kit, just a decent keyboard. If you are using a keyboard with very stiff keys, then you may not be able to play as good. The best way to get over the problem of having a bad keyboard is to strike the keys rapidly (but not hard) with a quick downstroke and make sure to have the speaker volume up high, this will give you more accuracy when playing. *Note: we are not responsible for any broken keyboards or noise complaints as a result of using our program.
It is also highly recommended that you own a good pair of external powered speakers so you can hear what your playing over the sound of your keyboard.
As with any instrument, you will need to practice to become a good player. Although your computer keyboard is not the greatest way to play the drums, it is a reasonable and fun alternative if you do not want to shell out the money for a real drum machine or drum set.
You are now ready to begin your drumming experience!
