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Drum Stik - Free drum pattern and sequencer program |
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| Back to my Library page | |
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| I am creating a free Drum pattern and sequencer program just because I like to program, and it is a great learning tool
for me. It is still in the early stages and I could use as many beta testers as I can get to help iron out the bugs and develop new features. More features will be added as the program progresses, such as, adding effects to a track, like reverb, delay, etc and recording a pattern or a sequence to a .wav file, so you can add it to your favorite mixing/recording program. Drum Stik can create Drum kits, drum patterns and drum sequences. You can save your patterns, sequences and drum kits and share them with others. In the free download, I included some drum kits, patterns and a sequence, so you can get started right away. I purchased a ton of high quality real drum samples at this web site for a very reasonable price. Drum samples are what you use to create your own drum kits. http://www.drumwerks.com Drum Stik uses the BASS.dll and BASS.net for all the audio
functions, and it is included in the x86 program folder download There is no install program at this point. You can run the program without installing it, which many people like, including me. The Data folder I set up a flash player so you can hear examples of a pattern and a sequence. http://www.el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=6060.0 Note: I noticed that the Intel Speedstep setting on my MOBO bios was messing with the samples playback timing. I disabled it in the BIOS and the samples were playing back in perfect time
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| The left side of the image above shows how the folders should be set up. The Data folder and the x86 folder should be
directly under a main folder. In this example, the main folder is named DrumStik, but it does not really matter what it is named. The right side of the image shows several folders under the data folder. This is where the Drum Kits, Drum Patterns and Drum Sequence files are stored. The images folder is not required and the Samples folder can be used to store sound samples if you have your own samples. |
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| The image on the right shows the program files needed. You may see other files in the x86 folder that you download.
These other files are files that visual basic creates and are not needed to run the program. I usually try to remember to delete them before I create the .zip file. Just ignore or delete them if they happen to be in the .zip file you download. |
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| The Drum Stik Control Bar | |
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| This image shows the main Drum Stik Control Bar. This is where most all of the Drum Stik controls are. Left: This is where you load drum patterns, save drum patterns, play drum patterns and create drum pattern Names. Middle Left: Adjust the Beats per minute and Beats per measure for Patterns and Sequences. Middle right: Load, Save, Play, Name Sequences and add a pattern to a Sequence Right: Load, Save and Name drum kits |
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| The Control Bar buttons will light up when they are available for use. For example, if you edit a drum pattern, the
Save Pattern button will light up and the drum pattern name text box will light up. To change the beats per minute or beats per measure of a pattern or a sequence, click on the label above the text boxes to highlight them/make them turn green. The use the + and - buttons to adjust the tempo. In the example above, the Pattern label is green and so you could use the + and - buttons to adjust the BPM up or down on this pattern. The -- and ++ buttons will adjust the BPM down or up 10 beats at a time. The - and + buttons adjust one BPM at a time. In the text boxes, you can enter names for your patterns, sequences and drum kits. A textbox will light up if you have made changes, this is a reminder to save your changes. The save buttons will also light up to remind you to save your changes. |
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| When the program first starts, there is not a drum kit loaded. There will be some default samples loaded that are just
drum stick sounds. You can play a pattern or a sequence using just drum stick sounds, but load a drum kit to get the full effect. Click on the Load Drum Kit button and load a drum kit file from the Kits folder. You can create your own drum kits if you have drum kit sample files. |
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| After you load a drum kit, you can then load a pattern or a sequence file or create them from scratch. You can then edit your patterns and sequences, play them, give them names and save them using the buttons and text boxes in the control bar. If you have a pattern loaded, the Add to Sequence button will light up. You can then add this pattern to a sequence. Load another pattern and add that pattern to the sequence also. This is how you create sequences of patterns. See the sequence editor info below. |
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| Playing sequences and patterns. The play buttons will not light up until you load a pattern or a sequence. When you hit the play button, the whole control bar will be grayed out and the Stop buttons will light up. There are no functions available for use while a pattern or sequence is playing |
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| You cannot close any of the windows using the X buttons, they have been disabled. This is done because a window and all
it's resources are disposed of when you use the X to close it. The program then cannot get access to the window and it's resources. You can only minimize and maximize the windows. The only way to exit the program is to use the red EXIT button on the Drum Stik Control Bar. |
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| The Drum Stik Pattern editor | |
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| This image show the Pattern editor. Each one of the gray rectangles is a turned off drum stick hit. This image shows
a 4/4 measure. There are 4 beats per measure, 24 hits per beat, and 96 possible hits in a 4/4 measure. 4 beats x 24 hits = 96 total hits. There are also 9 channels of samples that can be played at the same time. The blue rectangles are hits that are turned on. Click on a gray colored hit and then use your mouse roller wheel to adjust the volume level of each hit. There are 6 possible volume levels, counting off/no sound as zero volume. When a drummer hits a real drum, he/she hits the drum harder or softer to get a desired effect. Use the hit volume levels for each hit to get the desired volume effect. |
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| The image above also shows that there are 9 channels of audio that can all be play at the same time You can load up to 9 samples and create your own drum kits from scratch. You can make a simple drum kit with just a kick drum, a snare and a cymbal or you can create drum kits that have bells, whistles a Tabla, clapping hands, whatever. You click on a the text label of each channel to load a sample file into that channel. After you have created your drum kit, you can save the kit using the Control bar, Save Drum Kit button |
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| There is a volume slider for each channel so you can balance out the playback volume of each sample in the drum kit. The volume level is shown as a percentage to the right of each slider. If you click on one of the small radio buttons, you can see info about each sample. This info appears on the text message screen. The Show text message button opens another window behind the main window with program information. At the bottom of the Pattern editor is a progress bar that moves along as you play a sample or sequence to show you the total progress of the playback. |
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| You can start from scratch and create your own drum patterns or you can load a pattern, edit it and save it as a new
pattern file. It is easier to edit an existing drum pattern that to create one from scratch. |
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| The Drum Stik Sequence editor | |
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| This is a shot of the sequence editor window. This is where you arrange drum patterns to create drum sequences. First you must create some drum patterns using the pattern editor. For example, you could create an intro, a verse and a chorus pattern and then arrange them all in the sequencer to play in the order that you want them to play. |
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| Every action in the sequence editor starts by clicking on a pattern name on the left, and then using one of the buttons in the middle. | |
| At the top of each list is the Sequence name and info about the beats per minute, the beats per measure. In the example above: 100 is the beats per minute of this sequence. 4 is the beats per measure and Hypnotized is the Sequence name |
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| The pattern Names are in the list on the left. You can name a pattern to help you remember what this pattern is for.
In the screen shot above there are several patterns called verse x. You can name the patterns whatever you like. The list on the right is the actual file name of that pattern. There is also a hidden list to the far right where you can see the complete path name for each file. Just drag the window out to the right to see the whole window. |
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| You can use a pattern multiple times in your sequence. Just copy it with the Copy button and then paste it using
the Paste After button. You can also move patterns up or down in the list and remove them from the sequence. If you want to edit a pattern, use the Edit Pattern button and it will open the pattern in the pattern editor window. Use the Save Pattern button to save your pattern after you edit it. There is also a save pattern button on the Control Bar. If you click the Clear Sequence button, all the patterns will be removed from the Sequence editor screen. You cannot alter the sequence name in the sequence editor, you must use the Control Bar to change the sequence tempo and name |
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| Once you have your sequence how you like it, save the sequence using the Save Sequence button on the control bar. | |
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