Logic Pro (X) Drum Notation

dougjammer

dougjammer

Logician
I want to add a wood block to a drum kit but cannot see a simple way to do it. I was able to open both a drum kit and a percussion kit and use a channel splitter for my midi drum parts, sending the Base channel to the drum kit and Channel 2 to the percussion kit. This was cumbersome. Is there a better way?
 
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Hello,
The title of your thread reads "Drum Notation"
Are you working with notation in the score editor?

Which drum kits are you using?

There are many options to achieve what you're asking, but more information is needed.
Producing drum notation using a combination of sound sources?
Producing just sound: drums and percussion on one track? Summing stack?
Logic kits? Which ones? Third party drum instruments?
Etc.
 
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Hello CSeye, Thanks for your response. I am using the Bluebird or SoCal kit, but the style is not important. I am using a midi drum track I wrote years ago that I need to record and print in notation for a drummer/percussionist as a performing reference. This is for a performance of an opera. I am only using software instruments - though I wrote this originally using an Alesis module. I found a woodblock sound when I went to: Legacy/Logic/Orchestral/Percussion Kit. I wondered if there was a way to add an instrument (a wood block) to a built-in kit?
 
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Hello

Study the project file here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rvhstbj7rlihgms/Drums and Percussion.logicx.zip?dl=1

Copy your MIDI track file (standard MIDI file) to a track below the existing tracks in the project file to avoid overwriting the tracks in place

For demonstration purposes, this project has the closed high hat assigned to cable 2 which is connected to the Percussion Kit. Sounds terrible doesn't it. But you do see meter activity in the Percussion Kit mixer track.

Reassigned the Closed HH cable to 1. Locate the Output Note for your preferred wood block sound. Assign it to Cable 2.


Cable%202%20for%20Percussion%20Kit.png


You will have one track in the Main window with your MIDI file than be viewed as notation.
You'll have two Mixer tracks with your preferred sound sources.

Classic Logic in action.
 
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Hello again CSeye, Thanks for your solution. I ended up doing something similar. I created a new mapped instrument in the environment and linked cable 2 to the Percussion Kit and cable 1 to the Drum Kit. I copied my midi file to a new track assigned to this new mapped instrument and finally could be edited and heard. I mapped the default woodblock GM mapping to a different wood block sound in the percussion kit via cable 2... and it worked.

Next i had a new problem. I had trouble seeing the tambourine in notation, although I could hear it via the drum kit. The drum clef according to the staff editor was supposed to be showing the tambourine group, but didn't. Maybe there were too many groups in the upper section of the staff? Anyways, the workaround I used here was to assign the tambourine to the hihat group. Now all is functioning, but it wasn't easy. I guess you call that Classic Logic in action!
Thanks again!
Doug
 
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Great!

Good to hear that things are working as you need them to.

Mapped Instruments appear to be overwhelming at first, but, once familiar, provide a great deal of flexibility.

Consider saving your project file as a template with explanatory notes to make set up easier the next time.
 
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I have a new educational need in this area. I am using drum parts created by a Drummer track; I shift them to a different track and back again to convert them to notation. This little trick works well. Then I use the #Drums or the #Rappers notation for charts and most of the time it is all I need. For some charts, though, I need to shift a note head up a line or display a note that is not in a group but is playing. I want to go into the mapped instrument allocation of this score clef but can't find the way through the menu. Any suggestions?
 
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To shift a note up or down, look at the Rel. Pos. column in original screen shot above in post #4. Notice that the Closed HH entry is blank or zero. Not shown but you can see for yourself that this places the CL HH on the top line (F/treble clef). Not wanting to spark controversy, but the Weinberg book places the CL HH on the top space. Increasing the Rel. Pos. to +0.5 moves the note to where it belongs as shown in the new screen shot. The position of the kick hasn't been changed in this instance.

What notes are playing but not showing in notation? Depending what they are, maybe place them them on a separate track with a customized drum staff. Some gymnastics may or may not be involved in getting both sound and visual.
 

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Thanks for the response and the advice. I notice in the attachment that you are using a mapped drum. I was using the #Drums score clef that was built in. I wanted to alter the mapping of the display that resulted from using #Drums with a Drummer file. Maybe this is not possible? Maybe I need to create my own mapped drum instrument and cable it to the software instrument kit that Drummer used?
 
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I'm using both the #Drums staff style and mapped instruments.
What specific notes do you want to display in notation?

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The hip hop rhythm I was using had a double kick drum and the second one was showing up on the top line. I couldn't see a menu option for changing the display of mapped instruments.
 
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dougjammer said:
The hip hop rhythm I was using had a double kick drum and the second one was showing up on the top line. I couldn't see a menu option for changing the display of mapped instruments.
Click to expand...
Assuming the first kick is C1 in the Piano Roll/Event List, and appearing in the Score, in the Mapped Instrument change the Kick 1 Rel. Pos. value to up or +0.5. It should now appear in the first space of the drum staff in Score. This is where a kick should appear in notation. Logic's default kick notation is on the bottom line which is really Kick 2/B0. In this case there's no need to change the Rel. Pos. of Kick 2 in the Mapped Instrument.

Kicks 1 and 2 should now appear as expected in the Score editor.

dougjammer said:
There also was a tambourine and another instrument which sounded but did not show up in the #Drums display.
Click to expand...

Adding in a Tamborine and other percussion into drum kit notation is visually a mess. It'b better to place the Tamborine on a separate single line drum staff style which you can create by duplicating the #Drum staff style. In the Staff Style window, change the Clef to Drum.1. In the new Percussion or Tamborine Mapped Instrument object, move the tambourine into the HiHat Group.

You can assigned this second Mapped Instrument a second instance of Drummer.

In my case, it was assigned to a custom EXS24 instrument. Hi Hat notes from an EXS24 Rock Kit were copied and pasted into a new empty EXS24 on a separate track. In the editor of the new EXS24 instrument, the Lo Hi Key Range was changed from F#2 to F#1 for both values. The result is what you see in the newer screen grab above.

There are probably other ways to go about this but the steps above do work here.
 
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