4. INPUTTING THE PART (DRUMS) MUSIC TECH

Make sure you have a blank part set up and the pointer icon selected. First you need to loop the part. Hover over the small white triangle in the top left of the time line. Once the mouse changes into a hand icon left click hold and drag the triangle to highlight the whole of the blank part.

The timeline will turn blue to show which section will be looped. Select the loop function from the play bar. It will turn purple when selected.

Press play and you will see the cursor loop round and round the empty part. Make sure the click is off or you will hear the metronome in the background.

Look at the left panel and find where it says ‘No Drum Map’. Left click here and change to ‘GM Map’ – this will make it easier to input the drum part

Double-click on the empty part to start inputting your drum pattern

This will take you to the edit screen. The white section of your screen is everything inside your empty part – of course it is empty at the moment!

Look at the timeline along the top. Now you can see all the individual beats in bar one – in this case 4 beats in a bar Next you will need to select a drum stick from the tool bar

First put in your Bass Drum pattern. This one plays on each beat of the bar.

Now add the Snare Drum. This one plays on beats 2 and 4 only. You can press play and listen to the pattern building up whilst you are inputting

This pattern has a Hi-Hat on every beat and on every half beat. Now the drum pattern is complete. When you are happy with the bar and how it sounds press the small ‘x’ below the big red ‘X’ to go back to the main project screen

Inside the drum part you created you should be able to see the beats you have inputted. You are now ready to compose the rest of the drum parts.