Rolling Drums

Sunday, 05 April 2009 22:33

Rolling drums are a pain to program, but they can be made in a snap when you combine some of Live's MIDI effects. Lets set up a device group that allows you to play a drum roll by just holding one note.

• Start with loading an Impulse (or drum player of your choice) into an empty MIDI track

• Put a Velocity effect before the Impulse

• Set the Velocity effect to "Fixed" mode

• Set the "Out Hi" parameter on the Velocity effect to "1" Every note you play now, will be played at the lowest possible velocity setting.

• Put an Arpeggiator before the Impulse, behind the Velocity effect

• Turn the velocity button on the Arp "on"

• Set the "Target" parameter on the Arp to "127"

You have now created a drum roll effect. Adjust to taste with the parameters on the Arpeggiator. You can control the length of the roll by adjusting the "Decay" parameter on the Arp.