Creating a Drum Editing Matrix in Pro Tools

[@stangreene6663]

I wish I could like this 1,000 more times. One of the best and most useful pro tools videos of all time

[@erickuehnl]

Yeah, it keeps going strong. Maybe Avid will add something native someday...

[@erickuehnl]

Also I think I say "go ahead" about 50 times. Funny to hear it again after all these years.

[@damiensargeant2432]

Maybe not what avid intended but SO👍

[@randomencounters]

Eric, thank you! I have been looking for a decent solution for automating orchestral keyswitches from Kontakt in Pro Tools and this was the ticket. It's just like a drum matrix, but an articulation matrix. Once I'm done writing the bulk of the keyswitches I just merge the midi clips into one to save space in the workflow, and it allows me to conveniently keep articulations separate from notation!

[@teofeo333]

FINALLY! Someone explains old school MIDI into new school Pro Tools. 1000 thanks!

[@idoltheband]

Thank you for this great video, Great advices !

[@elbandolero5563]

thank you so much Eric for taking time and made this video

[@fredhamilton1701]

Wow, that is beautiful! I've been looking for the best way to do this for years, and I think this is it. Thanks x 1,000,000!

[@60tptankboy95]

Großartig! Dieser (noch dazu so gut erklärte und vorgeführte Tip) erspart mir unendlich viel Zeit und Nerven. Best tip ever!!!!

[@christiankremo]

Literally the most helpful trick I've seen in ages.

[@teddym2808]

This is brilliant to this day, but I am wondering if it might be easier just doing it all on an instrument track, so will try that now and see how I go. Such a great video.

[@danielgniewoehner4926]

Eric, I really appreciate you taking the time to look at these issues and going as far as contacting Avid. Thanks again for this great idea to make up for lack of dedicated MIDI drum editor in Pro Tools.

[@jhajhAbari]

THIS IS THE COOLEST SHIT I'VE EVER SEEN IN PROTOLL, THANKS MAN, YOU'VE OPEN UP A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF DRUM EDITING FOR ME. NOW THIS IS A KZbin VEDIO THAT'S WORTH MY TIME. THANKS A MILLION

[@Vnzo]

Wow this video's a gem, thanks!

[@giantessmaria]

WOW, one of the more creative uses of pro tools i've seen so far...of course i'm new to this stuff but really appreciate this kind of stuff...thanks much my friend!

[@carloschowell]

Eric, this is a life saver! Thanks a lot! So well explained!

[@oneillbros2852]

Definitely the simplest way to programme drums or percussion, I was going to use notation but this is way simpler. Thanks 🔥

[@abbdrums]

This is genius. This will save me so much time and headache from just using the piano roll. Thanks man

[@mikeg3660]

Amazingly clear and concise directions.... thanx so much!

[@bow4d]

i never knew how amazing pro tools is. didn't know i can create a drum pattern like you could in FL Studio- BEGINNER

[@ChaceBonanno]

Damn this works it's just totally a force. I see why people only tracking and mixing in pro tools and composing in Logic, Ableton, and FL mainly.

[@erickuehnl]

True, it's not ideal. But it's the best way to program drums in PT unless you want to use a plug-in that offers its own pattern creation. For example, I use iZotope's BreakTweaker in PT when I need to do intense programming. On the other hand, for typical rock/pop stuff I do find it faster to just do it natively.

[@BrimstoneButcher]

This was a very helpful video. Thank you so much. Going to try this out later today.

[@SmallAxeMP]

Very nice why is people complaining about protools midi. Can I do This in Protools LE 8?

[@nanaandbump.]

This is really cool! I could see this becoming a part of my workflow. Thanks for sharing

[@belialbeetz1250]

dude you increased my work flow with this thanks

[@PermanentRecStudio]

Thanks, that is an awesome way to go about editing drums and is so much more familiar than editing using the entire midi window.

[@andrewwarren654]

Awesome mate. Thanks for putting that together!

[@2bad4unme]

I just got pro tools 11. It does not have any instruments, unless I didn't install it correctly.. Do you know how I can get Xpand 2 ? Thanks

[@precisionsoundworksstudio]

Pretty cool idea. Thanks man!

[@spookybuk]

Thanks A LOT for this tutorial. I really wanted something like this and could never have done it by myself. Just made my template here and it works. This was awesome and very useful.

[@wearepolyglot6496]

This is very clever!

[@nniymph]

Yooo ik this video is super old but this helped me so much!!!!! I have a project due soon and the drums were giving me so much trouble!! Thanks so much!!

[@jmpiiii]

The drum samples played at 1:59 are not the same samples/sounds in the actual loop. Was that intentional?

[@erickuehnl]

Yeah, I was futzing around and ended up changing the sounds. I didn't realize until after I posted the video...

[@AM-fp1jc]

Concise and exact. Thank you

[@masoudshokrai5886]

Thank you, this is amazingly beneficial

[@MamataTharima]

Very helpful and many great techniques! Thank you so much. Thankful to you!

[@PreludeMusicSchool]

Thanks for this. Greatly appreciated. This answered a whole heap of questions I had. As I am an Ableton User, so I just expected Protools to be able to do this.Loved learning. Well presented lesson.

[@SCARABFAN]

This has been a bit of an eye opener for me Eric, thanks for explaining this. However, what of existing midi drum tracks. I have midi drum tracks I built on Cubase, I exported them to Protools. Set them up to run through my desk on separate channels via a costly motu sound card set up..........can I now set up the matrix, with them? while keeping the same output settings? so I can fully edit these?....

[@leatherfacemc]

This is a really creative and easy method for programming drums using midi! My question is this...once I have used this method to program my different beats for a song how do I get them onto an audio track as separate instruments so I can EQ, compress, etc. separately?

[@erickuehnl]

Hi Leatherface, It really depends on the virtual instrument that you are using. A basic one like Xpand only has a single output, so you'd have to use an instance of Xpand for each part of the kit that you want on a separate output. It's a pain but you can definitely make it work. A better option is to use a plugin that supports multiple outputs like NI Kontakt or Addictive Drums, etc. (As far as I know almost all of the dedicated drum plug-ins can do this.). Then you can actually route each part of a kit to a separate bus in Pro Tools from the one instance of the plugin. Very cool if you have one of those plug-ins. Either way, you need to get the individual parts of the kit routed to separate tracks so that you can EQ, Compress, or generally mix them independently. I hope that helps.

[@MDzn212]

Thank you so much dude!!!! Greetings from Brazil!!

[@KipCount]

Great tutorial. Has anything changed in the last 8 years or is this still the best way to do this in PT?

[@erickuehnl]

Nope. This is still the only way to have something approaching the kind of drum programing you have in other DAWs.

[@KipCount]

@@erickuehnl Thanks for the reply. I just did this though earlier today in Pro Tools and it's awesome. I instantly feel so much more organized and using this method helps me stay creative with no break in flow like I used to have moving around the piano roll all the time. Huge thank you to you! Cheers!

[@Excellent2009able]

Hi , great video 👏🏻i have a question , When I program drums with a keyboard I usually play a basic beat , Kick , Snare & Hi-hat. Then I play (on keyboard too) my open hihats , ghost notes & drum rolls, cymbals etc on a separate midi track, quantize later & bounce both tracks together into a wav, Is there a way to record the extra midi rolls etc all on the same track without wiping my basic beat ? Also what does the quantize swing button do ? Thanks

[@erickuehnl]

You can enable MIDI Merge to add the extra MIDI data without erasing what you already have. Here’s the weird thing: you can’t do it with Loop Record enabled, but it actually works with Loop Playback instead. So if you like to record MIDI while looping be sure to change that. I just combine the two concepts when teaching this: “Loop Playback and MIDI Merge.”

[@erickuehnl]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fnXMgHijac9ld5I

[@Excellent2009able]

@@erickuehnl thanks very much 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@loiclouvel8171]

Thank you !! It's a time saver

[@davenado747]

I lost one of the samples for some reason, and am having a headache getting it back how do I add another sample without having to make a new aux/midi track as I have done a lot of work with this matrix (THANK YOU!!) but I just want to add a splash cymbal that otherwise dissappeared. It wasn't hidden, the sound sample just wasn't there anymore when I clicked on it's boxes...

[@erickuehnl]

Just create a new MIDI or INSTRUMENT track, and then set the track size to SINGLE NOTE and specify the exact note of that sample.

[@danielgniewoehner4926]

Hello - great idea BUT I am having the same problem as Fred - only small slithers of the rectangle fill - very frustrating. The question I have is what is the advantage of creating drums this way as opposed to simply using the built in MIDI editor in PT11? thanks for sharing this in the first place!

[@gmula]

Hi Eric. Cool video. I created one of these matrix's as you described and saved it as a Track Preset but when I import it back in, the midi tracks loose their "single note view". I'm using PT 2021.3.1 Looks like a new bug to me.

[@erickuehnl]

Yeah, I've seen that behavior as well. It only works with a template or Import Session Data.

[@gmula]

@@erickuehnl oh good to know. I'll try that. I super appreciate your response!

[@doleo_metal]

Wow thanks a lot. I've been battling with the clunky PT midi interface and and trying to find a better to program drum patterns. This should help me a lot. Not exactly what I want, but way better than they I've been doing it. This will help me until I find just the right tool I'm looking for.

[@guitarizt68]

Somewhat helpful. Thanks for making the vid.

[@nzone88ify]

Great tutorial. I have always wanted to use the drums from pro tools but they were to weak to stand on there own.

[@eniosilva2130]

Ooohh. Very, is very good !!!

[@olas591]

Hi Eric, is it possible to EQ each drum sound separately? would you make just a short tutorial please? thank you

[@Focused2341]

olas591 I had an idea that might help but I haven’t confirmed if it works yet. Here’s a comment left above to see if I get a reply. Try it out. It may work for you. “I’ve been trying to figure out how I would go about mixing each part of the midi drums after I have my drum track laid out. I think I just figured it out. If I make a new audio track, then take each part of my midi drums and solo it, couldn’t I just bus them out to an unused bus, set my input on the audio track to that same bus, and hit record? If I do this for each part of the drums, wouldn’t I get a audio track of each piece of the drum (one of hihat, one for snare, etc...) that I could then individually EQ and compress if I need to? Can anyone confirm this? I’m at work and can’t try it out a.t.m.”

[@Focused2341]

Just wanted to reply to my own comment and say that this does work. So now you guys can mix each individual midi note as well. If you wanted to take it a step further you could route the output of all the new audio files to an unused bus and then input that bus to an Aux track for further mixing.

[@Jimmy.C9]

@@Focused2341 thank you kind sir

[@Focused2341]

Gorilla Swirl you’re welcome 😉

[@eddieg3611]

Use Boom drum machine, each pattern corresponds to a note on the midi editor. Draw in the note for the length of the pattern and you solo each sound drop on an audio track.

[@brolltvng250]

Hi Eric, Thanks for the tutorials it really helped me in beatmaking especially as an Imaging producer..but i have problem when the view changes to 'note' view and i find it had changing it back to the clip view...then it messed up the whole sequencing..I'd love to send you a screen shot of what I am saying...I'd reply appreciate a reply to this..Thanks

[@darty58]

Thank you this is exactly what I was searching for, it's clear and well explained, good job dude.

[@rune288]

And can w import drum grooves from e drummer and edit them using this system

[@erickuehnl]

You’d probably want to import the e-drummer groove and then follow this process using those notes. I hope that makes sense.

[@vranye3547]

Great video! One question: how to EQ only snare or another of each 4 track separetly? Can i put new plugin only on snare track? In these situation i can't nothing to do in space for plugins where is snare. I can just put new plugins on Drums track under the Xpand2.

[@Focused2341]

Vranye try this out and see if it works. Haven’t confirmed if it will yet but ima try when I get home. “I’ve been trying to figure out how I would go about mixing each part of the midi drums after I have my drum track laid out. I think I just figured it out. If I make a new audio track, then take each part of my midi drums and solo it, couldn’t I just bus them out to an unused bus, set my input on the audio track to that same bus, and hit record? If I do this for each part of the drums, wouldn’t I get a audio track of each piece of the drum (one of hihat, one for snare, etc...) that I could then individually EQ and compress if I need to? Can anyone confirm this? I’m at work and can’t try it out a.t.m.”

[@Focused2341]

Just wanted to reply to my own comment and say that this does work. So now you guys can mix each individual midi note as well. If you wanted to take it a step further you could route the output of all the new audio files to an unused bus and then input that bus to an Aux track for further mixing.

[@auggiebendoggy]

Amazing - Goove Agent and Cubase's feature - create drum map from instrument - Super killer idea Steinberg did with that one.

[@menefiw]

Great video!!! I really appreciate this!!!

[@oneyearasatiger]

Can you use this method while having independent control over the volume of each drum/cymbal?

[@erickuehnl]

Generally yes, but it depends on the drum instrument you are using. Using Xpand!2 you only have control over the “families” so to speak: kicks, snares, cymbals, etc. But a more sophisticated instrument would let you adjust levels for every part of the kit individually.

[@rexshaw7286]

Like everyone else Thank You for explaining this! It's insane that Pro Tools doesn't have a dedicated midi drum editor? I thought I'd have to keep Cubase on my computer for drum edits and have to deal with importing and exporting midi in and out of both programs.

[@fredhamilton1701]

So I just tried this with PT 11.2.1. Everything worked as shown. Then I saved it as a template. When I create a new project using this drum matrix template, it loads looks fine. But when I click on a rectangle in the "grid", instead of most of the rectangle filling up, I get a thin horizontal line. The note graphic immediately to the left of the timeline is still there (indicating the display is in single note mode, as it should be), but when I click on the note graphic to get the track height pop-up and move the mouse down to where it says "single note", instead of a single not being there, I see two notes: whatever the correct note was supposed to be, and also "D3". So basically it seems like when I use the pencil tool to write a note, the note that gets written is D3 regardless of the initial note saved. Is this a PT bug or is it perhaps something I'm doing?

[@greenthumbbeats165]

Im using pro tools 12.1 and I can't get it to show the little boxes in the sequencer like the video. What setting am I missing?... I would love to use it this way cuz it's like making beats in FL. Studio!!!!

[@belialbeetz1250]

+WILLY STRIDE try changing your view on the piano roll next to the tracks with all groups and reduce it down to showing just the one note I had the same issue.

[@lenorem1609]

In my i/o I dont have the output set to "mix" the way you have it in my latest pro tools version. I'm stumped. I'm stuck at this step. I'm not getting any sound.

[@erickuehnl]

I just renamed the default "A 1-2" output. If you look at Setup > Playback Engine what is it set to? If you're on a Mac it should be "Pro Tools Aggregate" or your audio interface.

[@rayk6251]

Tried this with Addictive Drums in PT12.8. Works great up to the point where I delete the MIDI track. When I do, PT deletes all the tracks. Any advise?

[@erickuehnl]

Delete Tracks works on all selected tracks. Make sure only the track you want to delete is selected.

[@frankholmes6944]

I was able to set up a matrix using the MIDI editor feature instead of an external controller, but for some reason I can't individually adjust volumes of any of the separate tracks. No matter which slider I adjust, it controls the volume of ALL of the drums. Any thoughts?

[@erickuehnl]

You can't change the volume faders on the MIDI tracks because they all send MIDI volume (CC7) data to the plug-in which is (usually) a global parameter. A way around this is to build the template using instrument tracks with a discrete drum plug-in on EACH track. It's really a better solution in the long run but will definitely use more CPU power. I've been meaning to do another video showing that technique at some point.

[@frankholmes6944]

Eric Kuehnl Thank you much for the reply. I hope that my Phenom II quadcore 3.2Ghz can manage, and since I'm using Pro Tools Express, that I won't run out of channels. Thanks for the tutorial. It's extremely helpful.

[@DeanEtc]

How did you get your midi notes to appear as nice tiny little squares? Mine always want to be huge and expand themselves

[@erickuehnl]

Two things are happening here. One is that the track height is set to show a single note. That makes the note height fixed. The other is that the pencil in line mode will draw notes that are the exact length of the grid by default. So if you pair that with a 16th note grid you get very clean looking notes. Hope that helps.

[@DeanEtc]

Thanks for replying so quick, unfortunately my grid is set to 16th note and Im still getting lines that are drawn as eighth notes automatically

[@Focused2341]

How do mess with each individual track’s volume without resorting to velocity?

[@williammoore116]

How would you achieve the same drawing feature but with a sound sample instead of midi?

[@erickuehnl]

Hi William. I'm not exactly sure what you're asking. Do you mean to play the drum part in a drum sampler like Battery? If so, it's the exact some technique as far as configuring the "matrix" for the appropriate MIDI notes.

[@rickbruneau4306]

When I go to delete the original MIDI track, all the new MIDI tracks that were created when I split the notes by pitch deletes with it. What gives?

[@erickuehnl]

You need to deselect the ones you want to keep. The selected tracks will be deleted.

[@RPown8]

How do you make multiple tracks record un-active? Hold shift?

[@erickuehnl]

Hold Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) and click one of the armed record buttons.

[@catwoman3480]

Is it necesary to have a MIDI controller or you can add notes without it?

[@erickuehnl]

No, you can just draw them in with the pencil.

[@threod820]

Hey man, in my Midi Editor, I want to assign sounds to seperate keys (for e.g. a kick drum on C octave minus 2, snare d octave minus 2). How to I customise the sounds to seperate keys individually on my MIDI keyboard/controller?

[@fungusvalorant5661]

Yo did you ever figure this out? Thanks

[@darrenjeffery6499]

Hello - Thank you so much for this terrific tutorial! I do have one question - is it possible to assign sounds from something like Trigger 2 to this pattern, once it has been created? Thanks again!

[@erickuehnl]

Sure. You'd just need to substitute Trigger for the Xpand plug-in that I used in the tutorial. And then remap the notes to make sure they make sense with Trigger.

[@peternorth6782]

hi…how did u duplicate the loop?

[@SmallAxeMP]

Thanx man wouldn`t switch from protools though I hate the midi window in logic pro and the others my eyes are easy on protools I use Bfd in it so no worries there.

[@chadihassi4825]

ITS REALLY WORKED LOL THANK YOU DUDE

[@erickuehnl]

Pro Tools doesn't offer as many MIDI features as the other major sequencers. It's gotten much better in recent years, but still doesn't compare to Logic, Cubase, DP, etc. Yes, you can absolutely do this in PT LE8.

[@coltrain210]

very helpful thank you

[@giantessmaria]

one question for you or anyone else. when i take the 'pencil tool' and go to enter a 16th note(fill one grid box) the damn thing keeps giving me whole notes....is there a trick to this? and thanks again for the great info...very good stuff here!

[@erickuehnl]

The note length is generally going to match your grid value. In the video I have the grid set to 16ths.

[@giantessmaria]

@@erickuehnl yup, thanks man. i just figured out a bunch of stuff from your video "Editing Midi Data'...answered all my questions and then some! thanks tons my friend, saved me a LOT of trial and error! :)

[@AlexStarbard]

Copying and pasting a short groove won't work for me for some reason. I am doing exactly what you show but when I paste it does nothing. What am I doing wrong?

[@erickuehnl]

+Alex Starbard Hey Alex, it's hard for me to know exactly what your issue is. Are you trying to copy and paste the clip group? Did you try using the "duplicate" or "repeat" commands to see if those work? Can you give me the exact steps you're trying? Or post a video possibly?

[@AlexStarbard]

+Eric Kuehnl Yeah it's hard to explain but i'll try to explain it. So, about 6:30 in this video, you explain how if you group the clips together you can copy and paste a short groove so you don't have to write it out a bunch of times. For some reason it doesn't work for me. I can copy it but I don't get the option to paste it. I think I set everything up correctly following the directions in this video but I can't figure out why I can't copy and paste like you do here. I'm new to pro tools but have experience with cubase so I have some experience with DAW's, but I'm finding pro tools very difficult to figure out haha.

[@VainMuze]

+Alex Starbard this might be a late reply. check your preferences. some of the key short cuts might be disabled. there are other ways of duplicating if comand v for paste doesn't work. Did you try command D for duplicating? Good luck.

[@Focused2341]

I’ve been trying to figure out how I would go about mixing each part of the midi drums after I have my drum track laid out. I think I just figured it out. If I make a new audio track, then take each part of my midi drums and solo it, couldn’t I just bus them out to an unused bus, set my input on the audio track to that same bus, and hit record? If I do this for each part of the drums, wouldn’t I get a audio track of each piece of the drum (one of hihat, one for snare, etc...) that I could then individually EQ and compress if I need to? Can anyone confirm this? I’m at work and can’t try it out a.t.m.

[@Focused2341]

Just wanted to reply to my own comment and say that this does work. So now you guys can mix each individual midi note as well. If you wanted to take it a step further you could route the output of all the new audio files to an unused bus and then input that bus to an Aux track for further mixing.

[@BrianMasek]

Damn! Very cool. Thanks!!!

[@musicbyyuker4842]

the plugin are free?

[@erickuehnl]

Yes, the Xpand2 plug-in is a free one included with Pro Tools.

[@polpottopg]

@@erickuehnl I have the full version of pro tools and I dont have xpand2, do i need to download something? Thanks

[@erickuehnl]

@@polpottopg It's a separate download in your Avid.com account. Also, be sure to grab the new complimentary UVI Falcon licenses. Awesome synth!

[@oldschooltakingyaback]

I'm having trouble editing my MIDI: When I got to move a piece of MIDI, example a bass drum note, it doesn't move it incrementally, it moves it to a set area that I can't control. i.e. rather than being able to move it to any instance I want, it has a predetermined value which it selects for me... Please help! It moves it from 1|1 480 to 1|1 780, without letting me choose anything in between. And whenever I add a new note, it snaps it to a predetermined location, rather than where I clicked it in.

[@erickuehnl]

Sounds like you need to change the grid value to something different. If you look after the 5:00 mark, before I start penciling in notes, you can see that I set the grid to 16th notes. The grid value is set to the right of the main counter in the toolbar. It says GRID in a green box. Set that to a different value and try again.

[@oldschooltakingyaback]

Eric Kuehnl it was changing the grid mode to "slip" so simple, thanks for your reply and your informative video brother

[@mau.v.]

I Haven't got all those instruments can someone help me to get these ?

[@BongRecords]

Yeah this is gold!

[@busted_sky]

Thank You! Genius

[@anttoniwikstrom]

Good stuff! Big up!

[@trendingfashion4544]

Thanx a lot man 🙏

[@JCondor92]

Thank you so much

[@erickuehnl]

Fred--I can't reply to your comment for some reason. Anyway, that does sound like a bug. I'll see what I can find out.

[@TheDjangojunkie]

Excellent. Thx

[@HdMusicStudio]

perfect!

[@chrisfuryguitar]

thanks for the info!

[@sanyaaynas7832]

Ну ты крут, братан! ))) * * Bro, you're sick! )))

[@VainMuze]

Thanks this was great.

[@alexchubbymclynn6060]

Most useful for me, thanks! In some cases this method will save me hips of time! Thank you! a Like and subscription from me!

[@JoshSty704]

I followed your exact instructions, but could never hear any drums?

[@erickuehnl]

Did you hear drums on the original Instrument track?

[@JoshSty704]

Eric Kuehnl when I click presets there is only “factory default”

[@erickuehnl]

@@JoshSty704 It sounds like the Air Instruments are not installed properly. I'd recommend running the installer again.

[@juliusway]

Awesome thanks!

[@steveosbu]

not that it's that big of a deal... but every time I click the midi 1 track to delete it. It deletes all new individual drum tracks. I'm using PT 10

[@erickuehnl]

steveosbu PT will delete all of the selected tracks. Make sure only the MIDI 1 track is selected.

[@utubehound69]

Brilliant!

[@Jimmy.C9]

Awesome

[@MrVitalic85]

Thx a lot !