This tutorial Covers different ways to add Drummer regions to your project. If you are brand new to Drummer, Check out this intro to Drummer tutorial and then this building an entire drummer track tutorial. Once you have a drummer track built, this sample replacement or augmentation tutorial will assist you in taking drummer tracks to the next level.
Also, see this playlist for all things drummer.
This tutorial covers adding a drummer track to the project. Adding additional drummer regions to the track, Filling a drummer track with regions from the start of the project to the end, Putting in a fill that leads in to the downbeat if the drummer region starts somewhere other than bar 1, and the same but how to make space if the project starts at bar 1.
Key Commands
- Command Option U – Adds A Drummer Track To The Project and Adds A 8 bar long drummer Region To that track.
+Control Option Command Shift D – Adds a new 8 bar long drummer region at the playhead position. - Controls Shift D – Fills the Drummer Track with 8 bar long regions all the way out to bar 129 or wherever the end of project marker is set to.
- Semi Colon – Moves the selected region to the playhead position.
- Command R – Repeats the selected region (saves the step of copying then pasting that region.)
- Control Home – Moves playhead to start of selected region and announces it’s position(Control FN Left arrow on Laptop)
- Control End – Moves playhead to end of selected region and announces its position (Control FN Right arrow on laptop)
- Command Option Left Bracket – Sets Left Locator to the Playhead Position.
- Command Option Right Bracket – Sets Right Locator to the playhead Position.
- Command Option Home – Moves playhead to left locator and announces its position (Command Option FN Left arrow on laptop)
- Command Option End – Moves playhead to Right locator and announces it’s position (Command Option FN Right arrow on laptop)
Thanks for this great tips. The one advantage to using the ‘add Drummer Region’ button in the contents area is that it takes all the changes you made in the previous region and gives you a new one with different fills. The ‘Repeat Region’ gives you an exact copy of the previous region. Of course, the button is less accessible now but last time I tried holding down VO+Shift and pressing Space Bar still worked. I wonder if using ‘Repeat Region’ and then using ‘Refresh’ in the Drummer Editor would give the variations I’m looking for?
It’s definitely worth a try. I generally avoid the track contents area as it zaps efficiency, however if you are already going back and forth from the drummer Editor to the tracks header it’s not that much longer to travel. If you try the repeat and refresh option, report back here on what it does please.
I just tried it. it’s the ‘Manage Settings’ pop-up with about half-a-dozen options. The Refresh Region does exactly what I thought. it keeps the settings but changes the fills and presumably makes slight changes to velocities. Anyway, it’s easy enough to use ‘Repeat Region’ a number of times and go there to ensure each region is a little variation.
Right On! Thanks for the update.
Hi Mr. Oreo.
I have been successful at creating fills with different variations and using the X/Y pad to also vary the complexity of the beat in the middle of a song by, for example, splitting 8-bar regions in half, then working with the shorter region, or even doing splits where the second region is one bar long. I’ve also gone in and for Drummer regions switched regions to using the ride cymbal , and creating variation that way. For example, making a chorus or a part B use ride.
It’s fun to see how much I can get out of Drummer tracks before I change the regions over to MIDI to do small edits.
This is exactly how I use Drummer and speaks to its strength!
Hi Mr. Oreo.
This is somewhat off-topic for this post. If I create a MIDI region with a drum beat using a Logic drum kit, can I then turn that into a Drummer region somehow and get the benefit of using the Drummer editor to give it fills and manipulate it using the other Drummer editor settings?
Nope, This goes back to what I often point out in drummer tutorials. While it’s using the same sounds, or triggering the same samples that the Logic Software instruments use, it is technically it’s own instrument. As a result the conversion is generally one way from drummer to MIDI. I believe if you try to convert a MIDI region to a drummer region it will essentially give you the default region that kit starts with. It’s been a while since I tried this so give it a shot and see if that’s still the results you get.
Here’s another way I have been able to put together drum parts using Drummer. It’s kind of indirect. I open the Loop Browser and filter that and search for Drummer loops. When I do that, I get loops named after the drummer names in the library. Some are named after different parts of songs. I can copy them into tracks and place them one after another and build a part like that.