Drum Machine Designer overview in Logic Pro for iPad

Drum Machine Designer is the ideal way to create, organize, and interact with drum kits and kit pieces in Logic Pro for iPad. The Drum Machine Designer Play Surface is available when Drum Machine Designer is inserted on a software instrument track.

When combined with Step Sequencer, it provides an incredibly flexible and inspiring platform for beat production.

Drum Machine Designer structure

Drum Machine Designer is not a plug-in, although it can be inserted into software instrument channel strips. It is a track-based meta-instrument using a track stack, which combines a main track and a number of subtracks. Each subtrack has a corresponding channel strip and is assigned a playable pad in a drum grid in the Drum Machine Designer Play Surface. The Play Surface features three different modes you can use to interact with the Play Surface. You can also edit pad settings and surface settings.

An expanded track stack and the Drum Machine Designer Play Surface.

The main track channel strip is represented by the kit name, shown at the top of the list in the Selection pop-up menu, located in the top-right corner of the Drum Machine Designer Play Surface.
Each subtrack channel strip is represented by a corresponding kit piece pad shown in the drum grid and by a corresponding kit piece name in the Selection pop-up menu.

Settings for the main track (kit) and all subtracks (kit pieces) are stored as a kit patch, which can hold multiple channel strips, each with its own instrument and effect plug-ins. Plug-in settings, by comparison, can only hold the plug-in settings of a single plug-in.

A single subtrack with its instrument and effect plug-ins is stored as a kit piece patch.

The icon shown on tracks and channel strips always matches the pad icon, and updates when a kit piece's patch changes.

How Drum Machine Designer handles notes

MIDI notes received on the main track are converted and distributed to subtracks according to the input and output notes assigned to the pads. This is true for notes played by regions on the main track and for notes played in real time when the main track is the focused track. For example, if the pad assigned to the first subtrack is set to input note C1 and to output note G2, a C1 played on the main track is converted to a G2 in the following way: the note value (C1) is passed to the first subtrack (which has the input note set to C1) and plays a G2 on the instrument inserted in the subtrack channel strip. You focus a main track by tapping the main track header.

In contrast, notes played on a focused subtrack are not altered and are passed directly to the instrument inserted in the channel strip, enabling you to play a subtrack instrument chromatically and polyphonically. You focus a subtrack by tapping the subtrack header.

To select a subtrack while keeping the main track focused (to change the sound of a kit piece), you use the Selection pop-up menu in the Drum Machine Designer menu bar or the Plug-ins area.

Separate notes on the main track

You can separate the notes in the main track MIDI region and move them to their corresponding subtracks by doing the following:

To separate the notes in the main track MIDI region, tap the main track MIDI region, tap Convert, then tap Separate by Note Pitch.
Individual regions containing these moved note events are created on each subtrack and can be handled and edited in the same way as any other MIDI region.

Drum Machine Designer sounds

You can access Drum Machine Designer kit patches and kit piece patches in the Browser. The Browser features an extensive collection of premapped kit patches and a large number of individual kit piece patches that you can add or use as replacement sounds for pads to create your own custom kits.

You can assign sounds to pads using patches from the Browser, or drop samples, loops, audio files and even MIDI or audio regions directly onto Drum Machine Designer pads. Sounds can also be assigned to subtracks in the Tracks area and Plug-ins area like any other software instrument track.

Note: You can download additional sound packs in the Sound Library to get more kits.

You edit the sound of the entire kit and individual kit pieces in the Plug-ins area. For more information about plug-ins in general, see Intro to plug-ins.

Load a Drum Machine Designer kit from the Browser

In Logic Pro, tap the Browser button on the left side of the view control bar, tap Instrument Patches, then do one of the following:
- Search for kits using the keyword Drum Machine Designer.
- Tap the All Filters button near the top right of the Browser, then tap the Drum Machine Designer filter in Instrument Plug-Ins.
Drag a kit from the Browser to the area below the track headers.

For more information about using the Browser, see Intro to the Browser.

Load an empty Drum Machine Designer kit

In Logic Pro, create an empty software instrument track.
Tap the Plug-ins button in the center of the view control bar.
In Track view, tap the Add Instrument button , tap Drums, then tap Drum Machine Designer (DMD).
An empty track stack is loaded, and an empty Drum Machine Designer Play Surface is available in the Play Surfaces.
Note: An empty kit is loaded only if Use Empty Kit as Default is turned on in the surface settings.

Use sounds to create a Drum Machine Designer track

You can easily create Drum Machine Designer tracks using loops and samples from the Browser; MIDI, audio, pattern, and Session Player regions; and your own samples or audio files.

In Logic Pro, drag any of the following to the area below the track headers:
- A loop or sample from the Loops view or Samples view in the Browser.
- A MIDI, audio, pattern, or Session Player region.
- Your own sample or audio file from the Samples Folder in the Browser or the Files app in Slide Over.
Tap Drum Machine Designer in the “Create new track with” dialog.
The process creates a new Drum Machine Designer track with a MIDI region. Logic Pro analyzes the transient positions and slices the loop, placing each slice in a Quick Sampler instance on a subtrack (with an assigned pad in the drum grid).

You can also create Drum Machine Designer tracks using Quick Sampler. For more information, see Use slice markers to create new instruments and regions.

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Logic Pro User Guide for iPad