Beat Editor or Piano Roll for drums/percussion/beat

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What do you mostly use for the drum section of a song, the Beat Editor, or do you just use the Piano Roll?

I understand the Beat editor is for quickly making a looping drum groove, but I've found it to be quite limiting.

On the other hand, making drums grooves with each part of the kit being its own piano roll is tedious and not as intuitive since you have to do each drum and cymbal individually.

Is there a third technique that I don't know about that makes more sense for making the drum part? (Other than recording drums or using an e-kit. I'm waiting for parts to try that out.)

Thanks in advance for your input.
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slimer90 wrote:
Fri Apr 01, 2022 2:33 pm
What do you mostly use for the drum section of a song, the Beat Editor, or do you just use the Piano Roll?
I understand the Beat editor is for quickly making a looping drum groove, but I've found it to be quite limiting.

On the other hand, making drums grooves with each part of the kit being its own piano roll is tedious and not as intuitive since you have to do each drum and cymbal individually.

Is there a third technique that I don't know about that makes more sense for making the drum part? (Other than recording drums or using an e-kit. I'm waiting for parts to try that out.)
I use to say that there are 3 strategies for making percussion.
From the old wiki:
Philosophies of pattern design

There are several schools of thoughts to pattern design, usually stemming from the kind of software one has used previously. To illustrate the differences, imagine a typical 4/4 'trance' rhythm (the 'oontz-oontz-oontz-oontz' style: kick-snare-kick-snare-kick-snare-kick-snare) and a variation on that style with 2 snare hits instead of 1 at the end of the bar.
Plan A. One pattern per bar
This means having a single Beat/Bassline track active for a particular bar in the Song-Editor. This is probably the most common style. Each separate pattern includes beats for all the instruments it uses. In our trance rhythm example, you would have pattern #1 containing the kick-snare-kick-snare-kick-snare-kick-snare and pattern #2 containing the kick-snare-kick-snare-kick-snare-kick-snare-snare. You would trigger the 2 separate Beat/Bassline tracks alternately in the Song-Editor, never simultaneously.

Plan B. Pattern and variations
A different way to do the same thing is to again have 2 patterns in our example. The difference here is that the variation pattern (pattern #2) is totally silent except for a single snare hit on the last step (1/16) of the bar. In other words, pattern #2 only plays the notes that vary from pattern #1. In order to hear the complete variation pattern, you trigger both the main rhythm (pattern #1) and the variation (pattern #2) simultaneously in the Song-Editor. In other words, you have 2 Beat/Bassline tracks playing in those Song-Editor bars where you want the variation to play.

Plan C. One pattern per instrument
We now change our philosophy significantly by having 3 separate patterns. The first pattern (pattern #1) triggers just the kick drum, common to both the rhythm and variation. The second (pattern #2) contains just the snare drum for the rhythm, and the third (pattern #3) contains just the snare for the variation. Once again, you sequence the tracks together in the Song-Editor, so that the appropriate Beat/Bassline tracks play simultaneously in the appropriate bars, in order to get the complete effect.

What is best?
There are advantages and disadvantages to each of the approaches above:
Plan A makes logical sense from a musical notation point of view, and it's easier to see the integration of all the instruments in the rhythm. For example, you get a clearer picture of whether 2 instruments play in the same sixteenth using this method. On the other hand, you have to re-compose the entire rhythm for each minor variation; however, Clone This Track is available to help in this regard.
Plan B is usually quicker because you compose the variation pattern to contain only the notes that vary. On the other hand, Plan B does not allow you to remove notes that are already in the 'base' pattern--you can only add notes to the 'base' pattern. This might suggest that you breakdown the composition further into common sections and their variations which is Plan C.
Plan C is most difficult because you must compose the instruments individually; however, it is easier to combine them in new and novel ways within the Song-Editor. On the other hand, creating more tracks in order to separate out these individual differences may make the rhythm tracks harder to manage and combine together. Also, it's tiring to create yet another drum track for another slight variation in the rhythm, even when this might sound significantly better. The temptation to reuse what is already there even if it sounds boring is one of the great causes of songs sounding dispirited and ordinary.
Ultimately, like so many artistic things, it is better to use the methods you are familiar with than to struggle with a way that someone else considers 'correct'. For beginners, I recommend starting with Plan A or B until you have established a clear preference. It is also useful to pick and choose from these based on the situation.
I hope you here can find a method that suits you.