How Cubase’s Drum Editor can give you realistic parts with swing and velocity
Drop a smooth beat without drumsticks.
Drums play a fundamental role in most genres of music. So, unless your creating ambient tracks, you’ll want to know how to lay down a beat. It’s easy to do within a DAW, but you might quickly realise that by placing notes on a grid, your beats can feel rather static and robotic. Thankfully, Cubase comes with a few options to help make you patterns feel a little loose and groovy.
In this Cubase Tutorial video, Bruce Aisher shows you around Cubase’s MIDI Drum Editor. You’ll learn how to quickly program in drum patterns using Cubase’s Groove Agent using your mouse and the tools available to you. Bruce teaches you how to change note lengths, apply swing and velocity for a more realistic drum part with groove, and he’ll show you how to use the Quantize Panel for altering timing settings.
We’re starting off with the basics and gradually move into more advanced and creative techniques, as in our Logic Tips and Ableton Live Tutorials series. Subscribe to our newsletter and YouTube Channel for weekly updates on new videos and content.
So far, we’ve covered:
- Introduction to Cubase
- Exploring the interface
- Track types and tools
- Cubase instruments
- Getting started with MIDI
- Get familiar with Cubase’s editors
- MIDI editing tools
Bruce Aisher is an English music producer, music technology journalist and lecturer. As one half of the duo Brancaccio & Aisher, he has had club hits for labels including Bedrock, Parlophone and his own Player One Records. He regularly contributes to MusicTech content and is one of our Cubase Experts.
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