Playing live with the GNX4 drum machine
We had to cover 3 hours of music this past weekend without a drummer. The GNX4 drum machine stood in for the night. It was OK, but not great, and will never replace a live drummer. We opted not to use any backing tracks as we like to jam during the songs and not be tied down to a backing track.
For what it's worth, I ran the GNX4 into a stereo PA and played both the guitar and drums through the 1/4\" outs. It always worked OK for practice. However, I think if we use the drum machine live again, I will use the SPLIT1 option, sending the guitar signal out via the 1/4\" line and the drums out the XLR line. Even though they both go into the same mixer, I will have more control on the mixer board for the individual channel volumes.
I discovered that without using the SPLIT1 option, if I turned up the volume to make the drums louder, my guitar volume also went up. Or if I turned down the volume for the drums, my guitar faded away too. Also, I was not crazy about bending over to adjust the drum level on the GNX4 for various songs. It would have been much easier on me to set a good level out of the GNX4 and adjust the volume on the mixer's slider controls. With the SPLIT1 option, I could have had the guitar and drums on separate channels running independently of each other.
Anyway, I learned how to put the GNX4 in recorder mode so we could start/stop the GNX4 drums with a simple step on the first button. So that worked OK. Still had to bend over for every song to change the tempo and/or drum track. Like I said, it went OK but we missed having a live drummer. We have used the GNX4 drum machine for practice alot, but never used it live. It was a learning experience and I thought I would share what we learned.
I would be interested to hear how other musicians are using their GNX4 in live settings. If you have some good advice or lessons learned on using the GNX4 live, please let us know. I don't care to learn everything the hard way. Best wishes.
For what it's worth, I ran the GNX4 into a stereo PA and played both the guitar and drums through the 1/4\" outs. It always worked OK for practice. However, I think if we use the drum machine live again, I will use the SPLIT1 option, sending the guitar signal out via the 1/4\" line and the drums out the XLR line. Even though they both go into the same mixer, I will have more control on the mixer board for the individual channel volumes.
I discovered that without using the SPLIT1 option, if I turned up the volume to make the drums louder, my guitar volume also went up. Or if I turned down the volume for the drums, my guitar faded away too. Also, I was not crazy about bending over to adjust the drum level on the GNX4 for various songs. It would have been much easier on me to set a good level out of the GNX4 and adjust the volume on the mixer's slider controls. With the SPLIT1 option, I could have had the guitar and drums on separate channels running independently of each other.
Anyway, I learned how to put the GNX4 in recorder mode so we could start/stop the GNX4 drums with a simple step on the first button. So that worked OK. Still had to bend over for every song to change the tempo and/or drum track. Like I said, it went OK but we missed having a live drummer. We have used the GNX4 drum machine for practice alot, but never used it live. It was a learning experience and I thought I would share what we learned.
I would be interested to hear how other musicians are using their GNX4 in live settings. If you have some good advice or lessons learned on using the GNX4 live, please let us know. I don't care to learn everything the hard way. Best wishes.
Comments
best way is to get your (a) drummer and record the songs you play.
now you have drumming backing tracks you can place on CF cards
we recorded with endings, intros and the usual and there is no better way.
our drummer had to leave town and we had 3 shows sched he would miss.
he recorded his songs off of his E-drum kit and sent them to us. I just played them back the GNX4. awkward, but sounded really good.
on board drummer can get you buy in a pinch, but if you know in advance a drummer cannot make it, use the pattern styles of the drum machine and import those into songs. save the songs to the CF card and play from there.
you can always select a single default kit for the gnx drummer so there is less of a kit change on program changes.
Unless, of course, I thought chix dig drums... 8)
In a perfect world, we would not have played without a live drummer either. Unfortunately, the drummer canceled out the night before the gig and we had already committed by then - with or without him. We live in a area without many good drummers, and many local bands are playing without any drums. We have tried out a few drummers that could not keep a beat. There are some drummers that want to be in our band, but they just are not up to the skill level of live playing. A good drummer around here is very hard to find. Believe me, playing with a bad drummer is worse than playing with the GNX4 drum machine. At least the GNX4 drum machine keeps the beat and doesn't stop for mistakes.
Not to knock drummers down, but why aren't they (our local young drummers) practicing with metronomes or other drum machines to lock in their timing? We have seen drummers who are really interested in fancy fills, beats, drum rolls and not one of them can keep a basic beat. Mostly, they are young college aged kids who are practicing by themselves down in their basements to music \"in their head\". They don't even play along with a recording of a song. They can't keep a beat and completely lose the song coming back from one of their unneeded drum rolls. They only impress themselves and p&%% off the rest of us in the band. Maybe I am just getting too old, but when it comes to percussion, all I need is a steady beat. All that fancy stuff doesn't mean a thing to me if the drummer can't keep the heartbeat of the song.
For those of you with good drummers, I hope you appreciate them. Best wishes to all.
In the past when drummers have copped out at the last second, we have gone acoustic. Sometimes, that can be hard to do based on your gig.
mp3's can also be arranged by exporting drum arrangements as mp3's to the CF card.
I also like g's idea, whether it's mp3's or midi's or whatever...you've got good sounding drums to play to. Without your drummer complaing about all the stuff he has to haul around. :roll:
Not to dis drummers...but they're a lot harder to find a good one of than anything else!
Geezer Rock Rules!! The Wildmann
I use Steinberg Nuendo.
If saved to the GNX4 CF midi folder, and as Type 0, the pattern or song should follow the scale of the hits coinciding with the original midi file.
You also may want to try using Pro Tracks with the GNX4 drum map. I've heard instances of files not matching assignments when the map is not applied. Especially where note velocity and note length are short on the original recorded midi.