A tool to enter and manipulate drum grooves

[HCMarkus]

I've had very poor luck with the Sync MIDI offset setting. I have yet to try it on my new computer, but I ran a huge number of tests about a year ago and came up with no consistent result. Maybe I'll try again with my MacPro though.

And you're exactly right about the left hand = kick mentality. I'm an ambi, and play drums right hand style, but when I sit at the keys, left hand drives the bass. Similarly, when playing hand drums (djembe/conga), I use left palm for bass hits, and most drummers I know do the same. So now that I think about it, there seems to be a precedent for "left hand drives the beat" across the board on most things but kit. I actually liken playing keyboard drums to playing hand drums, anyway, as they're more finger-tip oriented.

PS: a Seaboard makes for a friggin killer hand drum controller, btw!

Try the Sync MIDI thing again, only with small to moderate buffer, and you may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

And that Seaboard sax work you did in your piece linked in another thread was very expressive... cool!

So I just took delivery on a Korg PadKontrol today and have been fooling around with it. Pads are WAAAAY more sensitive and responsive than the Trigger Finger. Since I am used to the TF, I set the pads on the Korg with response curve C-3, which gives more control at lower velocities than accelerates to 127. It strikes (!) me that it will be easier to work nuance into my drum programming with this input device.

I may not use the roll feature until that big EDM job comes through, but the flam feature may provide some quick color in fills. Also, the x-y pad defaulted to drum pitch with BFD, which is quite fun especially with delicate ride cymbal pitter-patterning.

Mike, when you get yours, note that you have to enable Roll and Flam on a per-pad basis; see p26 path manual.

[bongo_x]

Back to your original software question, sounds like the same thing I was looking for. I ended up getting Liquid Rhythm from WavesDNA.
https://shopify.wavedna.com/

It's pretty easy to get into, but it can get really deep if you want. You put together pieces of beats and can manually manipulate or randomize them in dozens of ways. It's mostly aimed at ending up with a MIDI track to feed something else, though it does have it's own built in sound engine.

Unfortunately it's hard to find a good demonstration of what it does even on their site, this one is pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGNPBjVHITo

It's geared at electronic music, mostly with the built in samples, but there's no reason it has to be.

What I like about this is that I, not being a drummer, tend to play similar things a lot even when I'm trying to play percussion, and I can come up with new ideas pretty easy this way.

[philbrown]

Thanks bongo_x! I just got back from out of town and will have a look at your link. You're more on target to what I was driving at in my first post. I want to post back here with some other ideas along that line in the next day or two.