All you ever wanted to know about how to control a synth drum kit with Redrum but were too afraid to ask. We’re going to pick some synth drum sounds then show you how Redrum can be used to trigger them all. As an added bonus, you’ll then be able to program the drums in a single MIDI clip.
Did we also mention that you can also use VSTs and Rack Extensions? What about that you can use Redrums sequencer as you normally would? And… that this will work in exactly the same way for Kong? Let’s go!
Control A Synth Drum Kit With Redrum:
This isn’t going to take very long to set up at all. In a nutshell; we’re going drag our synths into the rack, choose our sounds, and then hook each one up to Redrum. Then it’s just a case of playing, programming, or sequencing our drum pattern. Simple!
If you’re really fealing up for a challenge, why not roll your own synth drum sounds. If you do, let us know how you got on the comments below. Right, let’s get back to it.
Step 1 – Choosing Synth Patches:
- Press F6 to switch to Rack View
- Right-click in the rack and select Create Instrument, or drag straight from the browser.
- Browse the Synth Folders / Your Refill folders for the synth sounds you want.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have all of the sounds that will make up your kit.
I just created 6 instances of Subtractor and a single instance of Serum to make my simple kit. I then browsed for sounds and dropped them directly onto the individual synths.
Connecting The Kit To Redrum:
- Create an instance of Redrum. You can do it while holding Shift as having it attached to a mix channel isn’t necessary.
Now we have all of our Synths and the Redrum that will control them we need to connect the Redrum channels to the individual Synths.
- Press TAB to flip the rack around.
- Then connect the Gate Out on Channel 1 of Redrum to the Gate input of the synth that it will trigger.
- Repeat step 2 until you have connected all of your synths, including any VSTs you may be using.
Sequencing A Drum Pattern:
As we are going to use Redrum to play the synths, feel free to delete the synths from the sequencer. Note: don’t also delete them from the mixer. Now you can either;
- Create a note clip and start clicking in hits.
- Use the sequencer on Redrum.
- You can also play your beat on your MIDI controller.
And that is all there is to it. If you created something you think you might want to use again, why not combine and save.
If you liked this tutorial and would like to learn more, why not browse through our Reason Tips.