DIVIDE DRUM TRACK
Divide Drum Track” – which is found by pressing [JOB] > [F5] TRACK from the main PATTERN screen is a sequencer JOB that basically allows you to use the first 8 tracks of the sequencer to initially construct your drum track. Then once you have worked out the drums you can reassemble them on to one track. So this assumes you are starting your composing from the drums, or that you are working in SONG mode and are using the PATTERN mode as a construction area to create your drum track, which you will export to the SONG mode. You will be using the sequencer’s first 8 tracks as a work area and when you have completed your work you can clean up and free those tracks for music data.

Concept: You record your basic drum groove using a single KIT on Track 1. Divide Drum Track will then analyze what you played and automatically EXTRACT the different components and split them (dissolve) to separate tracks 1-8. The idea is so that you now have separate tracks for your Kicks, snares/Handclaps, cymbals, toms, percussion etc.

If you recorded your drum groove on Track 10, the Divide Drum Track JOB will analyze what you have played and EXTRACT the different components and split as before – but leave you with the original Phrase completely in tact on Track 10 – this can be useful when experimenting (you can keep the original, muted, while you work out ideas. Here’s how that will work.

Shown next is an ARPEGGIO Drum TYPE that was recorded to Track 10, SECTION A of an otherwise blank PATTERN. Track 10 is selected.

Used in this example was DRUM ARP TYPE =  #6106 “MB_House 4”

 
When you select the [JOB] function and press [F5] TRACK to select the “DIVIDE DRUM TRACK” Job, the data from the last Pattern Section, and Track that you highlighted will automatically be entered in the dialog box – so you are ready to execute the Job.

The result in this case will still arrive on Tracks 1-8 but the data will be separated according to the insturment type that is played in the Phrase.

Track 1 – Kick Drum
Track 3 – Snare Drum
Track 4 – Handclaps 
Track 5 – Hihat
Track 6 – Percussion (click and cowbell)
Track 8 – Miscellaneous Percussion

This will allow you to do things like quantize the different components with different swing values. In general, quantize (timing correction) can be done in the sequencer either as you record or after the fact… moreover, it can be done either permanently or non-destructively. You can now shift just the snare drum behind the beat… you can swing just the high hat parts… You can remove or even redo PARTS of any of the 2300 Drum Grooves provided by Yamaha and recreate them as your own ARPEGGIO TYPES. Basically you can bring the full power of the sequencer editing jobs on each individual drum component.

Divide Drum Track will also allow you, if you wish, to keep the drums (permanently) on separate tracks, choose different kits. Or you can choose different sounds and then assemble those sounds into a custom drum kit… (we will see how that is done a little later). The possibilities are many. However, once you have edited the timing (swing) and velocity of the performance on separate tracks you can reassemble the drums to a single track (using the MIX TRACK Job).

Divide Drum Track will take your kicks and place them on tracks 1 and 2, the snare/handclap or any item that functions on the back beat and place them on 3 and 4, cymbals and other dressing on 5 and 6, toms and percussion to 7 and 8. So you can think of this JOB as a special type of EXTRACT job.

There is also a specific EXTRACT EVENT [JOB] found at [F3] EVENT, that lets you take all of one particular note (or range of notes), for example and move it to a separate phrase – which can then be ‘patched’ to a new track. This is useful for example to pull out one drum and then affect its performance data in some way and then place it back (using the MIX job). The DIVIDE DRUM TRACK Job will overwrite data in the target location. However the EXTRACT EVENT and MIX Jobs will merge the data.

Depending on your final goal, you can either leave your drums divided out on separate tracks or you can reassemble them to a single track. If you are recording to an external DAW software like Cubase via FW, for example, you can assign individual drums from within a KIT to individual FW outputs for separate audio processing.

If you are not going to need the additional tracks then you can simply skip the MIX TRACK job and use tracks 9-16 for your music. But if you require the tracks for you other music, you can create a custom kit containing just the sounds you like – assembling drums into a kit is easy enough (covered in the REFERENCE MANUAL’s section “Editing a Drum Voice” > Common Edit and Key Edit parameters (page 84, page 87).

Jobs: Extract Event, Mix Track and Mix Phrase
Extract Event
• Press [JOB]
• Press [F3] EVENT
• Select JOB 04: EXTRACT EVENT
This Job lets you define a measure region (even a single note) and remove that region of events by moving them to an empty track. The data is actually removed from the source track and placed in the target destination track. This allows you to remove all of one type of data, be it volume data, system exclusive data, note events, etc. You can isolate a snare drum assigned to note D1, extract it to an empty track; perform an edit and then place it back in with the original data using the MIX TRACK Job

Mix Track
• Press [JOB]
• Press [F5] TRACK
• Select JOB 03: MIX TRACK
This Job lets you take data from the source track and combine it with data on the destination track. It does this without deleting the source track and it merges the data with existing data on the destination (target) track. Because the source track data remains you can delete it separately or keep it to combine it with another track.

Mix Phrase (Pattern mode only)
• Press [JOB]
• Press [F4] Phrase
• Select JOB 03: MIX PHRASE
This Job lets you take data from a PATTERN mode phrase and combine it with data of another PATTERN mode phrase. You can use this to combine data even if that data is from a different PATTERN number entirely. It is non-destructive as both the source and destination phrases will remain. When combining Phrases within the same PATTERN check the Current Pattern box.

Earlier in this article we discussed the Divide Drum Track job. What it does is use the Extract function to divide drum kit notes by kind splitting them to empty tracks. You can then edit those tracks and finally recombine the data (if you wish) using the MIX TRACK or MIX PHRASE Jobs. If you EXTRACT a snare drum, for example, you can then select a special DRUM kit that is nothing but snare drums and assign that to your track. These ALL Snare Drum kits (“Acoustic Snares” and “Grouped Stereo Snares”) are useful because then by simply Note Shifting (using the PLAY FX) the data you can audition many different snare drums in rapid succession. When you find a particular snare drum you like, you can either just leave the note ‘shifted’ to that pitch or you can identify which snare that is and edit it into your own custom KIT.

There are also ALL bass drum Kits, as well, (“All Kicks” and “Dance Kicks”) which in a similar fashion can be used to try out different Kick drums in rapid succession. Depending on your final goal, you can either leave your drums divided out on separate tracks or you can reassemble them to a single track. If you are recording to a DAW software like Cubase via FW, for example, you can assign individual drums from within a KIT to individual FW outputs for separate audio processing. If you are not going to need the additional tracks then you can simply skip the MIX TRACK job and use tracks 9-16 for your music. We should mention again that the last edit JOB that you perform can be undone by selecting the JOB located at [F1] UNDO/REDO. Before executing a Job, the current data is placed in a special UNDO Edit buffer. This allows you to toggle back and forth between AFTER and BEFORE. If the JOB creates an unsatisfactory result simply UNDO it.

SWING QUANTIZE and the PLAY FX
This is found on the main sequencer screen at [F2] PLAY FX. The XF has a special function that allows you to set up your own groove quantize. It basically has parameters that can be applied (non-destructively) to your drum data. When we say non-destructively, this means that the changes occur in real time without actually re-writing the events on the EVENT LIST. This allows you to try out different things without having to actually damage the original data. The principal parameters are: Quantize (Value and Strength), Swing (Velocity, Gate, Rate), Note Offset, Clock Shift, Gate Time, and Velocity (Rate and Offset).

Here Quantize can be applied after the fact, forcing notes to different timing. You can take straight time and apply the various timing grids outlined in our last section (straight or triplet). These are applied in real-time. You can use this PLAY EFFECT, to try out quantize setups before making them permanent.Remember quantizing is not a cure-all. The use of quantize cannot not always fix all timing issues in your recording. It is possible that quantizing can actually make it quite a bit worse. If, for example, you select a value too large, you may find that notes are jammed to the same clock pulse. Say you played 16th notes and you quantize to 8th notes, you will likely hear notes moved on top of each other. You will have to determine this for yourself. If you are unfamiliar with the musical symbols for timing VALUE, you may want to get a basic book on music notation. A note with 3 flags is a 32nd note, a note with 2 flags is a 16th note, a note with 1 flag is an 8th note, and a note will no flags (just a stem) is a quarter note. Any of these values followed by the number “3” denotes a triple value. The STRENGTH parameter (Str) will determine whether the notes are moved fully to the quantize value (100%) or to some lesser degree.

For years computers have attempted to Swing. What’s on order here are the three components of Velocity (how strongly the “swung” note is sounded), Gate (how long the “swung” note is held) and Rate (the amount in clock ticks that the “swung” note is offset). The “swung” note is the offbeat note. The GATE will only be heard on instruments set to receive note-off commands – so you may not hear its affect on a preset drum because drums are typical set to ignore note-off (remember?). The RATE value will depend on the quantize value you select. If you select 8th note quantize, the maximum RATE offset will be 120 clock ticks (or half the value… 120 ticks being a 16th note). If you select 16th note quantize, the maximum RATE offset will be 60 clock ticks (again half the value of a sixteenth note which is a 32nd note). The Swing parameters are also found in the Arpeggio Play FX. Offsetting the ‘swung’ note means you can position earlier or later in the beat.

The Note Shift function is useful to actually shift the drum KEY that is sounding; with drum sounds this is very useful. When used in conjunction with Extract or with Divide Drum Track you can easily and quickly alter the drum sound played by a track. For example, say you recorded a pattern and want to try out a different snare drum sound – you can either extract or use divide drum track to isolate the drum to its own track, then you can use the NOTE SHIFT to shift that drum to a new sound using the dedicated snare kits.

You can Clock Shift any event occurring on a track by designated number of clock ticks. You can shift it as far back as 120 ticks (a 16th note) or you can “push” the beat by shifting it as many as 120 clock ticks forward. Sometimes shifting a snare 6-10 ticks back is just enough to give the right feel. This function is like a programmable quantize.

Gate Time is how long a note sounds. Now while most of the preset drum sounds are programmed to ignore note-off, you can edit a drum sound or if you have a user sample that is set to respect note-off, you can change the duration of any of the sounds. This is very useful on a crash cymbal when you want to create a “choked cymbal”…. Edit the Crash cymbal in your drum kit so that it “RECEIVE NOTE OFF” = ON. This way the GATE parameters will affect it. You can also use the Gate parameter very effectively on musical (non-drum) sounds.

You will find this GATE TIME (duration) parameter most useful on ‘normal’ music sounds. Part of what makes something swing is as much when you play it as it is how long you play it for. If you picture a band with a horn section hitting a riff together – it is as just as important to know where the note stops as it is where it begins. If one of the horns hangs a note over into the next beat it will kill the swing.

The Velocity Offset can be used to add accents or de-accent a particular beat. Offset adds or subtracts a set value to each event. Remember swing is not just timing, but about impact and volume of what is played. “Ghost” notes can add great realism to your drum track. The Rate parameter here under velocity, is offsetting the velocity but by percentage – so instead of adding a fixed value to each event (offset) it increases or decreases the value in proportion. 100% is no change 200% doubles the velocity of all notes, while 50% reduces the value by half. Of course you cannot exceed a maximum value of 127 nor can you reduce output level below a velocity of 0. (Duh!). With this function you are setting up a custom quantize – think of it as a programmable Groove Quantize.

While on this subject (Velocity), it is a good idea to make your principal kick and snare strikes somewhat less than 127. A drummer does not always hit the snare drum as hard as they can on each stroke. They have something in reserve. How can you program an accent if every hit is 127? If you make your main kick and standard backbeat snare a velocity of 96 or 105, then when you punch it up to 127 it will have some IMPACT! This, of course, is subjective. But recognize that in listening to live drummers you can pick up on things like this. For example, they very often “punch” up a crash cymbal by simultaneously hitting the kick drum. Use the mixer in the Motif XF to mix. If you want the drums up front (as in many types of popular music), you can still do that without making every snare and kick 127. Learning how to turn some things down so that others stand out is the “art” of mixing. You will find that 0-127 is a nice range if you use it… if you have everything up near 127 you cannot appreciate the soft-loud dynamics of your own music. It is that soft-loud dynamic range that makes music (and sounds, in general) interesting to the human ear. Of course, the genre of music dictates how much, but when dealing with MIDI recognize that the full dynamic spectrum ranges from 0 through 127 – and if 127 is the absolute loudest that you can get, you probably want to reserve this for the very loudest portions of the music composition. It is just common sense.

Tip: The PLAY FX are non-destructive and as mentioned can be used to “try out” various variations, but they can also be captured in the five SCENE ‘snapshot’ memories for real time recall. For example, you may apply a triplet (shuffle) feel by applying a re-quantization of the data and during playback, instantly switch the groove between feels. When using SCENE MEMORY to alternate “feel” you will want to STORE a separate “START CONDITION” Scene – a ‘snapshot’ that returns the settings to their original status. Every MIX automatically has a “Start Condition” that is recalled when you initially recall the SONG or PATTERN, but if you are using these on the fly, you will want to have that condition also stored in a SCENE MEMORY so that you can instantly return the MIX to normal. See the article on “SCENES and TRACK MUTES”.

Normalizing Play Effects
Normalizing Play Effects takes any non-destructive alterations you have made to the Play FX function and writes those changes into the track data. This makes a destructive or permanent change to the data. When you Normalize Play FX the Play FX grid will be “zeroed” (returned to neutral values).
• Press [JOB] from the main PATTERN or SONG screen
• Press [F5] TRACK
• Select JOB 05: Normalize Play Effect
• Select the track or select all tracks.

Use this [JOB] when you want to lock in the changes and write that data to the track. As mentioned, Play FX can be applied non-destructively and can be stored/recalled with the SCENE “snapshot” buttons. You can use your discretion here: do you want to dynamically apply the Play Effects or make their influence a permanent part of your Event List data? As an alternative to applying the JOB: Normalize Play Effect, you can simply place the track in OVERDUB Record and let it play through once. This will realign the data according to the settings you have made on the [F2] PLAY FX screen… just as if you had sifted the data through a grid and realigned it.

This normalizing function should not be confused with the normalizing of an audio sample waveform. When you are talking about normalization of wave data, you are changing the output level of a sample so that the loudest peak reaches 0VU on the meter. This normalization (of MIDI data offset) is all about making the non-destructive edits you have made permanent.