# Using Programmed Drums live - how to trigger them?



## samclarke669 (Oct 22, 2015)

Hi all,

I hope someone can shed some light on this as i've been racking my brains for a while!

So due to the serious lack of *good* drummers in my area, for the new band i'm starting up we're going to be programming drums as a backing track live. This is something i've done before a few years ago and for the most part it worked without a hitch. 

The method i came up with back then was to have a cheesey movie sample at the start of every track, so people knew when to start playing, and it wasn't just as simple as one song ending, then a few seconds of silence, then another 4 beat coutin. This worked OK but ideally i'd like to be more in control, and not have to shuffle over to the laptop and pause/play.

Does anyone have any suggestions? obviously if we had a drummer triggering a backing track it would be easier, but i'd like to be able to automate the process somehow, and perhaps at some point down the line add in-ears into the setup, so we could get away with not having to count everything in on Superior Drummer, say for example, if there's a section with just keyboards, we have to have a constant count going on or we'll lose time with the backing track.

Any ideas? I have access to a fairly decent interface, laptop/tablet if needs be but i'm just at a loss how to get started.

Any help would be much appreciated


----------



## dax21 (Oct 22, 2015)

I remember reading up on the similar subject, maybe even here on sevenstring too, and OP had this interesting solution involving MIDI controlled led lights that are positioned next to the on-stage monitors. Set one or two bars worth of precount midi signals in a separate track in the DAW project, band on stage sees the lights flash 4 times or whatever and they kick in on the fifth.

I have no idea how expensive those are though. Without going with IEMs I don't think you can do it properly. I mean you can probably route just the precount signal to onstage monitors, but if PA is dead silent crowd is still going to hear it. And that's in the super optimal conditions where the venue actually has monitors.


----------



## samclarke669 (Oct 22, 2015)

Cheers for the reply. I wonder if there's a way of getting some kind of USB footswitch for a laptop which i could use to program play and stop in a DAW?


----------



## dax21 (Oct 22, 2015)

I've seen people use playstation controllers to start/stop DAWs for (vocal) recording purposes so that they don't have to get out of the rec booth, I don't see why a generic USB footswitch wouldn't work, it's just a matter of mapping the hotkeys.


----------



## samclarke669 (Oct 22, 2015)

Hmm, interesting..


----------



## Kryss (Oct 26, 2015)

we have a keyboard player that triggers it through some dj software. we do industrial and also currently have no drummer. we run a laptop though, I forget the name of the software but there are quite a few that can do it. probably ableton, logic, etc..... probably be most handy to use a DAW for track mixing and eq to adjust live if needed.


----------



## TheKindred (Oct 26, 2015)

I use an old me-5 and just route midi commands to run macros in the daw. No muss, no fuss. 5 button footswitch to do whatever I want, plus I can plug in the audio for them vintage tones...


----------



## BentAnat (Nov 3, 2015)

In most DAWs you can program a midi controller to stop/start (as far as I know)

This means that most MIDI footswitches can be setup for this function.

I'd use multiple tracks and "drum count-ins" for live (cymbal hits) to cue the rest of the band.

Basically: hit the start switch, the DAW does a count-in (using drum samples or clicks as needed. Could even play a click track on IEMs).
When the song ends, the track stops (or you stop it), hit "next", hit "Start".

It's some Config on a DAW, but it should be doable.


----------

