5.0

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The MIDI editors
Working with drum maps
Background
A drum kit in a MIDI instrument is most often a set of dif-
ferent drum sounds with each sound placed on a separate
key (i.e. the different sounds are assigned to different MIDI
note numbers). One key plays a bass drum sound, another
a snare and so on.
Unfortunately, different MIDI instruments often use differ-
ent key assignments. This can be troublesome if you have
made a drum pattern using one MIDI device, and then
want to try it on another. When you switch the device, it is
very likely that your snare drum becomes a ride cymbal, or
your hi-hat becomes a tom, etc. – just because the drum
sounds are distributed differently in the two instruments.
To solve this problem, and simplify several aspects of MIDI
drum kits (like using drum sounds from different instru-
ments in the same “drum kit”), Cubase AI features so-
called drum maps. A drum map is a list of drum sounds,
with a number of settings for each sound. When you play
back a MIDI track for which you have selected a drum
map, the MIDI notes are “filtered” through the drum map
before being sent to the MIDI instrument. Among other
things, the map determines which MIDI note number is
sent out for each drum sound, and so which sound is
played in the receiving MIDI device.
A solution to the problem above would therefore be to set
up drum maps for all your instruments. When you want to
try your drum pattern on another instrument, you simply
switch to the corresponding drum map and your snare
drum sound will remain a snare drum sound.
Drum map settings
A drum map consists of settings for 128 drum sounds
(one for each MIDI note number). To get an overview of
these settings, open the Drum Editor and use the Map
pop-up menu below the drum sound list to select the “GM
Map” drum map.
This drum map is set up according to the General MIDI standard. For in-
formation on how to load, create and select other drum maps, see
“Managing drum maps” on page 204.
Now, take a look at the drum sound list (you may have to
drag the divider between the list and the note display to
the right to see all columns). The columns show the set-
tings of the drum map for each sound.
Here’s a brief description (details follow below):
Ö All settings in a drum map (except the pitch) can be
changed directly in the drum sound list or in the Drum
Map Setup dialog (see “The Drum Map Setup dialog” on
page 204).
Note that the changes you make will affect all tracks that use the drum
map.
Column Description
Pitch The actual note number of the drum sound. This is what
links notes on a MIDI track to drum sounds. For example,
with the above drum map, all MIDI notes with the pitch
C1 would be mapped to the Bass Drum sound.
Instrument The name of the drum sound.
Quantize This value is used when entering and editing notes as de-
scribed in the sections “Creating and editing notes” on
page 200 and “Moving, duplicating or repeating notes”
on page 201.
Mute Allows you to mute a drum sound, excluding it from play-
back, see “Muting notes and drum sounds” on page 201.
I-note This is the “input note” for the drum sound. When this
MIDI note is sent into Cubase AI, (i.e. played by you), the
note will be mapped to the corresponding drum sound
(and automatically transposed according to the Pitch set-
ting for the sound).
O-note This is the “output note”, i.e. the MIDI note number that is
sent out every time the drum sound is played back.
Channel The drum sound will be played back on this MIDI channel.
Output The drum sound will be played back on this MIDI output.
If you set this to “Default”, the MIDI output selected for
the track will be used.