Specifications

Chapter 76: Boom 381
Playing with Patterns in
Boom
Now that you’ve started creating patterns, let’s
take a look at how to switch between and create
variations of them.
To switch between patterns on-the-fly:
1 Press Play on Boom’s transport.
2 Set the Edit Mode switch to Pattern Select
mode.
3 Click the Event switch marked 2. A different
pattern will start to play, and its notes will ap-
pear in the Matrix display.
4 Press Event switch 1, and you’ll see and hear
your original pattern return. Make a copy of it,
so that you can create a variation of the pattern.
To copy a pattern:
1 Click the Copy button above the Matrix dis-
play. Event switch 1 lights up red, and Event
switches 2–16 blink, indicating that they are
available to receive a copy of the selected pat-
tern.
2 Click Event switch 2. The Event Bar returns to
its normal state, and pattern 1 will be copied to
pattern 2.
3 If you decide before doing so that you don’t
want to copy the pattern after all, just press any
other button or move any other control besides
the Event switches, and the Copy action will be
cancelled.
4 Press Event switch 2, then set the Edit Mode
switch back to Pattern Edit mode. You’ll see that
you now have an identical copy of pattern 1 to
work with. Make a simple edit to the pattern, by
adding a rhythmic fill.
To create a simple fill:
1 Select Snare Drum, and toggle Event switches
13–16 to on. This will give you a simple 4-note
snare roll at the end of the pattern.
2 Try switching between patterns 1 and 2 to hear
the new pattern and the fill you’ve added.
Controlling Boom with MIDI
Boom becomes much more powerful when con-
trolled using MIDI. Boom responds to two main
ranges of MIDI notes:
C1–D#2 Plays each of the instruments in the
current drum kit. Used primarily when using
Pro Tools MIDI or instrument tracks to control
Boom, rather than Boom’s built-in pattern se-
quencer. These mappings closely match the
General MIDI standard, for ease of use with pre-
existing MIDI sequences.
Event switches 13–16, toggled on to create a roll
MIDI Note Instrument Played
C1 Kick
C#1 Rim
D1 Snare
D#1 Clap
E1 Snare
F1 Lo Tom
F#1 Clsd Hat
G1 Lo Tom
G#1 Clsd Hat