[PD] pd drum machines

[David Powers]

Okay, I'm sorry but this bothers me - telling people "build it yourself" 
instead of providing some concrete information for someone who is 
probably new at PD.  We are all here because we want to learn to build 
things ourselves, but some of us need a little more help along the way.

Furthermore, a functional drum machine is not as simple as you imply, 
you need the modulus+counter, some way to code rhythmic patterns (grid? 
0's and 1's? What if you want to switch between different time units?), 
you need to get all the sampler parts worked out, you need envelopes 
(notice in Frank's example tutorial he used an external that a newbie 
would not be familiar with to get more precise attack and decay times), 
and need a mixer section.  Each of these can be tricky for a beginner.  
At the least it would be nice to include some kind of examples of your 
patches, if this is easy and something you've already built (as you seem 
to imply).  Yes, it might not be hard to get a little "tweek tweek 
tweek" in quarter notes, but that's not the same as a usable performance 
tool.  And for PD to be more than a teaching tool, it needs to result in 
performance tools that people can use. 

If I have time in the future to work on PD, I'll try and work on such 
things (actual working abstractions and apps).  I'd most like to see a 
granular drum machine, personally, possibly with options to do aleatoric 
tweaks.  I'd also really like to see something that captures buffer 
stuff and can spit out random rhythmic permutations and subdivisions in 
time with the beat.  I don't have enough knowledge to build these things 
currently but maybe someday...

~David

odiv . wrote:

> hello Patrick
>
> I really recommend you to use your imagination and build your own 
> "drums". Think...what do you need: a constant (or not) sound source 
> times envelope generator, which is triggered (or not) by rythmical (or 
> not) patterns. As simple as it gets. Have your custom fun.
>
> daniel .
>