Using VirtualDrums
Upon loading the app, you will see the options screen. This includes various facets of the app’s drum performance style that can be customized to your liking:
– Drums Volume allows you to directly control the volume at which the drums will be heard when you strike them. The master volume control for the app.
– Sound Dynamics allows you to control the volume contour heard when striking the same drum multiple times. When striking a drum repeatedly, the app will automatically lower the intensity of all hits after the first. The higher the value of this slider, the more pronounced the effect becomes – a value of 0 will lead to no contour shaping at all, while 100 will yield the highest amount of shaping.
– Snare Drum and Bass Drum each allow you to select a sample to be used when the corresponding drum is tapped. There are five samples for each drum, and each snare drum sample, as is indicated by their names, has a matching sample for the kick drum. Of course, it’s not necessary by any means to load a pair of matching kick and snare samples. The samples can be previewed, or “auditioned”, as you cycle through them.
– Tom Tuning allows you to adjust the tuning of the toms, which can be “auditioned” as you cycle through the three options.
– Auto Kick allows the user to “tie” the kick to one or more of the drums in the kit, so that when that drum is struck, the kick will also be struck. This does not mean that when the kick is tapped, the “auto kick”-ed drum will sound.
– Demo will show a demo of how the drum kit might be used.
– Playlist will allow the user to select a song on the iPad to drum to.
Once these options are configured to your liking, press the Play triangle in the lower right area of the screen to go to the actual drum kit and perform. The two high hat cymbals on this kit are configured such that tapping on the lower area of the cymbal triggers a closed high hat sample, while tapping in the upper area of the cymbal triggers an open high hat sample. To return to the options screen, stop drumming and wait a few seconds. You should see a left-pointing triangle appear in the lower left of the screen. Tapping this will return you to the options screen.
Using Drum Kit
Upon loading this app, you will be taken to the actual kit. This kit functions similarly to the VirtualDrums kit, with the exception that you do not receive the realistic visual feedback that you would in the VirtualDrums app, and that you cannot see the drum sticks striking the drums. Similarly to the VirtualDrums kit, however, the high hat cymbal (the lower left cymbal) can trigger both closed and open high hat samples. To trigger an open high hat sample, tap the cymbal itself. To trigger a closed high hat sample, tap below the cymbal.
Tapping the “i” in the lower right corner of the screen will take you to the options screen. In this version of the app, the Jam Packs and Themes are all locked. However, by tapping on Kits at the top of the screen, you can choose between the Classic Kit (sampled from an acoustic drum kit) and the Hip Hop Kit (sampled from the famous Roland TR line, including the TR-808). Once you have selected the kit you would like to use, press “Done” in the upper right of the screen to return to the kit. As a final note, when using the hip hop kit, the highest tom drum will trigger an 808 cowbell sample instead of a tom drum.