I learned of Royotoms on the Jamstix forum:
http://alanvista.com/royotoms/
We were discussing “Household Objects”
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Fantastic little freebie.
Some of the other percussion and cymbal VST’s on http://alanvista.com are very good - I like the “Chau Gongs”
Good find Doug. Added a Valhalla reverb to it for a nice “Floyd” sound.
Cool. Will have to try it out. I have BFD3 and their 8 bit kit percussion package which includes rototoms, but obviously that is a lot of dosh to spill out just for roto toms.
When we did Pure Floyd as a three piece (long story, but the drummer quit, dropped us in the shit with gigs booked, and we couldn’t get a decent replacement) we put the drums on the backing track so we could cover the gigs. That involved me over Christmas 2011 listening to the “Pulse” live album drum beat by drum beat and programming Nick Mason’s performance.
That taught me a lot about how drummers play (and nearly drove me mad in the process!). but I was quite proud of the rototom intro I did for “Time”.
I’d be happy to share the audio and MIDI files if anybody is interested (you may need to remap the MIDI for different drum programs).
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I’m interested. I got into drums years ago when the band I was in churned through 5 drummers. Each exhibited three of more of the seven deadly sins of drummers (uneven tempo, poor dynamics, wrong style for song, overdone fills, loud, bad kit and drunkenness). I already owned an Alesis D4 I was using for midi drum parts so I cobbled together DIY pads, a hi-hat stand and ride and took lessons. I discovered that there were no good reasons for the problems and that drumming is fun. It’s the only instrument I can sight read notation for.
Midi drum part creation and editing can be tedious, even when using a groove library approach like EZ Drummer but I’ve heard some really good songs made that way.
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When I was touring as a drummer in the mid 70s, I was very tempted to to add a couple of Roto Toms to my kit, but passed on the purchase just because I thought I would rarely use them. They did match my set, and even had black dot heads, which I had on my kit at the time. Ah the old days…
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Ok. Found the files in question, have a couple of issues I need to resolve to get them to play again, and it is time to shut down for the evening in Blighty. Will take a look at it over the next few nights and will hopefully post something by the weekend. I did both the studio version and the live PULSE version so we had the choice of either.
Hi,
Here you go. I had quite a few problems with these old Cubase files, as I haven’t opened them for six or seven years but I wanted to make sure they still worked!
The MID files are as you expect the programmed Rototom hits. From low to hi, the drum map is F#-1, G#-1, A#-1, C0, D0 and E0 - this is an old BFD drum map.
In the audio files I have the original track in the left channel and my Rototoms in the right channel. As mentioned, this is BFD3 and the Rototoms from the 8 Bit Kit Expansion (heaven knows why they are includd in 8 bit drum kits!). Reverb is a LEX plate reverb.
Time - Live - Rototoms.mid.zip (2.4 KB)
Time - Live - Rototoms.mp3.zip (3.6 MB)
Time - Studio - Rototoms.mid.zip (3.6 KB)
Time - Studio - Rototoms.mp3.zip (3.0 MB)
Let me know what you think!
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Thanks for taking the time to dig these out! The MP3s using the BFD 8 Bit Kit Expansion sound good. Now I want to compare those to Royotoms. Can Cantabile do drum input mapping such as every F#-1 note maps to D4? Otherwise I already know how to do that in Reaper. I want to see how far I can go with midi files in C3.
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awesome job. the mp3s sound spot on.
Thanks, Neil. It took a lot of careful programming! The big help was an article in Sound On Sound about programming realistic drums. The big difference was the revelation that your dominant hand (right or left) is usually a little stronger, so program every other hit in a roll a little quieter. That makes a heck of difference to the feel of a programmed part, and all sorts of other little tricks.
Of course it would have been quicker to hire a good drummer in at the time, but we just couldn’t find one of the right calibre. And of course if we had found one that good, we would have invited him to do the gigs!
As I said it was a good learning exercise.
I’ve always been impressed with BFD (now BFD3). Not cheap but their drum libraries are very, very good.
Will be interesting to see what this Rototom VST sounds like in comparison.
you’ve got me obsessing about these now.
Reaper’s inline MIDI editor and spectral wav view are super-useful
Here’s the Royotoms with their built in EMT convolution reverb.
Time - Studio - ROYOTOMS.zip (4.2 MB)
I’ll have a muck around with a different reverb later.
edit…
actually i’ve made a mess with tempo maps…tbc
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Sounds pretty good. I think I still prefer the BFD rototoms. but there is not much in it. So for people who need rototoms for the odd song, this free VST is ideal.
I think the studio version with the Royotoms sounds very good!
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Hi all,
Came to know of Royotoms as i was searching for a way to play this great piece without drums. Also used Cantabile to record this version of our tribute to this great band and brilliant intro.
Please do let us know your thoughts.
Welcome to C3 forums. I checked out your Youtube channel and listened to all 4 for your recordings. You and your Dad are talented. I really enjoyed listening to your Pink Floyd songs. Cherish the father & son duo as long as you can!
Since this thread is about Rototoms,
Maybe you could elaborate on what kind of processing you used on your Royotoms (reverb, EQ) etc. That would help the discussion. Playing drums on a keyboard is a challenge for sure. For the fast fills I usually use 2 finger trills. There is no right or wrong, just what ever feels comfortable. There are others on this forum that have way more Rototom and Pink Floyd experience than me. Hopefully they will chime in.
Dave…
Not bad at all 
. I think you have the style and feel of Gilmour, but I would dial back the distortion a little in the solo. Vocals are good as well. My only other small critique is that the synth bass note in the verses is too fizzy for my taste, and it is missing some Hammond. But you have all they key elements and an enjoyable listen.