My Robot Drummer...
DIY Beats
MIDI::Simple::Drummer
It's on CPAN
and will install on any machine.
It only depends on
MIDI::Simple,
which depends on nothing but Perl itself!
Static not dynamic
- This package renders a .mid file.
- It does not interact with you.
Why make a MIDI drummer?
- The metronome is boring!
- Metronomes go on forever, which is not real.
- Songs have parts, including an end.
- Drummers cue your place in the song.
- I miss my virtuoso drummer and teacher.
What Song Do You Think This Is?
Back In Black!
The General MIDI Kit
The GMK is pretty feeble but works just fine and is part of every machine.
- Drums: snare, two basses and six toms
- Cymbals: hi-hat (closed/open/pedal), two crashes, a China, a Splash, two rides and the ride bell
- Miscelaneous other instruments like the venerable cowbell, bongos and congos, etc.
Open the .mid in your favorite sequencer
And fiddle about. Every sequencer has better patches than the GMK.
The GMK is not Neil Peart's kit!
Let's Get This Party Started!
- First, let's check out the essential bits...
The Kit
- The kit is just a hash of internal method names, like
kick => 'Acoustic Bass Drum',
snare => 'Acoustic Snare',
- You can add, subtract or modify anything in the set.
$d->kit(kick => 'Cowbell');
Patterns and grooves, fills and frilly bits
- Patterns and fills are just a hash-ref of beat names (currently numbers).
- Use The Source, Luke.
Example rock pattern and fill
5 => sub { # "Syncopated beat 2" en c-hh. qn k1,3,3&,4&. qn s2,4.
my $self = shift;
my %args = @_;
for my $beat (1 .. $self->beats) {
$self->note($self->EIGHTH,
$self->backbeat_rhythm(%args, -beat => $beat));
$self->note($self->EIGHTH,
($beat == 3 || $beat == 4
? ($self->kick, $self->tick) : $self->tick));
}
},
'1 fill' => sub {
my $self = shift;
$self->note($self->QUARTER, $self->snare) for 0 .. 1;
$self->note($self->EIGHTH, $self->snare) for 0 .. 3;
},
Some Dynamics
- Intelligently modulate dynamics.
- Add nuance methods like accent and crescendo, legato, etc.
#
sub accent { # Pump up the [dynamics] (default Volume)!
my $self = shift;
$self->{-accent} = shift if @_;
my $accent = $self->{-accent} + $self->volume;
$accent = $MIDI::Simple::Volume{fff} # Max MIDI is fff
if $accent > $MIDI::Simple::Volume{fff};
return $accent;
}
The Ugly Setup
#
sub _setup { # Where's my Roadies, Man?
my $self = shift;
$self->{-score} ||= MIDI::Simple->new_score;
$self->{-score}->noop('c'.$self->{-channel}, 'V'.$self->{-volume});
$self->{-score}->set_tempo(int(60_000_000 / $self->{-bpm}));
$self->{-kit} ||= $self->_default_kit();
$self->{-patterns} ||= $self->_default_patterns();
return $self;
}
The Lovely, Flexible Syntax
#
use MIDI::Simple::Drummer::Rock;
my $d = MIDI::Simple::Drummer::Rock->new();
$d->count_in;
$d->patterns('end fill' => \&fin);
$d->fill(-name => 'end');
$d->write;
sub fin {
my $d = shift;
$d->note('en', $d->crash) for 1 .. 2;
$d->note('sn', $d->snare) for 0 .. 2;
$d->rest('sn');
$d->note('en', $d->kick) for 1 .. 2;
$d->note('en', $d->strike('Splash Cymbal', $d->name_of('kick')));
}
Any sufficiently advanced drummer...
- ...will probably still sound like a robot.
- But there is hope! There is AI. And anyway, thare are other "humanized" machines out there already.
- And frankly, some people just want to get away from Humans and their feeble "capabilities" and experiment with The Future.
The Future[TM]
Drummers that do crazy, combinatorial things. (Stunt drumming, if you will.)
Drummers that systematically run through experimental beat patterns.
Evolutionary drummers. Duh.
Markov chains and stochastic functions.
Use this (or its methods) as a basis for modern drummers, who use Moose, etc.
Real-time interaction? That is, live jamming. This is a sticky wicket...
To do
Multi-track!
Comprehend time signature and keep a running clock to know where we
are in time, at all times.
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.
That is, make a MIDI::Simple::Drummer::Jazz package.
Add 32nd and 64th durations to the %MIDI::Simple::Length hash.
Import patterns via the read_score() method in
MIDI::Simple?
Leverage the from_drum_tab() method in
MIDI::Tab?