About the Default GTL drummer [slash] GTL drum samples...
HI Jack,
I've reached a point using the app so much that the default drummer pattern options are limiting in my creativity (...but they Are Great I want to add!).
Is there a folder in the app (using GTL on my M1 MBA) where I could drop a midi file into the app behind the scenes and change the drum pattern to provide some expandability of the Drummer feature? I use to write T-SQL years ago so I am familiar with programming and file structures. I found where the samples are but for the life of me I cannot find the midi files that control it.
A Mod like this for me would be Tremendously Helpful to me as another songwriting tool (the drum pattern always dictates how my playing is tracked). Or, if there is another app you would recommend that GTL can sync up with that would do it already, I'd love to know the name and get it.
--Jason ✌🏻&❤️
Comments
Your right, the best way to expand is to use another app. Any drum sampler with Ableton Link built in will sync up nicely. Not sure what to recommend specifically but keeping to short patterns helps. If you have long drummer sequences then they can fall out of phase with GTL when you switch between groups. Say you have an 8 bar drum loop playing along to a 4 bar and an 8 bar group. It will be possible to switch so the drummer becomes out of phase and the group starts halfway through the drum sequence.
Another option is to import fixed drum audio loops either into the master group or loop 1 of each group. This is the most reliable option.
Hope that helps.
Cheers!
I see, Right on 👍🏻. Thank You Jack, Greatly Appreciate your fast Reply ❤️
Yeah I have Logic (wish the Ableton Link worked with that) and have rendered out it's loops to the BPM of my idea. Switching to Engineering Hat more times than not pulls me out of the zone (which I can still do). Searching for a solution that removes that point of resistance in any way. An inexpensive app dedicated to programming drums and sync'd via A.L. would be great. There's a lot of Audio Bus apps to scroll through. Was hoping there was one in particular that you would recommend that plays well with GTL. 👍🏻❤️✌🏻
--Jason ✌🏻&❤️
The king of drummers apps is Lumbeats. Syncing it with iBassist and GTL via Alink... it’s a winner combo (the best of Beatbuddy, trio+ and loopers...)
Excellent, Thank You @dubbylabby I will check that out!! 👍🏻👍🏻
Enjoy!
Ha! If they sound Great then price don't mean a thing to me under $20 Bucks, 😁❤️
I started buying my favourites but at the moment only Future Drummer isn’t at my arsenal. Few iAPs also are in my “whislist” but I need to make more music to justify myself “the need”
S:P
I just bought Soft Drummer cause it had some amazing sounding samples and close to the style I'm currently playing. Start sync seems hit or miss right now, sometimes is doesn't right away which could be an issue. Testing it out more now!
👍🏻
Hmm, off to a Very Bad start. Ableton Link enabled on both GTL (iPad Pro 11) and Soft Drummer (iPhone 11 Pro Max) but neither devices see each other in the respective programs.
Both Devices are connected to the same network, tried both my 5G and 2G networks. The apps on both devices are Local Network enabled. Using a Personal Hotspot on the iPhone does not work either. Both apps recognize each other on the same device but not between different devices. 🤕
Troubleshooting info online is scarce. Seems like (and Of Course...) I'm the only one with this issue. 🤔😑
iPhone: iOS 14.5.1
iPad Pro: iOS 14.5.1
Hmm I’m not sure, sounds like you’re doing everything correctly.
One thing to check, make sure “Local Network” is enabled in the device settings for both GTL and Soft Drummer. And on both your iPhone and iPad.
Yeah, thought maybe it was my router or wifi network, but they don't see each other on Personal Hotspot either. 🤦🏻
Yeah Local Network and Mic are enabled on GTL and Local Network is enabled on Soft Drummer (no mic setting for that app to enable), Ugh 😑
Continuing to troubleshoot...
http://lumbeat.com/news/bug-report/
Excellent, Thank You for passing that info along dubbylabby, I will do that! ✌🏻&❤️
Well, it's not my network, GTL on my M1 MacBook Air Links with GTL on my iPad Pro, it's looking like it's a problem in Soft Drummer. @dubbylabby, what version of Soft Drummer are you running (I'm thinking now it's a SD version bug with iOS 14.5.1)? Downloaded and installed v3.15.
I found that on my iPad, Settings>Privacy>Local Network that Soft Drummer never requested permission to find and communicate with other devices. That option is in Settings>Soft Drummer and is turned on within the app, but it looks like that's where Ableton Link is broke, it never makes the request to iOS. 😑
Update: I rebooted my iPad and now Setting>Soft Drummer shows it made the request and Local Network is on, but no change. 😐
Morning @ObscadeD,
Thanks for reporting this, great work debugging so far. I appreciate the time you've put into this. Are you able to confirm GTL works with Ableton Link over the network with any other apps other than itself? Also, does soft drummer work with any apps other than GTL?
I don't have another app with an Ableton Link feature to test with GTL. I am looking for a third app I'd be willing to drop cash on that will enhance my current songwriting workflow. Going through the A.L. list of apps and their program features, hope to find another one soon. When I do I'll test it and reply back, but I'm pretty confident the problem is with the current version of Soft Drummer and iOS14.
I received an email this morning from Lumbeat and their reply was either lip service and are aware of the issue, or they really are close to releasing a fix (their bug report page didn't even have iOS14 in their required drop down box):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yshzal7ohnxd87p/Lumbeat Bug Report email replay Soft Drummer.png?dl=0
If the link doesn't open, it basically says they will be updating soon fixing it. I'll keep you guys posted.
--Jason ✌🏻&❤️
Confirmed, I downloaded an app named Blocs Wave and it immediately connected to GTL after enabling Ableton Link. Issue appears to be with the current versions of iOS and Soft Drummer.
I Sincerely hope they release the fix soon. Its samples and natural feel are Excellent, and the midi export and control is exactly the extra ability I was searching for for fine turning my raw song ideas when I reach that stage. ✌🏻
Really appreciate you getting to the bottom of this issue. Fingers crossed it's fixed soon!
It could be an issue with latest iPadOS versions, they often wreck such things and Lumbeats is "well known" for taking it easy but almost release these updates. Insist and get in touch also by tweeter or IG.
Also these issues probably are being discussed at ABforum since are very common. As a workaround meanwhile I will suggest export to audio the loops from Lumbeat apps until they got fixed. It's not the same I know but it will let you perform and improve the drummer section of GTL. Common solution is hosting Lumbeats apps inside AUM/AB3 and let them manage Link and internal sync. It could give some crashes too (I use these for composition and maybe open few drummers alongside iBassist) but if you debug properly you should get it working... said that, never update your iDevice until fixes are release should be the top advice on "101 best practices on live performing with iDevices" IMHO.
Hope it helps
@dubbylabby
Yes this is what I'm doing for now 🙂👍🏻
Right on, Yes these are apps I was interested in at one point when researching how to internally route midi between programs and apps on my Apple Silicon MBA last year. Time to look at these apps again. 👍🏻
A.L. does work when both apps are on the same device, it's between devices that Soft Drummer is broke. Neither app on separate devices see each other, although, last night something strange happened that I'll explain in another post here 🙂👍🏻
If Soft Drummer worked on my MBA I wouldn't be researching this hard for a solution. I can download it from the App Store without having to side load it, but crashes at launch every time. Blocs Wave I had to side load and does work (samples aren't nearly as good sounding when time stretched) ✌🏻
Hoping Lumbeat's next release also fixes that too (but not holding my breath of course, lol✌🏻😁).
Yes for sure, whenever I get a new device or computer first thing I do is turn off automatic updates on everything. It's THE main reason I switched platforms going from Windows 7 to Mac OSX when MS release Win10. At the time I couldn't afford a Mac Pro (which was ridiculously out of date hardware wise) with the specs I needed so I built multiple Hackintoshes, Lol.
If you've ever worked with Digidesign's Pro Tools (now owned by Avid), that is a lesson you learn the hard way. If nothing's broke I don't update. But in the case with Soft Drummer I bought it after updating to iOS 14.5.1 for the security hole reasons that have been in the news (and to thwart Facebook who owes me a lot of money for the personal data they were allowed to steal without compensation, lol).
Thank you for all your app recommendations dubbylubby, I Greatly Appreciate It!!
--Jason ✌🏻&❤️
No Problem Jack, I'm Happy to help! GTL is a Freakin' Awesome App that I can tell you've worked Very Hard on over the years and I can see as a developer that you really care about it. Plus no good sitting on info keeping it to myself if it can help others! 🙂
Btw, I originally bought Singular Sounds' AEROS Loop Studio which was close to what I wanted and a Nice Piece of hardware. But then I came across GTL and it is a superior product for WAAAaaay less money. So with the cash I saved returning the AEROS I bought and paired it up with a Nectar Pacer and Very Happy with both!
Still haven't had time but I still will record a video showing how I'm integrating everything together which I'm sure there would be interest in. 🙂👍🏻
--Jason 😊✌🏻&❤️
Ok, So last night somehow Soft Drummer worked once between devices. This was after I deleted and reinstalled it and after I had launched GTL and Blocs Wave on my MBA (FYI for those who havn't followed the whole thread, A.L. Soft Drummer feature would not work between my iPad Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, but GTL on both devices saw each other immediately).
I hit play on GTL and realized I was hearing both Blocs Wave and Soft Drummer, SD still did not show in the menu any devices connected but it was clearly sync'd up surprisingly.
This was all at 12:30 last night before I went to sleep so I haven't been able to test it again. I will report back when I do. ✌🏻✌🏻
Mmmmm you are a brave one trying iPad apps on M1 mac. My gut says most of them not truly tested even by devs themselves (lumbeat 99% he takes some time to update things but then he goes app after app adding the new feature and trying to not wreck previous).
My advice in that set will be “host lumbeat inside AB3” and use link from that (at iDevice). Then use what seems reliable on your M1 mac and cross fingers. Also I will say “don’t use that setup for live gigging yet, wait for M1 fixes”. Finally I will suggest you get an rc505 as backup. Aeros looper is a good idea but not so well executed and rc505 has some features from a firmware update that makes it similar in workflow. You can create different projects (songs) and switch them quantized so it’s like GTL song part switching. I love GTL and I proposed Jack to build an standalone box (instead iPhone) with elkOS but ATM he seems busy with daily job (iOS developers common struggle) so I’m considering hack one of my iPhones and put some fans direct to the main board while the screen goes as touch interface alone (to avoid heat warning which disconnects iDevices and make them unreliable for sunny days and hot environments).
I should make a video about that with my Pacer
Time to be so lazy should end... xD
(Sorry for the late reply man ✌🏻)
Ha! Thanks @dubbylabby, I have coding experience and my previous jobs sharpened and honed my troubleshooting skills so it's not too bad. 😄
Yes for sure. Interestingly enough my experience with the apps I've loaded on the M1 MBA have been amazingly good. I've yet to install an app on the MBA meant for an iPhone or iPad that does not behave exactly like the intended device (the exception is the way the user interface looks when stretched beyond a mobile device screen).
That's great to know. Hoping the issue resolves shortly. I've had to use GTL as a surrogate app on my second device to link soft drummer to my other one (I basically just open an empty session and leave it ✌🏻)
Ok! Let me try that out! 👍🏻👍🏻
Oh for sure, right now just using it for brainstorming ideas 👍🏻
I actually bought one and shortly after discovered GTL, returned the Aeros and got a Nektar Pacer midi foot controller with the refund 😆
Dude Wow, you know how to do that? 😳 That's something!!
Ha! Right On! I need to do the same in between projects!!
Maybe it’s time to join forces with Jack and make something standalone...
Just sayin...
(Sorry for the late reply)
Ha! You give me too much credit 😜. I don't believe I'm that good. I can convert data and write TSQL. I wouldn't know where to begin with something like that. ❤️✌🏻
Excellent, Thank You for sharing the link! 🙂✌🏻❤️