Pocket Batería is a multisample-based Euclidean sequencer for 3 drum-voices, inspired by Samba Batucada drum ensembles but is of course in no way intended to be a clone or replacement of a real human-played Batería.
My focus was on ease of use in recording and live situations, therefore all parameters can be accessed from just one page, as I personally don’t like getting lost in menu sub-pages for parameter adjustments.
Each drum voice consists of a set of samples that are picked at random. No sample will be played twice in a row to create a more organic feel.
In case you want to use your own samples – which I highly encourage you to do – there are a few simple rules to follow:
1. Samples must be placed in the samples sub-folder
2. Each sample must conform to the following file naming conventions: The file name must be identical for all samples in a set, with a sequential number starting with 1 as the only distinguishing feature.
3. Do not use spaces in file names and stick to one file extension per set.
4. Avoid leading zeros in the sequence number.
5. Use at least a sample set of two samples per drum voice. The random file selection will not work with a single sample per drum voice as it prevents the same sample from playing twice in a row.
In the soundfile_mapping sub-patch you have to store your filestem, extension and the count of your sample sets. This is necessary for the random sample selection process to work. Check the contents of the samples subfolder and comments in the sub-patch for examples and best practice.
Ableton Link support has been dumped in favor of MIDI Clock Sync in this version but might get reintroduced again in a future version.
I have added a PDF manual in the zip file containing detailed information on MIDI Clock Sync.
Controls:
Aux (or footswitch): Starts playpack and activates MIDI Clock send to external devices (if any are connected)
C#3: Toggles between incoming or outgoing MIDI clock
D#3: Suppresses MIDI note out (does not affect MIDI clock) – by default MIDI note out is turned off and needs to be manually activated if needed.
G4: Mute Drum 1
A4: Mute Drum 2
B4: Mute Drum 3
Muting not only silences audio output but also suppresses MIDI note output for the selected drum voice.
Knob1 + F#4 (hold): Events Drum 1
Knob1 + G#4 (hold): Events Drum 2
Knob1 + A#4 (hold): Events Drum 3
MIDI note out for all 3 drum voices is supported (C3, D3, E3) but suppressed by default (see D#3 above).
Knob2 + F#4 (hold): Steps Drum 1
Knob2 + G#4 (hold): Steps Drum 2
Knob2 + A#4 (hold): Steps Drum 3
Knob3 + F#4 (hold): Offset Drum 1
Knob3 + G#4 (hold): Offset Drum 2
Knob3 + A#4 (hold): Offset Drum 3
Knob4: Tempo from 20-200 BPM (deactivated in MIDI clock receive mode)
Want to use an external MIDI controller? Just open the midi_ctrl_mapping sub-patch and adapt the controls to your specific needs. By default it has been set up to match my Faderfox MX12 New Module.
MIDI Note out for all 3 drum voices is supported (C3, D3, E3).
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CHANGELOG
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0.4 Changed controls: holding F#4, G#4, A#4 selects drums 1 to 3; added global MIDI note out blocker, suitable for cases where you want to send out MIDI clock only. Removed MIDI note in from supplied mother.pd
0.3 Fixed override knob value behaviour after initialization, code cleanup
0.2 Added external/internal MIDI clock sync, removed Ableton Link sync due to continous loss of connection after a while
Here’s a quick overview of the controls
Attachment pocket_bateria_controls-63e102037bca3.jpg
Cool, very nice, thanks!
Very cool. I came up with a pd patch a few months ago that produced a nice auto-bateria type sound – completely different implementation to yours using reverse fourier analysis to create sequences. Haven’t ported it to the organelle yet, but hoping to some day.
@dr_kd Sounds good – there can’t be enough batería patches :) Individual approaches are always cool to gain a different perspective on things. I, for example, don’t know anything about reverse fourier analysis and how I would approach this in Pd. Definitely looking forward to your patch whenever it’s ready!
@twang69: it’s based on this patch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GJNz5yfmE4 – with routing midi notes to a percussion sound font rather than a synth voice. I can’t remember if the auto-batería version got a swing clock or not. I would have thought not but could be wrong. Any quantisation in the batería version would have just been to get the best out of the sound font rather than for music theory reasons
@dr_kd: That’s some serious stuff going on in this patch. Hats off!
Splendid patch, thank you!
Love it, but: Can it sync to external MIDI comin in?
@soxsa: Thanks, glad you enjoy!
@jbls: Thanks too :) At its current state only syncing with Ableton Link is supported – MIDI sync is on my todo list for the next update though.
Wow! amazing !
(And it’s true that MIDI would be a real plus ^^)
Merci !
@romain_aweduti_dwosb
@jbls
Internal and external MIDI Clock sync is working now. Please refer to the PDF in the zip files for details. Thanks!
@twang69 : <3
@twang69 thanks a lot for that! biiig improvement! :)
I wasn’t able to unzip the file on the organelle, but unzipping it in the Web Server worked for me… :)
Hello everyone! v0.3 is online. I finally fixed the annoying erratic knob value behavior after initialization – it feels a tad bit more professional now 😎
Another update! I have changed the controls: holding F#4, G#4, A#4 select drums 1 to 3 now – it seems way more logical that way. I’ve also added a global MIDI note out toggle, suitable for cases where you want to send out MIDI clock only. Removed MIDI note input from supplied mother.pd – A new manual is supplied in the zip file.
the new control layout ↓↓
Attachment Pocket_Bateria_Key_Layout-65ccee13bc994.png
This has been one of my very favorite patches :)
I do like the new control arrangement, thank you. Seems more natural.
Thanks a lot soxsa! I agree, it’s way more natural like this and I wonder why I didn’t do it like that initially. When I used the patch again after a long absence, I intuitively made a mistake with the buttons and thought to myself that it actually makes much more sense this way :)