Drumline Equipment Q...

[Drumwiz]

Hey guys i have a pretty lame question to ask but im bored enough to ask it. For all of you who have seen the movie DrumLine: There is a scene where Nick Cannon and the other lead drummer are using this peice of equipment in the band room where they play the marching snare drum with something attatched(i think) and it(a machine or computer) is logging every stroke/rhythm that they are playing. And it shows up on the computer..than later prints out. They then look at what he was playing on the drum etc.

My question is, is that thing real? or just hollywood? If it is, what is it called and how well do they work? Thanks.

[Todd Norris]

Hi Drumwiz, welcome aboard.  This question was asked awhile back.  I don't recall the answer.  Click on search at the top of the screen and search for drumline.  It should come up.

[Larry Lawless]

My question is, is that thing real? or just hollywood?

Hollywood.

There are some music notation programs that take what you play on a midi instrument and convert it to notation, such as Finale, but it's not nearly as accurate as what is depicted in Drumline. I suppose you could hook a triggered drumpad to it and get an idea of what you are doing, but to make it work you have to have a pretty good knowledge of music notation anyway.

Moral of the story: Learn to read music, then you can just write it out yourself.

[Rei]

They are using a Ddrum trigger like this:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product?sku=442193

It (in theory) is hooked into a midi converter like this:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product?sku=442374

Which is then hooked up to a mac that has a program running called Digital Performer.

Hit record, play the drum that the trigger is on, and then convert that to notation using Digital Performer.

For an example of someone doing just that, check out the special features on "Once Upon A Time In Mexico."  There should be a featurette called "inside troublemaker studios" and Robert Rodriquez talks about how he hooks up his synth to digital performer and plays all his orchestrated soundtrack on the keyboard and digital performer makes the notation from his performance on the keyboard so that he can take it to an actual orchestra to do the final versions that are eventually heard on the movie.  Danny Elfman uses a similar process on his film scores.

[Drumwiz]

Cool thanks, i knew you must be able to do it someway...

Only problems for me are that

1) I don't have  a Mac

2) I dont have the ~$800 lol

I appreciate the answer though!

[AdamBlevins]

There are other programs that do the same thing and cost less.

However, none of them do it well.  At least not for percussion.  In fact, they do it pretty poorly; esp. for drumline music.

In order to do this, you would have to have a midi trigger attached to the drums or be using an electronic drum pad.  No matter how you slice it, it HAS to be done in midi.  Midi can read note information (as note numbers) as well as several expression parameters that are completely irrelevant to marching percussion, such as:  modulation, pitch bend, etc.

There are many things that midi will not do for you in regards to marching percussion.  These include:  Dynamics, accents, rim shots, diddles, rolls, flams/grace notes, etc.

The thing that you saw on the movie was 100% Hollywood.  Bad Hollywood, at that.  Look closely at the "music" that printed out.  It's just sixteenth notes on one line with random accidentals on some of the notes.

The system that you saw is not feasible in the real world.  At least not yet.  Until then, I'm thankful for Finale's "speedy note entry".