Beat creation using Arpeggios
GarageBand or any quality DAW will have drums, percussion and effect sounds mapped to specific MIDI notes in the lower octave ranges. In most cases, these DAWs conform to the General Midi Standard for mapping drums, percussion, and effect sounds. There are some exceptions, so be careful. Below are shown drum and percussion sounds supported in the most popular DAWs with their General MIDI note mappings. Don’t worry; if your DAW does not conform to this standard, we will show you a simple way to identify the note assignments for Drum and Percussion sounds in your DAW using the ChordWalk Virtual Piano.
The General Midi table shows that drum and percussion sounds are triggered by notes that feature in the “C” major or “C” minor keys. The most appropriate key selection for developing beats is the “C” Major/ Minor key. For Drums and percussion, use piano chord voicings.
We will now show, as an example, a very simple beat pattern setup for Drums, Bass or Synths. Using both an Arpeggio and Full Chord Selection.
Select Drums and Percussion in your DAW. Garageband offers a wide range of acoustic and electronic drum options. Select “C” major/minor key in ChordWalk. Set your octave range to C1 and select Piano voicing.
Select the “C” chord, which will appear in Arpeggiator 1 below. Select the C chord in the Arpeggiator and Solo it. Set up a rhythmic beat pattern like that shown in the example.
You should hear a distinct rhythmic drum beat in your DAW in the example below. Any acoustic Drum selection works well for generating a strong thumping beat. Four on the Floor is a good choice.
Drum and percussion sounds supported in the most popular DAWs with their General MIDI note mappings
Lock a chord in the Arpeggiator and the assigned Chord will stay locked to that Pane.
Try different Chord selection to experience the different drum and percussions sounds mapped to these note sounds. You can lock an Instrument sound to an Arpeggio with the Lock Icon.
Lock a chord in the Arpeggiator and the assigned Chord will stay locked to that Pane. Experiment with the step lengths and with the Gate settings to develop strong thumping and engaging beats with a strong rhythmic component. Repeat this process by adding more Arpeggiators with a different chord root note to develop a range of drum and percussion beat sound.
You can also activate multiple notes of a chord and select a mix of play modes to create appealing and novel beat patterns.
Select the C chord in the Arpeggiator and Solo it