Zoom Gear & Home Recording Forum

Is there a way to record the drums while playing the drum machine manually as the rest of the song plays? It keeps wanting me to make a loop and then it keeps adding bass and stuff, and it's pretty frustrating. Any help?

Can't be done in a practical way on the PS04. You can "record" loops real time and use them but that's about it.

Tony is right, but I think the max size of a pattern is something like 99 bars so that would more or less allow it to be done. I think the demo song only has two patterns, done this way.

Is that enough information?

While the pattern length is OK it's so difficult to switch between the various pads (remember only 4 are available at once) and keep time etc. it just doesn't work out as practical - believe me I tried

Mentally you need to think of the song in sections and get patterns to match, of course if you didn't start with a steady beat you'll have a problem anyway.

Hey OMW,

YES IT CAN BE DONE!! If your recorder has midi out.

Get a MRT-3 drum machine, and hook it up with midi cable to your recorder.

Set your bar length, and hit the record button on the MRT-3.

While your recorder is playing your recorded song, you can record your drum parts in real time, midi synced to the tempo on your recorder, plus it will be perfectly quantized in playback.

I agree, I love being able to play the pads in real time, and the MRT-3 does it with ease.

So yes, you can with the right set up!!

BTW; This cannot be done on a MRS-8, by itself. Got's to have the MRT-3, for it to work.

GT

Yikes OMW,

I was just looking at the online manual for the PS-04, and I don't see midi out anywhere. You may be out of luck.

May be time to upgrade. Even the MRS-4 has midi out, and syncs perfectly to the MRT-3 drum machine.

GT

GT, thanks for playing <pling> but PS-04 has no MIDI at all.

Tony, you are right (once again) about the limitation of four pads at a time. I was imagining doing several rounds, adding one or two drums each time. Of course, you would need a good idea of when to do the breaks. E.g. first round: kick and snare; second round: closed/open hi-hat; third round: toms ... and so on.

That said, I would probably never bother myself.