Beat Making tutorial for version 0.0.5

Noise Commander 3DS beat making tutorial (for version 0.0.5)

Preparation

• Be willing to donate a dollar or a euro.

• Have a homebrewed Nintendo 3DS console - You can find guides on my channel or elsewhere online.

• Go to patreon.com/NoiseCommander3DS to sign up and choose how much to donate. The downloadable contents are available to any of the paid tiers.

• Be sure to download the sample pack and the demo songs.

• If you plan to use your own samples then make sure to convert them to 16Bit mono wav files and put them into separate directories such as kick, snare, loops, vocals etc.

Installation

• Follow the instructions given in the pinned post at the top.

• You will scan the barcode with your 3DS console to install the upater app.

• When running the updater app, it will ask you to insert your Patreon email address.

• Once entered, press A to have the updater download and install the app.

• Copy the contents fo the sample pack to the /samples directory on your SD-card (create it if it does not exists).

• Copy the contents on the demo songs to the /tracks directory on your SD-card (create it if it does not exists).

Finding help

The shoulder buttons are referred to as L and R.

Press L + R at the same time to view the inline documentation.

Press B to close it.

Basic Navigation and operation

Press the D-PAD to open different screens.

Pressing any direction repeatedly will cycle through additional screens.

use the C-PAD to move the cursor in the upper screen to select UI elements such as buttons or sliders.

You can change values but holding A while pressing a direction on the C-PAD.

Alternatively tou can hold a drum pad on the touch screen while pressing a direction on the C-PAD as well.

Loading the demo songs

• Press down on the D-PAD and pick "Load", then pick a file from the /tracks directory.

• Press right on the D-PAD to show the grid-editor and pattern selection view, press on one of the patterns to play it.

• Press R to switch to deck B

• Repeat step 1 to load a song into deck B.

• Press up on the D-PAD to see the mixer view and move the crossfader.

Configuring sample directories (a.k.a sound categories)

• Press the D-PAD down to show the files menu and create a new blank song.

• Press the D-PAD up to show the categories screen.

• Select a blank slot with the C-PAD and press Y.

• Choose "Directory"

• Navigate to a sub-folder inside your /samples directory and press A.

• Notice that the directory has been assigned. Repeat this step for all folders you need (e.g. kick, snare, sfx etc.)

• Press the D-PAD down to show the files menu and name your file template when you save it.

• This file can be quickly re-opened by choosing the Open Template menu entry in the future.

Assigning sample-directories to the pads

• Go to the pad-view (press left on the D-PAD).

• Use the C-PAD to select the Category

• Hold a pad while moving the C-PAD to select category.

• Repeat step 3 for all of the 12 pads.

• Save the file as template again as described in the previous section.

Loading random samples from the directories

• Press the D-PAD up so show the sample categories view.

• Use the C-PAD to select a non-empty row.

• Press B to select the row. This un-selects all other rows.

• Move the C-PAD to the left or right to adjust the amount of samples to be loaded.

• Move to another non-empty row and press Y. This adds that row to the selection.

• Press A to load the samples of the selected row. A progress-bar appears at the top.

• Wait for the progress bar to finish and then press the D-PAD left to show the drum pads.

• You can see how much of the available memory is used at the right side where it says Mem. 8 MB are available per deck.

• Press the pads to hear the sounds. Make shure that the button at the bottom right is toggled to "Play". If it is toggled to "Select" then pressing the pads will not play the sample.

Selecting samples

• Press the D-PAD left to show the drum pads view.

• Make sure that the bottom right button is toggled to "Play" mode rather than "Select" mode.

• Hold any pad and press left or right on the D-PAD repeatedly. You hear the sample as it is selected.

The "Cycle -" and "Cycle +" buttons in the instrument are an alternative way of achieving the same behavior.

The "RandSmp" button will randomize the sample selection numerically rather then cycling.

When the "Ln All" button is active, then cycling and randomizing the sample selection affects all twelve pads/lanes at the same time.

When the "Ln Bus" button is active, then cycling and randomizing the sample selection affects all pads/lanes which have the same bus number assigned as the currently selected pad/lane.

Recording notes

• Press the D-PAD left to show the drum pads view.

• Press Start to open the second page of the instrument editor.

• Set "InQuant" to a number of steps, for example 2. This is optional. Configure it for each pad.

• Practice something to record by playing the pads if you like (optional)

• Press *"REC" to enable it (turns red)

• Play the pads.

• Press "REC" to disable recording.

• If you made a mistake then you can clear the entire pattern with the "ClearPt" button.

• If you made a mistake then you can partially erase notes from a pad by holding L and the pad.

• If you made a mistake then you can press right on the D-PAD to edit the notes in the grid editor.

Playing notes in slice mode

• Press Start while you are in the pad/instrument view.

• Change the "SliceNr" value to 8.

• Press the pad to play it - notice that it starts playing from the middle of the sample.

• The default amount of slices is 16.

• "SliceNr" is an automatable parameter.

The slices can be played dynamically in the slice mode.

The second left button at the bottom of the pads view next to the "Pads" button cycles through additional play modes:

Roll, Samples, Slices and Piano

Press it repeatedly until is reads Slices

If you now press any of the 16 pads, the sample will play from a different starting point for each.

The length of the sample is divided in 16 equal parts by default.

The number of parts can be configured in the second page of the instrument editor.

Press start to open the second page of the instrument editor and change the "SliceCnt" value. The current maximum value is 16.

User-defined slice points will be possible in the future.

When the "PlayMode" setting is zero, then the sample is played in full length (one-shot).

When the "PlayMode" setting is 1, then the sample is played only as long as the pad is helf (gated).

Deleting unused samples from memory

• Press the D-PAD up to show the categories screen.

• Press Start

• Confirm by pressing A.

Recording your session as WAV file

You don't need an external audio recorder to record your jams.

• Press the D-PAD down to show the file menu.

• Select "Record" and press A to start recording.

• Press again to stop the recording

• Find your wav file in the /samples directory.

Where's the friggin beat making tutorial that you promised?

This is how I made the Pikmin beats:

On my PC:

• Used reaper and set the projet tempo to 88 BPM.

• I loosely chopped various 2-bar sections from my input audio and exported them into a directory.

In Noise Commander 3DS:

• Set the swing value to 40.

• I assigned that directory to a pad.

• Laid out a simple one bar beat on a pattern.

• Place the sample on the first beat and create slice automation.

• Played with the slices and recorded something I liked.

• Delete unused samples.

• Repeat the same process on another pattern.