What are the pros and cons of having drum samples (not drum breaks) contained in a single instrument, instead of just giving them all their own instrument slot?
Is it all down to personal preference, or are there benefits to doing each method?
I am aware that you can save instruments and can have your samples mapped across the keyboard, but are there any other benefits I am missing?
What is your preference?
I like to keep the overview, so my preference clearly is having an own slot for each instrument, just like each instrument having its own track while composing for mixing reasons. The benefit of having several drum samples contained in one single instrument is that you can easily play live, but that’s it imo.
Do you use your keyboard to change instrument slots or just your mouse?
It’s way faster and easier to select another instrument slot by using the mouse, so that’s what I’m doing.
If you would like to do this via keyboard, you’ve got these options.
For key elements (kick, hats, clap/snare, cymbals) each is its own instrument, because they will each be on their own track. I usually do some work in the instrument fx section, which makes it so that only one track can call such an instrument at a time, so it makes sense to have dedicated tracks for all such instruments, whether percussion or otherwise.
That said, for auxillary percussion, fills, breakbeats, rhythmic fx, etc. I’ll often have multiple samples in one instrument. But they will still typically have their own dedicated mixer track. Sometimes I like to mix it up and put instruments through a variety of tracks for timbral variation, but I don’t typically work that way as it can get a little confusing when it comes time to mix
1 sample per instrument for me too. Much easier to apply FX, tweak, etc. Not to mention that you get the entire key range when you want to play other pitches.
And you can still slice up drum loops and fills in it’s own instrument too. So I guess I technically use both methods in tandem 