Ripping Drum Tracks from MIDI files

This Instructable walks you through ripping a drum track from a MIDI song. Then you can play along or create a cover of the song or let your creativity run wild.

Here is a sample drum track that I did using this method. It is from the Beatles song "Drive My Car".


I have found that this method creates as good or better drum tracks than the canned tracks that come with drum machines. But with this method the tracks are song-specific. You can also do some crazy stuff, e.g. I'm working up Brubeck's "Take Five" using the drum track ripped from Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Tarkus" (slowed down a bit).

REQUIREMENTS
Windows XP, VISTA and probably earlier Windows

Step 1: Gather the tools...

For this Instructable, you will need the following:

DrumTrack (free software for creating...er...drum tracks...d'uh)
http://www.supercoldmilk.com/drumtrack/

A midi file (download the following for the demo)
http://209.197.86.65/19841988/rock/beatles/DriveMyCar.mid

OPTIONAL
Audacity (free software editing audio...it's very cool)
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Comments

[admin]

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[Whhisper]

I signed up JUST to say THANK YOU for this nice tutorial. I was about to get MENTAL trying to make something free work, to transform my guitar pro midi drums into something real to the audacity so I could record with the keyboard over it. And this was so simple! great job, thank you.

[dummy1977]

Thank you for this...  I knew there was a way with software that came with one of my ancient sound cards that's long gone, but this will definitely help me out since my music making process is crippled in structure and my inability to make anything happen with drum machines (fried mine before getting anything out of it) and software. And the inability to come across drummers or compatible musicians.

Saving this.

[The Stans Mysterium]

Cool program. Is there a way to convert mp3s to midi files? Ive heard there isnt (for stereo tracks), could you save tracks off a cd to midi?

[thepepper94]

If you use a software or site (zamzar.com is a great one) to convert a file, you could convert virtually any type of file to another... Hope I helped!