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I WANNA PLAY TOOL

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 9:29 am
by Leper_Messiah
hey whats up guys, i was wondering if anybody wanted to take the time to explain to me how i can get my mandalas up and running so i can play them like danny carey. I have a tool cover band and my band members keep getting on my case to get my pads up and running so we can add that element to our covers. Im a total noob, so so far i only have virtual brain going, and i'm pretty sure i need to get battery 3. Besides that im totally clueless on what to do. any help would be appreciated. thanks

Re: I WANNA PLAY TOOL

Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 11:29 pm
by MoonGreyBlue
Hello,

I hope some of the following "quick start" search items are useful?

For tech questions, perhaps search Mandala Forum posts by:

• Synesthesia founder, and Mandala Drum inventor, Vince De Franco

• Mandala Forum and Mandala Tumblr posts - by Luke Henderson of Synesthesia

• Posts by several Mandala Forum member(s) such as: Launch54321, turnkee, kimono


YouTube search:

• Tool- Soundcheck

DC provides insight to his playing aesthetic and drum sound, as well as his creation of custom sound designs for electronic/electric drums (Simmons SDX in the video ca. 1994-95)

Side note:

Generally speaking, by applying a little imagination while exploring a feature or two of the Battery 3 program, I believe I gained insight to some of the physical sticking-patterns used by DC.

Cheers

Re: I WANNA PLAY TOOL

Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 6:58 am
by Leper_Messiah
Thanks ill look into it. So far ive been able to get 4 samples from the stinkfist intro imported onto my pads. when i test the sounds in itunes they play just fine but once they are imported onto the pads nothing comes out, this is another thing thats confusing me. ive also noticed that when i put my snare setting on the pad, i can hit light enough with my drum sticks where the pad doesnt pick up the hit. Is this normal? i see videos where it looks like people get a light buzz roll going, yet i cant do it. Maybe i need to get a better snare sample than the old stock snare the virtual brain gives you

Re: I WANNA PLAY TOOL

Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 8:04 am
by Jupiter0rJapan
You can cover most of the bases you need to play tool with 2 or 3 mandalas, the VB and the stock sounds manipulated with the effects in the chain. Remember it isn't until recent times Danny has used so many pads. You'll find that messing around with the tabla sounds and putting them through a chain of distortion and pitch modulation will get you some of the the sounds Danny uses. I'm not sure why your imported sounds are not working, as I used the import feature in the VB and it just worked right away.

As far as the snare sensitivity, it is all in the settings. You have to adjust them. Sometimes using a bit of compression in the VB helps the sensitivity along to a more realistic level.

Re: I WANNA PLAY TOOL

Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 9:16 am
by Leper_Messiah
Thanks alot. Ya i dunno, my samples are sitting where there suppose to be in the user sounds folder and theres no spaces in its file name. The file loads fine into the program but when i hit the pad or try to test the sample the sound doesnt come out. I guess ill just keep messing with stuff untill i figure it out.

Re: I WANNA PLAY TOOL

Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 7:39 pm
by mandrake717
Sounds like you are using the old version of the Virtual Brain. The new version(v3) is way better when it comes to adding user sounds to the library. Now it's just drag and drop any audio file from anywhere on your hard drive!

Re: I WANNA PLAY TOOL

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:19 am
by ttemrevecurb
Hey! I just bought 2 mandala pads! I am just waiting for them to ship out!! But, in the meantime... I was curious how to get the 4 samples for the Stinkfist intro? Also, when you're dealing with sounds for the mandala library, can you add any type of sound? Like mp3/wav voice samples?


Thanks!