How to Create Drum Tracks in Sonar
- 1). Click Insert > Soft Synths and select a percussion synthesizer. Session Drummer and TTS-1 both come standard. Session Drummer includes more naturalistic-sounding sampled drum kits, while the TTS-1 emulates analog drum machines.
- 2). Choose which preset to use in the window that pops up. Each percussion synthesizer comes with multiple kits. You can customize this more later, but you can use the default one for now until you enter a drum pattern.
- 3). Click Views > Step Sequencer to view the new drum track in step sequencer mode. Notice how each note is associated with a particular drum sound.
- 4). Enter some notes into the step sequencer to create a drum pattern. You can add notes either with a MIDI keyboard or by clicking with the pencil tool. The pattern you create will repeat itself in a loop, so you need only fill in one or two bars.
- 5). Play your pattern back to hear how it sounds. Add, change or delete notes as you see fit until you have a pattern you like.
