Drum Maps

A drum kit in a MIDI instrument is most often a set of different drum sounds, with each sound placed on a separate key. For example, the different sounds are assigned to different MIDI note numbers. One key plays a bass drum sound, another one a snare, and so on.

Different MIDI instruments often use different key assignments. This can be troublesome if you have created a drum pattern using one MIDI device and then want to transfer it to another one. When you switch devices, it is very likely that your snare drum becomes a ride cymbal or your hi-hat becomes a tom, etc., because the drum sounds are distributed differently in the instruments.

To solve this problem and to simplify aspects of MIDI drum kits, such as using drum sounds from different instruments with the same drum kit, Cubase features drum maps. A drum map is a list of drum sounds with a number of settings for each sound. When you play back a MIDI track with a drum map assigned to it, the MIDI notes are filtered through the drum map before they are sent to the MIDI instrument. The map determines the MIDI note number sent out for each drum sound and the sound played on the receiving MIDI device.

To try your drum pattern on another instrument, switch to the corresponding drum map, and your snare drum sound remains a snare drum sound.

To include the same drum maps in your projects, load these into the template.