Drums++ 0.95 review

Drums++ is a programming language I designed for sequencing music through drum machines

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 16K Developer: Michael Kohn

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Drums++ is a programming language I designed for sequencing music through drum machines. Drums++ program uses simple C ideas, for example // and /* */ comments and { } to seperate sections. I tried to make it as simple as possible so even a non-programmer could use it. See the docs section for more info on the language. Drums++ can both directly control your MIDI device or it can create .midi files which can be played through programs such as Microsoft Media Player.

So you might wonder why I chose to do drum sequencing this way? Well, about 10 years ago I used to write drum sequences for my music using a program on my Amiga 500 called Dynamic Drums. Dynamic Drums is probably not a very powerful drum sequencing program, but it was so easy to use. I could write an entire song on that in about 10 minutes. The problem was the samples were very cheesy.

So anyway, a few years ago my friend Jeff Blevins sold me his old Dr. Rhythm drum machine, which had much better sounds, but it was so hard to write a song. I tried downloading some MIDI programs for Linux, but they were too complicated for an idiot like me. So I decided to write my own MIDI sequencing program strictly for drums :). I figured a GUI would take me longer to write than a parser for a new programming language, so this is why I chose to make Drums++. Eventually I plan to write a GUI in either Java or GTK/C.

Drums++ is based on the features of Dynamic Drums, the only difference is you don't click on a grid for where you want your beats, you type them in a text file. Eventually I might add new features to the language if they are requested.

What's New in This Release:
I added the ability to select midi channels. In version 0.94 and below, Drums++ used only midi channel 9 (which was the drum sounds naturally). In version 0.95 and above you have the option to use other midi channels allowing you to use other instruments (pianos, guitars, etc).