Triggering a Drum VSTi

[DeviousESimian]

MY guess is that the hat always sends the same MIDI note, whereas the pedal sends a range of values ( a bit like the modulation wheel on a keyboard). That means that with an appropriate sampler and sample set you could have sounds for hats tightly closed, loosely closed, slightly open, half open or fully open. All of which would be different.

[slimmandjango]

Don't the hi hat pads have two pickups? What I'm getting at is you could program open hats to be triggered by the center of the pad and closed hats to be triggered by the rim and the hat pedal. When the closed hat is triggered the open hat sound would stop. Isn't this possible? That way all it'd take is a slight adaptment of playing style and little is lost.

[slimmandjango]

MY guess is that the hat always sends the same MIDI note, whereas the pedal sends a range of values ( a bit like the modulation wheel on a keyboard). That means that with an appropriate sampler and sample set you could have sounds for hats tightly closed, loosely closed, slightly open, half open or fully open. All of which would be different.

Oh! I didn't see page 2... Now I understand what you mean. The electric kit pedal I've played on does indeed send a range of values to to trigger the internal drum sounds, because you can get all sorts of variations on how open the hat is, but for MIDI I have no idea how you could get around that.

[DeviousESimian]

The multis I have for NS Kit in Kontakt let you use the modulation wheel (or another continuous controller) to change the hihat sounds, which is why I'd guessed at that being happening here. I gather it's a fairly normal approach. It does something funny with rimshots on toms too.

[Amberience]

You can use MidiOX to check what the kit is sending out. Then it is a simple matter of assigning the note that the kit sends when you do an open hat hit, and assign that note to your open hat samples.

Also, I got BFD2 for xmas, I didn't bother with an electronic kit, because I didn't want to take the risk of getting something and it being shit.

[Amberience]

It's a shame that these cheap cheap kits aren't really reviewed too much in the context of using an external sampler, because that really is where these kits could come into their own.

For instance, Addictive Drums, BFD2, and EzDrummer. I have all three, and they've all got distinctly different sounds and kit pieces. So effectively, I have a whole plethora of drum sounds in the computer already.

Trigging with a real kit would be ideal.

[DeviousESimian]

You can use MidiOX to check what the kit is sending out. Then it is a simple matter of assigning the note that the kit sends when you do an open hat hit, and assign that note to your open hat samples.

Not if it's always the same note, and the pedal is sending CCs to control what sample is triggered.

[slimmandjango]

I think the way forward is for the software developers to have preset MIDI assignment configurations for different electronic drum kits, so all people have to do is tell the software which drum kit they have, and then each pad is automatically assigned correctly. If Kontakt allows the mod wheel to do it, I'd think it can definitely be reassigned to the pedal.

[danabnormal]

Not a recommendation, a note of avoidance.

Got a Yamaha DD-65 for Christmas. Onboard sounds crappy, but I don't care about that as I wanted to use it as a MIDI controller. 7 pads plus hat and bass peddle, so all looks good. Plugged it all together, one big big problem.

The hihat pedal cannot be used to alternate closed/open hihats when used with MIDI.

If using onboard sounds, pressing the pedal and hitting the hat pad creates a closed hat sound. Hitting the hat pad with peddle un-pressed does open sound. This doesn't happen when being used with MIDI (hat pad + peddle doesn't send a different MIDI signal).

So just a word of warning there. Its a great shame because I like the feel of the device, the pads are responsive and its a nice little machine. All let down with a blatant 'design' flaw.

Hope that helps!

Just for other peeps search purposes, I got a response from Yamaha on this issue....

Regarding your inquiry, it is the specification of the DD-65 that the pedal
does not influence the MIDI signal. The MIDI transmission note of each pad
can be set in the FUNCTION settings. However, pad 2 is exception to the
MIDI transmission note setting function when employing pedal 2. As its
specification, Pedal 2 does not work with MIDI transfer. This is because
the tone on the connected external sound source side can be uncertain in
the MIDI output. Further, there's no firmware update plan on this issue.

So if you want to use an open hihat with midi (DUH!), don't get a Yamaha DD-65.

Its a right faffing shame because overall its a great little unit, and only the exclusion of this blindingly obvious 'feature' kills it.

[slimmandjango]

At least they replied. Not sure what the last quoted sentence means but it really seems like a simple problem for a manufacturer (i.e. not us consumers) to fix. You should be able to buy a better pedal.

Now we just wait for someone with Roland (or any other electronic kit manufacturer I haven't seen) experience to enlighten us on their pedals. I'm sure some manufacturer has helped us producers out!