Double strokes lost with Positional sensing

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Double strokes lost with Positional sensing

Postby halifax30 » Sat Dec 26, 2015 10:19 pm

I have a 10" DIY snare mesh-pad with a central foam-cone piezo. Today I tried to set-up PS with it. My MD has been built by Dmitri, it has a PS board, the pad is connected to input 4-5 which has PS support. Below you can see my settings.
To configure PS I first used the PS monitor on the MD display and quite to my surprise, PS detection worked well. It was jumping around a little bit, but generally it gave a good indication of the position.
Then I checked MidiLog in MDM and the CC 16 values were transmitted correctly.
The only problem I have is with fast double strokes. If I play a five-stroke roll (LLRRL), then all notes are correctly triggered, but only the first note gets a NoteOn message. Subsequent notes are indicated only by NoteOff messages. You can see this on the screenshot below.
Does anybody have any idea why this happens?
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Pearl Rhythm Pod converted to electronic with DIY foam cones and crossbar design. Using Drum-Tec mesh heads. 56-input MegaDrum with color LCD. Yamaha PCY135, PCY155, and some DIY cymbals. DIY Hall Sensor hihat pedal with PCY135 as top-hat.
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Re: Double strokes lost with Positional sensing

Postby dmitri » Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:40 am

If you disable PS, then Note On messages come in correctly?
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Re: Double strokes lost with Positional sensing

Postby halifax30 » Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:40 am

They do come in better, but not perfectly. I mean that with PS there is one Note On for 5 hits, whereas without PS there is one Note On for 1-3 hits.
In the meantime I took the chance of reducing Note Off Delay (just because it has the word 'Note Off' in it :D ) and it actually seems to solve the problem. I reduced it from 200 to 20. I guess it was at 200 because that is the default. I've never modified it before. It is funny I could reduce it to 20 because according to documentation the minimum value is 100.
Anyway, is this the correct method to solve this problem? Can a low Note Off Delay value cause any problems elsewhere?
Pearl Rhythm Pod converted to electronic with DIY foam cones and crossbar design. Using Drum-Tec mesh heads. 56-input MegaDrum with color LCD. Yamaha PCY135, PCY155, and some DIY cymbals. DIY Hall Sensor hihat pedal with PCY135 as top-hat.
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Re: Double strokes lost with Positional sensing

Postby dmitri » Tue Dec 29, 2015 3:56 pm

Positional sensing should not affect Note On messages at all regardless of Note Off Delay.
1. Can test and see at what Note Of Delay settings you don't receive Note On with Positional sensing?
2. Have you made sure that the MegaDrum MIDI In/Out you use in MDM is not by any other soft?

I've corrected the Documentation about Note Off Delay, thank you for spotting it!
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Re: Double strokes lost with Positional sensing

Postby Nepo » Thu Jan 07, 2016 8:13 am

Hello halifax30,
only for my interesting one question.

The threshold 7 and highlevel 291 for your SnareH looks very low.

SnareR looks "normal". (similar to my settings)

Do you have a proper dynamic range?

br
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Re: Double strokes lost with Positional sensing

Postby halifax30 » Thu Jan 07, 2016 1:17 pm

Hi Dmitri,
The MIDI driver port is not used by any other software. But we've already clarified that in another thread.
Today I tried to test the NoteOff Delay. I started from 20 while I was playing a steady double-stroke roll. PS was on and working fine. Even at 20 I experienced some lost notes, but when I reached 40-50, the number of missed notes increased considerably (let's say from 1-5% to about 15%).
It is very hard to tell why this happens. Obviously, an incorrect DynLevel or DynTime setting can also cause missed notes. I also start to realize that if I change MinScan then my previously correct DynLevel+DynTime settings will stop working. To tell the truth, I fight with my settings for 1 hour and I get a headache. There are just too many variables which I don't know what they do. And yes, I've read the online documentation... And countless forum posts...
Pearl Rhythm Pod converted to electronic with DIY foam cones and crossbar design. Using Drum-Tec mesh heads. 56-input MegaDrum with color LCD. Yamaha PCY135, PCY155, and some DIY cymbals. DIY Hall Sensor hihat pedal with PCY135 as top-hat.
halifax30
 
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Re: Double strokes lost with Positional sensing

Postby halifax30 » Thu Jan 07, 2016 1:28 pm

Hi Nepo,
I'm very new to Megadrum, so don't expect a scientific answer. :D I use a 10" mesh pad (of a Pearl Rhythm Pod practice set converted to electronic by myself) with a centrally placed 35mm piezo with foam cone held by an aluminium crossbar. My rim-piezo is also 35mm and simply taped to the inside of the shell.
With this setup I get proper dynamic range. I've just checked my settings and currently Gain=6,Threshold=9,HighLevel=541. My set is still under construction so I'm constantly changing my settings.
As I see, your Threshold and HighLevel settings all depend on what Gain you set. And of course it also depends on the mechanical construction of your pad. But if you lower Gain and lower Threshold and HighLevel accordingly, everything will work more or less the same. I think, the dynamic range comes from the difference between Threshold and HighLevel.
What is more important that I've set a different Gain for my head and rim piezos. I don't remember exactly, but this helped me to achieve a better separation between head and rim. This way I get rimshots and cross stick sounds very reliably.
Pearl Rhythm Pod converted to electronic with DIY foam cones and crossbar design. Using Drum-Tec mesh heads. 56-input MegaDrum with color LCD. Yamaha PCY135, PCY155, and some DIY cymbals. DIY Hall Sensor hihat pedal with PCY135 as top-hat.
halifax30
 
Posts: 57
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2014 7:43 pm
Location: Hungary


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