First Time Megadrum user to be - Hints and tips for me/us?

[marcddsa]

Hi all

I finally made the decision to get my 32 Input unit with PS, Aluminum case and colour LCD on Sunday night (6th December) and Dmitri has shipped it already... GREAT SERVICE from him!!!

I've been (very, very slowly) in the process of converting my kit (1 x Alesis DM-6 and 1 x Medeli DD506) into an acoustic conversion using all the brackets, racks, cymbals and piezos from the original kits as well as buying stuff of my local 2nd hand sites and the order of the 32-input unit was the last bit...

Anyone got any additional hints and tips (not in the documentation or FAQs) for starting out with Megadrum? Any help will be appreciated and I'll compile all of the hints and tips into one document for future users.

I'll post pics of the setup once done.

Cheers

Marc (South Africa)

[airflamesred]

Congratulations on the Purchase of your new Megadrum, and the shiney one at that!

When setting up, plug everything in and disable all the inputs ( notes to zero)
Introduce one drum/channel at a time.
Develop a large smile at the results!

[halifax30]

Hi Marc,
Welcome to the forum! I'm in the same shoes as you. I got my MD about 2 weeks ago. It is the same as yours, except 56-input. I'm converting my Pearl Rhythm Pod mesh-head practice kit into an electronic kit.
As you can see, I already posted some questions on the board. I totally agree with the idea of compiling a document. As time permits, I will be happy to contribute. angr77 already started a basic document in this post.

[halifax30]

Hi Marc,
Did you make any progress with your new setup?
In the past days I've almost finished my drumset. My hihat pedal is not ready, yet and I still miss a few cymbals. But the pads are working quite well. The only missing thing is the Positional Sensing on the snare but I'm working on that. So I slowly reach a stage where I can actually start to use this thing for drumming.
Regarding documentation, I realized that the best would be to correct/expand existing documentation. People using MD already know the documentation page at http://www.megadrum.info/content/megadrum-configuration, or the forum, or the MDM application. So instead of starting something new the best would be to add new info to the existing docs. Maybe create a 'Step-by-step guide to setup your drumkit' page and ask Dmitri to add it to the existing documentation page. Actually, I was thinking about reading all posts by Dmitri in the forum and collect all info he has ever posted. His posts contain tons of useful (sometimes essential!) info which was never mentioned in the docs.
During the past weeks I've also realized that the settings in MD and the mechanical construction of your pads form an inseparable unit. If I move one of my foam cones or tighten a screw in my pad or place the pad on a different stand then I must change my MD settings, as well, to make it work as good as it worked before. This is why it is very hard to write a 'Step-by-step guide to setup your drumkit' page because MD can work with any commercial or DIY edrum kit and they all have a different mechanical construction and piezos with different electrical characteristics.