Setting up my kit

[johey]

So I bought a Megadrum prebuilt from dmitri a year and a half ago. Spent litres of blood setting it up to no success, hence giving up. Now I'm on it for a second trial. I'll try to keep all questions in this thread. Otherwize they will be all over the place.

First, my hardware. The drum parts are all Yamaha gear.

Kick: KP65
Hihat+controller: RHH135
Snare: TP120SD (might replace with XP120SD some day)
Tom 1, 2, 3: XP100T
Chrash: PCY135
Ride: PCY155

Megadrum: 32 inputs, 2.4" color LCD, STM32F205... Firmware 20200331. MegaDrumManager 20170522.

Computer: Windows 10, RME HDSPe MADI, Ableton Live, Native Instruments Studio Drummer.

First problem is that every second hit on any pad or cymbal send MIDI note 0. No matter how I try setting up Alt Note. I would like to disable Alt Note feature completely. I don't remember having this problem a year and a half ago. Perhaps this is a new feature in the firmware since? Is there a global setting for this, overriding the local pad settings? I cannot find it in MDM.

I am having other issues with more or less all pads, but lets take one at a time for now.

[dmitri]

1. You use old version of MDMFX. Please download and install the latest version.
2. To disable AltNote functionality you set it equal to Note. Same for PressrollNote. This is set like this by default for all inputs. To simplify it, in MDMFX for both AltNote and PressrollNote check 'Linked to Note' checkbox next to both for all inputs.

[johey]

That is awesome! The old version of MDM (which I downloaded two days ago, as the "latest version of MDM", not reading that it has been superseeded by MDMFX) actually reset Alt Note to 0 all the time. Problem solved.

[johey]

Next problem. Seems like this goes for any pad or cymbal. If setting Retrigger Mask to 0 or 1, it is detecting many hits per strike. However, if setting to 2, it won't detect all strikes as notes if I play fast. It's like I would need something in-between 1 and 2. I have tried combining with ExtraFalseSupp, but then it won't detect all my strikes even if I set Retrigger Mask to 0.

[dmitri]

1. Set Retrigger Mask to 2.
2. Uncheck ExtraFalseSupp.
3. Set both DynLevel and DynTime to 0.

Still not registering all hits?

[johey]

Oh yes it does! Wonderful!

This gives me a good deal of things to get started. Still loads of things to tweak to taste, but now I believe I've passed the barriers since first trial.

A question in order to verify it's right... I have now set up the TP120SD as Dual or 3way Yamaha and Rim/Edge to Switch. When striking the middle of the pad, it triggers the Head hit. When striking the rubber edge, it triggers the 3rd Zone hit. When pressing the edge with my hand, like choking a cymbal, it triggers the Rim hit. Is this correctly configured then? To me it would make more sense if striking the rubber edge would trig the rim hit, but I'm fully ok with this if it is the way it is intended.

[dmitri]

Pressing either of the switch zones should only produce MIDI Aftertouch On/Off for choking.
Please see https://www.megadrum.info/content/setti ... one-cymbal for setting up 3 zone Yamaha style pads/cymbals.

[johey]

I happened to have set AltNote Choking. Unsetting that gives two Choke on/off messages when pressing the edge. One for zone 2 and one for zone 3. That's right I guess? Still, hitting the edge with the stick triggers 3rd zone hit and not Rim hit. Is this right?

[dmitri]

I happened to have set AltNote Choking. Unsetting that gives two Choke on/off messages when pressing the edge. One for zone 2 and one for zone 3. That's right I guess?

It sends Aftertouch for last Note of the head/bow and last Note of Edge/3rd zone.

Still, hitting the edge with the stick triggers 3rd zone hit and not Rim hit. Is this right?

As far as I know the two switch zones on TP120SD are pretty much equal and take exactly half of the rim circle each and which of these is Rim and which is 3rd zone pretty much depends on your preference and the pad's orientation.

[johey]

Actually, I think this is it... Can't believe it myself, but I think I finally got control over the beast. Every pad, pedal and cymbal make sense now. Unbelievable!

Still have to figure out the bet curves and finetune the levels etc, but that's just straight forward boring nobrainer things. The important stuff is there. Every zone is responding correctly (more or less... some bell hits still trigger the bow, but that is probably more of a construction limitation of the cymbal).

Thanks dmitri for this project and after purchase support of a completely different level than any manufacturer!