Please share your settings for center mounted peizo diy type

[jeffbeckib]

I know from reading the forums that my diy drums are probably way too hot. I'm using bfd2 which does allow me to tweak the sensitivity quite a bit, but if I'm using superior drummer I don't have that luxury. I've read some of the HART users advice, but it doesn't seem make a difference for me. My drums were originally made when I had the alessis trigger i/o and they worked flawless with that module. I don't know if I have to back off the roland style cone from the head? I really don't want to have to start installing 32 trim pots.

Anybody having great results with this style drum and the megadrum all in one 2.8?

[hchriste]

Well I did the trimpots. Not that big a job, and works like a charm.

[userfriendly]

where did you put them and what trimpots did you use?

[jeffbeckib]

GUYS, PLEASE, THIS IS A FORUM TO LIST YOUR SETTINGS, NOT YOUR MEATHODS USING TRIMPOTS...

[userfriendly]

GUYS, PLEASE, THIS IS A FORUM TO LIST YOUR SETTINGS, NOT YOUR MEATHODS USING TRIMPOTS...

Technically, this is the hardware section of the forum. But okay, I'll look elsewhere. Was just interested in what hchriste said. Sorry.

[jeffbeckib]

I realize it's a hardware section, but my subject deals with sharing Settings. I just don't want the topic hijacked and turned into everybody discussing how they use trimpots as a fix. I don't want to use the trimpot meathod.

GUYS, PLEASE, THIS IS A FORUM TO LIST YOUR SETTINGS, NOT YOUR MEATHODS USING TRIMPOTS...

Technically, this is the hardware section of the forum. But okay, I'll look elsewhere. Was just interested in what hchriste said. Sorry.

[gastric]

I thought I read you previously had a Trigger IO. So you should be familiar with the general settings and documentation for that product.

What is lacking (even for the Trigger IO) is a somewhat step-by-step directions on the most effective way to properly setup your triggers in the module. Unfortunately I can't provide that for you at this time though I hope to potentially bend the directions I crafted for the Trigger IO forum into something appropriate for the MegaDrum. Assuming I even know what I'm doing at all.

Note, in your post you didn't mention what "problems" you were having, what you've tried to correct it, what happened when you tried that etc. Since your post only referenced HOT pads everyone is going to assume you have some sort of velocity issue where you're reaching max MIDI (127) velocity too easily. Your best bet is to address it on the trigger via trimpot or resistor as others have suggested (and as Dmitri suggested elsewhere).

Here's some helpful text I've scraped from the documentation as well as the forums on "hot" pads. I have them as well.

When pads are too hot for MegaDrum, you'll be loosing dynamic range even if you set HighLevel to 1023 (maximum). To test if a pad is too hot, set Gain to 0 (but since you already set "All Gains Low" to Yes, individual gain levels have no effect anyway) , HiLvlAuto to Yes, HighLevel to around 100 and hit the pad hard a few dozen times. After that see what HighLevel MegaDrum registered for the pad. If it's above 850 it is too hot for MegaDrum and your setup will underperform.

The bigger difference between Threshold and HighLevel the better. 550 is alright.

Connect a 4k7 resistor in parallel with clips [alligator clips to connect multimeter to trigger output] to simulate MegaDrum input impedance. Then ideally the strongest hits should not produce voltage peaks above ~4.5v.

If you really don't want to do any of that then you can use level compression in the module. If I understand what is documented, it works exactly as the name says, it compresses the levels (velocity) to make it harder to hit peak velocity (127). I'm assuming that's dealing with the raw input levels prior to triggering MIDI. Where I believe the Curve deals with adjusting the actual MIDI data after it's been converted from the raw piezo signal. Just making wild guesses there. But both shuld help you carve out a better performance velocity wise.

[jeffbeckib]

Thanks Gastric, I'll play around with your suggestions. I don't like the compression meathod, it squashes the sound too much, which I guess is what it's supposed to, but it's not limiting the velocity, mearly just reducing the volume level of the pad the harder I strike it.

I thought I read you previously had a Trigger IO. So you should be familiar with the general settings and documentation for that product.

What is lacking (even for the Trigger IO) is a somewhat step-by-step directions on the most effective way to properly setup your triggers in the module. Unfortunately I can't provide that for you at this time though I hope to potentially bend the directions I crafted for the Trigger IO forum into something appropriate for the MegaDrum. Assuming I even know what I'm doing at all.

Note, in your post you didn't mention what "problems" you were having, what you've tried to correct it, what happened when you tried that etc. Since your post only referenced HOT pads everyone is going to assume you have some sort of velocity issue where you're reaching max MIDI (127) velocity too easily. Your best bet is to address it on the trigger via trimpot or resistor as others have suggested (and as Dmitri suggested elsewhere).

Here's some helpful text I've scraped from the documentation as well as the forums on "hot" pads. I have them as well.

When pads are too hot for MegaDrum, you'll be loosing dynamic range even if you set HighLevel to 1023 (maximum). To test if a pad is too hot, set Gain to 0 (but since you already set "All Gains Low" to Yes, individual gain levels have no effect anyway) , HiLvlAuto to Yes, HighLevel to around 100 and hit the pad hard a few dozen times. After that see what HighLevel MegaDrum registered for the pad. If it's above 850 it is too hot for MegaDrum and your setup will underperform.

The bigger difference between Threshold and HighLevel the better. 550 is alright.

Connect a 4k7 resistor in parallel with clips [alligator clips to connect multimeter to trigger output] to simulate MegaDrum input impedance. Then ideally the strongest hits should not produce voltage peaks above ~4.5v.

If you really don't want to do any of that then you can use level compression in the module. If I understand what is documented, it works exactly as the name says, it compresses the levels (velocity) to make it harder to hit peak velocity (127). I'm assuming that's dealing with the raw input levels prior to triggering MIDI. Where I believe the Curve deals with adjusting the actual MIDI data after it's been converted from the raw piezo signal. Just making wild guesses there. But both shuld help you carve out a better performance velocity wise.

[gastric]

First, let me temper all of my comments with a comment "I'm not expert". I know diddly about electronics other than what I've learned from this project. I don't know how to really play drums, I'm definitely not a drummer. I'm still learning as I go here like the majority of MD users.

...but it's not limiting the velocity, mearly just reducing the volume level of the pad the harder I strike it...

So someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that's exactly what velocity is. Volume.

The MegaDrum simply takes your physial strikes on the pad, processes them per the parameters configured, then outputs the following:

* MIDI NOTE
* MIDI VELOCITY (0-127)

If you hit the pad soft, you should get a low MIDI Velocity, like 15. If you hit the pad medium, you should get a mid-range MIDI Velocity, like 80. If you hit it as hard as you're likely to hit it, you should then get 127. What will happen with a hot pad is you'll be getting 127 way too easily and lose the ability to get the mid-velocity notes like you'd expect.

[jeffbeckib]

I don't know what it's supposed to do, but what it sounds like it's doing is keeping the velocity at 127 and reducing the volume of the sound. so I'm still maxing out on velocity with medium hits, but the volume level of it is squashed. Just like a compressor/limiter would do if you really compressed an instrument. It's still triggering the higher velocity samples, just lowering the output level of the sample.

First, let me temper all of my comments with a comment "I'm not expert". I know diddly about electronics other than what I've learned from this project. I don't know how to really play drums, I'm definitely not a drummer. I'm still learning as I go here like the majority of MD users.

...but it's not limiting the velocity, mearly just reducing the volume level of the pad the harder I strike it...

So someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that's exactly what velocity is. Volume.

Here is my understanding based on pure logic, that being said, I too am no expert, but here it goes:
Velocity is how hard you are striking the pad, based on that the sound engine takes that velocity value and determines which multisample to play. Example, a harder strike will trigger a sample of the drum struck harder, a soft strike will trigger a sample of the drum hit softer.
Volume is the output level of the actual sample." Now, I don't know what the compression on MD is supposed to do, but what it sounds like to my ears is that it is simply making the sample sound squashed. It sounds exactly what I would expect a live drum kit patched into a compressor to sound like, It's not gonna make it sound like the drummer is hitting harder, it's just gonna TAME the volume level of the drums.

The MegaDrum simply takes your physial strikes on the pad, processes them per the parameters configured, then outputs the following:

* MIDI NOTE
* MIDI VELOCITY (0-127)

If you hit the pad soft, you should get a low MIDI Velocity, like 15. If you hit the pad medium, you should get a mid-range MIDI Velocity, like 80. If you hit it as hard as you're likely to hit it, you should then get 127. What will happen with a hot pad is you'll be getting 127 way too easily and lose the ability to get the mid-velocity notes like you'd expect.