Drum Triggers.

Neoni · 22 Aug 2008 at 21:30

Hey all,

Looking at expanding capabilties of my kit, and beefing up the sound some what for live performances, im looking at some drum triggers, no heres my beef!

If i take each signal from the drum trigger and send them into a Trigger to MIDI converter which converter should i buy? then can i take the MIDI signal, and Transfer MIDI > USB, into my Macbook Pro into Logic 8, into a Drum Module (EzDrummer, or Similar) then take the signal out of the mac, straight into the PA.

Doable?

-Neoni

P.s - whys my avatar a drumkit?

Neoni · 22 Aug 2008 at 22:49

melchy said:
I don't get the impression that he wants to replace the real drums but just rather to have an option to add some more "electronic" sounds if the song requires it.

Spot on, its not for all songs just for stuff like thunderstruck, and to change some sounds for versions of "Walk this way" etc, and also to add some beef to the kick drum, and DMPoole relying on my Macbook Pro isnt a problem, its done many performanced without failure.. also DMPoole you will find a lot of drummers today are using triggers, you just dont realise it.

@ Razor im using Evan G2's

Neoni · 22 Aug 2008 at 22:55

dmpoole said:
I thought he played in a classic rock band!
Bass drum, snare, 2/3 toms, hi-hat, ride and a couple of crashes - job done.
Some of the best rock drummers I've seen have played with a basic kit.
I've even removed the upside down cymbal and splash so he doesn't hit them.
The cowbell went too.

I do, but we play a lot of modern stuff to, that would sound awesome with a bit of unatural sounds at times!

my kit is:

8" 10" 14" Rack toms, Soon adding my spare 12"...

14" Snare

22" Bass Drum

2x 16' Crashes

1x Ride

1x 16" China

1x Cowbell

1x 8" Splash

1x Zilbel

Neoni · 22 Aug 2008 at 22:59

dmpoole said:
Burn it with fire.

Its Great.

You wouldnt like the zilbel at all!

Neoni · 22 Aug 2008 at 23:11

Dave said:
Nooo! 8" splashes are awesome. I have 3 splashes on my kit, 8", 10" and 11" Paiste 2oo2 splashes In fact - I am sure that Mr. Ian Paice of Deep Purple fame used an 8" splash along with his huge cymbals!

Triggering isn't really the same as an electronic kit DMP too, although I guess it's the same principle - a lot of bands use it now to increase the stage presence of the drums a bit. (or for making the bass drum a bit clearer if you're playing death metal at 1000000 bpm ) Wouldn't know where to start on it though, as I don't think I'll ever use them! Although I hear the dDrum triggers are good.

Yep you can get 5 triggers for 100 quid, Red Shot Triggers, its what im buying

Neoni · 22 Aug 2008 at 23:18

melchy said:
I suppose you could use the triggers to add a specific effect to the real drum rather than using it to trigger an electronic sound from a drum machine. You could still get some fairly electronic sounding drums that way by using some funky effects , but at least they'd be based off the real drum. Not sure how to go about that and what effects units would accept triggers as inputs. I suippose midi would be an option as well. The effects unit would obviously need to sit between the drums and the PA.

going to add effects using Logic 8, so different tracks for different drums, then add effects where needed!

Neoni · 22 Aug 2008 at 23:35

melchy said:
I think I get it. Each trigger has a different midi channel assigned. Multiple tracks set up in logic 8, one for each midi channel, each with an appropriate effect assigned.

Will the drums not need to be fed through the mac for the effects to be applied ? Or are we just talking about triggered sounds and samples ?

Signal from the Triggers, into the Trigger IO ive found one that uses a Trigger>MIDI>Usb in one! so connect via usb, all sounds are generated within the macbook pro, then from the pro straight into the Mixing Desk

what do we think to this its cheaper than the roland -

http://www.soundware.co.uk/sc/products/Alesis Trigger IO

Neoni · 22 Aug 2008 at 23:47

melchy said:
Seems reasonable to me. As I mentioned above, I think that if you can pipe the mic's from the drums into the mac there's no reason why you couldn't apply some funky effects to the real drums which may give you better results than triggering a sampled sound.

I would do that but the way things are if the triggers failed, id still have the kit mic'd up, so there would still be drum sounds through the PA. if i put microphones through the Mac, and it failed during performance id be shagged.

Neoni · 22 Aug 2008 at 23:52

elroberto said:
Noooo! You can't beat a bit of cowbell. 'Alright Now' wouldn't be the same without it for my band!

Haha only song i use it for