Alesis Mesh kit with Xpand2
 

What's up everyone. I am running Protools 2021 (just re-installed on a new Windows 10 workstation) and I have a Behringer X18 for input. I have had no problems using MIDI with my Korg Krome keyboard, but I recently bought an Alesis Mesh kit and I want to do some simple drums for demo purposes. So nothing fancy here.

I have created an instrument track with Xpand2, and it's not that the hits from the Alesis are not recognized, they're just sporadic. If I hit the snare multiple times, I may get sound 1 out of 5 times, and I'm hitting with medium force, but hitting harder doesn't seem to affect it. Trying different things, I created a MIDI track to test it out, and the meter is jumping on every hit, so I know the signal is getting over to PT. I was going to try a different drum plugin today.

Is this a velocity or maybe mapping issue? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Re: Alesis Mesh kit with Xpand2
 

There are many ways for this to misbehave:o First of all, does the Alesis kit trigger its own sounds consistently? If it doesn't, then its likely settings for velocity and/or sensitivity in the Alesis brain. If it DOES, here are some general guidlines to consider:
1-Is the Alesis setup in the Pro Tools Midi Studio window? In Pro Tools, go to Setup>Midi>Midi Studio and create a new "instrument". Name it as you like(Edrums, Alesis, whatever). The brand and model are not crucial(IOW, if you don't see your unit listed, move on). The crucial setting is the Input Path and if you are using a USB cable from the Alesis, it would probably showup on a short dropdown list as Alesis USB[emulated] or similar. You select this so that PT knows where to "look for" incoming midi. As for midi channels, I would deselect all but channel 10(which is normally used for drums and percussion). If you are not going to use the sounds from the Alesis kit, you don't need any return path(using none will prevent possible double-triggering).

2-Xpand2 is okay, but you can do much better for a modest expense. Toontrack EZdrummer2 or XLN Addictive Drums2 are both great for use with E drums(Addictive Drums has preset mappings for Roland and Alesis kits). Not sure about EZdrummer, but back when I had my TD10 kit, mapping was 90% right out of the gate(changing mini note values for certain pads is often accomplished on the drum brain, but the plugins may also allow for that).

It may take some fussing, but it should work well:o

Re: Alesis Mesh kit with Xpand2
 

Dave, thanks for your quick response. I tried your suggestions in MIDI studio setup, but got the same problem. Anyway my hits were showing on the meter in the Edit window (if you turn on View->Edit Window Views->Instruments), even if Xpand2 wasn't outputting all of them. So Xpand2 doesn't like the Alesis for some reason.



I searched around and decided to try StevenSlateAudio.com as they have a free version with a couple of basic kits in SSD5.5, and it works! I'm thinking that Xpand2 is a little flaky, and for the life of me I couldn't find where to edit MIDI settings in Xpand2, whereas SSD5 has lots of things you can tweak and edit, as it's a true drum plugin. I only tried this one so far, but your advice was spot on in that there are other much better drum plugins.


Thanks again.

Re: Alesis Mesh kit with Xpand2
 

I suspect that Xpand2 was written for use with keyboard controllers. Hopefully, with "real" drum VI's, things will get better:D