using electronic kit in protools

[darcy8]

hi everyone
just got a used set of legacy dd505 electronic drums
can anybody help me to set them up in pro tools to trigger
xpand or reason or any other suggested software based plugins
i managed to get a response from the battery demo that matched the pad assignments bar one pad but it failed to record all of the midi data that was played into it
cheers
d'arcy
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[albee1952]

Originally Posted by darcy8

hi everyone
just got a used set of legacy dd505 electronic drums
can anybody help me to set them up in pro tools to trigger
xpand or reason or any other suggested software based plugins
i managed to get a response from the battery demo that matched the pad assignments bar one pad but it failed to record all of the midi data that was played into it
cheers
d'arcy
Reply With Quote

Not knowing the dd505, all I can do is explain my experience, which has been really positive. I have a Roland TD10 kit and for several years was running midi and audio into my 002/003 setup. Roland midi out to 002 midi in(thru a merge box along with midi from a Motif es8) and midi out of the 002 back to the Roland. Setup a midi track with input set to ALL and output set to NONE(avoids double triggering) while recording midi. Once the midi was recorded, I would set the track output to the roland(midi channel 10 is standard for drum modules) and let the midi track "play" the Roland. Once I got the midi edited for performance, I would let it roll and record the audio from the Roland. Once drums were recorded as audio, the midi track could be muted and hidden. I would treat the audio like any other and use plugins and such. I also found that bussing the entire kit to an aux with a room sim(I use TrueVerb) would sort of glue the kit together. Now that I have ezdrummer, I use the Roland to trigger those sounds and no longer use the internal sounds at all. The Roland pads default to most of the correct sounds in ezdrummer. On the Roland box, there is a page to edit what midi note each trigger "hits" so experimenting there allows me to trigger sounds that don't show up on the ezdrummer kit(like cross-stick and cowbell). The worst part of drum triggering is the hat and cymbals(especially the ride) so I am using real cymbals and hi-hat with ezdrummer shell sounds with fantastic results. Hope that helps.

[darcy8]

thanks albee ill give it a try over the weekend

[mercbenz]

I'm using a Yamaha dtxpress 3 via MIDI to my Mbox2. The one issue i had was setting up the module properly (i was hitting and nothing would get triggered in the pc). Im not sure how your module works but i had to go into my settings and do some tweaking for everything to work right.

I had to set up every drum pad to a certain note (C5, D4 etc.) Depending on software and the kit used there is only a certain note range that will trigger sounds. So i set up every pad to the right note, lets say Bass drum was the C5 note, i would go into the module and set it so that when i hit the bass drum it would tell the MIDI i was playing a C5 note and in turn play it in the software. Go thru the whole set and save it as a preset kit so you dont have to do it over and over (its a painful process). Now this should work with almost all software because i believe they all use the same notes for drums.

Depending on what sounds you are looking for Reason may not be the best choice. You are limited on the expression of the drum part you are playing so it will always sound like a drum machine. If you want to use a normal or rock drum sound i say get EZ-DRUMMER, the sounds are the best i heard so far and it will pick up all the nuances of the performance giving it that "real drum" sound. But once you follow the setup i explained then every program should not need any extra tweaking so you could try alot of stuff out without spending extra time with setup. Hope this helped, good luck.

[chipss36]

albee1952...
thanks for the post, I am a pro tools newbie, have a pair of roland td6 V's
and have been wondring how to do this, also merge box to use keys aslo. good info thanks buddy...
chippster

[albee1952]

Hey Chippster, always glad to share the knowledge. The DUC has been a fantastic source so I try to give back where I can.

[AJW]

Reason Drum kits is a multi-sampled drum Refill for the NNXT sampler. You can get realistic drum sounds in Reason using an electronic kit with that. That's what I use, and trigger it with a Yamaha DTXpress.

[darcy8]

thanks guys i'll try the out the suggestions you have all posted and see what happens
thanks again for taking the time to reply

[Lightbearer]

I have a Roland TD 20 and Pt le 7.3 I would like to use the Roland and create as Midi track based on the roland sound. So far I havent been able to get nothing and wonder if the reason is that I´m not able to create a midi studio setup for this instrument as the td 10 is the newest roland drum there. If I don´t need to do this this way please advise.

[albee1952]

You don't really need to create a midi studio setup for the TD20(or anything else) as that function is more about customizing the PT interface. A few things to check are; make sure midi thru is checked (Options menu), make sure your midi track is set to input from ALL or midi channel 10(default for drum/percussion sounds), you might want to disconnect the midi cable going OUT of your interface to MIDI IN on the Roland to avoid double-triggering(just for now, until you get a successful midi signal INTO protools).