Triggered drums through a Alesis DM5 MIDI....need a lil help

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metal_god69

New member
Hello all.....well after fiddling around with my DM5 and Cubase SX3.0 for a while, i finally got my triggered kick drum, and snare drum recording via MIDI. But now i want to take it one step further. I want to use .wav files that i have gathered for my kick and snare sounds. Currently i am using a DrumMap in cubase entitled GM Drum Map, i dunno if thats the defualt map or what, but thats the only thing i can get to produce drum sounds. I was told i need Battery2 for something like this, so i went out and bought it, and after installing the furtherest i can reach is improrting my .wav in the cell locations. I just wanna know the next step in battery 2 and cubase to trigger sounds from battery. Thanx for any info ahead of time and i hope i can get it resolved, thanx alot
 
Well, first you need to link a midi track to Battery. You can do this by making a new midi track, and in the Output field on the left side, select Battery (2) as your output. This sends the midi data to battery. Now you need to make sure that the DM5 is the input (you probably already know how to do this). Next, you need to make sure that the notes that the DM5 are sending correspond to the cells in Battery. You can set this is in multiple ways, probably somewhere in the DM5, but easier would be to find out what midi notes the DM5 is sending, and then find out what notes the cells in Battery are linked to, and change them to the same notes. You should be able to find how to do this in the Battery manual.

Good luck :)

PS: Forget about the drum maps. They are probably there to make this kind of stuff easier, but in my 4+ years of doing this kind of thing, I've never used them once.
 
i dont see an option to output to Battery2......and i can only run the VST of battery from Cubase if its a normal Audio channel insert, like not midi, just mono. I installed the vst into the Cubase/vstplugins, so i have no idea wha tis goin on. Do i need to run battery as a vst insert, or can i just use the standalone??
 
I've used my DM5 for kick replacement, but I used the original kick track itself as the trigger, and it worked really well.

I set the kick to a separate output on my Layla 24/96 and put a gate on it. I then fed that output into the DM5. It took a little bit of tweaking the input response on the DM5. I also found that I had to put a volume envelope on the original kick track to even out the hits that were either too soft or too loud. I then just ran the song while recording the DM5. From there it was a simple matter of aligning the DM5 kick with the real kick and PRESTO - killer kick track.
 
metal_god69 said:
Mad Audio u think you could elaborate on that a bit? like what procedures one would take to do the same??
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Basically I was using the audio signal from the real kick as a trigger.

In my audio software (Vegas) I set the kick track to its own output. Within Vegas I put a heavy gate on the kick with a very short release time. I then plugged the output of the soundcard into trigger input 2 (which is the default for kick sounds IIRC) on the DM5. I then tweaked the trigger input level on the DM5 while letting the song play. I ended up having to put a volume envelope on the original kick track to compensate for soft or heavy hits (the heavy hits would cause the DM5 to stutter, the soft hits wouldn't trigger at all). Once I got through a pass of the song where the kick triggered perfectly, I set up a new track and ran the song again while recording the analog output of the DM5 to that new track. There was a very slight delay, but all I had to do was drag the DM5 kick track into alignment with the real kick track. In the mix I ended up using a blend of the real and fake kicks. The band was quite pleased with the result.
 
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To expand on what halion said:

Make a midi track with the Midi in being whatever the DM5's midi out is connected to (midi in on your soundcard). When you hit a pad, you should see activity in the track

Now assign the midi out of that track to battery (needs to be selected as a VST instrument - F11 brings up that menu - it will then be available as a midi output destination). In the battery window, select the cell you want to work on and under cell control, hit the learn key (it should flash) hit the pad you want to assign and that should be it.
 
Altidude....so lemme see if i got this straight.....so i would select any MIDI key on my DM5 and connect MIDI to my Firepod. Create a MIDI track with the input being my FirePod MIDI IN. Assign MIDI output to Battery 2. Then input one of my .wav samples into the the cell with the same MIDI note coming from my DM5?? after that...how do i get battery2 to output to cubase?? do i gotta add another MIDI track??and im still unsre of how to configure Cubase to use the same MIDI note.:S


And Damn MadAudio.....that sounds like a hell of a cool idea. I might have to try that. But im just starting out with triggers, so i may wanna get comfortable be4 i start going and experimenting haha. But come that time ill be a comin to hastle you haha. Thanx for the info BTW....always nice to hear the crazy things ppl do and there success stories. Always nice to hear professional advice vs my inexperierced idea's lol
 
metal_god69 said:
Altidude....so lemme see if i got this straight.....so i would select any MIDI key on my DM5 and connect MIDI to my Firepod. Create a MIDI track with the input being my FirePod MIDI IN. Assign MIDI output to Battery 2. Then input one of my .wav samples into the the cell with the same MIDI note coming from my DM5?? after that...how do i get battery2 to output to cubase??
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You shouldn't have to do anything more. VST output are automatically routed to the master output.

Have you made sure that you can hear anything in Cubase at all? If not, you could simply not have your outputs set up correctly.
 
so i would select any MIDI key on my DM5 and connect MIDI to my Firepod
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not sure what you mean. Is the more than one midi out?

Create a MIDI track with the input being my FirePod MIDI IN.
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Yup

Assign MIDI output to Battery 2.
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Yes, make sure its been selected under VST instruments first, otherwise it will not be available as a midi out

how do i get battery2 to output to cubase??
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It automatically creates an audio track for battery under VST instrument in the main inspector window (see attached pic)

each of those Bat.1/2, Bat 3/4 tracks are batterys audio outputs and behave just like audio tracks so you can use inserts, eq's and so forth

to assign a drum pad to a cell, once you have the above setup, all you need to do is select the cell and under cell options click the learn button, it will flash and then just hit the drum pad twice that you want assigned to it
 

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ok i got that far, but still not gettin my Battery2 .wav. I have my kick in the C1 note cell, and snare in the C2 note cell. Do i need to configure Battery2's output? like the Bat 1-2, Bat 3-4 i see in cubase??
 
yes, i think i do, but when i record i still get nothin....do i have to setup the Battery outputs in any certain way?? by outputs i mean the Bat 1/2 Bat 3/4 i see in cubase and battery. When i hit record it still just record onto the MIDI track, and when i go and play it i get no sound unless i switch it to use the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth, and when i use that output all i hear is piano sounds, so i got no clue what im doin wrong.

___EDIT___

Well i got one question....when i hit record is it supposed to record on the Bat channel that i am using??? or just on the MIDI and i can control that individual triggered sound just like a normal audio file??? cuz if that is so, i believe i figured er out and thats pretty hella cool to be able to do that:) so plz, let me know if this is right. And also when i playback the recorded MIDI that i have my kick and snare on, its really quiet, and i got everything turned up on the cubase side, Battery2 is up a bit as well, but only way i can get some volume is by manual drawing the velocity editor, is that ok to do??
 
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You seem to have it all figured out pretty well, I don't really see what you are still not hearing anything. Clearly your drivers and outputs are set up correctly, because you can hear the microsoft wavetable emu thing.

You don't have to set up any outputs in battery, that happens automatically. One thing that might be it: make sure that the midi channel is the same as the midi channel in battery. If you set the channel in the midi track to "all", battery should recieve the sound.

It's ok to draw velocity values. Maybe you simply need to turn up your speakers? Keep in mind that you are not listening to a fully mastered, compressed track, but a working track, so you will need more headroom (so turn it up ;))
 
try loading one of the factory kits into battery first and use the mouse to make sure you can hear it (click the cell)
 
thanx to all of you that helped, finally go er working. Its delayed from my actualy drums but a hair, but the dela button in cubase seems to fix it well enough for me. got a great sounding .wav in battery, and i got my mix sounding real nice though my overheads, now just the difficulty of eq'ing it properly to drum the actually drum frequencies....so the triggered .wav's can be heard more. Im guessing thats not gonna be to easy??
 
metal_god69 said:
And Damn MadAudio.....that sounds like a hell of a cool idea. I might have to try that. But im just starting out with triggers, so i may wanna get comfortable be4 i start going and experimenting haha. But come that time ill be a comin to hastle you haha. Thanx for the info BTW....always nice to hear the crazy things ppl do and there success stories. Always nice to hear professional advice vs my inexperierced idea's lol
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No problem, I'll be ready when you want to try my method. But I think of myself as semi-pro at the most! And you will post something for us to hear, yes?
 
ya ill mixdown something the next time im at my other house where all my shiat is. Any comment on the eq'ing of the acoustic drums vs triggered i mentioned in the last post?
 
metal_god69 said:
ya ill mixdown something the next time im at my other house where all my shiat is. Any comment on the eq'ing of the acoustic drums vs triggered i mentioned in the last post?
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Your ear is your best guide. Don't be afraid to just fuck around with it.
 
Its delayed from my actualy drums but a hair,
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Turn your latency down as far as it will go without crackles and make sure you a re using the ASIO driver for your soundcard

now just the difficulty of eq'ing it properly to drum the actually drum frequencies....so the triggered .wav's can be heard more
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Turn up the velocities of the midi notes (should make them louder) and assign each cell to separate audio outputs so you can EQ them individually
 
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