Triggering is the shit
OK, here is my take on triggering, you can trigger any drum so long as you have a good module. I trigger all of my drums, and depending upon what sound i am going for i trigger toms and everything. It's all about setting the parameters tailored to your playing. Although toms are the hardest thing to get to sound good and real, it is possible. I do it like this, depending on the trigger module i amusing and the nuber of out puts i have i pan the tomes like i normally would and send out the toms on there own channel, i don't know how many individual tracks you have to work with but in my case i have 24. That way i can fine tune the eq,s with the rolls on the toms and all, that. As far as the real snare coming through the overhead mics, i try and get ballpark to the trigger sound i am using so there is never an odd sound by having your trigger sound and then this out there snare sound. I have been close micing all of my cymbals, as well as having two overheads, and i have yet to have problems, which brings me to muffling oooooohhhhhh nnnnnooooooo!!!! I know everyone here hates it, but i use the dampning rings that sit under the haeds, and that has helped me with shitty unwanted overtones. Also really lessens the volumes of you real drums so you don't have any real bleed through on your OH. And another thing that helps is if you have any kind of filters, in my case i have
a Roland VS2480CD, it has LPF and BPF, and HPL. I use high pass filters on all of my OH, and cymbal mics. Clears up any unpleasant tom sounds in the mics, if you toms sound crappy. I am really longwinded, i have been using numerous modules, but i always seem to keep coming back to alesis modules. Rolands TD-10 is awesome if you want to spend that type of cash. Even entry level modules can offer amazing results if you know how to mix it all for your style. Trigger, but have your drums in the approximate tuning, and you'll be in good shape, also doing it this way you can mix your acoustic drums with your sampled sounds. Many people have don it that way and got even better results, especially in that tricky tom area. Hope my ramblings helped. Let me know what you decide to purchase, use, and what your results were.
