Help Getting Drumagog To Trigger Accurately

Drummerbones

Drummerbones

New member
I've finally got drumagog working well on my PC, however I'm having trouble getting it to trigger just right. I have the pro version and all is usually well except for one or 2 drum hits each song. On my floor tom for example, it was missing a few drum hits so I increased the sensitivity just a little bit...it then picked up the missing note. HOWEVER, now it is false trigger from my lower rack tom...it seems I can't win. I've tried gating the tracks prior to drumagog and that hasn't been effective. I've even taken great care in making my drum hits very consistent when I play (a pain in the arse that is taking away some of my dynamics).

I should note that I don't have great mics to track with. I'm got a 57 on my snare & floor tom, and those small clip-on audiotechnica mics that are awesome for live use on my rack toms. I've got a 58 stuck in my kick drum. I haven't sprung for better mics because I'm sampling everything anyway.

All is well except for the toms. My kick and snare are right on, but the toms are just really touchy. Do I need to invest in better isolation mics or what? Any gating trick you all might want to share?

If all else fails, I'm going to have to invest in a cheap Alesis D4 and bust out my home made e-kit and go that route. I sure would like for things to work on the live kit though...

Fairview, I know you're out there!
 
Try re-positioning your mics so the highest rejection point (usually the back) is facing the drum you don't want to pick up.

You can even try some cardboard baffles on the mics too.
 
Here I am! If you know you are going to be triggering, put the mics closer to the heads. Having toms that ring too much is also a problem.

The way around this is using the trigger filter. It is in the middle on the right of the main page. Hit the audition button so you can hear what you are doing. You have to choose from high pass, low pass, or 2 different bandpass filters and play around with it until the floor tom is really loud but the 2nd tom is minimised. You will have to set the sensitivity again after doing this, because you have changed the gain structure.

Once you have done that, turn off the audition button and see if you got it.

When all else fails, you can go in and erase the offending hits from the floor tom track. Look to make sure that you are using the advanced triggering mode on the last page.

There are times when, because of the way the drum was struck, it just won't trigger right. I just take 5 seconds and edit the track so it will. (assuming it isn't the whole song doing it)

If you have an electronic setup, you can just plug that into your interface and record the triggers. Then insert drumagog on those channels.
 
Don't know what DAW you're using, but does it have a "detect silence" feature like Cubase? Seems to make things a whole lot easier if you do that and separate the track into its constituent hits. Takes pretty much no time at all and gives yuo clear visual references for edidting ghost notes and such. Dead easy.
 
Thanks for the input thus far. I use N-Track and as far as I can tell it doesn't have a "detect silence" funtion.

I've yet to try your ideas Fairview but I plan to tonight. Hopefully they will be helpful.
 
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