Drum Triggers

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farewellending

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So I've heard the term and just now was informed that they are used for recording drums in MIDI. I'm not sure I understand this concept completely. How much are these drum triggers, how do they work, and how are they used? Is the quality on them really good? Does anybody have sampled audio of these drum triggers? I run out of a Presonus Firepod, how many of these midi inputs would you need. I apologize if I sound like a new guy, but to the world of recording drums, I am fairly new.
 
Very funny, I just got triggers to use with my firepod! You only need one input, plugged in directly from the drum module (can be costly). I just got the new roland triggers ($350 for 1 snare, 1 kick and 3 toms). My drum module is a roland td-10, costed me $700 on ebay. I don't know how they sound when recorded yet because the module has a problem with the output device, but just listen to almost any metal record, they have triggers.

You put a trigger on a drum, the trigger picks up the vibration when you hit the drum head and sends that to the module. The module then plays a midi sound which is sent thru the output. The output is a 1/4" TRS output. I plan on recording the drums on three tracks on my computer, one for all triggers sent through the module to the firepod plus 2 OH's (shure pg81's) for cymbals. Hope that helps.
 
A drum trigger is basically a piezo element that clamps or sticks to the head of the drum and reacts to the drum being struck. It then sends a spike or signal to either a stand alone "brain" module which triggers a sound or into your recording device where it can be later replaced with a proper sound. The quality of the sound is based entirely on the quality of the samples you use with them.
If you have a drum brain that will send MIDI signals to your recording device or DAW, it would be up to your sample library how good the sound was. You should only need a single MIDI input if you do it that way, just like most any other MIDI device, but some modules might be different.

You can also just plug a trigger straight into a mic input and record a spike of audio. You can then either change those spikes into midi in your host software and then use a sampler for drum sounds, or you can use a drum replacer plug-in like Drumagog to apply the sampled sounds to the spikes.
 
farewellending said:
So I've heard the term and just now was informed that they are used for recording drums in MIDI. I'm not sure I understand this concept completely. How much are these drum triggers, how do they work, and how are they used? Is the quality on them really good? Does anybody have sampled audio of these drum triggers? I run out of a Presonus Firepod, how many of these midi inputs would you need. I apologize if I sound like a new guy, but to the world of recording drums, I am fairly new.
Click to expand...
The triggers are used to make an acoustic drumset trigger an electronic drum module. Instead of using an electronic kit (pads), you use a real kit. The drum 'brain' that the triggers are plugged into can have the drum sounds built in or convert the hits to midi notes that can be recorded into a sequencer or trigger sounds in a keyboard or sound module.
The triggers themselves don't give you the sound, the sound module you plug them into does.

You can also record triggers (just like you record a mic) and use a program like drumagog to replace the impulse of the trigger with a sample of a real drum.

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--DEPDDTTK
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--DEPDDTTT
 
The triggers only create MIDI data. MIDI data is not something you can hear, it is simply information triggering things on a time line. The analogy I use is you could use MIDI to set your garage door to go up and down to the beat of a song. That said, the triggers take the vibrations of your drums and convert them to a MIDI event. THe MIDI evet is then usually recorded into a sequencer be it hardware or software. (Examples of software sequencers are Cubase, Sonar, ProTools, n-Track, Tracktion, etc.) Then the next usual step is to use this MIDI data to trigger samples of some sort. You can use VSTi drum packages such as BFD, Drum Kit from Hell, NSKit, or sample libraries through Giga or Kontakt. The end sound will be as good as the samples you use and how accurate your triggers are.

Links to triggers:
http://www.ddrum.com/
http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/List/ModelSeriesList/0,,CTID%3D501106%26CNTYP%3D,00.html
http://www.roland.com/products/en/RT-10S/index.html

Links to samples:
http://www.fxpansion.com/product-bfd-main.php
http://www.nskit.com
http://www.toontrack.com/superior.shtml
 
Farview said:
The triggers are used to make an acoustic drumset trigger an electronic drum module. Instead of using an electronic kit (pads), you use a real kit. The drum 'brain' that the triggers are plugged into can have the drum sounds built in or convert the hits to midi notes that can be recorded into a sequencer or trigger sounds in a keyboard or sound module.
The triggers themselves don't give you the sound, the sound module you plug them into does.

You can also record triggers (just like you record a mic) and use a program like drumagog to replace the impulse of the trigger with a sample of a real drum.

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--DEPDDTTK
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--DEPDDTTT
Click to expand...

good answer.... :D
 
bubbagump said:
The triggers only create MIDI data. That said, the triggers take the vibrations of your drums and convert them to a MIDI event.
Click to expand...
The triggers themselves don't output midi. They output an audio signal that a drum module converts to midi. You can hear the signal if you just plug a trigger into a mic preamp, it just doesn't sound good.
 
Sorry, I assumed a brain was in the middle of it all. That said, you can make your own triggers. Some folks make their own piezo triggers to feed to a brain. I think it is probably a waste of time though as it seems like a lot of dorking around.
 
When I was back stage at Ozzfest a couple years ago, every drumset had triggers on it except one. It's just part of doing business any more.

I use them in the studio when someone comes in with a really bad kit or one that is impossible to mic up. I just use drumagog to make the sounds.
 
while on the topic...does anyone have any experience with the ddrum red shot triggers? someone gave me a full set of these a few weeks back, and i'm yet to get to use them, but have a gig coming up soon that they might be come in handy for

also, are there any free drumagog-like plugs out there?
 
I have only dealt with the kick redshot. Unless you stuff the kick so the head has no resonance, you might run into problems with a lot of mis-triggers
 
I made my own triggers and they work perfectly well, they just look like shit! As Farview says, the more resonant heads like kick and floor-tom can cause mis-triggers, but can be worked around by padding the triggers or heads.

Making your own will cost you a tenth of the price of retail triggers, and it's very easy to do as well. For converting the signals to MIDI the most practical and affordable option would be to get hold of something like an Alesis D4/DM5.

If you don't mind spending a couple hundred it will save you some hassle, but you can get an ok working trigger setup for less than a hundred whatevas.


@ Ironklad, yes there are some free plugs that do that, but I can't recall their names just right now. Search on KVR.
 
sah-weet, thank you...i don't have a drumset of my own, but a buddy of mine is storing a crap-ass CB drumkit at my house, and i've been wanting to try out these triggers for a while now. i really fucked up by d/l'ing the drumagog demo before i ever had a chance to use it, so now it's expired and i'm gonna have to dish out the cash for it w/o trying it 1st :(
 
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