How to expand hit area for my Roland E-Drums

[Frank Bright]

Hi,
I am on a recent iMac, using my Roland TD-11 E-drums with Superior Drummer 3. (Actually this also applied to SD 2.0 as well).
I find when using my E-drums through Superior Drummer, the hit area (optimal area of contact where the full sound of the snare comes through) of my snare drum seems to shrink significantly.

Is there a setting to fix this? I’ve poked around and read the FAQ etc. The difference is night and day: when I run directly though just the Roland e-drums with headphones on, the hit area for the snare (and other toms) is generously wide. But running through Superior Drummer, it is noticeably smaller.

Thanks for any help,
Frank B.

Topic

[Juicy]

It can be a problem with Roland Pads with centre cones ,plus the offset type, you simply have a hot spot that can be very annoying.
*Make sure the skin is quite tight
*The cone is in good shape
*Try increasing the sensitivity can help.
2box drums have a foam ring under the skin around the outer (near shell) this is brilliant and helps more even dynamics over the whole head to the sensor which is Not in the centre.
I just tried pd105,pdx100,pd125 and went straight back to my 2box pad

[Frank Bright]

Thanks for replying Matthew. I am new to drumming (…not to music) and I was told that the TD-11 was a good buy because they improved the sensitivity of the heads a lot.
It’s key to understand: As a stand alone, the heads are fantastic. It’s only when I try to run SD 3.0 sounds that it loses its sensitivity.

FYI, I use Logic Pro X and sometimes run their drum-producer kits with my e-drums. THEY sound great as well with the heads’ sensitivity. So not to sound accusatory but SD 3.0 might be the one who needs to look at this issue.
Thanks,
Frank B.

[Juicy]

Good old shop talk and Roland talk, Don’t buy an old kit, buy this new one from us, cool but business.
I sell Roland pads from Td 50 kits down to TD11/9/4 and i can assure you the sensitivity/components of the pads are much of a muchness although being slated as improved in every new version . Im good friends with the Tech at Roland too.
TD11 probably using PDX6 & 8 ?
I have some older PDX6/8 TD 4/9 pads and some brand new PD6/8 TD11/25 pads so will test the new ones but i am confident the newer ones are exactly the same sensitivity with a hot spot where the cone is placed ( to the side )
Sure, i use Logic Pro X and drum software from BFD3,AD2 and all N.I so lets compare . Not huge difference or issue but some points to possibly note.

To play SD3 i also did tweaks in SD3 for a expected results. Didn’t mention them before.
The SD3 engine has a heap of headroom for stacking sounds and adding effects plus being a more raw approach in need (in a way) of further mixing or work to be at the level of some competition it can at first seem less punchy, weaker and or less responsive.
SD2 and 3 originally was aimed at ppl who know how to push raw detailed sound and use the presets as a starting point but have all the goods under the hood to go further.
For the cymbals and some toms and snare i open the velocity window and drag the right hand of it over to the left so i get to full 127 hits at a level “i want” its easy to do and see/ hear whilst tweaking,
for sure without doing this the cymbals seem less than adequate. i go straight into saving kits like this as i don’t want to have to repeat this process too often.
It thought what ?? at first but my engineering side kicked in and i started adjust the parameters and just love it.

[Frank Bright]

Already I am enjoying SD 3.0 much better than SD 2. The fact that I can choose TD-11 out of the box as the e-drum midi in SD is cool. Is that desirable to do or should I choose ‘Generic E-Drums’ instead? That was the case with SD 2.0.

I will play with the Velocity settings and see what I can do – I think I have already done this but we’ll see. Thanks for your assistance,
Frank B.

[RcKDrUmm3R]

Hey Frank I have the EXACT same issue with a DDrum module. I don’t think changing the e-drums preset will change the velocity or sensitivity, it may just change the way the midi notes are mapped. My drums play pretty well by themselves but with superior drummer 2 or 3 it’s not the same. Some drums don’t trigger the same or maybe there’s double triggering.

What you need to do is adjust the velocity curves for each e-drum if they aren’t triggering the way you want. You can find this under settings, and e-drums settings. Pay attention to the line in the graph and create breaking points. You’ll see what the output velocity will be with the specific input velocity. So if your soft hits aren’t soft enough, make the output lower for a lower input velocity. Hope this helps!

- Dan, Drummer of Deadtide

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