Tip : Creating cymbal chokes with aftertouch using 2box/Logic-X/Superior Drummer

[Hasse FX]

I’m using my 2box kit mainly as e-drum-pads to trigger to Superior Drummer (now verision 3) and I finally decided to find a fix to be able to use the 2box cymbal choke function to create the MIDI aftertouch messages that many SW drums (including Toontrack) prefer.

Background (requires some knowledge about MIDI):
When you’re using the 2box kit as a MIDI controller, grabbing the edge of a 2box cymbal with your fingers generates a NOTE ON message with a number adjacent to the NOTE numbers generated when the bell, surface or edge is hit. Releasing the edge sends the corresponding NOTE OFF message.

My Superior Drummer can achieve cymbal chokes in three ways. Either a choked hit is triggered with a specific MIDI key, or the cymbal decays as long as a MIDI key is pressed and choked when the key is released, or the cymbal chokes when a MIDI aftertouch message is received – the last method being the best solution using e-drums. However, the 2box solution to use a specific choke MIDI key is not supported.

So what I need to do is to convert the 2box choke MIDI key to the correct MIDI aftertouch message.

Solution:
This solution is valid for my setup, with the 2box kit with default MIDI mapping, connected to its own MIDI input and Logic X as DAW. It’s usable for any drum plugin that accepts aftertouch cymbal chokes. Probably functions similar to what use in Logic X are available in other DAWs too.

– In the Logic X Environment, create a transform module and connect it between the 2box MIDI input and the sequencer.

– Set the transform module up to convert the specific choke NOTE message to a poly aftertouch message. For example one 2box crash cymbal send a G4 note when the edge is pressed. The transform module converts the G4 note to a poly aftertouch message, for note F4 (which corresponds to the surface hit).

– Volia! 🙂 Pressing the 2box cymbal rim chokes the corresponding SD 3 cymbal just as supposed!

A more thorough description would require a detailed Youtube video – but here is the principle; Use the DAWs MIDI message conversion function to convert the NOTE message to poly aftertouch.

]However…
– One transform module can handle only one cymbal. To choke also the other one/two, you need one/two additional modules with the corresponding settings. In Logic X the additional modules can be daisy chained.

– A slightly less compclicated solution would be to create channel aftertouch messages instead of poly aftertouch messages. However, choking a cymbal that way will choke all the cymbals in the kit. Using poly aftertouch you can choke just the cymbal you grab while the other(s) keep on ringing.

– The Logic X Environment is a bit complicated (understatement!) and requires some effort to understand if you’ve never encountered it before.

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