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[Jason Runyon]

Yeah, both of you guys would benefit from an audio interface if you are going to go the VST route and you want to hear them in real time.  You just run the midi out of the module to the midi in on the interface.  Run the VST in Solo or a host for recording.  Connect monitors or headphones to interface.

Of course there is a learning curve but worth it once you get everything all set up.

J

[Jason Runyon]

ORIGINAL: bradch00

You could look at a combination MIDI/Audio interface like the M-Audio Fast Track Pro or E-MU 0404 for example, filling the requirements of both audio and MIDI.

Good advice.  I use the M-Audio firewire 410 for midi and audio and it works great….and Pro Tools M-Powered compatible.

J

[Jason Runyon]

Have you tried disabling your wireless while running these apps?  there was an airport update a while back that was known for causing these issues.

[Jason Runyon]

You didn’t start anything, no worries. I wasn’t trying to have an attitude or anything with Brad and he explained how EZPlayer fits into his workflow, all is cool.

Basically that is it. You don’t need EZPlayer at all unless you are going to drag and drop midi grooves rather than playing them yourself. After the midi is recorded and you are happy with the performance, then you can go back in to S2 and switch kit pieces, mixer settings, mic bleeds, and on and on. Get the sound you are happy with and then bounce it down to a stereo audio track. That is about the simplest method, but you can get more complicated and route each drum or groups of drums to their own tracks, lots of possibilities.

Actually, what I would recommend is to download the free host by toontrack called Solo, if you haven’t already. Set up your kit there, save a preset that you like, and then load that when you open S2.1 in PTs and you’ll be ready to go. Just make sure to NOT have the CC offset option checked in Solo as Pro Tools doesn’t have that magic little option. You need to get the kit playing good without that and then it will work just the same in PTs.

J

[Jason Runyon]

That is cool.  I’ve never used EZPlayer personally, but thanks for explaining.

J

[Jason Runyon]

Hi,

First off, all you need to record the midi is to have a midi cable going from the out on the TD3 to the in on your interface.  You don’t need any other cables going to or from your module.  You should be monitoring with headphones or speakers from your interface, not the drum module.  Also, you won’t see “TD3” as an option under the midi source, you should just see Fast Track, and you can select a specific midi channel or All.  The Audio output should be set to your interface outputs that have speakers connected, or you can use headphones.

Also, question for Brad.  Why does he need a midi track, a mono instrument, and EZplayer at all if he is the drummer playing the drum parts?  My understanding is that EZPlayer is for dragging and dropping the midi grooves and building a drum track, something a non drummer would want to do…..for the most part.

I’ve never used so many tracks just to record a drum part in PTs.  All I do to record with S2, is create a stereo instrument track, insert S2, record arm and go.  You can listen to the samples from S2 while playing, rather than the TD3 sounds.  Once you have the midi performance complete, you can go in and tweak until your hearts content in the S2 mixer including switching drums, FX, panning, all that after the midi is recorded on the instrument track.

J

[Jason Runyon]

Depends what you know about pro tools.  If you know how to make an instrument track and insert a plugin then you can have superior going in no time.  If you just want to practice, tweak, or make presets, I always open Superior in Toontrack’s free host, Solo.  You will still have to tweak a little and set things up in Superior so that things trigger the right thing and dynamics are good.  It’ll take a little learning, but between here and Vdrums.com there is a lot of knowledge.

I didn’t know anything about midi when I started, and now I do know a little, so odds are you will learn some midi whether you want to or not 🙂

J

 

[Jason Runyon]

Well, let me try to do this like a list:

1) Superior comes with more pieces, more options
2) Superior has midi learn functionality so you don’t have to change settings in your module
3) Pitch adjustment – This was a big one for me.
4) Superior has velocity and other settings that allow you to really dial in how pads perform
5) Superior has X-drums that will allow you to add other pieces, even using individual drums from the EZX expansions
6) Superior has more mixer controls, integrated FX, and many many more
7) See the EZdrummer VS. Superior link on the Superior home page.

Is Superior easy to use?  Well, yes for the most part.  I’ve been using it for about 5 months and it was easy to get setup.  As time has gone on, I find myself digging in a little deeper and improving playability and performance.  So, it will take some time to learn, but you can get going with it pretty quick.

J

[Jason Runyon]

Not much to say, other than you are right.  This is the way of recording for many with electronic drumsets or song writers who program.  That said, since you are an e-drummer, I would get Superior 2.0 even though it costs more.  It is designed to be used with edrums so it has a lot of features that EZD does not. 

J

[Jason Runyon]

Well for many people, their onboard soundcard won’t cut it even with the ASIO4all drivers.  In this case, a dedicated audio interface is the solution. 

If you have a midi interface on your computer (not to be confused with a trigger to midi interface[TMI] such as a drum module or trigger i/o) then one solution is to use a midi merge box.  I bought one for around $60, and it allows me to merge the midi from a ddrum module and a TMC6 into 1 midi send that goes to my M-Audio firewire 410.  Neither module supports midi thru, so this was the only solution I could find.

J

[Jason Runyon]

Pretty simple to do.  I would recommend the Hart Dynamics, Magnum mesh heads.  If you want rubber on the rim of the drum, you can get some rubber trim from McMaster Carr.  I always like the ddrum pro triggers, easy to mount and remove.  The only issue I had when doing something similar is that I find the mesh alone to be too bouncy and I like to dampen the heads with some foam underneath, which is kind of diffucult with an open bottom timbale type drum.  You might want to try the Remo Muffle ring if it bothers you.  Good Luck.

J 

[Jason Runyon]

You need to dump the ASIO4all driver and get the M-Audio one specific for you OS and hardware.

[Jason Runyon]

From what I have read about the FD-8, as well as my personal expericence with it, I would have to say that it is simply the pedal causing the issue.  Tons of people gripe that this pedal is not capable (without modification) of playing much more than the open and closed sounds, the nuances in between get lost because the pedal has such a narrow range of operation.
 
J

[Jason Runyon]

Mine: 
 
 
 
J

[Jason Runyon]

One more:
 
 

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