andrekeliHi,
I am trying to use SD3 for live performance on my Yamaha DTX522 at my church but it sounds like crap (sorry!).
First I tried it at home, using my own Yamaha DTX400 series, output the sound into my headphone and it sounded beautiful! The mapping was quick and easy, the sound just like what I expected (having watched various videos on Youtube).
But when I went to set it up at my church using the Yamaha DTX522, it sounds horrible. I was so disappointed.
I am kind of new in this e-drum and SD, so please help me out.
My DTX522 system setup is as follow:
I wonder where I am wrong and lacking in terms of:
I am really disappointed but I really want this to work as SD3 has amazing tons of kits available. It would be fantastic for my church if I can ever get it to work.
Also, I wonder if there are other kits/instrument available to expand the SD3 library and where can I get/buy them?
For example, I noticed the DW instruments are greyed out (how do I activate it?). For example, a Sonor SQ2 kit (birch or maple or aluminum) would be appreciated. Or at least Sonor SQ2 instruments.
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Andrew
Gert van DuinenI think you can’t compare direct near sound quality of headphones with any kind of speakers. The only type of speakers that come close to headphones might be near-field (studio) monitors (ie. such as a pair of Yamaha HS8 with a HS8S subwoofer, which sound fantastic through a mixer with my Roland TD-50 kit btw).
In larger acoustic areas you should consider more continious power from a decent PA-system. Also, I don’t know how much outputs a DTX522 facilitates, but I think you shouldn’t use the headphone output of MBP either, but using a decent (amped) sound interface instead.
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Thanked by: andrekeliandrekeliHi Gert,
Many thanks for your reply.
Does this mean I can’t use SD3 on MBP for live performance? It’s so sad 🙁
My DTX522 works perfectly fine, connecting it straight to the mixer and mixer to DBR10 activea speakers though. But I somehow can’t get a descent sound from SD3.
Thank you
Andrew
andrekeliHi Gert,
What is an example of a “decent PA-system”?
And also, a decent amped audio interface?
Which works well with SD3 on MBP?
Thanks,
Andrew
JohnHi,
the part of getting a decent output via an audio interface is one thing and has been discussed numerous times on the Forum, I think you should find some info here.
Regarding the mapping problems, it seems like you used one of the Yamaha MIDI Presets at home and not (or something else) when you set it up at the church.
BR,
John
John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor
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Thanked by: andrekeli
Mark KingOne thing to remember is the sound in headphones is isolated so no room interaction. You can’t use the same sound for live. I would use a kit with all effects removed and consider turning the bleeds down as well. Make sure your mapping is correct and then spend time in the room you will be playing in getting the right sounds. Big sounds in headphones will not necessarily work.
SD3 with older sdx,s plus Rooms of Hansa and Death & Darkness. Cubase and wavelab current versions. Roland TD50x using all trigger inputs for triggering SD3 only. Windows 11 computer. Various keyboards and outboard gear as well as VST instruments. Acoustic drums: Yamaha 9000 natural wood and Pearl masters. Various snare drums. RME BabyFace Pro FS and Adam A7X monitors
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Thanked by: andrekeliandrekeliHi John,
Many thanks for the reply.
I am a bit confused here. I have been reading that Yamaha DTX522 module can act as a MIDI interface. So, you mean I still need another interface?
Any recommendations? I am looking at Focusrite products, but not sure if it’s enough for me just to get 1-2 channel, eg FR2i2 which only has 2 inputs or do I need the 18i20 which has 18 inputs? Can I just plug in the USB-midi cable from the DTX module into 1 channel and still get like all the 10 sounds?
Any link to previous posts regarding “getting decent audio output using interface” in the forum that matches my case?
How can I differentiate 2 different DTX mapping settings in SD3? Because when I choose the MIDI/e-drums, only DTX drums show up.
Today, I managed to get the sound out from the speakers but faces these issues:
Where did I go wrong?
Please help…
Thanks,
Andrew
andrekeliHi all,
As I am reading more, it seems like SD3 is not meant for live performance, but rather for recording purposes.
Has anybody used it for live performances? Please share how to make it work..
Losing hope here 🙁
Andrew
Mark KingSD3 is fine for live performance. It does depend on how good your drum module triggers and the latency of your audio interface. Have you done a factory reset on the module at church? It may have different mapping on it that someone has used in the past. You can change the mapping within SD3 as well in the edrum settings.
What you need to remember is SD3 will only react to what midi you are sending it. So if the triggering is not set up in the drum module well then you can get double triggering or no triggering. I also think the Yamaha modules are quite high latency but that may be negligible.
So module triggering set up correctly. Good audio interface with low latency. Don’t used processed sounds, or at least not too processed. Make sure the midi mapping is setup correctly in edrum settings.
Im triggering SD3 with a td30 to rehearse and it works brilliantly. You just need to set up correctly and have the right equipment.
SD3 with older sdx,s plus Rooms of Hansa and Death & Darkness. Cubase and wavelab current versions. Roland TD50x using all trigger inputs for triggering SD3 only. Windows 11 computer. Various keyboards and outboard gear as well as VST instruments. Acoustic drums: Yamaha 9000 natural wood and Pearl masters. Various snare drums. RME BabyFace Pro FS and Adam A7X monitors
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Thanked by: andrekeli
Lars Fossum
- A bit high latency, especially the snare. Sometimes it makes sound, sometimes it doesn’t. After playing for awhile, it is very hard to make a snare sound.
- I have an extra Yamaha cymbal pad installed which is plugged into the kickdrum, but when I hit it, t triggered the kickdrum instead. How do I re-map it to the correct cymbal sound? When I use the Yamaha app, it automatically differentiates it as a pad. I don’t know how to do so in SD3 splitting a two-in-one input. ?
- I have to hit the pads/kick quite hard to make sound (unlike when I click an instrument with the mouse). I tried turning up the velocity, but it just made it sound horrible.
Where did I go wrong?
Please help…
Thanks,
Andrew
#1. Check settings for SD3 in computer, the choice of drivers and buffer size etc.
Don’t use DirectSound or DirectMusic or similar, use WDM or ASIO as preferred drivers.
For drums try to get as low as 128 samples or lower.
If you get poor triggering, I would get a separate midi interface(could be over usb too) and use midi din cables from dtx to computer this way.
Drivers for separate midi interfaces are more trustworthy in that they are what the product is about, not something secondary “oh, yeah you can connect to computer over usb too” thingy. Longer usb cables is a mess too, so even more reason to do midi cables intead – they can be 10m or longer with no problems at all.
#2. Check manual for DTX – my DTXpress IV explain this very well in making a custom kit.
DTX Kit settings
————–
I have double inputs for cymbals and kick, and those named Pad9 for kick, Pad 10-12 for tom1-3 inputs in settings.
So if cables are stereo(tip, ring, sleeve) you should be able to use both pad and rim parts.
DTX Trigger setup
——————-
To get access to second input I am to configure trigger parts as RHP rim, probably something similar in your case.
So kick is pad, and second external input is configured as rim. Then in the kit setup this is pad9 and tells where that goes to what sound governed by midi note set.
#3. This is what you configure for trigger setup too – settings for velocity curve.
I think this can be done in SD3 too, if you think internal sounds in drum engine respond as you wish.
Hope it gets you on your way….
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Thanked by: andrekeliandrekeliMany thanks for the valuable inputs!
I will give it a go again tomorrow.
Cheers,
AK
andrekeliOne word: EUREKA!
Finally solved the issue.
1. Set the triggering parameters in the dtx.
2. Removed all the sounds.
3. Mapping the elements in SD3.
4. Voila! SD3 is live and kicking!
What a wonderful piece of art software!! Beautiful sounds!
Thank you very much all for your inputs. Gid bless you all!
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Thanked by: Mark King and Henrik EkblomGert van DuinenSometimes just a bit of patience and common sense makes all the difference in the world 😉
I’m glad it’s finally working and that you’re happy with it!
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Thanked by: andrekeliandrekeliHi guys,
Just got back from a gig this evening. Quick question though.
Although all ok and I was trying the system in a gig this evening, I noticed there was latency especially on the Toms (other sounds were fantastic). This was noticeable after playing for a while.
I tried increasing the gain on my monitor and it worked for a while but the Tom sound dwindled away again.
I tried increasing the velocity curve and it worked for a while but then the Tom sound died down again.
I tried looking for ASIO4ALL unfortunately it’s not available for Mac but Windows only.
Please help.
Thanks,
AK
Lars Fossum#1. If just certain sounds, it could be some preload thingy in ram feature or something – that sounds not used often enough is released and need to be reloaded.
Not having settings in memory(mine that is) your fenomena sounds related to something like this. All sampler usually have this kind of setting if to stream from disk, preload all in ram, optimized where is loads as needed kind of thing.
Another thing that might affect performance is that toms usually have more bleed over from overhead mikes, so turning that down a bit from default might help.
#2. As you described it does not sound like different interface solve anything. Then every sound would have worse latency than acceptable.
#3. Usually a settings panel for soundcard itself, but not familiar with mac if different than windows.
But settings often reached from inside an audio application too.
I’ve tried some Focusrite interfaces, and they had some basic setting low, medium and such as first level of choice, then various buffer settings.
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Thanked by: andrekeliNo products in the cart.