Hetfield72I am brand new to e-drums and SD3, but I’ve moved into a smaller space and want to try electronic drums. I love the sounds from SD3. To get started. I purchased an Alesis Surge kit and Superior Drummer 3. My plan is to connect the Alesis Surge module through USB to my Dell laptop and use SD3 to trigger the sounds. That much makes sense to me; however I am a bit confused on the audio out portion!
I would like to be able to:
1) Listen directly to the drums via headphones (Not sure if I have to do this through the PC or if the e-drum brain headphone jack will play the SD3 audio out)
2) Play along to music and listen to both this and the drums (Not sure if this would be through PC, iPod hooked up to Surge module, etc.)
3) Play through a small amp for #1 & #2 instead of headphones
Do I need to buy a separate audio interface? Are the SD3 sounds being sent back to the Surge module and if so can I just use this for the inputs/outputs? In a past life I recorded some guitars and I own a M-audio Fast Track. I’m not sure if this is the audio interface I need? For this drum project, I’m not looking to play live or record, but I am looking for a good solution so I can do the 3 things above – play through headphones, play through an amp, play along to music.
Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been searching online all morning since I figured this would be a common question, but I can’t quite find the information.
BradHi there,
The way I use my Yamaha DTX III (Hybrid) is to trigger SD3 sounds via MIDI and listen through an audio interface. But you shouldn’t need to do that. You probably can hook your kit up to your PC and trigger SD3 sounds and hear them through headphones/speakers attached to your PC. Unless the Alesis has audio interface capabilities in addition to being a drum brain (and I don’t think it has this) you won’t be routing the SD3 sounds through it. You could also use your M-Audio interface, still via your PC, but instead of listening through your PC headphones, you would be listening through the interface.
Hope this is enough to get you started.
Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)
1
Thanked by: Hetfield72Hetfield72Thank you very much for the reply! I think my first try will be to set things up and try to just listen through the PC. From some articles alive read it seems that some people have latency with this and end up installing special drivers on their PC to reduce this. It looks like one downside of this is that you then can’t play music on the PC as those drivers only let one thing play at a time.
I don’t know if I’ll encounter the same issues or not. Usually in posts I see people saying an audio interface alleviates this, but I don’t fully understand why. Do you hook your edrums directly to the audio interface, or are they going to the computer and the computer goes to the audio interface?
Thanks again!
BradI would try hooking them up to your PC via USB MIDI. Mine are connected via a MIDI interface, but I have a lot of MIDI devices…. then into my Macs.
Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)
1
Thanked by: Hetfield72BradIf you do experience latency problems and can’t get the buffer down far enough without getting audio glitches, try;
Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)
1
Thanked by: Hetfield72Hetfield72Thanks Brad! Last question:
If I’m using an audio interface, do the edrums connect directly to it or do they go to the computer?
Since I am using them essentially as a midi controller through SD3, I’m not sure how I need to get everything connected. E-drum USB out to PC, then audio interface connected to PC by USB and headphone and/or iPod into audio interface?
Mark KingIn short you need to connect the ekit to your pc.
Your ekit sends midi only. midi is just a set of messages with no audio in it. SD3 receives these messages and triggers the audio files. This is within you pc. The pc can then play the audio out of its internal audio interface or an external one. I have never liked using the internal interface as they are quite low quality and can suffer latency even with asio4all. Worth a try though.
I also suggest reading up a bit on what midi is as it will increase your understanding of why it is: ekit send midi to pc – SD3 is a program on pc that uses the midi to trigger sounds – audio interface (internal or external) to get a sound out.
Now if you have an audio interface with midi as well the you can connect the midi out of the kit to the midi in. This is still similar to above. The midi goes into the interface and into SD3 – out of SD3 as audio and out of the audio interface. Not all external audio interfaces have midi and the built in ones don’t have it,
can be confusing as most modules these days can send midi over usb. I don’t know if yours can or if it has a Midi out Socket
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: Hetfield72Hetfield72Mark – Thank you very much. That is super helpful to me!
My Alesis Surge module has a midi-USB out (USB-B – printer cable type) that I was planning to connect to my PC directly. Is there any advantage to using a MIDI cable out from the drum module to an audio interface before heading the the PC? Since it still needs to go to the PC to trigger SD3 and then head back to the audio interface it doesn’t seem like it adds much (unless the USB MIDI is much slower than the typical 5-pin MIDI out). Just curious in case this is a functionality I should look for if I decide I need to buy an audio interface.
I really do need to read up on this stuff! I like the idea of the audio interface if it reduces latency (i.e. more powerful processing that PC sound card) and would let me directly connect another audio source (e.g. an iPod) to play along with.
BradThe only advantage that I can think of is if you are low on USB ports. Other than that, with the your drum head to the MIDI input of the interface you would have to get a couple, or at least one, MIDI cable.
Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)
1
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