EdawgLike the title says, I am having the hardest time getting the cymbal choke functionality to work. The TD-9 has the ability to choke, yet every time I hit the learn button it instead either takes the number assigned to the bow, or the edge crash sound and moves it over to the “Mute Hit” making that trigger no longer do a regular crash. I believe the variable for chokes in the TD-9 is #4 so I tried adding that and to no avail. I also went through the module to “Function > Midi > Trigger Numbers” and though you can hit and see every trigger number which shift depending on whether you hit the bow, or edge, it doesn’t show me a separate number when a choke happens.
At this point im not sure what other option there is to go on other than maybe there is something with the velocity curve that I have to change, or the two toggles on the midi mapping pane “allow MIDI Band Select” and “Transform Velocity”.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated!
JohnHi,
please start with selecting the TD-9 MIDI Preset in E-Drums/MIDI In. This should pretty much set everything up, no need to learn anything with regards to CC messages.
If I select the TD-9 MIDI Preset in EZD3, trigger a cymbal and then ‘pinch’ (or in my case press a key harder) to send AfterTouch, it Mutes without any tweaking.
The ‘Mute’ articulation is for when you do not have a kit/controller that can send AfterTouch and just want to trigger a sampled Mute Hit, i.e. not the same as ‘pinching’.
BR,
John
John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor
2
Thanked by: Edawg and Scott EshlemanEdawgSo first and foremost, thank you for your response, and because I didn’t specify it above, I DO have the preset set to “Roland: TD-9*”. The hihat works perfectly so there is no issues there.
I was hopeful that maybe I was just doing this wrong but to no avail. I tried the learn function the crash by itself and still its not working, im only getting the numbers assigned to regular crashes without the choke code. Shoot I even tried ONLY pinching lol. And I know the choke is working because I have my headphones still plugged into the quarter inch headphone out of the TD-9 and I can hear it choke. Are you using a TD-9 yourself? It sounds like you are using some other midi pad.
At this point i’m starting to wonder if my EZdrummer 3 is bugged and I need some tech support. If anyone has any other ideas or things to try i’m all ears and greatly appreciative.
JohnHi,
no I have TD-12 (though not unpacked ATM so I’m using a NI kontroller) but all the Presets have in common that the Cymbal Choking happens via AfterTouch, regardless of which MIDI controller/module you are using. As I wrote earlier, the Mute Hit articulation is a pre-recorded hit and not something you would use with an E-kit, where the pinching of an E-cymbal sends the AfterTouch message to mute the triggered cymbal sound. I.e. you should not try to ‘Learn’ that Mute Hit articulation.
So, next question would be if you are 100% certain you are sending (from your module) and receiving (in your computer) AfterTouch messages when you pinch?
Are you using the EZD3 Standalone application or are you using the plug-in inside a host? If the latter, there’s a possibility that AT is being filtered out.
E.g. I’m using Pro Tools and it took me a while once I started using it many years ago that it Defaulted to filtering out AfterTouch messages, which meant no choking.
BR,
John
John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor
1
Thanked by: EdawgEdawgSo again thank you for responding, I really do appreciate it and im hoping this helps someone else because I know there are still a TON of TD-9’s out in the wild (they were an incredible bang for the buck back in the day). Just to double check, I opened the “Midi Monitor” as i’m using Studio One. I can 100% confirm that the aftertouch is being passed through. For anyone that reads this later, it is labeled in Studio One as “PolyPressure” and at least for me I get two slightly different codes for each trigger that is pinched. My guess is because it is picking up a bottom and top “pinch” for each trigger. The codes read as follows.
A9 37 00 PolyPressure
A9 31 00 PolyPressure
A9 37 7F PolyPressure
A9 31 7F PolyPressure
89 37 40 NoteOff G 2 64
99 37 3D NoteOn G 2 61
There is slightly more information such as time and port info but I don’t its relevant. That said, this reading is after I hit and pinch the crash cymbal trigger of the TD-9. If im reading this correctly it looks like its communicating what pad trigger was specifically targeted in the hit and the aftertouch information for both triggers.
Also under “Midi Filter” ALL filters are unchecked meaning that I have no filters on. Whats crazier is like you said I went and ran the test on the standalone app, and like you said I selected the TD-9 and it all just worked, aftertouch included.
Again, i’m kind of stumped. I feel like by all means this SHOULD work.
BIG EDIT:
So after going down the rabbit hole of checking every kind of bug or workaround in my Studio One DAW, I believe I found the answer HERE: https://answers.presonus.com/5701/will-studio-one-support-polyphonic-aftertouch-completed-0
The long and short of it is I have been using Studio One 4 Pro for a good while. I purchase plugins that I like and I have not really found the need to pay for the upgrade, though this issue has been something that has bothered me for a while, I chalked it up to some other issue and I hadn’t had a project where I needed a ton of cymbal chokes. THAT SAID, I couldn’t believe what I was reading, and I didn’t realize Studio One didn’t have the support for Polyphonic Aftertouch via midi until VERSION 5. Whats worse is that in the midi monitor it shows it coming through clear as day. For some people they were able to record as a straight up instrument track by changing the Vdrum midi channel to 1 as I guess that supports that to finally pass through, but for some reason that wasn’t working for me when I tested it. Info on that at the two links below:
1. https://answers.presonus.com/8504/presonus-fixed-midi-aftertouch-studio-one-and-not-they-plan
2. https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=483062
Shoutout to John the Mod for walking me through this because some of your keywords and me double checking my steps helped me know I wasn’t crazy and that it was for sure the DAW, which led me to finding the answer. Looks like im finally gonna have to upgrade, though admittedly i’m pretty damn annoyed that this feature wasn’t a thing until way later on in the DAW’s lifespan. Hoping that god forbid anyone else come across these issues they can use the info here to run through all the checks in a cohesive way.
1
Thanked by: JohnJohnThanks for reporting your findings, now make some music!
BR,
John
John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor
1
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