Cymbal choke with Akai MPK Mini 2

[Jason Kessenich]

Hey all, I’m running into a small issue with choking cymbals.  Currently using the Hard Rock EZD, and Bob Rock 3 preset.  This has four crashes.  When I use the “mute hit” articulation (controller is the Akai MPK Mini 2), only one of them has an acceptable duration of choking after striking the cymbal.  This is the second crash from left… articulations are mapped to MIDI notes 49 and 50.  The 50 is acceptable to me.  The cymbal on the far right uses MIDI note 57 for the crash, and 58 for the “mute hit”.  But the cymbal is actually choked after a significant delay; it’s far different than MIDI note 50.

The Akai MPK Mini II has a thumbstick on the side that, by default, is set to MIDI CC1.  This controls the hi-hat pedal so I can open and close it as needed.  Can I change this to “grab” the cymbal of my choice in order to determine when the choke happens?

God I hope all that makes sense.

Thank you.

– jason

Topic

[John]

Hi Jason,

the Mute Hit notes you are using are Velocity controlled, i.e. the harder you hit the key the faster the mute.

If you can apply Aftertouch, you can mute the regular Crash Hit with it but I don’t think your controller has Aftertouch.

Had you been an SD3 user, you would have even more options, like changing the Mute Tail trigger to Note Off.

 

BR,

John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Jason Kessenich]

Thanks for the help, and quick reply John; I appreciate it.  Having a bit of trouble with hitting the keys on the controller harder to mute the sound faster, but I’m sure that’s a shortcoming of the controller.

Looks like this would be a reason to cross-grade to SD3.  Though I wonder if a different MIDI controller would be good as well.  Thanks again John.

– jason

[John]

You can always draw the Aftertouch in, in your DAW, if you don’t want to crossgrade or change your MIDI controller.

 

BR,

John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Author]

Replies