MIDI notes in Ezdrummer, NanoPad and LPD8

[Norman Lamont]

I hope someone can clarify this for me.  Probably just my misunderstanding of MIDI mapping.

I found an image mapping the MIDI notes of different drums in Ezdrummer 2. for example, kick is C1,  snare middle is D1, hihat C3 and so on. In the Ezdrummer UI, I can find under Details for each drum what the notes are, and they match this image.

I have a Korg Nanopad and an Akai LPD 8 , both small drum pad tools that do the same job.  In the Korg Kontrol software I set the MIDI notes for each pad to correspond to the notes I mention above.

I verified in the program MIDIox that these are indeed the notes the pads are sending. But when in play them in Ezdrummer, whether standalone or VSTi, the pads trigger different notes. For example the pad that should be C1 triggers C0. The pad that should be C2 triggers C1. The pad that should be D1 triggers nothing, likewise the pad that’s supposed to be G2.

With the LPD8, the pads trigger the sounds I expect but the MIDI notes are different. So the pad set to C2 triggers the kick drum, C1, and the pad set to E2 triggers the snare, which Ezdrummer says is D1.

I’m a bit baffled as to how these things should link together. It’s not as simple as ‘set the pad for kick to C1’ obviously.   Can anyone please explain this?

EZdrummer version: 2.1.8
Operating system: Windows 10

Topic

[Shootie]

I can’t explain your issue, but with certain controllers the mapping is an octave off for me as well. My Roland TD4 does the same exact thing. I believe the Nano you can have custom presets, I would make a preset for when you’re just using EZD2 (all notes an octave off), and load that preset just when using EZD2.

If you haven’t checked it out, you could try the Menu>Settings>Edrums>MidiMapping Drop Down options and see if that manipulates it for you.

Someone may have a better explanation for you, but wanted to let you know you’re not alone. This was something for me to workaround and not solve. The workaround was too simple to pursue the real issue for me.

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[Scott]

Yes. There has never been a consensus as to what octave “middle C” is. Different manufacturers set it differently.

For some companies, they use middle ‘C’ as C4. For some companies, they use C4 as MIDI note 72. Toontrack does this.

Some companies, like Korg, use C4 as MIDI note 60.

I have a Korg PadKontrol and it triggers C4 as note 60 instead of C4 note 72.

I don’t use note names but use the note numbers instead. Note 60 is always note 60 no matter the octave and manufacturers use.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

1

Thanked by: Shootie

[Norman Lamont]

Thank you both – I’ll look into note numbers and the octaves.  Glad to know it’s not just my misunderstanding!

[Norman Lamont]

Just reporting back – the NanoPad triggers the right notes if I change the octave as you suggest.  Scott, I couldn’t see how to use the MIDI notes like you said e.g. note 60 – no reference to that in either the Korg Kontrol or Ezdrummer.  Is there somewhere I could learn about that?

Anyway, getting the answer to the notes issue unfortunately showed me that four of the ten pads are dead and two are intermittently dead. I found a video on how to fix them but for teh time being can’t find anything that will turn the screws on the back!  It must be pretty old.

So it’s the LPD8 for the time being, it works fine, just a shame it doesn’t have the flam pad.

 

Thanks again for your advice.

[Scott]

See this pic. On the kit piece Details menu, you can see the MIDI Note triggered either by Note or Key.

 

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Norman Lamont]

Ah! thanks!

[Author]

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