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[Henrik Ekblom]

Since you visually see how the drums are being played in the interface, you can slow down the tempo of a groove and study how the individual drums are being played, and learn from that!

You can also drag the MIDI (the groove that’s being played) to a DAW (Cubase, Logic, Studio One, etc) and either watch the notes in the Piano Roll, or see the MIDI as sheet music.

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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[Henrik Ekblom]

chasm636 wrote:

Hello, and thanks for your response. How do I go about transferring the files to my computer? I have a MIDI cable going through my SR 16 into my Presonus interface, but I can’t get it to load files into anything.

Well, I don’t think (but I’m not sure) that you can just take the MIDI files from the Alesis drum brain into you computer. However, In EZdrummer 2, or into a DAW such as Cubase, Pro Tools etc, you can record the drum patterns you want to use, and then drag them to a User MIDI folder in the Browser tab.

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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[Henrik Ekblom]

You should start by looking at what buffer size you have – larger buffer sizes requires less CPU (processor) usage but leads to slower response times (latency).

Do you work in a host/DAW (such as Cubase, Pro Tools, Logic, etc)? If you do, then the buffer size setting is done in the host. If not, the buffer size setting is done in EZdrummer 2.

All real time playing on virtual instruments will be tricky if the latency is high (above 10-20 ms).

Further, if you use a host, you can manually program a MIDI beat in the piano roll editor, and use that to search similar beats with. This is sometimes easier than tapping it in real time into Tap2Find.

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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[Henrik Ekblom]

It’s been a while since I used Mainstage, but have you enabled “Follow Host” in EZdrummer 2? Do you have to sync the timeline in EZdrummer 2 with any other virtual instruments in Mainstage? If not, try to disable Follow Host.

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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[Henrik Ekblom]

Do you mean EZdrummer (1) or EZdrummer 2?

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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[Henrik Ekblom]

Do you have any effects on the output channels? One common mistake is to use a preset that has master/bus effects on output 1/2, then route some of the channels to other outputs, which results in that the output effects doesn’t affect the audio as intended…

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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[Henrik Ekblom]

You can use some drum parts from the groove that you have tapped in to Tap2Find.

For example, say you have tapped in a kicka and a snare rhythm that you want to use, but want to have the hi-hat from a groove in the Search tab.

• Drag the MIDI file from the Tap2Find drop zone to the song track.
  • You should now have the kick and snare as a 1 or 2 bar Song Block.
  • Duplicate that so it becomes the length you want (8 bars for example).
  • Select all the song blocks, right click, and select Merge. Now they’ll become one song block.
• Select a groove in the Search or Browser tab that has a hi-hat you think would fit.
  • Right click that and select Copy
• Right click the Song Block on the track and choose Paste > Hi-Hat
  • Now the kick and snare that you dragged from Tap2Find will have the hi-hat from the groove in Search/Browser

As an alternative, you can also just take the original kick and snare, drag it to the track, go into Edit Play Style, and increase amount of the hi-hat.

I don’t know if these tips will help you in your case, but they are useful to know about 🙂

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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Thanked by: Carey Roberts

[Henrik Ekblom]

chasm636 wrote:

 Can I somehow transfer these into the EZ Drummer midi library? 

Yes. Add the MIDI files you want in a folder on your hard drive. Then in EZdrummer 2, go to main Menu/Settings/MIDI Libraries, and click Add Folder to User Libraries. Select the folder you have the MIDI files in and it will appear in the Browser and Search tabs.

 Also, I am using Reaper. Is there a way to just put the midi notes on Reaper and EZ play the part? 

Yes, load EZdrummer 2 as the instrument on a track in Reaper, and drag the MIDI file to that track. EZdrummer 2 will then play the MIDI placed on the Reaper track.

Further, check out what MIDI mapping that works best for you. MIDI mappings adjusts the incoming MIDI to fit different e-drums, for example Alesis drum kits. This option is found in Menu/Settings/E-drums.

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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[Henrik Ekblom]

That’s a really interesting video! Rick Beato has some great videos in his YouTube channel, highly recommended.

Thanks for the share 🙂

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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[Henrik Ekblom]

It depends on the kind of music you do. Electronic is really electronic in it’s sound.

I personally do more “mainstream” electronic music (EDM/House) and tend to use Number 1 Hits (which has 808s, 909s, Linn snares, etc) , and even Pop! (mostly for toppers etc). They both have a more polished sound than Electronic, but it all comes down to taste 🙂

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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[Henrik Ekblom]

markus wrote:

Once the aftertouch-off is “fired”, will sd3 record it properly?

Sure. The script should capture the Aftertouch note that comes in, and after a small amount of time, send back the same aftertouch note, with value 0.

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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[Henrik Ekblom]

Well, I am not a Reaper expert, but in Logic Pro X there’s a script functionality where one can write a script that adds aftertouch off value (which is an aftertouch below value 64) after an aftertouch on (values above 64).

Maybe we have some Reaper experts here on the forum that can help?

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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[Henrik Ekblom]

Ok, I have looked deeper into the MIDI file and I found the MIDI Aftertouch that makes the cymbals choke.

Where the dark green vertical lines are in this screenshot, you have two different aftertouch “make a choke” values, one for note 49 and one for note 55 (Aftertouch for separate MIDI notes are sometimes called Polyphonic Pressure).

——

The problem with your kit is that it doesn’t send a “stop choke” value when you release the cymbal, and this is handled differently in different DAWs. Most of them will do as reaper – a choke is enabled and all the following notes becomes choked. SD3 handles this differently, it removes the choke Aftertouch on recording.

There are some e-drums that has this problem, and yours seems to be one of those. This should mean that when you play live the e-drums with SD3, and you to a choke, the following cymbals are also choked, even if you release the cymbal?

——

To fix this in the recording, you can manually draw Aftertouch that both enables, and disables chokes. You can do this in Reaper, or in SD3 (depending of where you have the MIDI). This is what a correct choke and stop choke would look like in SD3. I used Channel Pressure, which means that it will choke all cymbals on the current MIDI channel. I find it easier to only have one type of Aftertouch to mute all cymbals, instead of one individual aftertouch for each cymbal:

——

I hope you could follow my directions, since this is a pretty advanced area of MIDI editing 🙂

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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Thanked by: heartwork

[Henrik Ekblom]

Brad wrote:

My guess is that they are single sampled components.

That’s correct. Digital drum sounds are normally just one sound. When you hit it harder it just increases in volume – it doesn’t sound differently (like a “real” drum does). This means that it’s not necessary to have them multi sampled.

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
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