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[pumpkinking]

With an M4 Mac Studio that has 32GB of RAM, you should have SD3 set to 1 core for live drumming in standalone and in a DAW.  That machine should have enough horsepower to handle even the most aggressive live drumming you can throw at it.  And frankly it will probably run on an efficiency core and not even get close to 100%.

As for your original question – is it normal to get glitches with more than 1 core – I would say that the audio artifacts you describe are typically the result of memory constraints.  But there are cases where other factors are at play, and it can get complex and time-consuming to root it out.

All of that is to say: if you do not hear the artifacts with 1 core config, then all is good and leave it set to 1 core and you will be fine.

Reply To: Glitches & clicks on Mac Studio M4 when set to higher core version: 3.4.3
Operating system: macOS Tahoe (26)

[pumpkinking]

I would wonder why you’re setting it to more than one?  I have used standalone on my M4 mini when the GPU and all performance cores were busy with other stuff, and SD3 standalone with a single core performed without an issue with live drumming.

Reply To: Glitches & clicks on Mac Studio M4 when set to higher core version: 3.4.3
Operating system: macOS Tahoe (26)

1

Thanked by: Bear-Faced Cow

[pumpkinking]

For anyone wanting to try out this issue for themselves, if you have the Drum Factory, here is the MIDI file.  CC4 is the pedal and the one Note is HiHat closed pedal.  Attached is the bounce of what I head from Drum Factory Dark Room with this exact mini.  Try it in Core snd it will choke the foot splash.

Reply To: Foot splash not being choked with pedal closed version: 3.4.2
Operating system: macOS Tahoe (26)

[pumpkinking]

One piece of information that I found out today – the original issue I was hearing was while playing in The Drum Factory SDX.  It occurred to me that maybe this issue is somehow specific to an SDX.  So I imported the MIDI file into another SDX, ensured the mapping was the same for the hi-hat and I did not hear the issue.  Same for SD3 Core – no issue.

So now I’m wondering – does the “Library Default” Openness Transitions setting allow for the SDX to contain instructions for how to interpret MIDI notes and CC values for the hi-hat?  I guess I assumed that was a global SD3 setting, now I’m not so sure any more.

Has anybody else seen weird behavior with the hi-hat openness transition in Drum Factory SDX?

Reply To: Foot splash not being choked with pedal closed version: 3.4.2
Operating system: macOS Tahoe (26)

[pumpkinking]

BlueMistral wrote:

which e-drums?

Alesis pads and Lemon cymbals, and two eDrumIn 10 modules (daisy-chained).

Reply To: Foot splash not being choked with pedal closed version: 3.4.2
Operating system: macOS Tahoe (26)

[pumpkinking]

I would say compare the “real world” data transfer rates of the 10 Gbit NIC and a local fast SSD.  Then translate those rates to times based on transfers of 2-10 GB of data from disk to memory.  Not a perfect comparison, but would give you ballpark comparisons.  Personally I would not use labelled or quoted transfer speeds, only those from true full-system tests, as there are so many variables at play and these numbers can have serious dependencies (eg. the ability to get high speeds from a 10 Gbit NIC depends on the performance of the PCIe bus it is plugged into, just as SSD performance depends on the port it is connected to, the enclosure hardware and even the cable).

Reply To: Nas storage device? version: 3.4.2
Operating system: macOS Tahoe (26)

[pumpkinking]

Hi Folks, I was reading through this thread, and agreeing with Mark and Jack with regards to the comments on natural variation in playing style.  It got me thinking about how to visualize this.  I’m not going to hijack this thread or anything, but I wanted to share visuals of what the variation of natural e-drumming might look like.  I queued up a rock track and e-drummed along to it in SD3 while recording.  Then I exported the midi and wrote some Python to analyze the velocity variations on a per-instrument basis.  Given the genre of music, the snare, hi-hat and kick were dominant, and I was trying to be somewhat light-handed with the snare even with the louder hits.  Attached you can see a histogram of snare velocity values (the blue histogram) across the whole track (again these are my midi velocity values recorded while I was playing along – x-axis is snare velocity and y-axis is the number of hits at that velocity).  The histogram appears to have two peaks, one around 30 and one around 50, but you can see the spread is roughly 5-85.

However, what is more interesting, and relevant to this thread, is the red histogram.  This shows the velocity *change* from one hit to the next across the entire track (for the snare, on the x-axis, with the number of hits at that delta value on the y-axis).  Basically my variation in trigger velocity, whether intentional (ie transitioning from backbeat to ghost) or just my own inconsistency in maintaining consistent velocity (which is the point I’m trying to make here).  Notice the note-to-note velocity variation between hits, while most in the +/- 25 range, can vary up to +/- 50 (these larger ones are undoubtedly intentional transitions).  Interestingly I see a peak around +50, and not -50, which seems to imply to me I was consistent with my return to the backbeat from ghost/light notes, but not the other way around.

When I listen back to this drum track, it is not an award-winner, but it is obviously a live capture and not programmed.  I would argue that (and there are research publications that back this up) listening to music with natural percussion variation is more pleasing to the ear than programmed percussion lacking variation, or even programmed “random” variations that slot into bins.  That is not to say one is good and the other is bad (often discomfort in the listener is an effect to pursue), but that they are indeed discernible.

Anyway, hope this is of interest to someone, and happy holidays to all!

Operating system: macOS Tahoe (26)

• This post was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by pumpkinking.

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Thanked by: LeanderL, Bear-Faced Cow and drumjack52

[pumpkinking]

Personally, I like the room dynamics of the Darkness kits in the pool for edrumming with headphones. And  as Jack mentioned, the kits are fairly versatile in both rooms, and the mic setups allow for a lot of variety.  I’ve used both rooms for rock, prog rock, jazz (the Death rides are worth a try).  I like the double kick setup in Death (I have two kick towers, and not many SDXs have two kicks), however they are a bit dampened for non-metal and need some work to bring them out more.

Reply To: DEATH & DARKNESS VS METAL MANIA version: 3.4.2
Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)

[pumpkinking]

When I read your request, I thought “isn’t that what Core is?”

Everyone is different, and I personally lean toward the SDXs with more personality and variety.  What I do most is play the e-drums, I don’t record often and I try to minimize the time I’m at the kit with a mouse in my hand (I get enough of that 9-5). So the SDXs with more “terroir” (borrowing a wine term) appeal to me.  I can quickly flip through rooms/kits that I have tweaked based on my own biases (darker cymbals, deep snares, resonant kicks) but all sound very different due to room shape, mic placement, dampening/tuning, sound path, etc.  I’m not talking about presets, I’m talking about the sound of an SDX “room” even with the default kit loaded.  Case in point: when an SDX is recorded with a “corridor”, “stairwell” or other remotely-located mic, I like bringing a little bit in – it is a colorful room sound that sounds better and is easier to use than complex reverb effects (for me, anyway).

I don’t use Core much unless there is hardware I’d like to try and my pile of SDXs do not have it (rods/brushes are a reason, although between Decades and Jazz Sessions there are some interesting options).  I find Core to be well recorded, but lacking in a unique sound, and it requires work to get it there.

To each his own, and I’m not discounting your request, merely offering my perspective on why the producer SDXs tend to provide me with a good experience.  With the myriad options of kit pieces, brands/styles, kit tuning/dampening, mic placement/hardware, sound treatment, etc, any SDX that was aimed at showcasing the e-drum dynamics of a single kit would have to make concessions that would be good for some but not for others, IMO.

Reply To: SDX idea. E-Drummer focused “Virtual” drum kit. Modern Session Drummer? version: 3.4.1
Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)

[pumpkinking]

Hi John – a little more information.  I’ve attached a new OH-R bounce where I have cranked up the channel gain and the bounce gain, and I think the effect is much more discernible on listening now.  I’ve looked at the spectrogram for both R and L OH channels, and I cannot identify anything specific, but this sound has a multi-frequency, square wave sound to it.  Zooming into the waveforms of the R channel during the decay, I can see some squaring of the waveforms, compared to the left, but it is very polychromic and hard to say anything is there conclusively.

Thanks, Joe

Reply To: Area 33 Origin – buzz in right channel OH version: 3.4.1
Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)

[pumpkinking]

Hi John – thanks for responding.

Regarding Crash 4 position – see the attached screenshot – it shows Area 33 Origin default kit and the Crash 4 position is highlighted.  It is just to the right of the tam-tam in the kit image.

Regarding the buzz in the mp3 I attached – I’ll do a frequency analysis sometime today, but I was hoping it would be clearly audible in that clip.  I’ll work on isolating it some more.

Thanks,

Joe

 

Reply To: Area 33 Origin – buzz in right channel OH version: 3.4.1
Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)

[pumpkinking]

I have done this in the past with multiple hi hat pedal CC channels.  It should work with snare zone CC as well.  In eDrumIn enable the positional CC for your 2nd snare, change the CC value to a free CC value (go to the SD3 midi map window and select “Show-> All -> CCs” and you can see which are currently unused).  Then in SD3, assign the Zone Control for that second snare as the CC value you just configured in eDrumIn and set the Zone Control to be the midi value of HIT in eDrumIn.  I have no free dual-zone slots on my setup or else I’d try it.

Reply To: using cc mode for positional sensing with SD3 and eDrumin on additional snares version: 3.4.0
Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)

[pumpkinking]

You can set the project to be loaded on startup, which will include the custom midi map of your choice.

Reply To: Custom key map on startup? version: 3.3.7
Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)

1

Thanked by: crossdrums

[pumpkinking]

You can certainly have multiple kits as individual tracks in your DAW and route the midi to capture a subset of each kit (I do this with channel assignments in the edrum module and track-level channel filters in my DAW).  However I typically do this when I want a large chunk of a kit, like all of the cymbals or toms.

To sub in a single piece from another kit and have it retain some or all of its sound you should look at the mic routing and mixer setup in the source kit.  Find out what mixer channels contribute to the overall sound of that piece and look for the effects and bleed settings that seem to contribute (auditioning these on/off or mute/solo helps).  Easier for direct-mic’d pieces like snare and kick but you might be able to get something close even for cymbals on overheads.

Reply To: Substituting drum pieces into drum presets version: 3.3.7
Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)

[pumpkinking]

I don’t know about “one map for all” since there can be a lot of variability between SDXs that makes that difficult, but maybe being able to set a default midi map for each SDX room.

Reply To: New E-drum MIDI preset needed for every SDX version: 3.3.7
Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)

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