DDrum or Roland triggers?

[blackcom]

What you guyes prefer?
DDrum or Roland triggers. I'm not talking about a trigger module, but those
little sensors you mount on the drums.

I heard some guyes saying the new Roland triggers where actually better then those DDrum triggers. Diden't double-trigger or leave out hits that easily?

Anyone else here tested them?

kind regards
Marius Strand

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

good question, i'm wondering the same thing...please someone respond

 

[Andy Sneap]

I haven't seen any roland triggers myself. The D Drum ones seem to work fine to be honest, but I'm using those straight into pro tools, not with a d drum brain. I have a d drum 4, which is fine but not deadly accurate.

 

[Forbiddenevil]

Hi,

how can you use the ddrum Triggers into pro tools without the ddrum brain??? Can you explain that?!?

Thank you

Alex

 

[Andy Sneap]

yes, record the click that the transducer on the trigger makes, then use this in sound replacer, I also use it for the side chain on the gate on the same drum. So ...trigger, straight into mic pre, into pro tools. Then use that sharp attack to trigger from, el comprehende???

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

I do the same thing with Drumagog, and some cheapie triggers. I would like to upgrade to ddrum, but for now the ultra cheap ones work fine. I've even actually used the real sound from them on a record. Its a thrash band that wanted to sound very lo-fi. the trigger's sound was like the cardboard tom sound on the first Kreator.

 

[Forbiddenevil]

Muchas gracias, I think so!!!
At our home-studio we use Logic Audio, so I didn't have sound replacer. But this is no problem, I can replace otherwise.

Thanx a lot!!!

regards

Alex

 

[Andy Sneap]

I sometimes really compress and mix the transducer on the snare in slightly, thats a Tommy Newton trick to give you abit more attack, rim to the sound. The side chain to the gate works great though if you want to stick with the natural sounds.

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

Do you ever use transient processors? like Waves TransX, or digitalfishphones dominion? Or SPL's transient designer? I love Dominion! Its amazing!

 

[Forbiddenevil]

Hi Andy, it works fine. Much better than using the ddrum 4 via midi. Your other advice is good, too. But we record the drums through triggerheads, as the studio is in a residential quarter. So we do not have a natural sound. But i am going to test it today with our drummer. The biggest problem I have with the triggersounds is that the toms do not sound reasonably well. Do you -or does anybody else- have an advice for a better sound of the toms? It is time emagic invents a kind of sound replacer or at least a plugin (like drumagog) for MAC comes out.
Or does something like that already exist for the MAC?
Regards
Alex

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

Can't you just take the sound, and convert it to midi, and then use a soft sampler in Logic?

 

[Forbiddenevil]

Hi Kevin, yes I can, that's the way I did it yesterday. But I think the other way is easier! I worked two mounth ago with drumagog and I must say "perfect tool". It's easy to handle.
In Logic it's called "Audio to score", but I think it's not to accurate. Today I have a really drummer in the studio and more time than yesterday. Will see.....
Alex

 

[Andy Sneap]

Midi isn't accurate enough for me, especially in Pro Tools

 

[blackcom]

I use Samplitude Pro 7.X and Alesis DM5.
MIDI is 100% acurate for triggers. Plays back perfect together with the audio tracks recorded with mics for the rest of the drums set.
No matter how how I edit, copy and move stuff around timing is allways perfect.
Also, i like having all trigger notes in one track as it saves a lot of space in my projects. I also like the ability to be able to quantisize (bass drums), draw new patterns and such using a midi pencil.

Really great software.

 

[Andy Sneap]

Actually midi isn't 100% accurate, it's certainly better and useable in some programs than others, it totally sucks in Pro Tools (version 5.x.x) for timing but is way better in Logic. If there's alot going on, a note always has to take preference. The midi in version 6 is meant to be sample accurate with the timing, I used to use midi all the time, back in the day of 2" but since moving to Pro Tools we've not had midi good enough to do this, though sound replacer is great. Looking forward to drumagog being available also.

 

[Forbiddenevil]

Hi, midi in Logic is also accurate, but it is difficult to get the right dynamic by drums (for me). For Keys it's more than ok.
I have tested yesterday with our drummer only with the ddrum transducer. Works great. Very good results on toms. I like it, more realistic.

 

[Lefay fan]

Andy, could you please explain the following (what you said about the side chain). I'm not familiar with this concept of side chain. What is the concept ? What do you achieve with it.
By the way, I tried the tranducer direct in trick, works better than with a Ddrum, and cheaper too (you don't have to buy a Ddrum brain ). Thanks

"I sometimes really compress and mix the transducer on the snare in slightly, thats a Tommy Newton trick to give you abit more attack, rim to the sound. The side chain to the gate works great though if you want to stick with the natural sounds."
"yes, record the click that the transducer on the trigger makes, then use this in sound replacer, I also use it for the side chain on the gate on the same drum."

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

the side chain is what tells a gate or compressor when to work. Most compressors are keyed by the audio going through it. But you could just as well compress the bass keyed by the kick drum, or the rooms keyed by the snare or something. In the case of the gate, the trigger opens the gate when its hit. Since there is no bleed in the key signal, then the gates opening is pretty much flawless.