Roland drum triggers WTF!?

[brianhood]

it's got 4 in fact, enough for kick and toms.

but yes, I tried them once (jack ones) into an alesis module and they had a mega output level with no chance to dynamics, wish I had more time to check them out.

It has line level inputs

no, that's the 003R that has the 4 line level inputs, not the 003R+





Also, i plugged it into the line inputs on my API A2D, and it still clips like a bastard.
I wish i wasn't too lazy to pack this guy off and return it to sweetwater for a refund.

 

[Pipsymbol]

i've been using Roland drum triggers for kicks for over a year now. i gave them a go since my ddrum ones went to pieces. and IMO roland ones are much better.

i've been plugging them into line inputs ever since and no problems whatsoever.

but for plugging them into mic preamps you can try using some other device to lower the signal, DI or any outboard gear. once i used shity behringer quad compresor (multicom MX4400) for this purpose, and it worked.

using them with D4 module, you can also lower the gain of the signal so you can get the dynamics out. but modules never worked for me while recording. too much missed and displaced hits...

 

[brianhood]

i've been using Roland drum triggers for kicks for over a year now. i gave them a go since my ddrum ones went to pieces. and IMO roland ones are much better.

i've been plugging them into line inputs ever since and no problems whatsoever.

but for plugging them into mic preamps you can try using some other device to lower the signal, DI or any outboard gear. once i used shity behringer quad compresor (multicom MX4400) for this purpose, and it worked.

not a bad idea dude. Unfortunately i dont have any outboard gear to do this. maybe my sansamp hahaha. Or maybe a tubescreamer lmao
That would hardly be feasible when running 5-7 channels of triggers unfortunately.

It just seems so utterly and ridiculously retarded that they would make a trigger so sensitive that i can set off drumagog by snapping my finger while preamp volume all the way down, and a -20db pad. Doesnt anyone have a roland trigger they can hook up to a mic pre and try out? I'm honestly almost thinking it's just a defective trigger.


The ddrum triggers work perfectly...while they last. I have 3-4 non working triggers in a drawer somewhere. Most of them lasted a 3-6 months bfore crapping out, and they have never left a studio environment.

 

[Pipsymbol]

i'll try connecting my roland trigger to some mic preamps tonight. i have 3 different preamps so i'll check all of them. i'll let you know about results.

 

[darthjujuu]

brian, the d-drum redshots? or the nice ones with XLR outs?

 

[kaomao]

dudes it has 8 linve level inputs

 

[darthjujuu]

8 pres, 8 line ins, AND adat + wordclock in? *tosses 002 in dumpster* i have 4/4 and no wordclock. NOT TO MENTION that the 002board acting as a controller won't work in anything except PT but against all odds digidesign decided to make their hardware slightly less propietary with the 003 and now it uses mackie standard MIDI controller format. and it just so happens i prefer mixing in reaper. the newest toy is never new enough.

k so yea, triggers. :Smokin:

 

[Pipsymbol]

i did some testing with roland kick trigger
1. Focusrite twintrack pro - mic preamp - settings: gain to minimum, impedance to maximum, no HP
signal is very hot but it does not clip
2. Joemeeek sixQ - mic preamp - settings: minimum gain, no HP or pad, output at 0
signal is hot but it does not clip.
3. m-audio 2626 - mic preamp - settings: no pad, gain to minimum
signal clips, but with pad on it does not clip.

you should check input gain range on you interface, which is I guess bit higher than on my equipment. also bear in mind that this is kick trigger that i have. i guess triggers on snare and toms suffer much harder levels.

 

[darthjujuu]

i think the digi just has hot preamps, i had this obscenely loud/cracky snare nearly clipping the onboard digi002 pre once with nothing but a 57 on it and gain at 0.

 

[musickey]

I have tried running triggers into Firepods. No go if you dont have some way of padding the triggers. I think im going to pick this up just to be able to record trigger transients.

 

[brianhood]

brian, the d-drum redshots? or the nice ones with XLR outs?

nice one's dude They seem really fickle though. I had a kick trigger last me 2 years on tour, but i've had 1 kick and 3 tom triggers crap out in a studio environment in less than 8 months.

dudes it has 8 linve level inputs

I guess this is just my ignorance showing. For some reason i was under the impression that "line level inputs" bypassed the mic pre("line in" being different from a "line level input"), and that the 003r had 4 inputs that bypassed the pre's, but the 003r+ didn't have any inputs that bypassed the pre. there is obviously a ton of basic crap i still need to learn lol(and most of it technical info)

 

[brianhood]

i did some testing with roland kick trigger
1. Focusrite twintrack pro - mic preamp - settings: gain to minimum, impedance to maximum, no HP
signal is very hot but it does not clip
2. Joemeeek sixQ - mic preamp - settings: minimum gain, no HP or pad, output at 0
signal is hot but it does not clip.
3. m-audio 2626 - mic preamp - settings: no pad, gain to minimum
signal clips, but with pad on it does not clip.

you should check input gain range on you interface, which is I guess bit higher than on my equipment. also bear in mind that this is kick trigger that i have. i guess triggers on snare and toms suffer much harder levels.

thanks for the test dude! I'm not sure if the kick trigger is different from the tom trigger. either way, it clips on all my pres no matter what i do

 

[Pipsymbol]

try to get one of those cheap behringer units like ultra DI pro. there is a 8 channel version as well. i'm sure there's lot of people on ebay will to get rid of them

 

[drew_drummer]

Um... if its only clipping on the hardest hits.. does it really matter? You're using it to trigger samples... I would've thought you could get away with a little clipping.

 

[darthjujuu]

Um... if its only clipping on the hardest hits.. does it really matter? You're using it to trigger samples... I would've thought you could get away with a little clipping.

if it's only clipping a tiny bit it obviously doesn't matter, but if every hit clips, then it's like every hit registering a 127, even the soft ones. we obviously don't care what the trigger transient looks like, but we do need dynamics.

 

[kaomao]

I guess this is just my ignorance showing. For some reason i was under the impression that "line level inputs" bypassed the mic pre("line in" being different from a "line level input"), and that the 003r had 4 inputs that bypassed the pre's, but the 003r+ didn't have any inputs that bypassed the pre. there is obviously a ton of basic crap i still need to learn lol(and most of it technical info)

Yeah I'm wrong they don't fully bypass the preamp! sorry lol
on regular 003, inputs 5-8 bypass the preamp though.

 

[brianhood]

Um... if its only clipping on the hardest hits.. does it really matter? You're using it to trigger samples... I would've thought you could get away with a little clipping.

nah that really wouldn't be a problem if that were the case.
Unfortunately it clips even on a moderate hit. The transients are so fat that it's hard to trigger correctly(lots of double triggers), so not worth my trouble. Would rather go through the 4+ defective ddrum triggers per year than to deal with this.