Thigh drumming as a Trigger for Drums

[Timmmm]

Hi,

can i somehow do that?

I mean i am drumming with my hands on my upper legs and record that with a microphone.

Can i convert that hits into midi notes, so that i can allocate it to drum sounds (DFHS).

That would be awesome.

I read, that Thomas Haake recorded the drums for Obzen, but then they converted his playing to DFHS.

I mean thats basically the same thing, but i want to use thigh drumming and play in every drum instrument seperately.

How can i do this?


Thanks

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I swear I have seen them in the past but google just got me no where. But since I am 99% sure they exsist there should be body triggers that you can strap on to your chest, thighs ankles etc...

I think bela fleck used them at one point, or still does.

 

[everybody's x]

sure, I had a terrible drummer in here a few weeks ago, I re-triggered all his kicks by beating my chest in front of an sm7

 

[STINNETT]

I've replaced drumming a few times by tapping the beats on the grille of an SM58 with my fingertips.

I've done that and then replaced the tapping sounds with drumagog, which worked great, and I've also used my host software (Sonar) to convert the transients into MIDI notes and pasted them into DFHS. That worked perfectly as well.

No reason why you couldn't do it. You could even set up several mics and sort of play a multi-piece kit.

 

[Timmmm]

thanks thats awesome!

So how can i best convert the transients into midi?

I am using Cubase SL3.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I've done that when fiddling around with two DIY electric drum pads (the usual - old mousepad and a piezo driver). I pointed two mics on my thighs and triggered the signals with Drumagog. Fun and might come in handy in some situations, but the red thighs might not be worth it.

 

[MetalJonesy]

right this is how i do most of my demos. i use a mixture of recorded clicks and tapping microphones

Before:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=783764&songID=6181255

After:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=783764&songID=6181257

 

[everybody's x]

^ hilarity

gives a whole new meaning to "soundclick" doesn't it?

 

[MetalJonesy]

^ hilarity

gives a whole new meaning to "soundclick" doesn't it?

lol
well the majority of the demos i post up are done in that way, then again ill actually play a hi hat for the hi hat tracks etc to give it the more realistic vibe!

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

thanks thats awesome!

So how can i best convert the transients into midi?

I am using Cubase SL3.

Free:

KT Drum Trigger

Better, but not free:

Aptrigga 2

 

[-J-]

just tape a bunch of piezo speakers to yourself and bang away. I made a drum set out of PVC, various old cans, and piezo speakers once - sent it to a yamaha brain. was fun, but sounded like crap. lots of hits that didn't trigger, hits that triggered twice, hit one trigger and 3 go off, etc. not to mention the yamaha's drums sounds sucked.

 

[-Noodles-]

I read, that Thomas Haake recorded the drums for Obzen, but then they converted his playing to DFHS.
Thanks

Thomas had triggers on all of his drums, so it's a little easier for him to convert each trigger input to sample.
He also, according to the article I read, didn't edit the drum takes at all - he just played them till they were right.

 

[colonel kurtz]

No reason why you couldn't do it. You could even set up several mics and sort of play a multi-piece kit.

once i had some tom fills that i couldn't figure out how to program in the drum editor...so i took all my audix tom mics, set them up in front of me like a tiny tom rack, and beat out the fills on them with pencils

shit worked like a charm

 

[beyond dead]

Thomas had triggers on all of his drums, so it's a little easier for him to convert each trigger input to sample.
He also, according to the article I read, didn't edit the drum takes at all - he just played them till they were right.

it is totally fucked that he spent the time to get a real performance with the goal of sounding realistic (obviously) then sample replaced everything lol sound illogical to me. were the cymbals programmed as well?

 

[-Noodles-]

beyond - I don't really know.. I'll post up the link to the article I got that information from..

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j81/Iechine/scan0001.jpg

(change it to 00002 etc... goes up to 6.)

edit; recording on page 4.

 

[Timmmm]

thanks!

I did it now with KT Drum Trigger.

Works good, no problem.

A Tip from me to other starters:
You have to set the "mninimum seconds to pass until next hit can be done" to lower than 0.1 seconds.
I set it the lowest it goes.

 

[Vandyn]

rá!

 

["Evil" Aidy]

I'm not a great drummer, but have a reasonable understanding of metal drumming so I use a similar method to thigh tapping but a tap on my desk instead.

I find it helps work out the velocities in the different hits too.

Used in conjunction with a bit of mic tapping and calculating hitpoints for triggering it works spot on!

 

[s34nsm411]

you guys use it to trigger live drums? unless you take the time to edit the other drum tracks right youll hear all the original hits in the overhead mics and stuff, it wont sound right

 

[if6was9]

Might be a Noob question but I haven't worked with Midi before so I'll ask-
If i use the Kt program to change the track hits to midi is there a free plug in that I can use to then trigger a sample of my choosing with this midi info? I use reaper if that makes any differenece? I'd love to be able to sample replace and it seems to be the one thing I'm missing to do it.