Hi Robert and fellow students. Robert I have to tell you that your efforts on the website and the lessons are great!
First a little about the setup and myself to help explain my questions.
I built my system in the 90s so I have quite a bit of outboard gear using a MOTU MIDI express 128 as my main midi interface.
I’ve been writing/composing music since I was 10 (1981) and have progressed quite a bit since then. After an 18 year hiatus I have gotten back into music pulling all of my archived songs out of the DAW attic(from Cakewalk, Logic, Nuendo and others) and finally starting to get these songs done, copyrighted and will soon be releasing them on the streaming platforms soon and Taxi.
After finishing two of the 10 songs for the album I began to look at my studio and methods and started to really evaluate any weak spots in my setup and/or playing. I’m a piano/keyboard player and have quite a bit of practice emulating instruments on keys. Strings, brass, woodwinds and other instruments including saxophone with a breath controller, etc. When it comes to drums I would play my Alesis DM5 triggered by a General Music S2 turbo keyboard. Although this was decent enough for basic drum tracks, when I got to more intricate songs that required more detailed drumming, I was forced to break out the analog trigger pads to hook up to the DM5 and play with sticks. This analog trigger pads themselves are good quality but the analog trigger system in the DM-5 are terrible. TONS of fault triggers and ghost triggering…nightmare! The last time I used this method was in 1999 on the song that I just finished. Never again! JUNK!
In my evaluation, drums were on the list to improve my method and get a better result. Since I’ve been finger drumming on tables, countertops, washing machine and kitchen sinks for near 28 years I was thinking I would make a custom trigger system…but then I stumble on QFG site, Robert and his videos! My skills were pretty good in terms of holding a beat and playing with music even with demanding stuff…BUT my method really isn’t supported by any of the current pad controllers on the market. I have always played the kick drum with the heel of my right hand…that doesn’t seem to work on any pad controller…so I’m having to relearn everything…and wow is this embarrassing how bad I am right now on a pad controller. I just purchased a Nektar Aruba wicked cheap ($119) as it was brand new but an open box product from Guitar center. I followed Roberts setup tips for this controller and it plays very well.
I set it up without the USB simply using the midi out to my midi express 128. It plays well with zero latency because I have a Behringer XR18 digital mixer so I’m monitoring everything in real time. This is great…BUT the DM has some issues. For one it’s rather noisy. So noisy that after recording the drums in a five track format (kick, snare, hi-hat, toms and overheads) then bounce it to audio I have to manually edit each of these tracks to remove the noise between hits. That’s problem 1. Problem 2 is when it comes to more advanced drumming the DM5 isn’t good at this. As an example, in the last song I finished it had three crescendo cymbal parts that I needed to recreate from my old midi recordings. Out of all the crash cymbals only two out of about 30 would allow for the playability that would sound convincing. The rest sound like crap when trying to hit the pad/keys to make this sound. The cymbal patches would almost like cut each hit off before starting the next hit. There’s a setting in the DM5 to change this but the setting was already enabled. The same happens when trying to use hi-hats in a sixteen beat pattern. When I listen to Robert play Addictive Drums it sounds the way it should. I also tried Groove Agent in Cubase and it also sounds great when triggering sounds quickly to create a crescendo or a hi-hat in sixteen notes. I just can’t seem to get this to happen with the DM-5.
So I’m considering looking into AD2 or 3 but I didn’t realize there was so many versions available. What version is Robert using? They aren’t cheap that’s for sure but like I said this is one of the weak spots of my music…both in playing and in the sounds themselves. The DM-5 drums do sound good…but not when it comes to the stuff I mentioned above.
It’s a bit depressing learning this new technique on a pad controller but I’m sure with practice I’ll get it hopefully soon than later…otherwise I’ll have to make a kick drum pad for the heel of my right hand!
Anyway, any advice and information you have regarding AD version, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks guys!
Chris