trigger to midi - electric kits

[wert90]

hi

im currently living in student housing and am not allowed an acoustic kit. i have purchased some roland drum trigger pads and will clamp them to a cymbal stand to make a 3 piece electric kit, much cheaper than buying the whole kit and im trying to do it all second hand too.

i now need a drum module but noticed they are expensive too!

i own a macbook and have a usb to midi convertor. im looking at turning the trigger output into midi signals and getting all the sound i need from garage band on the mac. buying a unit without built in sounds would surely be a cheaper alternative to a drum module?

is this possible? what am i looking for? is it actually any cheaper?

thanks for your help. im missing all the practice i need!

[phil_qc]

Oh, I also want to know...

free bump !!

Philippe

[wert90]

yer, in theory it could be brilliant.


anyone??

[StinkFace3000]

Check out the Alesis Trigger I/O. Should meet your needs and will set you back about $150. I own this unit and am using it to trigger EZDrummer. The unit came with BFD Lite software as well. The best roland I've played around with is a TD-6 and this setup is much better IMO.

[Garvin]

Wait, so i could theoretically trigger those EZdrums kits through my TD3?

[StinkFace3000]

Absolutely. Just get yourself a UBS MIDI interface. A 1 in 1 out will run you $40 - $50. I was using a similar setup before with an alesis DM5. I made the switch to the Alesis Trigger I/O for the constant hi - hat control.

[Garvin]

So with a 1 in 1 out interface I can program directly through the EZDrum software?

[StinkFace3000]

I'm not sure I know what you mean by "program". The setup would allow you to use the TD3 to trigger the sounds in EZDrummer.

[Garvin]

Okay so its that easy huh? I already have an old 1 to 1 Midi/USB box I'm just happy to know I can add higher quality sounds to the my kit at a very minimal cost.

[StinkFace3000]

The only issue you may have is latency in your sound card. Not an issue if you're on a mac. If you're on PC you need low latency drivers. If you have a pro audio card like an M-Audio Delta series then the drivers will already be fine. Otherwise google ASIO4ALL universal drivers. They'll work for generic sound cards.

BTW this will work with EZDrummer, BFD, DFH and just about any other similar package. I'm using EZDrummer because of it's simplicity, and it has Toontrack solo which allows you to use the software without having to use recording software. It is limited in that you can't change midi note assignments, so you would have to do that on your drum module.

[Garvin]

Yeah I run a macbook...