Roland V Drums: MIDI Tutorial?

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if any one could point me towards a good resource for understanding how MIDI works in relation to my Roland V-Drums. At the very basic level, my question is as follows:

I was visiting the Toontrack website (www.toontrack.com) and found a section entitled 'MIDI Packs'. I located a MIDI Pack that was Death / Thrash metal themed:

http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp?item=93

Is there a way to get the sounds from this MIDI Pack assigned to my Roland V-drums (TD4KX) so that I can play with a kit that has these sounds? I don't understand what a MIDI Pack is, really, and became overwhelmed when trying to familiarize myself with the entire thing through searching online. I know my kit has MIDI capabilities, but I don't understand what that means. I'd really like to know if this MIDI Pack in the link above is something I could purchase and somehow get my kit to produce those sounds.

Hope that makes sense!

Yes, you can. The roland is essentially a plug-and-play midi device, but you need an audio interface to transmit the midi data into your computer. You also need a software program capable of hosting VST's (like toontrack). Logic, Ableton, Garageband all host VST's and I've used toontrack products with all of them.

Then you just create a track to launch your VST, and voila!

Garvin said:

Yes, you can. The roland is essentially a plug-and-play midi device, but you need an audio interface to transmit the midi data into your computer. You also need a software program capable of hosting VST's (like toontrack). Logic, Ableton, Garageband all host VST's and I've used toontrack products with all of them.

Then you just create a track to launch your VST, and voila!

Click to expand...

Thanks Garvin!

So it sounds like I need a few things:

-A sound card on my computer with a MIDI in port.

-A MIDI Cable (is that what they're called?)

-A Digital Audio Workstation solution (software on the computer - for example, Logic - I'll have to Google that one)

-A VST (Virtual Studio Technology) to load into my DAW, like the one I linked.

Does that make sense?

Thanks again!