Very basic midi drum recording question

roncadillac

Platinum Member
I have an alesis nitro mesh kit with a USB B out and a laptop with a USB port and cakewalk. Cakewalk can receive midi data and has pre-loaded drum plug in's and my alesis nitro mesh manual states I can send midi data to a computer via the USB B port.

So my question is regarding set up and equipment... Can I literally just get a USB to USB B wire to plug my nitro mesh module into my computer to capture midi 'recordings' (I know it's not actual live audio) in Cakewalk or do I need something else, like an audio interface, for the computer and alesis module to communicate? The alesis manual makes it sound like I can just plug and play, I know Cakewalk supports midi, and it has pre-loaded plug-in's for me to assign sounds to the midi data.

Side note: I was able to capture some pretty impressive quality raw audio running 1/4" stereo out from the nitro module into the 1/8" mic-in on my laptop via a y-splitter cable dumped into audacity.
 
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Yep, USB should be enough. But be aware that your e-kit might send different MIDI notes than your drum plugin requires. You might be able to edit the MIDI note of each individual drum and cymbal on the Alesis drum module, so just look up what notes your drum plugin uses for its snare, kick, crash, etc.

Every plugin is different; there's no standard unfortunately.
 
Yep, USB should be enough. But be aware that your e-kit might send different MIDI notes than your drum plugin requires. You might be able to edit the MIDI note of each individual drum and cymbal on the Alesis drum module, so just look up what notes your drum plugin uses for its snare, kick, crash, etc.

Every plugin is different; there's no standard unfortunately.

Thanks for the heads up. I was using a similar set up running into logic on my cousin's computer (he set everything up, I just walked in and started playing) and we had some sounds not assign properly. We were able to fix it pretty easily but it was an extra step that I could see someone missing if not paying attention.

I didn't mention at first, this is more just a fun home project and I'm not really trying to produce large scale music with this method. I've been playing at home more and more lately so being able to just plug in a USB wire and capture midi that I can easily manipulate is invaluable to me for remembering and sharing ideas. After spending twenty years playing acoustic drums, fiddling with crappy demo recordings, and paying a mint to get a basic studio recording... All this technology has been blowing my mind haha. And not blowing my ears out every time I play has been a welcome change.
 
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