I'm in a "rock" band and I have a 5 piece acoustic drum kit. I'd like
to be able to practice with my band late at night.

My idea is to put drum mutes over the heads, like these:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...base_id/113989

Then use some drum triggers, like these:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...base_id/118059

The next step is where I'm confused... do I get a trigger-to-midi
converter and then trigger samples via PC based software and mix
that output back into headphones for all band members to hear?

Or, is it better to buy a multi-input sound card, like this:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/.../base_id/58266
And use the direct audio output of the triggers to trigger samples
using software like the following (or something similar).
http://www.ferrarapercussion.com/

It seems that the multi-input sound card and the trigger-to-midi
hardware is about the same price. My own thought is that I'd be
getting a lot more for my money with the sound card.

I definitely want to use PC based sample playback as I already have
the software and samples. I'm not interested in owning a
drum machine unless it can somehow provide the interface for
going from the drum triggers to the PC based sample playing in
a less expensive or more reliable way than the other methods I've
outlined.

Is anybody else trying to solve (or have you solved) the same issue?

Thanks for any input and/or examples you can provide.

markus

Hi Markus,

I think that for real time playing with a band you'd be better off with a
dedicated hardware trigger to midi and drum sound module like this :
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...se_pid/705523/

The problem you may encounter with converting the trigger pulses to digital
with a PC sound card and then triggering soft synth/sampler drums sounds is
latency ( where there is a noticeable delay between when you hit the drum
and when you hear the sound )

If you were to use something like the Alesis DM5, you can still record it's
midi output into you PC DAW software and then later use what ever sounds you
like when mixing.

Best of luck!

--
John L Rice


"markus" wrote in message
...
I'm in a "rock" band and I have a 5 piece acoustic drum kit. I'd like
to be able to practice with my band late at night.

My idea is to put drum mutes over the heads, like these:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...base_id/113989

Then use some drum triggers, like these:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...base_id/118059

The next step is where I'm confused... do I get a trigger-to-midi
converter and then trigger samples via PC based software and mix
that output back into headphones for all band members to hear?

Or, is it better to buy a multi-input sound card, like this:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/.../base_id/58266
And use the direct audio output of the triggers to trigger samples
using software like the following (or something similar).
http://www.ferrarapercussion.com/

It seems that the multi-input sound card and the trigger-to-midi
hardware is about the same price. My own thought is that I'd be
getting a lot more for my money with the sound card.

I definitely want to use PC based sample playback as I already have
the software and samples. I'm not interested in owning a
drum machine unless it can somehow provide the interface for
going from the drum triggers to the PC based sample playing in
a less expensive or more reliable way than the other methods I've
outlined.

Is anybody else trying to solve (or have you solved) the same issue?

Thanks for any input and/or examples you can provide.

markus

Thanks for the reply.. I took a look at the Alesis and it might solve
my problem. I really wanted to try to use the PC based sample
playback. I have one of those "tweaked out" PC DAW's and have really
low latency using ASIO drivers. The sounds you can get out of Battery
2, for example, are so awesome I'm just drooling to use them.

Just to reiterate, this really is for a live/practice setup. When
doing recording I'll mic the drums up properly and if I need to fix
them I'll use something like Drumagog in my DAW.

I have made such an investment in my PC DAW already it seems like a
crime to buy another piece of dedicated hardware like a drum machine.
But maybe in the end it's still the cheapest way to go?

You brought up latency and I think latency would be a problem if I
were to use a trigger-to-midi converter and use the midi to playback
samples from the PC. Midi and is relatively slow and I could see that
causing too much latency for it to be effective in a live situation.

But using the multi-input soundcard solution, I bet I could get
latency as low as the Alesis....

Anybody out there actually doing this? I'd love to talk to somebody
who is currently doing this kind "live triggering" for a band practice
situation.

I also was wondering if the triggers will work okay if I put mutes on
the drum heads. Will I still get reliable results from the triggers?
So many questions...

Thanks again!
Markus


On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 22:24:16 -0700, "John L Rice"
wrote:

Hi Markus,

I think that for real time playing with a band you'd be better off with a
dedicated hardware trigger to midi and drum sound module like this :
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...se_pid/705523/

The problem you may encounter with converting the trigger pulses to digital
with a PC sound card and then triggering soft synth/sampler drums sounds is
latency ( where there is a noticeable delay between when you hit the drum
and when you hear the sound )

If you were to use something like the Alesis DM5, you can still record it's
midi output into you PC DAW software and then later use what ever sounds you
like when mixing.

Best of luck!