Live Mpc Drumming?

On the live drumming tip~
I'd like to be able to use the MP like the brain of a V-Drum set. I've connected an Alesis Trigger Pad by midi, which can accommodate a kick pedal and high hat pedal. The kick pedal works ok--just as well as if I hook the pedal into footswitch 1 and assign it to trigger the pad with my kick on it. The high hat could be better though.

I want to set up the MP so that if the hat pedal is down and I strike a pad, it will play a closed hat, but if the pedal is up it will play an open hat. Does anyone know of a way to do this?

I guess it would be a note/pad over-ride thing, or a midi-mapping thing...?

^^ I was just thinking about this. A freind of mine is an ill drummer and has a fly Roland midi drum set. I want to collect a grip of seq.s/ midi files and f with them on the mp or use the Roland as controller, mp as brain. Possible right?

peace

should be possible. I figure the MP should be able to be a sweet drum module--load your own velocity switched multisamples and make your own kits, etc. I know the Alesis i/o is designed to interface drum triggers with MIDI info, and that might be the best way to set it up with the MP.

Still, whether or not the MP can react properly to the opening and closing high hat pedal / trigger pad combination is the major question for me...

even the v drums are not great with the hi hat triggering right, i spent a couple hours playing before i purhase, i'm gonna cop a td-9 with all mesh drums. the yamaha is alot nicer with the hat & cymbals imo.

i got a cheap e drum kit, on a stand. does the job when hand shakin the mp extremely well for such a cheap toy.. could not get the hat to trigger properly tho.. fun as fark to jam with though, just a cheap drum controller and the mp. it's lovely to be able to play with sticks. i got two footswitches that came with it(was worth it just for the foot switches alone, although i didn't buy it) doing double kick stuff is fun as fark.. but not death metal kicks, like just the ghost hit on the kick, also triggering a kick with one of the pads. so when you pedal the kick, you flam with the stick first.. it's a bit hard to do proper kick work on a footswitch but i was having fun with that jamming with my bro... then i plugged it into my fantom and used those kits..

yeah, it's soooo nice to be able to trigger sounds from the MP with sticks and pedals. I've been checking out electronic kits too, but they're SO expensive for the half decent ones, and even those are not ideal. I've been doing some research on these guys and it turns out there is a huge DIY culture--people making their own mesh head, dual zone triggers, dirt cheap. I just started to build some the other day.

DJ Plan A wrote:yeah, it's soooo nice to be able to trigger sounds from the MP with sticks and pedals. I've been checking out electronic kits too, but they're SO expensive for the half decent ones, and even those are not ideal. I've been doing some research on these guys and it turns out there is a huge DIY culture--people making their own mesh head, dual zone triggers, dirt cheap. I just started to build some the other day.

i would love to know how your going about the diy kit..!

i've heard good things about 'hart dynamics' i think..

are you thinking of using the mp as the brain i guess?

i'd like to do it but i got some money coming up and know its gonna be a good investment, should hold it's price fairly well. i'm gonna get an acoustic kit also for fun.
i was told second hand kits are the way to go, and for 1 or 2 stacks i will be able to get a very nice kit if i keep looking(got a few ppl in recording with they're eye open for me).

but really i can't wait, this is the next step for me coming full circle back to drums. i can't wait to start jamming with real musicians again, and actually writing songs that way..

check this link:
http://www.edrums.info/index.html


Also, the vdrums forum has lots of people posting about this stuff:
www.vdrums.com/forum/index.php

crazy.. that's way to much effort for me, lol!

haha. yeah, fair enough. I feel ya. Earning $2500 to blow on a mesh kit is way too much effort for me.

A follow up note:
My DIY kit is coming along spledidly, and although the Alesis Pad Control could not accommodate multiple MIDI note output to correspond to different hi hat pedal positions, their Trigger IO allows 3 MIDI notes for open, closed and pedaled, which more than suits my needs.

MPC = 1st class drum module!

good to hear..

Earning $2500 to blow on a mesh kit is way too much effort for me.

i got 7 stacks of inheritance coming up that's the only reason i'm considering one.. first thing a thought of when i found out. it's getting messy though now all my elder relatives have to sign off on this back and forth paper bout.. and my mum is doing alright herself so she don't need the money type thing, so she not really helping. might take a month might take a year or two, looks like it's turning into a court thing so, meh. when it happens, it happens. i'm forgetting about it untill then..


it would be dope to get stuck into the mpc more, as the drum module though.. instead of having another module. there really is no need.. just midi the mp up to bfd2 and down to your diy kit.. although 96ppq is very limiting when trying to play acoustic styles. i think the td-9 is 480 or something, same as my fantom i'm pretty sure. but sampling/building kits/chopping etc is a pain in the ass on the fantom.

i've got a few ppl looking out for a decent 2nd hand acoustic kit, AU$1000-2000 will buy a dope 2nd hand kit w/cymbals.. just for fun, i reall really miss playing the drums!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is a dope thread, good info on learning to live drum on the pads!!, yo that building ur own drum kit site is dope, i didnt know it was that simple to build ur own drum trigger, that is sick!!

I just want to bump this thread for more information. Looking for any tips people may have about playing the mpc live.

I've been trying to leave the kick on the second pad in from the bottom left corner, and hitting it with my thumb. I'm not sure if I like it though.

Anyone else care to share how they lay their drums out across pads and why it helps ?

I saw Jeremy Ellis in an interview talk about practicing "finger independence" for MPC drumming, also he stressed that to get better keep your sounds in the same pads no matter what kit or program you are playing. Kicks in the same spot, snares in the same spot, all sounds in the same spot each time. Obviously it is conditioning.

Also, what do you guys call this style of mpc work ? Finger drumming ? Live MPC playing ?

i'm not really great at the live drumming thing, but i find for practice (along w/ playing over a break, etc.) what helps is sometimes i will just make a track of high hats, then practice using multiple kicks and at least two snares over it.

you get the constant rhythm of the hats (and obvs these dont have to be straight 8ths or 16ths) and you can vary yr practice quite a bit without getting discouraged or losing the beat too badly.

i map my drums the same way on all my samplers after trying different things and experimenting a fair bit. much like someone ^^ above - in vertical rows. i do four kicks, four snares, hats (open up top, closed at bottom), two rides up top, two rims or sticks below (or brushes or percussion, depending on which bank).

lastly - something i've been doing is recording myself playing a shaker or tambourine and then looping that and practicing kicks, snares, hats over top. same idea as the one above (constant rhythm, shifting beat). good practice.

Couldn't sleep so I'm up watching youtube vids and come to find out Jeremy Ellis has uploaded a series of tutorial MPC/MPD drumming vids.

http://www.youtube.com/jeremyellismusic