Using Your MPC As A Drum Sound Module, Anybody Doing This?

I've been contemplating if I should pursue the notion of using my mpc with an electronic drum set.

Of course this isn't nothing new, and actually my boy has this configuration, but he's not that fluent with midi.

I've never tried his outfit to see what the outcome would be, so I'm asking anybody here that may be able to shed some light on this...(if you actually have this setup or know somebody who does rather than speculation or no experience with it at all).

I'd like to play out some patterns using the 4k and cubase/nuendo along with a electronic drum set as my controller.

dabmeister wrote:I've been contemplating if I should pursue the notion of using my mpc with an electronic drum set.

I'd love to do this, but there is no space around here.

So I'll just pull up a seat for this one dabmeister...

Yeah I trigger several different samplers with an electronic drum kit through midi.. It functions exactly as a midi controller should.. What exactly is your question?

Damn. I'm super into this. I use a Roland TD-3 kit sometimes with my MP1K, and sometimes an Alesis ControlPad. It's great fun and can make for some nice rolls and swing... so is there a question here, or just looking for general discussion?

More discussion than seeing if it works or not. I know that it can be done, but I guess if there's any proficient drummers amongst us that roll like this, is this a more prefered method of laying down complex patterns as opposed to trying to accomplish the same from the pads?

I'm not a drummer but I know how drumming should go if you want your performance to sound real with the nuances and all.

And more than likely it won't be me doing the playing anyway, I'll let a pro handle that while I engineer and take care of the other stuff.

I personally do not think it's easier to do complex patterns with an electronic drum kit vs. using the MPC pads. Sure, it's great being able to use both hands and feet, but once you get good on the MPC pads you can use multiple fingers and even your thumbs. If you're a drummer who has never used an MPC before, it would obviously be much easier to use the electronic drum kit, rather than trying to adapt quickly to the pads, but if you're already proficient on the pads, an electronic drum set won't nesecarily enable you make more complex drum patterns... You mention having a professional player do the playing, while you engineer the session, and something like that would make a lot of sense. I SOMETIMES feel like the electronic drums are a little "clunky" and the response isn't quite as good as the MPC pads themselves...

There are certain advantages, though... Most importantly is it's a lot of fun. It's nice to just play "real drums" along with a programed sequence while trying to come up with the perfect pattern. There's also something just very satisfying about triggering your own custom, sampled, kick drum sound with a real kick pedal. You are also obviously not limited to triggering just drum sounds, you can trigger any sound you want, so I often map one shot samples or loops to be triggered by the toms/cymbals, and then that way I can play melodic stuff AND drum sounds all from the electronic kit live wih no sequencing. Makes it pretty dope as far as a live preformance tool goes... The other thing that's pretty cool is I'll rout my MPC and my electronic drum audio outputs to a mixer.. I typically just mute the channel with the audio output from the drums, but if you want you can turn that up to and then you have instantly layered sampled drums from the MPC along with the drum sounds from the electronic kit itself... I'm not a big fan of straight up unprocessed drum machine drums though, so I often put in some work to make the electronic drums sound dope, but you can just scroll through the internal kits while you play and have instant access to a variety off different drums....

Doc, I've gots to give you your props on your post, that's what I was looking for. I'm pretty much set like what you discribed...a bunch of samplers and modules, but I'd like to take advantage of them from a different perspective, and obviously...you know what I mean.

So I assumed a lot would depend on how well your samples sound, how well they're edited, and if there would be any latency issues dealing with the triggering of those sounds, or at least the samples.

But that's kool, keep it up g.

One nice advantage of setting up an electronic kit as a controller is the possibility of stick rolls that your fingers will never be able to do on the little MP pads.

DJ Plan A wrote:One nice advantage of setting up an electronic kit as a controller is the possibility of stick rolls that your fingers will never be able to do on the little MP pads.

Yeah DJ, that's one of the nuances I was referring to. It's the ability to bring more realism to your game.

Im using my Roland TD9 electric drum kit to my MPC.
Im not sure if this is what ur after but here is what i do with it:
I just set the Midi In 2 of the MPC to the midi out of the electric drumset to record midi to the MPC.
Then one of my Midi Out of the MPC to Midi In of the electric drumset to trigger the sounds.
To get the drumfeel of recording the drums i always take off the quantize, cause if quantize is on everything u play will sound way diffrent.
There are things i had to configure on the drumset module but thats really easy to find in the manual.
Got alittle problem about the sounds though when i play with the speakers on and the MPC connected i hear the drum sound dobbel. Example when i hit the snare i hear the snare twice like there is a echo. Like the other one is delayed. Dont know if anyone gets me but lol whatever. Must be because its connected to the MPC. Without the MPC on it plays fine. But sounds Normal when i use headphones.

Good Info!