# Anyone Tried triggering EZ drummer with electric kit?



## Roundhouse_Kick (Jul 11, 2007)

Just wondering if anyone has tried using the MIDI OUT on an electronic drumkit to trigger the samples in EZ drummer? We want to get some rough demos of our songs down but don't have facilites to mic his real kit, and can't be arsed step inputting them all!

I've been looking around, EZ drummer says it has no specific support for this function, but if the electric kit adheres to GM then it should go to the right samples. Fair enough, but I just wanted to know if anyone had tried doing it, before I get my drummer and his kit round mine for it not to work! He's using a yamaha DTXplorer.

Do I just plug it in and set up like a normal midi instrument in protools?

If it doesn't work then I'll just take the stereo L/R from the eleccy kit but I'd like to be able to use the DFH sounds and be able to add compression reverb etc.

Cheers!


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## SevenatoR (Jul 11, 2007)

My drummer does this and loves it. Editing small boo-boos is a breeze. You shouldn't have any problems at all. 

CAVEAT: He and I both use Sonar, so I can't comment on the ProTools aspect, but if you can plug a MIDI keyboard in and make it work, you shouldn't have any trouble at all.


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## Durero (Jul 11, 2007)

I'm sure it should work. I'm interested in trying this myself.


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## newamerikangospel (Jul 11, 2007)

Of course, as mentioned, it shouldnt be a problem conidering step editing is just making a midi track on "note" at a time.


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## Thomas (Jul 11, 2007)

Wouldn't the latency be a problem?


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## JJ Rodriguez (Jul 11, 2007)

I don't get why you're going with this approach since you're not micing anything. You might as well just program the drums if you want the samples found in EZ drummer on your demo. He wrote the drum beats right? So he can still get credit.


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## Thomas (Jul 11, 2007)

JJ Rodriguez said:


> I don't get why you're going with this approach since you're not micing anything. You might as well just program the drums if you want the samples found in EZ drummer on your demo. He wrote the drum beats right? So he can still get credit.


Much easier and less time-consuming to use the trigger approach when it's feasible. It also adds the human factor.


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## Roundhouse_Kick (Jul 12, 2007)

Thanks guys, just wanted to know if there were any issues to be aware of when doing it but sounds like it should work just fine! Should be able to have a go in the next week or two, I'll post the results up if anyone's interested.



JJ Rodriguez said:


> I don't get why you're going with this approach since you're not micing anything. You might as well just program the drums if you want the samples found in EZ drummer on your demo. He wrote the drum beats right? So he can still get credit.



What high eye said!Simply to save time. Midi editing in protools is a bit of a pain if you're not experienced and step inputting every note and individually editing velocities etc would take me ages! Some of the most soul destroying afternoons of my life have been trying to program complex drum tracks! Much easier if I can just get the drummer to play them in, and then tweak them if necessary


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## newamerikangospel (Jul 13, 2007)

This is why I like fruity loops for drums. Since I dont have it setup as one midi track I can go through each samples pianoroll triggering and do a "slop" edit on the velocities, then fine tune. Im still not the best at it, but I can get some fairly realistic drum sounds. You simply have to understand the mechanics of drummers/drums.


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## Jeff (Jul 14, 2007)

high-eye said:


> Much easier and less time-consuming to use the trigger approach when it's feasible. It also adds the human factor.



Yeah, editing all the complex beats a decent drummer would play using a piano roll editor would take exponentially more time than just recording a midi performance, or even if you use a keyboard.


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