[DM10] 8 LAYER INSTRUMENT (From Single Trigger)

[Hellfire]

UP TO 8 INSTRUMENT
LAYERS ON A TRIGGER.
(With just a DM10 and a Midi Cable)

[REDbox users please note that screens may be labeled/look differently within your module]

Theory of Operation:

One of the the coolest features of the DM10 is the ability to layer two instruments together to get one unique sounding instrument. As cool as this feature is, it does have the limitation of only using two layers. What if you could layer more than two instruments? You would be able to pull off some pretty cool velocity layering tricks on your triggers. This opens up the DM10 even more. Being able to layer eight instruments per trigger is not a well know technique. To do this without an external device, we must trick the DM10 to think it is being triggered externally with its own midi out signal using just one midi cable. You may remember we used this technique for the DUAL ZONE HI-HAT function. This time around we will have to make use of the Chord/Arpeggio setting as well for each trigger that we wish to layer.

There are some limits to this technique. First off, we are limited to 35 midi notes total. Each trigger you wish to have eight layers will require four of those notes. This means ruffly only 8 triggers can be used this way. There is also the polyphonic limit. The DM10 tops out at 64 note polyphony. It’s a very good possibility that one may hit that limit using this trick while playing.

MORE TO COME…….

[rhysT]

Just responding to a query related to this topic from clickflare (http://www.dmdrummer.com/index.php?topic=6398.msg44114#msg44114).
 
The DM10's Chord function allows up to 3(x2) extra instrument layers for most trigger inputs (except the hihat and ride cymbals), and can be useful for creating custom sounds (like snare drums) when the A & B layer combos don't produce the sound you want. Although connecting a 'loop-back' cable between the DM10 Midi In & Out will cause a slight phase shift effect on the drum sounds.

This DM10 Midi note map (http://www.hellfiredrums.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/DM10-Midi-Note-Map.pdf) shows spare midi notes available for the chord notes and they are accessible by scrolling beyond the instrument names on the EDIT INST page.

For example, on the EDIT INST>MIDI>CHORD/ARP page for any kit's SnrHd input, select Mode:CHORD and assign Note#2: 029(Conga Lo Open), Note#3: 062(Conga Hi Mute) & Note#4: 066(Timbale Low). Then try tweaking their level and tuning or maybe change the voice/s to Random Timbale sound/s, etc. Btw, if you're keen to try up to 8 sound layers the chord notes 'B' layers are available.
Also try different COMP settings like Jazz/Rok1/Crunch on the EDIT INST>FX page.
 
To compare the snare sound with and without the Chord notes, just change its Drum Chan number from 10 on the EDIT INST>MIDI page, which can also be useful to exclude the cymbals (etc) if required.

Maybe someone else is interested in experimenting with Velocity settings for the extra sounds, as suggested here: http://www.dmdrummer.com/index.php?topic=4780.0

Enjoy your Christmas guys and hope the new year's a good one!

[rhysT]

While trying to create some better Rock snare drum sounds using Midi control of the extra chord notes in a DM10 kit, I assigned combinations of Snare head & rim sounds to A&B layers of the spare Midi numbers as follows and set their initial Level A/B=70/50 and Semitone=0:
Midi#...> Layer A & Layer B:
Midi#067> BL65x14 Open & BL65x14 RS 
Midi#068> LU5x14 SS & LU5x14 SS RS   
Midi#069> McD6x14Stk & McD6x14Stk RS
Midi#070> P6x14 FFS & P6x14 FFS RS 
Midi#071> R5x14DynStk & R5x14Dyn RS
Midi#072> Studio Snare & Studio Rim

With a combination of Snare voices like 'Blues Club' & 'Piccolo 6' on the Snare head A&B layers, I then tried selecting various combinations of Midi#067 to #072 for 1 or 2 chord notes. The overall snare sound can be fine-tuned by tweaking settings for each voice on the A&B layers, plus the FX COMP options allow more variety for the overall sound/s. 
It's easy to create extra voice combos (like #067 to #072) and copy them to other kits as required.
Btw, if any cymbals aren't fully sounding due to polyphonic limits (as flagged by HF), you should turn off at least one chord note.
Also the Note Chase function should be deselected to avoid unwanted effects being added to the voices/sounds while tuning them.

[clickflare]

Wow rhysT many thanks for the detailed explanation.
I just read your reply, sorry for my late reply I have been away from some time.
I will try this tomorrow and give you my impressions, hopefully I get everything you explained.


Cheers.