Author Topic: sidesticking  (Read 2435 times)

Offline AlanK

sidesticking
« on: April 28, 2020, 04:53:36 PM »
Or is it called cross sticking? Anyhow.. maybe all of you already know this.. or maybe it'll help..

I have the DM10X, although I've modded it and I'm using a Laurin snare now.. but doing cross sticking on my ekit has been a bit of a hit and miss (literally?) and I don't use it often, and when I do, depending on the tune and if I do fills or go to standard snare hit during chorus' etc.. sometimes it's hard to find that sweet spot that works every hit. I know, generally, you flip the stick and place the tip a couple/few inches in from the edge, hit the rim with the butt end.. have tried various finger gripping to see what makes it easy enough to lift and snap it down without interfering with the sound.

Today I just placed the stick across both the sides of the rim instead of having one end on the mesh and I'll be damned, I got a perfect cross stick hit every time!

Small wonders for simple people, huh? Oh, but I've also removed the rubber rim protector.. I found it did deaden the rimshots and cross sticking to where I'd really have to pound the rim hard to make it work consistently but I have a feeling even with the rubber protector on the edge it'd still work a lot better if you lay your stick across both edges.

Just felt like sharin'.. has everybody had just about enough isolation for one lifetime?
DM10X with Addictive Drums 2, Pro X hi-hat, 4 crashes, foam cone conversion w Roland mesh heads, Laurin Drums snare and kick, Mapex P710W double kick pedal, Mapex 2 legged hi-hat, Behringer 8 channel USB mixer, Tascam 144MK AI, Samson Expedition Escape powered speakers

Online Hellfire

Re: sidesticking
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2020, 09:19:05 AM »
Or is it called cross sticking? Anyhow.. maybe all of you already know this.. or maybe it'll help..

I have the DM10X, although I've modded it and I'm using a Laurin snare now.. but doing cross sticking on my ekit has been a bit of a hit and miss (literally?) and I don't use it often, and when I do, depending on the tune and if I do fills or go to standard snare hit during chorus' etc.. sometimes it's hard to find that sweet spot that works every hit. I know, generally, you flip the stick and place the tip a couple/few inches in from the edge, hit the rim with the butt end.. have tried various finger gripping to see what makes it easy enough to lift and snap it down without interfering with the sound.

Today I just placed the stick across both the sides of the rim instead of having one end on the mesh and I'll be damned, I got a perfect cross stick hit every time!

Small wonders for simple people, huh? Oh, but I've also removed the rubber rim protector.. I found it did deaden the rimshots and cross sticking to where I'd really have to pound the rim hard to make it work consistently but I have a feeling even with the rubber protector on the edge it'd still work a lot better if you lay your stick across both edges.

Just felt like sharin'.. has everybody had just about enough isolation for one lifetime?

Hi AlanK,

Something to keep in mind. Since you are using electronic drums, some acoustic drum techniques are unnecessary. Unless you are just wanting it to look visually like your using an acoustic kit. The sidestick (or cross stick) is one of those techniques that are unnecessary. The rim of a electronic drum is no different than the head zone. You don't have to flip your stick, place part of it on the head, or lay the stick down in any way just to trigger the rim. Unless again, you want it to visually look like you are playing an acoustic kit.

You should be able to just tap the rim to get the cross stick. If it isn't picking up the light hit of your stick strike, turn the sensitivity up on the snare rim.

Now, with all that stated, if you are using a Roland module those are designed to trigger a cross stick in the manner you described.

On a side note. Sine you are using a DM10X kit (the original DM10 module), there is a programing technique to allow you to have both the cross stick and snare shot:

[DM10] THREE ZONE SNARE (with one dual zone trigger!)

In short the technique works using velocity differences. Low velocities (light hits) will produce a cross stick sound and high velocities (hard hits) will produce a snare shot. You might want to check it out.