Author Topic: Impatiently Waiting...  (Read 961 times)

Impatiently Waiting...
« on: April 30, 2020, 03:35:41 PM »
Hi All,
I've made my leap into e-kit ownership. Well, sort of.

I've been playing drums for almost 20 years now (started when I was 28!) and have wanted a 6-piece all-mesh e-kit for about as long. Since I could not afford the matching Roland kits for all those years, I waited patiently. Well, last week I decided to go ahead and order a Strike Pro SE from Sweetwater. Unfortunately, they are back-ordered until early-mid June due to the pandemic, so I have to now wait another six or so weeks. I guess that after waiting almost 20 years, six weeks should be nothing!

I play in my church praise band, but that's only an occasional gig. We only play typically four times a year due to availability of the members of the band. It's a small church, so I wanted an all-mesh kit to keep the ambient noise down to a minimum. I will also use it to record live drums for some personal music as well.

I have plans to expand the kit with two more cymbals. My acoustic setup has hats, ride, Hi and low crashes, Wuhan 12" crash (my favorite sounding cymbal!), splash, and an occasional china. I have a Roland SPD-11 that I will use to convert trigger-to-midi. I also am considering eventually getting a VST and have been casually looking at EZD, SD, and SSD. That'll come later though, and likely only if I feel I need more or better sounds than the Strike module provides.

As I said, for now I am impatiently waiting...

-tim

Re: Impatiently Waiting...
« Reply #1 on: May 15, 2020, 02:21:45 PM »
Got my kit this week! I spent Monday night setting it up. Took a while because I did not want the default config that they always show. I prefer three rack toms across the front and the 14" as a "floor" tom on the right, with the ride just above it. I swapped the 24" rack bar with the 36" on the left. The short rack bar for the module then sticks out the rear, opposite the 24". Then I put the three crashes above the three rack toms.

I have been getting my default user kit configured and have all except the cymbals set. I guess I still need to get the rim sounds on the toms set also. I figure I'll use those for other sounds since I never really use rim shots on the toms. I have the 8" tom rim set as a tamb so that it is right next to the hats. Gotta figure out what to do with the rest.

I am still getting used to the hats. I am not getting a good gradual transition between opened and closed. It seems to stay closed until I get about 50% up on the pedal, then has a small sweet spot of a semi-opened sound, then goes full opened. Anyone have any suggestions?

I love this thing so far! I look forward to getting home from work each night to spend some quality time with it!

Offline Chaser

Re: Impatiently Waiting...
« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2020, 04:19:15 PM »

I am still getting used to the hats. I am not getting a good gradual transition between opened and closed. It seems to stay closed until I get about 50% up on the pedal, then has a small sweet spot of a semi-opened sound, then goes full opened. Anyone have any suggestions?


Not  all  kits  will  have  multiple  hi-hat  position  sounds...and everyone plays differently

Experiment with the pedal settings... Velocity Curve and Pedal Curve.
Majority of the Trigger Velocity Curves in the module are Linear except for the Rim,Cymbals (except Ride) are Log1 by Default.
The Hi Hat pedal Velocity Curve Default is Linear...
 
"Pedal  Curve:  If  you  prefer  to  hear  more  closed  or   semi-open   sounds,   choose   one   of   the   logarithmic curves (Log 1–4).
If you prefer a more open  sound,  choose  an  exponential  curve  (Exp 1–4)."


Re: Impatiently Waiting...
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2020, 07:25:56 PM »
I should have mentioned that I did go through the steps in the manual for fine tuning the hats. The point where I am at now was the best I could get it to do. I think I need to go back and play around with the settings more with a fresh mind and see what kind of results I can get.

Re: Impatiently Waiting...
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2020, 12:40:13 PM »
I think I now have the hats working pretty well for me. I spent a few hours on the kit the other night and played around with Sensitivity, Offset, V-curve, and the physical location of the pad on the rod and I seem to have settled on the settings that get me better results. I am pretty happy with the way it plays now. I just have to get used to playing hats on an e-kit now.

I also need to finally settle on the cymbal sounds I want. I've got two of them settled. I just need to figure out the third. I keep thinking I've found one that I really like, but then I play for a while and change my mind. I'll get there eventually.