Author Topic: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.  (Read 6827 times)

A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« on: November 18, 2009, 09:10:02 AM »
They pointed me to this forum om vdrums.com, so a copy/paste of my questions:

Hi,
I've started my first a to e conversion and i have a few unsolved questions.
For rimshots on my snare, do i use the keith raper piezo-switch diagram?
Can I pot 2 single zone toms on a single input and how would i connect those electrically?
Can i add another trigger io if i need more inputs? I would like to eventually get the same setup as my accoustic kit, which would probably need more the 10 inputs.
And a last question, can i use the variable hall hi-hat system on a alesis?

The kit i use live is this one (Cowbell is missing in the pic):
http://www.facefirst.be/jkrd/drums/sonor%20-%20003.jpg

I've ordered everything to make the toms, snare and bass. A hi-hat and single crash would be next.
After that I plan on slowly adding the rest of the simbals.

Any help, tips or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Offline Hellfire

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2009, 09:58:50 AM »
They pointed me to this forum om vdrums.com, so a copy/paste of my questions:

Hi,
I've started my first a to e conversion and i have a few unsolved questions.
For rimshots on my snare, do i use the keith raper piezo-switch diagram?
Can I pot 2 single zone toms on a single input and how would i connect those electrically?
Can i add another trigger io if i need more inputs? I would like to eventually get the same setup as my accoustic kit, which would probably need more the 10 inputs.
And a last question, can i use the variable hall hi-hat system on a alesis?

The kit i use live is this one (Cowbell is missing in the pic):
http://www.facefirst.be/jkrd/drums/sonor%20-%20003.jpg

I've ordered everything to make the toms, snare and bass. A hi-hat and single crash would be next.
After that I plan on slowly adding the rest of the simbals.

Any help, tips or comments would be greatly appreciated.
Welcome to DMdrummer.com!
It looks like audiopat pretty much answered your questions over at Vdrums.

You can use more than one I/O if you are using a computer. I have seen at least 2 members on Vdrums.com doing this.

You are able to use a variable hi-hat on the I/O, but I don't know if you can use a hall sensor type set-up. The hall sensor type is very new and has not been made for any TMI other than the megadrum. It would think it should work however.

The only other thing I could add is a wiring diagram for a dual zone trigger for the Trigger I/O. This diagram can be used for two single zone triggers as well.

I hope that helps. Let us know if you have anymore questions.


Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2009, 02:16:12 PM »
I've started construction today, i'll post that in a diffirent topic. If i come across any problems, i know where to find you ;)

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2009, 04:32:57 PM »
New question, could an Asus eee pc (or similar) be a good brain coupled with the trigger io.
I would prefer an old 7" one with a 4GB solid state drive and, I think, 512mb ram.

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #4 on: November 23, 2009, 07:48:04 PM »
New question, could an Asus eee pc (or similar) be a good brain coupled with the trigger io.
I would prefer an old 7" one with a 4GB solid state drive and, I think, 512mb ram.

I suppose it depends on what VSTi you intend to run, on which host and under what OS.

I'd suggest though you'd want to be looking at at least 2Gb RAM, and also that the processors you find in most if not all netbooks would barely be up to the job of driving the likes of BFD, SD2 et. al. Netbook processors tend to be single core, and run at fairly modest speeds. Translation is higher latencies.

I also have absolutely no idea how a solid state drive compares with (fast) traditional hard disks from a performance perspective. I have heard they deteriorate quickly with heavy copying/overwriting... but as storage for what is essentially a ROMpler it might be the way to go.

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #5 on: November 24, 2009, 10:52:31 AM »
I expected that it wouldn't be enough ram. I'm a bit surprised the cpu though.

U pretty much got the idea about the hd. Once installed it basicly just sits there. And a solid state drive is pretty much shock resistant.

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #6 on: November 24, 2009, 11:16:07 AM »
Looks like people agree with.
I'm leaning towards a small form factor pc now.

Edit: What sound card would u recommend?
« Last Edit: November 24, 2009, 12:00:22 PM by jakkerd »

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #7 on: November 24, 2009, 07:08:22 PM »
I have noticed the Presonus Firebox gets recommended on E-Drum forums alot, and it's relatively inexpensive too. The higher end of their range I suspect performs similarly with more channels, if you wanted to isolate different instruments.

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #8 on: November 26, 2009, 05:48:31 AM »
I think that's a little too much. I don't need a pro tools mbox, or something similar.

I think i will go for a Intel Atom 330 little falls maibord with a stick of 2GB ram, a sata dvd-writer and a 320GB sata hard drive. I'm gonna try the onboard sound first, if it's too slow, i'll get an internal pci-sound card.
All of this in a Mini-Itx case and i should have a small and capabel system.

This will all cost me less then 250 euros.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2009, 05:50:10 AM by jakkerd »

Offline Hellfire

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #9 on: November 26, 2009, 11:52:53 AM »
I think that's a little too much. I don't need a pro tools mbox, or something similar.

I think i will go for a Intel Atom 330 little falls maibord with a stick of 2GB ram, a sata dvd-writer and a 320GB sata hard drive. I'm gonna try the onboard sound first, if it's too slow, i'll get an internal pci-sound card.
All of this in a Mini-Itx case and i should have a small and capabel system.

This will all cost me less then 250 euros.
I don't know if you have seen this post over at Hellfiredrums.com but it seems to be right in the pocket for what you are doing.

Compact VST Systems Replaces Drum Modules?

Just a thought. Let us know how it goes.


Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #10 on: November 26, 2009, 02:39:16 PM »
That's the post that got me thinking.

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #11 on: November 26, 2009, 05:55:28 PM »
Be sure to download and use ASIO4All if you plan to use onboard sound as it won't have ASIO drivers and WMA/DirectX drivers will have too much latency. I've tried it accross 2 laptops and a desktop. I actually had the best results on my old 1.6Ghz Celeron based laptop.

I still think you're expecting alot from an Atom. You're asking it to move uncompressed samples at 16bit 44.1Khz for every drum hit onto a playback buffer in real time... as well as uncompress the sample (in SD2) or potentially stream the uncached sample from disk (in most other VSTs). This is on top of the housekeeping it is doing on a bloated OS (if using Windows).

If you do manage to tweak a high performing configuration with such a small form factor and no additional parts though, you may just start quite a trend. ;)

Best of luck in any case. I'll watch this space with interest.

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #12 on: November 30, 2009, 01:12:11 AM »
I just found out that the INTEL DG45FC mini-itx mainboard supports a core2duo cpu and has 2 ram slots.
I found a very cheap mini-itx case which alows for full sized pci cards, gives me pleny of options for a good sound card. And the extra case-height would also allow for cpu decent cooling.

Offline Hellfire

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #13 on: November 30, 2009, 09:40:34 AM »
I just found out that the INTEL DG45FC mini-itx mainboard supports a core2duo cpu and has 2 ram slots.
I found a very cheap mini-itx case which alows for full sized pci cards, gives me pleny of options for a good sound card. And the extra case-height would also allow for cpu decent cooling.
Your getting closer, I can sense it. ;D I looked at a lot of those ITX cases as well. The one I show in the picture at Hellfiredrums.com uses a core2duo and has room for only one PCI card.

So the big question, are you going to build it? I would have tried but didn't have the money to do it. :'(

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #14 on: November 30, 2009, 12:53:40 PM »
I just ordered the mobo, cpu and ram.
Intel DG41MJ-G41 with a Core2Duo e5300 and a stick of 2GB ram.
There's a second ram slot, so i will probably upgrade to 2x2GB in the feature. Case is also undecided yet.
I'm hoping to find one of these locally:
http://www.apextechusa.com/products.asp?pID=179
As it's cheap and is just high enough for a full-height pci sound-card, which is ideal.

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #15 on: November 30, 2009, 07:18:54 PM »
Liking the spec much more now. =D

Be sure to update when you've chosen your HDD, OS, VST Host, etc. Not to mention when it's all up, running and road tested. :)

Re: A to E conversion with Alesis Trigger IO questions.
« Reply #16 on: December 03, 2009, 10:03:15 AM »
I have room for 2 hd's, so i will probably go for a small OS drive and a larger vst drive. Os will be win xp as bfd2 and superior drummer both require a microsoft os. I will try to slim it down as much as possible though.
And i think i will go for Superior drummer 2 with the metal foundry pack.