Author Topic: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure  (Read 5134 times)

Offline Dartanbeck

Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« on: February 02, 2022, 03:31:14 AM »
My DM10X Mesh kit, right out of the box took me on a journey spanning over two years - playing 4 hour gigs on a regular basis, and it still looks new, thanks to not using felt on the kick and using Ahead (Plastic-coated Aluminum Alloy) sticks instead of wood.

I've taught myself to play a bit differently simply because due to their constructions, the two type of instrument (acoustic and electronic) are entirely different playing experiences.

I am fortunate in that my singer is a talented sound engineer - and a successful one at that, doing sound for pretty much every event in this entire area. So he hires genius young talent to help him be in so many places at once.

One of these eager young people is now our Audio/Visual engineer and he truly lives, eats and breathes this stuff. He's been a real driving force in bringing my DM10X to full life for the audience.


Quite some time ago he was mentioning that I should try using midi out into a laptop running Addictive Drums 2.

I eagerly downloaded the demo, liked it, but didn't like the idea of trusting a laptop with my drum sound. You see, this laptop came with Windows 10 on it, but it barely meets the requirements for the OS alone - so I didn't hold out a lot of hope for this thing. Windows 10 has improved significantly since then, and now it's not such a horribly little laptop.

Anyway, because of this fear I never pursued the AD2 thing.

I ended up switching back to my acoustic kit (rare Yamaha Turbo Tour) under the request of my band. They told me that I'm a lot more Alive behind that kit. True. If I try to play like that on the DM10, I get missed triggers and issues with polyphony - I think.

My singer and I have finally successfully convinced the rest of the band to go with in-ear monitors - so now our stage volume is super quiet, so we pump a few monitors to give the audience some sound coming from the stage.

To help pull this off, I've just recently built a hybrid kit - My acoustic snare (1978 Ludwig 8.5 x 14 Chrome on Maple) and cymbals and the rest e-drums (DM10X and Sample Pad Pro midi into the DM10 module)

Works and sounds great.

Suddenly I remembered Aaron urging me to try AD2 (Addictive Drums 2, by XLN Audio) and asked him about it.

So that's a longish short version of where I'm at.
In future posts, I'll report how it goes.
Until then, Rock On Alesis Drummers!!!
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2022, 03:40:22 AM »
I already started talking/asking questions about the idea of this route vs obtaining a Strike module - accidentally hijacking one of purpledc's threads.

That discussion (with some incredible info from Chaser and AlanK) begins with This Post

Chaser provides images, links and (as always) incredibly detailed answers, suggestions and facts, while AlanK puts forth some useful info on his long experience doing this very thing - running USB midi out of the DM10 module into Addictive Drums.
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2022, 04:02:18 AM »
After the discussion in the link above, I made an appointment to meet with my singer (sound engineer) and Aaron (Audio/Visual expert who owns and knows how to use AD2) at the studio to experiment with this sort of setup on my hybrid kit.

Before I go on, I'd just like to say that the experiment went so well that next time I'll be setting it all up using only my DM10x Mesh kit and the Sample Pad Pro instead of a hybrid.

At first we just mapped out my triggers in AD2, since I'm running midi out of the Sample Pad Pro into the DM10, and didn't assign them to the midi notes associated with the sounds they were playing.

Mapping in AD2 is easy as pie. That all went down without a hitch.


I kept saying that I'd like a different sound - Aaron kept saying: "We're just mapping right now - we'll get to that next" LOL

After getting a cool sounding kit put together, they had me just play for a while - get the feel of it. I was using my in-ears while they listened through the full PA at performance volumes.

As it turns out, Aaron (clever chap) was recording my performance in Reaper - both audio (WAV) as well as midi.

Playing back the audio proved that latency was not an issue and that the hybrid truly works. AD2 drum samples are truly fantastic - sounded like I was playing a really nicely mic'd acoustic kit!

Even more magical, he then played back my performance in midi, so that we could then change the individual instrument of any trigger - live as my performance carried on!

Quote
=== TIP ===
Addictive Drums 2 comes with "Beats" - which are in the form of midi performances. So we can do this same thing as above without having to record a performance in midi first - just FYI

The most wonderful thing for me (even though the entire experience was wonderful!!!) was that the triggering came out nearly exactly as I played it - and I was playing as if I was playing my acoustic kit, not the way that I had to teach myself to play the DM10 - no missed triggers - no polyphony issues!!!

I mean, I truly felt ALIVE!!!

I asked my singer (I consider him to be my boss) if he would be okay with my trying an all e-kit again for next time. He was all for it!


I just ordered an upgrade for my laptop which will give it 16GB of fresh RAM sticks.

AD2 runs fine, even with Reaper running in the background, but I wanted this upgrade for a while now, so I went ahead and ordered it. I'm feeling "All-In" right now. My sound guys urge me to be patient and get more testing in before making the final decision.

I hate waiting!!! LOL
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2022, 04:05:27 AM »
I also want to point out that: in XLN's promo videos, they show how easily we can select preset mapping (mapping is what tells AD2 what each trigger input represents on the drum kit) from a list of popular brands.

In the video we can see that there is an Alesis category, but we don't see which kits are in there. DM10 is one of them! ;)
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2022, 04:14:26 AM »
Before my next report, I want to mention again that there is some great discussion regarding things that are nice to know when thinking about making this step into USB midi and VST drums in another thread beginning with This Post

There are also a lot more topics around these subjects in the rest of this (and others) section of the forum.

If you're thinking about taking that first step into USB midi drumming, be sure to dig around and learn as much as you can.

There are a lot of excellent VST drum software choices out there. I didn't know until the short discussion between myself and Chaser that Addictive Drums 2 is an excellent choice for someone like me, who will be beginning with a fairly low-end laptop. Other VST choices require a Lot more system resources.

So like I say... check out some threads, ask questions, do some research.
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2022, 04:26:02 AM »
Addictive Drums 2 Videos

Addictive Drums 2 Promo Video
https://youtu.be/pIA0rEjva1g?list=PL9AB9C09A02B43CA3

Addictive Drums 2 - How to connect and Map your e-kit
https://youtu.be/KTWu7bF_MKg?list=PLwTTL1o7K93ZvHCliOC35AIrU2DbwtPdx

Addictive Drums 2 Promos Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9AB9C09A02B43CA3

Addictive Drums 2 sample videos of some of the kits (ADpaks) (sold separately)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwTTL1o7K93aYxSXHBOQpf8Kfy4TY05mQ


Me and My DM10X Mesh Kit - Love This Thing!!!
« Last Edit: February 02, 2022, 04:47:30 AM by Dartanbeck »
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline AlanK

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2022, 02:12:34 PM »
First of all, where you up all night posting this wonderful journey of yours???

Second, I totally enjoy reading your well written/documented experiences throughout the process, it's so inspiring and its like reading a good book that you don't want to put down.. I am glued and can't wait for the next installment!

You're so lucky to have the excellent technicians on hand to assist you with all of this. Of course, since you're playing professionally, you need to have those resources so you can focus most of your energy and talent to performing, right? But its great to have a handle on how it all works individually and as a whole. I got my first taste of sound and lighting back in highschool in the mid 70's, joining the tech club. But of course it was just basics and the gear was old school.

When I remarried a decade or so ago I bought some light fx and dmx gear to save on hiring a dj and the bug was reborn.. then I got my first ekit and began to learn about midi and AD2 and audio interfaces and recording software.. but it's so hard to be in and out of the drumset and tinkering with audio connections, mic'ing, the DAW, recording, plugins and all that, plus I have a few lights I set up in the rafters, and then I've been recording my jams and practices and buying/learning various camera techniques and then all the production stuff.. it's exhausting and I keep telling my buddies we need to find a friend who is a dedicated audio techie to take all this off my hands but we're so not pro and since this pandemic we've only jammed twice in two years.

Anyhow, sorry, didn't mean to hijack your posts.. read this and then I can delete it, just wanted to share my excitement with your process and add some of my own experiences. Cheers brother
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

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2022, 12:42:25 AM »
Delete it? No way!!!

That's not hijacking. What I ended up doing in that other thread truly was  (accidentally) a solid hijacking, hence my making this post to carry on :)

I'm all excited now that I ordered 16GB of RAM for this little laptop.

Funny. AD2 and Reaper actually run decent using what little RAM Windows doesn't chew up!


In the meantime, I'm endeavoring to pick out my first three kits for AD2. Kind of a bummer that they don't offer more Latin Percussion, orchestral instruments and the like in their individual instruments section - just more drums.

So I'm wanting to grab up the Pop kit just to get the claves and vibra-slap! LOL

The cool thing is that, even with only three initial kits, each individual sample has so many possibilities. I was floored when I started messing around with Overhead and Room levels - and then comes tuning!!!

Once I get a solid idea of the initial kits, I'll devote a lot more energy on Reaper.

Oh, and another thing that really drove me nuts in the studio during our tests  - the fricken Cymbals!!! Yummy!!!
AD2 really has some amazing sounding samples!


As for writing, I just do that. I get a bit lengthy because I always have more to say - even after I've finished.
A good example would be to check out my website: Dartaneck.com

It's just a whole lot of this sort of banter, but instead of being about drumming, it's about making digital CGI movies. That's been a hobby of mine for just over ten years now.

The site began because the forum I help people on keeps upgrading/changing their forum/web software, leaving many things broken after their 'fix'.

I don't like to complain about that because it's just something they had to do getting as popular as they did. Duck tape no longer held their servers together! :)
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2022, 08:09:56 PM »
Trying to narrow down to 3 AdPaks (full drumkit sample packs for Addictive Drummer 2) has become far too much of a burden. So I'm going to try and opt for the Custom XL collection, which will give me six picks instead of three.

In these 'collection' products, we pick and choose what we'll have in AD2 when we fire it up.

There are curated sets which come with 2 AdPaks and 2 Midi Packs (midi track collections of beats) that are already picked out and follow a cohesive theme.

Custom Collections (what I'm referring to in the top of this post) give us our choice of AdPaks, Midi Packs, and KitPiece Packs (a product containing a single instrument) - the number of each determined by which Custom Collection we purchase:

  • Custom - 3 AdPaks, 3 Midi Packs, 3 Kitpiece Packs
    Custom XL - 6 AdPaks, 6 Midi Packs, 6 Kitpiece Packs
    Custom XXL - 10 AdPaks, 10 Midi Packs, 10 Kitpiece Packs
    Complete - All current AdPaks, Midi Packs and Kitpiece Packs

I play mostly rock, but in that I still enjoy using sounds that appears to be more attuned to other styles of music.

Also, each AdPak contains it's own collection of drums (at least one of each: snare, bass, rack tom, floor tom) Cymbals and some kind of FX percussion instrument.

One of the packs contains a vibraslap, two percussive blocks and at least one more. The drums in this pack also sound great, but I'm after a different sound - yet I really like that vibraslap!!!


The hardest part about this sort of thing (compared to, say, a Strike module) is the picking and choosing, knowing that the sounds we hear in their promos will undoubtedly differ from how it sounds in our own live PA sound. Such is life.
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Chaser

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #9 on: February 06, 2022, 08:43:30 PM »
Trying to narrow down to 3 AdPaks (full drumkit sample packs for Addictive Drummer 2) has become far too much of a burden. So I'm going to try and opt for the Custom XL collection, which will give me six picks instead of three.

In these 'collection' products, we pick and choose what we'll have in AD2 when we fire it up.

There are curated sets which come with 2 AdPaks and 2 Midi Packs (midi track collections of beats) that are already picked out and follow a cohesive theme.

Custom Collections (what I'm referring to in the top of this post) give us our choice of AdPaks, Midi Packs, and KitPiece Packs (a product containing a single instrument) - the number of each determined by which Custom Collection we purchase:

  • Custom - 3 AdPaks, 3 Midi Packs, 3 Kitpiece Packs
    Custom XL - 6 AdPaks, 6 Midi Packs, 6 Kitpiece Packs
    Custom XXL - 10 AdPaks, 10 Midi Packs, 10 Kitpiece Packs
    Complete - All current AdPaks, Midi Packs and Kitpiece Packs
I play mostly rock, but in that I still enjoy using sounds that appears to be more attuned to other styles of music.

Also, each AdPak contains it's own collection of drums (at least one of each: snare, bass, rack tom, floor tom) Cymbals and some kind of FX percussion instrument.

One of the packs contains a vibraslap, two percussive blocks and at least one more. The drums in this pack also sound great, but I'm after a different sound - yet I really like that vibraslap!!!


The hardest part about this sort of thing (compared to, say, a Strike module) is the picking and choosing, knowing that the sounds we hear in their promos will undoubtedly differ from how it sounds in our own live PA sound. Such is life.

Check the Overviews...a number of the Factory Kit presets are played for each Adpak..Audition with an iPad etc connected to your PA to get an idea.There are actually users on youtube that have videos of each and every preset but the XLN Videos are probably the most accurate..The Factory Presets/Demos are played using MIDI files..you can Mix/Match etc and also import your own..

EDIT:
I forgot to mention..XLN runs Promos...a lot of the time it's 40-50% off.You missed the Holidays but there is usually one in the Spring.
I also recommend you join KVR Audio It's FREE..(one of the few these days).They will notify you of sales and new releases etc..a lot of which are never seen by the public unless you sign up at each developer.
One thing to note..XLN uses a lot of Pseudonyms for preset names ..for example the Black Velvet Kit has a preset named 228.6mm Nails..(228.6mm = 9 inch)

« Last Edit: February 06, 2022, 09:28:45 PM by Chaser »

Offline AlanK

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2022, 05:55:24 PM »
Yes, as Chaser says, there are loads of sales year round by XLN Audio.. I've always waited for the 50% off ones. My first intro purchase was the Fairfax 1 and 2 bundle. But I love the Black Velvet adpak, and the Studio Pop/Rock series.. and the Funk adpak, eventually got the Heavy and Metal, the two Jazz adpaks, the Retro, Blue and Black Oyster.. they'd go on sale for $59 or so and I bought all the extra pieces except the persussive bits. Try to find samples of the Black Velvet kits, I think they're my favourites. Will show you the extent of my obsessive purchases in two screenshots..  :)

Edit: I have the Black Oyster adpak, it just has an image in that grid that looks greyed out.. that's the colour of the cover image.
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

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #11 on: February 08, 2022, 01:55:33 AM »
Funny you guys mention what you've mentioned.

I've been watching those overviews quite a bit to help myself get a grasp of what I like from each.

The fun part comes in when you talk about the kits.

At the studio last week, we ended up with a quick test kit that we all liked for a quick example of what we can do with this. My sound guy, Aaron, has the complete lineup. He gets paid to do drum replacements on albums and such, so they have a Lot more than just AD2. He just recommended it to be because of much of what Chaser has said about the niceties of AD2's small resource footprint.

We used Black Velvet for everything except that he really liked a kick from United Heavy. I will be digging much deeper when I make the final default kit.

To get there, he first mapped out my Sample Pad Pro sends.; When we got to what was connected directly to the trigger inputs of the DM10, AD2 already had the plan.

I voiced my opinion of not liking the sounds I was hearing - not knowing at the time that the signal from the PA to the in-ear box was too hot and overdriving the signals, even though the volume was fine in my phones.

He told me to play anyway. As I did so, my singer who owns most of everything noticed the hot feed and fixed that as I played. The magic of these very nicely recorded acoustic drums filled my ears. As this was a hybrid kit, I only rarely heard the AD2 china and cowbell, though they came through my phones perfectly mixed with my acoustic Sabians and Zildjians.

Okay, I had no idea that he was recording my thumping around. Luckily I was playing something cool to hear back.

So he instructs me to get out from behind the kit while he played back the recording.

The next thing was very cool to behold, and sold me on wanting to take this direction right away:
Aaron explained to us that, not only did he record audio (WAV) of the performance, but he also recorded via midi  - both done using Reaper.

So he initiates playback of the midi performance. Wow. Listen to that wonderful meter I pulled off when I was just listening for what was going on!!! LOL

Playing a bit of a rhythmic solo being sure to nail everything available to me, it made the perfect thumps for what came next. Aaron started changing the instruments in real time within the AD2 interface.

AD2 has amazing features for sound and 'feel' shaping for everything individually, and the many presets are great for getting an entire kit as close as possible before making individual tweaks if needed.

My singer and I agreed that this is deserves further exploration - but I'm pretty much sold on going this route - it'll be really nice for getting the perfect sound and mix with the live band, but will also fit the bill perfectly for the movie soundtrack I'm about to orchestrate.   It just feels like a big win Win to me.

So when I was messing around with the demo version of Fairfax at home on this laptop, the last major part that I discovered was the "Beats" page - something that I've been purposely ignoring since I'll be performing the beats.

I'm glad I came to my senses and checked it out!

The Beats page contains a very large list of great midi performances to try out when setting up the kit.  I am very impressed with what come with the free standalone AD2 - I mean, there are a lot of very nicely played arrangements!

As I mentioned, I was using the demo version of Fairfax (1) and that only includes the kick and snare as far as drums go. Very limited. But the cool thing is this: Since at the demo stage we have very little to no instruments to choose from, in order to keep messing around in demo mode, we begin playing with all of the various ways to alter the behavior of each instruments sound and dynamics, etc.,  A really cool, yet not overly-complicated set of tools that are really fun to mess with!

I have a gig coming up, so as much as it would be nice to wait for a sale, I'll be getting at least the Custom collection very soon to get started, but I'm fairly certain that I'll be able to scrape up enough to go ahead and begin with the Custom XL collection and start with six full AdPaks, six midi packs, and six individual instrument packs.

I checked it out and that will still leave plenty of stuff left for me to want to grab when sales arise! ;)

Thursday night we go in again and dial in my knowledge of running this stuff (as a backup for when Aaron isn't present) as well as to try removing all of the acoustic elements and go back to an all e-drum setup. I love the stealth of a quiet backstage! :)
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #12 on: March 02, 2022, 02:21:41 AM »
Okay here we go.

I was able to grab AD2 - I got the Custom XL collection, paid for a license for Reaper, two Roland heads, a mounting arm and clamp to hold my Sample Pad Pro to the rack like a cymbal. That will be a game changer for me. And finally an extra set of my favorite "AHEAD" drumsticks and a pair of 15' USB cables.

Really soon my sound engineer is going to teach me how to run multiple kit setups easily via Reaper, but I'm already loving how slick the whole Sample Pad Pro/DM10/Addictive Drums 2/Reaper works.

I think it's truly mind-blowing how much more sensitive my pads feel - including how much more response I feel from the trigger settings within the DM10 module while running through the midi setup.
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2022, 02:35:02 AM »
Addictive Drums 2, as it turns out, runs beautifully on my less than mediocre craptop.

But that's not all it's good for.

AD2 has some amazing samples to pick from. Yeah, I got the Custom XL collection, but even going for just three ADpacks will definitely get a great sounding kit with many options. These kits sound delicious!

The samples are really fine recordings of some fine drums, and AD2 also includes "Room" and "Overhead"(mic) adjustments specific for each kit. These adjustments alone can really make some fast tweaks or alter the sound of the kit entirely.

The Edit room is where we can really get into it.

We can drag values around on a graph to adjust whether or not we let the drum ring, adjust the tuning and overall depth of tone, add effects.

Some of the pros that are good at setting these things up for pro studios are the folks who have provided the settings for the many (many) preset options we have to choose from.

I've been going for a very clean sound to send to the sound people, so they can have complete control.
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #14 on: March 02, 2022, 02:42:37 AM »
Next stop is Reaper - an incredible DAW that works perfectly for sending my drum sounds to our X-Air system.

Within Reaper, we have set up a separate track from each individual trigger. With that set up, we can now control each instrument going into Reaper from AD2, as well as the output of each to the PA.

To help in this, we send the kick and snare each on their own channels, but group all of the cymbals and such as a single track to the mixer, as well as to group the toms.

So now we have two great tools for mixing the individual kit pieces and four distinct tracks going to the PA system. That's Awesome!

Furthermore, since Reaper is running, and it's actually a fully blown DAW, we can also record audio and/or midi any time we want. Bonus!!!
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline AlanK

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #15 on: March 04, 2022, 12:09:05 AM »
This is all great news, brother! Good luck with it all and enjoy the new sounds. I also noticed that depending on which Adpak and kit arrangement I'm using, it totally totally changes the tactile feedback that I get when playing.. maybe it's also in my mind.. but using my best monitoring overear headphones I can be in a world of my own, and some of the sets just change how it feels and how I perceive the set.. with some kit pieces or fx (and I'm talking just the preset kits in the packs) I actually feel like my stick bounces more or the kick beater buries, or bounces more or less.. some kit presets seem to give me better skills.. I'm sure its to do with reverb and the sampling and the room size etc but whatever it is, and I haven't tried other VSTs to compare, but AD2 just has this way of giving me a much better playing experience and I can't go back to the module (my DM10). I haven't tried any of the Strike modules so they could be similar to what I get out of AD2.

Hey, let us (me?) know what Adpak of the 3 you like the best, or what preset(s) you are loving. I have a few favourite go to's and sometimes I'll spend an hour or two on one alone when I'm playing to tunes or practicing. Other times I realize I've got like a dozen paks and all the presets in them and I move around them and then suddenly I have a new favourite and I set it to the default for startup. And sometimes if I'm playing to songs I'll try to match the sound of the original drums.. and sometimes I'll use a totally different kit to give it a new flavour. Endless good times...

I also change my stick size from time to time.. I'm not a heavy hitter most of the time, so use a lot of 5A's (I like the ones with varnish or whatever the coating is to keep them in my hands).. if I'm playing hard rock I'll grab a larger pair, and for softer stuff I have a couple of those smooth light ones with the cutout rings at the base (headhunters or something.. pretty light sticks.. esp when my arthritis is bad and it's hard to hold onto heavy sticks).
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

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #16 on: January 31, 2023, 11:57:07 PM »
Okay, it's been a  l o n g  time since I've been here.

Since then I've played numerous full length (4 hour) gigs with my new Addictive Drums/Reaper setup.

Our board is an X-32 (whatever that is LOL) so I didn't need any sort of special anything for latency. X-32 has its own solution for that. Just USB midi to it and, Bam!!!

Here's a quick sample of how good it sounds recorded from the audience with a freaking cell phone!
https://youtu.be/PGLPZ3GbUIQ

I've been begging ever since we started down this road, and finally this week I have the whole band on board... we're going to start playing to a click using my midi setup with Reaper to coordinate it all.

It's going to be a Lot of fun adding in little audible queues, like "Walk This Way - 2 - 3 - 4... and we start the song, then Bridge - 2 - 3 - 4) sort of stuff, but also to lay in some bongos, tambourine, etc., etc., into the backing tracks. One thing I do know about X-32 is that it has 32 tracks! ;)
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Hellfire

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #17 on: February 01, 2023, 08:25:08 AM »
Okay, it's been a  l o n g  time since I've been here.

Since then I've played numerous full length (4 hour) gigs with my new Addictive Drums/Reaper setup.

Our board is an X-32 (whatever that is LOL) so I didn't need any sort of special anything for latency. X-32 has its own solution for that. Just USB midi to it and, Bam!!!

Here's a quick sample of how good it sounds recorded from the audience with a freaking cell phone!
https://youtu.be/PGLPZ3GbUIQ

I've been begging ever since we started down this road, and finally this week I have the whole band on board... we're going to start playing to a click using my midi setup with Reaper to coordinate it all.

It's going to be a Lot of fun adding in little audible queues, like "Walk This Way - 2 - 3 - 4... and we start the song, then Bridge - 2 - 3 - 4) sort of stuff, but also to lay in some bongos, tambourine, etc., etc., into the backing tracks. One thing I do know about X-32 is that it has 32 tracks! ;)

Your band and your drums sound great! Good mix.

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #18 on: February 01, 2023, 11:55:59 AM »
Thanks!

Okay, especially in this particular situation, there's no way my acoustic kit would have sounded that great over a cell phone recording - no freaking way!

Being an affordable gigging band there are some shows when the drummer gets really good attention with mics and fine-tuned mixing. But lets be serious. How many times have I set up my drums only to hear: "Okay we'll go kick, snare and overhead"? Too many times to count. Which is fine, but that's when you know that the drum mix will be mediocre at best. But probably closer to the poor side.

Acoustic drums really have a hi output, so playing indoors makes them come through far beyond whatever the PA is putting out, making the mix that much harder to dial in.

New this week, my audio/visual tech, Aaron, is giving me a Lot of power with Reaper*

We're recording all of our song to a click - my drums record via midi, so I can go through and tweak my Addictive Drum instruments.

Recording them in click is just for data purposes right now - data we can use to set up each song with a click and backing tracks in some situations.

Anyway, once this process is all done and we're using this in our gigs (probably one of our next shows coming this month) I'll have the ability to record the band in multitrack right from my Reaper. Looking forward to that!

Now I just have to snag a few videographers! ;)
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #19 on: February 01, 2023, 11:58:27 AM »
By the way, the 'quick' mic setup I mention above - I've given it a nickname: Poor Tom
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline AlanK

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #20 on: February 06, 2023, 09:17:47 AM »
Sounds fantastic my man! Love your updates and what you've been up to.. keep posting.. I've subbed to the YT channel :-)
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

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #21 on: February 06, 2023, 11:57:24 AM »
Sounds fantastic my man! Love your updates and what you've been up to.. keep posting.. I've subbed to the YT channel :-)
That wasn't my YouTube channel, Mine is all my digital CG work I hobby with:
This is a demo reel of the current edition of my Rosie hero, who was modeled after my wife!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1-5VfrVzZcg#t=
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline AlanK

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #22 on: February 07, 2023, 09:24:26 AM »
OMFG! I don't know what's more impressive, your rendering skills or your wife's modelling transferred to digital. I'm just, in awe. That was incredible work.. I'm going to watch more of your vids after work. Like.. just... wow
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

Offline Dartanbeck

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #23 on: February 07, 2023, 11:22:54 AM »
LOL!!! Thanks!
Dartanbeck.com
Alesis DM10X Mesh - Laurin Drums & Cymbals - Strike Module
Dartanbeck.com Digital Artist

Offline AlanK

Re: Addictive DM10 Drums 2 - Grand Adventure
« Reply #24 on: February 08, 2023, 10:47:12 AM »
mindblown
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