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Advanced kit settings

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AlanK:
I was wondering what you folks have tried in the way of advanced sound shaping for your kits. This is kind of a two part topic, so if anyone thinks it would be split that's fine. Here's what I've been wondering and wanting to compare with other's findings:

1) how are you getting the drum/cymbal sound that really does it for you? Are you layering two voices, are you layering a voice from another type of instrument with the first, ie. adding kick to a crash or just layering a snare that's snappy but has a resonance along with a soft, raspy full type of snare drum like the Blues or Deep voicing? what's your favourite tom set? I think to me, that's the area that frustrates me the most.. there isn't enough selection of tom types that I like.. but lately I'm starting to try layering ones like the Temp 8/10/12/14 with say the Ludwigs or the StSnares or Y MCAs etc

2) I've just begun to take some time to try out the FX sound shaping section and have been both impressed and frustrated both.. in some tests I've changed the compression type and settings, changed the room reverb, adjusted the panning to really pronounce a far left hi-hat and 1st crash, push the ride, last tom and 3rd crash way to the right and so on. I think room type and compression have been the settings that I've had some great success with turning a few of my user defined kits into really fun and more realistic sets to play. But I've also found that in the predefined options there are way more hollow, echo-y room settings than smaller venue options..I know I can pick one and then make fine adjustments so that I can have a medium room with some compression but not go overboard.

So my point is, I'm sure more than half of us have been loving and using our DMs for a while and created some of our own kits, modified some of the others, yet not really taken the hours/days that are necessary to explore the full gamut of features available to adjust to create a really kick-ass drum kit. Of those who have delved into the FX settings, or found some awesome layering combinations.. what's really doing it for you? What do you prefer? Are you into small room close mic? Do you get off on concert hall boomy sounds with a lot of overhead mic? What's worked for you?

rhysT:

--- Quote from: AlanK on March 17, 2016, 09:24:07 AM ---So my point is, I'm sure more than half of us have been loving and using our DMs for a while and created some of our own kits, modified some of the others, yet not really taken the hours/days that are necessary to explore the full gamut of features available to adjust to create a really kick-ass drum kit. Of those who have delved into the FX settings, or found some awesome layering combinations.. what's really doing it for you? What do you prefer? Are you into small room close mic? Do you get off on concert hall boomy sounds with a lot of overhead mic? What's worked for you?

--- End quote ---

There prob'ly aren't many new ideas for creating useful kit/instrument sounds that haven't been suggested on the forum already.
You could try mixing some Latin Perc sounds with the Tom sets on their A/B layers for a bit of variety.

Some of my useful DM10 kit/instrument sounds & combos are included in this topic: http://www.dmdrummer.com/index.php?topic=4240.msg42481#msg42481

I've also created some 'kick-ass' DM10 kits by adding a Korg Pandora multi-effects module (with amp simulators, etc) for improved drum and cymbal sounds. There's more info about it in this topic: http://www.dmdrummer.com/index.php?topic=6153.msg42936#msg42936

Currently I'm playing and tweaking the DM10 kits without the extra effects unit to find preferred combos of the built-in Compress and Reverb settings that sound OK for each kit. The attached list shows my current COMP settings (plus initial EQs), and for REVERB I'm mainly using: AmbBrite, RmSmlDrkon, Studio or SmBathRm with most kits. I've added extra Reverb in most of my Pandora effects combos and can easily select any 4 presets (from 200 available user programs).

rhysT:
I've been trying to simulate a 'round-robin' effect for my DM10 snare head and rim sounds, and a recent topic on Vdrums forum got me thinking about adding an extra layer of some Random instrument sounds via Midi (without using the DM10 Chord mode).
https://www.vdrums.com/forum/advanced/tips-tricks/1145243-here-is-how-to-stack-sounds-on-td-modules-with-midi-and-perc-sets   
It highlights an advantage the DM10 has over the TD30 for multi-layering instrument sounds.

I'm using a cable between the module's Midi In and Out connectors to add more depth to the Toms and Kick sounds but the snare drum sounds had an apparent phase shift effect. This was improved by combining Random Lo or Hi Timbale instrument sounds with the snare head and rim zone sounds in my kits #81 to #173. I've assigned the Timbale sounds to spare Midi inputs #71 & #72 and set the Snare's head & rim Midi numbers to trigger those 2 spare Midi notes (via Ch 10).
If you want to try it with your own kits, simply setup the extra snare drum zone sounds in the EDIT INST> MIDI settings:
Snare head - change its Midi note from #38 to #71 (& assign Random: Lo Timb Rnd as the Midi #71 sound)
Snare rim - change its Midi note from #40 to #72 (& assign Random: Hi Timb Rnd as the Midi #72 sound)
FYI, the spare Midi notes settings are accessed by scrolling past the trigger input names on the EDIT INST page (refer to O/M pg10-12)
I mainly chose the random timbale sounds to add more dynamic variation to the snare sounds, but you could try any other preferred random sounds, etc.
The cymbals in my kits sound OK, although any kit instruments with unwanted latency effects can be deselected from Midi channel 10.   

I've also corrected some irregular Midi note assignments in my kits and the updated DM10 Sysex files are available at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s4g979xfpic14ok/AADhHzPvGrWXOK1HYPbdBSqga?dl=0 

Btw, To enable or disable this effect easily and compare the change in instrument sounds for each kit, I inserted a switch in the Midi cable (as shown) and velcroed it onto the module. Another option is to simply switch the DM10 Midi Local Cont ON or OFF in the UTILITY>MIDI>INPT menu (refer to O/M pg-30). Btw, Midi Thru must be set to OFF (via the MIDI>OUT menu) to avoid unwanted signal data feedback.

Hellfire:

--- Quote from: rhysT on January 02, 2017, 02:46:15 AM ---I've been trying to simulate a 'round-robin' effect for my DM10 snare head and rim sounds, and a recent topic on Vdrums forum got me thinking about adding an extra layer of some Random instrument sounds via Midi (without using the DM10 Chord mode).
https://www.vdrums.com/forum/advanced/tips-tricks/1145243-here-is-how-to-stack-sounds-on-td-modules-with-midi-and-perc-sets   
It highlights an advantage the DM10 has over the TD30 for multi-layering instrument sounds.

--- End quote ---

Awesome work!

It's a shame you were only inspired to think about this after reading something over at Vdrums.com. With all the advanced tricks that are listed here I would have thought this would have been inspired by some of the info already listed. Imagine using this same technique in conjunction with:

[DM10] 8 LAYER INSTRUMENT (From Single Trigger)

Using the Chord function would yield a much more "random" effect with the Random instrument sound you choose. I only say that because there can sometimes be a pattern to those random instruments.


--- Quote from: rhysT on January 02, 2017, 02:46:15 AM ---I'm using a cable between the module's Midi In and Out connectors to add more impact to the Toms and Kick sounds but the snare drum sounds had an apparent phase shift effect. This was improved by combining Random Lo or Hi Timbale instrument sounds with the snare head and rim zone sounds in my kits #81 to #173. I've assigned the Timbale sounds to spare Midi inputs #71 & #72 and set the Snare's head & rim Midi numbers to trigger those 2 spare Midi notes (via Ch 10).
If you want to try it with your own kits, simply setup the extra snare drum zone sounds in the EDIT INST> MIDI settings:
Snare head - change its Midi note from #38 to #71 (& assign Random: Lo Timb Rnd as the Midi #71 sound)
Snare rim - change its Midi note from #40 to #72 (& assign Random: Hi Timb Rnd as the Midi #72 sound)
FYI, the spare Midi notes settings are accessed by scrolling past the trigger input names on the EDIT INST page (refer to O/M pg10-12)
I mainly chose the random timbale sounds to add a subtle variation to the snare sounds, but you could try any other preferred random sounds, etc.
The cymbals in my kits sound OK, although any kit instruments with unwanted latency effects can be deselected from Midi channel 10.   

I've also corrected some irregular Midi note assignments in my kits and the updated DM10 Sysex files are available at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s4g979xfpic14ok/AADhHzPvGrWXOK1HYPbdBSqga?dl=0 

Btw, To enable or disable this effect easily, I inserted a switch in the Midi cable (as shown) and velcroed it onto the module.

--- End quote ---

Thanks for posting the information. Not many people travel down the road of advance techniques and tricks. Once a user masters Midi and how it works for drumming, the DM10 becomes one of the most powerful drum modules on the market.

It's a shame that most eDrummers just don't get midi. BTW, don't be surprise if (or when) the new Strike comes out that it will not have these upper level functions of the DM10. I tried to stress to Alesis early on about these type of functions but unfortunately most Alesis eDrummers didn't get it and there for never rallied behind the cause. They were too worried about only multiple samples of instruments (which is important) for a given trigger as if that and that alone is all that is needed for good acoustic drum emulation and its not. Time tell. I just wish these kinds of topics happened years ago with the DM10 and not at the end of its life when no one is really paying attention.

rhysT:
Yeah HF, the "8 LAYER INSTRUMENT" topic shows the DM10's potential for multi-layering instrument sounds with the Chord function, although I just wanted to use 4 sound layers (2x A plus B) for any DM10 trigger input (except cymbals) by combining spare Midi# (71 or 72) with each head or rim zone.

Btw, I tried mixing the Lo Timb Rnd & Pan Timb sounds on A & B layers of Midi #71 for the Snare head to improve its dynamic range. I've mainly used the default settings for each random timbale sound and they allow fine tuning variations of the snare sounds, including their dynamic velocity pitch settings.

Also when tweaking settings (in Note Chase mode), the Midi kill switch is useful for selecting Snare Midi #38 & #40 (when open) or Midi #71 & #72 (when closed)

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