Drum Masters 2 - cymbal mapping / articulation

[jouxplan]

Hello again, apologies if I keep asking silly questions, but here goes -

I have got my signature Gretsch kit sounding really sweet on my TD20kx, and am down to trying to sort out some fine details. Firstly, I cannot see how I can get it to recognise a choked crash. I can choke my crashes with the TD20, but have not worked out how I can do this with DM2. I have tried the various different mapping options, but to no avail. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Secondly, I would like to be able to play the centre articulation of my crashes such that instead of crashing, they make the sound a crash makes when only gently hit with a stick - as in gently riding the crash. Again, my TD20 has this effect, but I cannot replicate it in DM2. I have tried mapping it as a centre ride, and altering the tuning but this does not sound right. I have tried the same thing with a ride bell, but that was worse! I have also tried adjusting the envelope, but that failed too.

No doubt I am being stupid again.........

On the plus side, I recently recorded the Gretsch kit for my Genesis Tribute band iGenesis on YouTube, and everyone loves the sound of the kit , so thank you! Have a look here

Many thanks!

Alex

[Squids]

Regarding the chokes that the V-Drum cymbals do, this doesn't work with DM2 in Kontakt like it does with the internal sounds. The message that that cymbal is sending through midi is unfortunately aftertouch so the problem with doing something like modulating the the amplitude with aftertouch to turn it off is that when you let go the sound would creep back up (and while it would a LITTLE with choking a real cymbal it wasn't natural sounding when we tried it). There may be a way to get around this but off hand I don't know... if anyone else has any ideas or knows of a Kontakt-based drum kit that does respond to the V-Drum cymbal choke let me know.

The way around it though is that we have samples of choked cymbals which actually sounds more like the real thing because it is the real thing. So it's just mapped to a different key in the iMap. Not all cymbals have it though but some do.

As for checking out other articulations, there are a number of ways to do that with DM2. Remember you also have the on screen keyboard to audition different articulations across the midi spectrum. You could load a kit in iMap to hear ALL of the various performance articulations there are including what you're looking for in the sound of a cymbal played from different positions or having different dynamics and sonic qualities. So once you hear an articulation you like from a cymbal the way to make THAT articulation regardless of what it is be mapped to a particular pad on your set is to first FIND it this way then once you know it's the center articulation of crash X that you want (doesn't have to be from the same kit) then you go BACK to your Grestch in V-Drum mode for example and unload just the cymbal you want to replace (click the little 'x') and then go into your INSTRUMENTS folders and load JUST the cymbal you wanted to slot in (and merge it with the kit you have loaded so it's added in instead of replacing it). Then you go to the MAPPING panel and set it to CUSTOM. Select the articulation you wanted and lick on "Midi Learn" and then hit the pad on your kit that you want it mapped to. It automatically maps the sound to that midi note that the position of the pad you're hitting is sending. Then after you do that save back the MULTI of the whole kit so you don't have to do that again.

I'm long over due for some video tutorials showing some of these tricks so I am going to see if something can be done about that. For those that really know how to use Drum Masters 2 there's so much more that can be gotten out of it.

By the way, we have a BUNCH of new Signature type kits to release for it as well as a massive cymbal library so that's coming possibly this month. Brand new previously unreleased content.