EZ Drummer Midi Learn Alesis Nitro Drum Set

[neenerella]

Hi all! I can't figure out what is going on and why the sound is not coming out of my monitors or being recognized in tracktion. I have tracktion 7 and it recognizes the midi input and the plugin is where it should be but when I hit the drums it is not recognizing within the ezdrummer plugin in tracktion. Is there a setting I am missing somewhere to enable this? When I hit midi learn at the bottom the screen that pops up is for, the "controls waiting to be assigned" screen does not look like a drum set at all and not sure how that corresponds to my alesis set. I have the drums plugged into the usb so maybe tracktion is recognizing that that way but not sure why it is not working in the program. I can hit the drums in the UI and it plays through the monitor but was looking to setup the drums as my midi controller. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-I also have Superior Drummer, not sure if that would be easier to work with or not. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks again!

[Peter Widdicombe]

I guess the question is - what do you expect from the MIDI drum set? Normally you would want the drum pads to either record MIDI for later playback to the electronic drums, or to record/play drum events.

MIDI learn is normally for assigning MIDI events to control functions - like take a few keys on a keyboard, or pads, etc, to control various Waveform functions, like rewind, record, play, etc. ? Once you "learn" that, then that button or key press will "do" something in tracktion rather than play the note.

[neenerella]

Thanks for the reply! I want to record input from the drums into tracktion. I thought the midi learn would assign the drum pad to the corresponding drum in the ezdrummer drum. Not sure why I still cannot hear the drum pad through the monitors. If I hit the ezdrummer drum on screen I can hear it. Can I not have the internet/youtube open or some weird thing I'm missing like that? Thanks!

[Peter Widdicombe]

First, make sure your drums are actually sending MIDI events. Pick a Piano patch and try - you should hear something (a different piano key) from each drum you hit... You can also figure out that way, by looking at the virtual keyboard, which drum pads sent which notes.
(or get a freeware called MIDI-OX that can monitor/display incoming MIDI notes; although you can't run it while Tracktion is running, as it "takes over" the midi interface.

If/when that works, try replacing the piano VST with a drum kit vst, and if you're lucky it will work. What you MAY hit is a "remapping" error, where, for instance, the drums send note C2 but the vst expects the kick drum on C3. In that case, you have 3 options:
1. Save current settings somehow, and create a custom mapping on the drums themselves, so that the sent note maps what the VST expects.
2. See if the VST has a custom mapping feature, so that the C2 or whatever the drums send, will actually play the kick.
3. Use a midi-mapper VST in front of the drum vst, so that does the note remapping.
4. Try a different .vst - some freeware ones aren't bad - and see if that default matches the drum kit.

If everything is off by exactly one octave, then I think the MIDI settings at the bottom can compensate for that... shifting an octave.

Personally, I'd do 3 first. I wouldn't like to muck up default settings in the drum VST itself; and some electronic drums are a pain to play with settings.

[neenerella]

Thank you for the info! Ok, so when I have the input in the track and the plugin in the track, I click on the input and the keyboard roll comes up at the bottom of the screen. So when I hit the keys it does trigger the sounds in the plugin. I tried ezkeys and ezdrummer. However, when i hit the drum itself, it is not setting the sound to go off in the plugin like it normally should. Tracktion is recognizing the drum to work as an input in the keyboard roll in both programs ezkeys and ezdrummer, however not when i actually hit the drum itself.
Ezdrummer does have an automatic mapping to the alesis drums but though that option is selected, nothing is really happening with that. I got the midi-ox, couldn't figure out how to use it. I tried the Superior Drummer plugin and the same thing, not picking up a sound but can play in the keyboard roll. I got a midimapper but also couldn't figure out how to use it for what i needed. So much for plug and play

[terrynoakes]

Just a shot in the dark, but is the Alesis transmitting in the right pitch to match Ezd.
I have one vst drum module that if I use a GM midi file, I have to transpose the notes an octave before the kit will sound.

[neenerella]

i dont think its transmitting anything.

[Peter Widdicombe]

When you have the virtual keyboard up at the bottom (and you can use it to trigger sounds), it should also work as a simplistic "MIDI monitor" as well - if you hit drum pads and all is set up, you should see the keys light up briefly as you hit the drum pads; AND you should see the input level on the track the midi input is assigned on bouncing - is this happening?

You DO have the input to the track assigned to the drum MIDI interface?

MIDI-Input.jpg

[neenerella]

tracktion snippit.PNG

Hi Peter!

Yes, I do have that part all setup. It seems that I can hear the sounds when I hit the keyboard roll and the sound does play through the monitor. However when I try to hit the drums, it doesn't make any sound.

[Peter Widdicombe]

OK - looks like there IS a MIDI drum mapper that the EZ drummer has. ARE you seeing evidence that the drum hits are reaching the computer properly?

1. The input level should bounce as you hit drums.
2. Click on the little red circle beside that level indicator to "arm" recording
3. You should see the virtual keyboard light up as you hit the drums.

If you do the above, then you should be able to map drum pads to your E-drum set; or just select a mapping if there is one available.

[neenerella]

When I hit the drums, there seems to be nothing reaching the computer. However when I hit on the keyboard roll, the sounds do go off and the keys on the keyboard are turning yellow. Even if I put the record button on and arm the recording, the above happens but still no drum communication to the computer. Ironic because the tracktion reads it as an input and also is able to use the plugin with the keyboard roll at the bottom.

[Peter Widdicombe]

This sounds like more of a MIDI issue outside of Tracktion - unless there happens to be a setting in Tracktion that is inadvertently filtering out the events.

1. If the Alesis is powered off, then you load tracktion, is the Alesis still showing up as a valid MIDI device? (shouldn't...)
2. If you shut Tracktion and power on the Alesis, THEN load Tracktion, does the Alesis reappear?

(This would indicate the MIDI cabling and device drivers are proper).

Are there settings on the Alesis that indicate what the output for each drum hit are? If this is a "head" that also has audio outputs, the options may be, for each drum (Internal -or- MIDI -or- both). It's possible the Alesis default setting does NOT send MIDI events, but just processes internally.

Are there MIDI settings that also specify WHICH midi output if you have both the old DIN (round plug with 5 pins) or USB MIDI? It may also default to the wrong one, although the first test above would probably indicate MIDI itself is functional.

MIDIOX
- Settings, MIDI devices. Make sure the Alesis is an input device
- MIDI monitor mode, then hit drums, and you should see note events in the event window. Make sure the Alesis shows up in the settings window in the lower right. When you click the device upper left, it toggles on and off...

[metrognome]

Try this ____ Settings - audio devices - audio device type - ASIO

[chico.co.uk]

Select your Alesis DM7X, and in the properties, untick the button that says "Record to note automation". Ie, turn that off.

Arm the input, as if you're going to record it. Make sure "Enable input monitoring" is still turned on, in the properties for that midi input

Does that work?

[chico.co.uk]

Basically, turn this off ...

note automation.png