Midi sensitivity settings

[condordontsurf]

So I just finally after two years , started messing with the midi sensitivity. What are some of the settings some of the other people on here use? I am using addictive drums right now for the most part but also use Steve Slate 5, and logic drum designer.

Will there ever be a time where we can adjust some of these things with the mouse or kind of like we can on the ipad. I see what you guys were trying to do with the menus, using the sticks, but I don't think its that practical for musicians actually trying to play with this on the fly.

[Wolfgang]

As a general rule, for each element I set the MIDI filter to the most high and the sensitivity settings to the most low value, except the toms I rise to between 20 and 40 for being more reactive. But this depends also to the samples you are using. The volume sliders aren’t affected when you are using MIDI.

[condordontsurf]

Thanks for the reply, Wolfgang. I definitely can tell certain samples need more settings lowered. Logic drums definitely seem to be sensitive. Is the midi filter an option in aerodrums , or is that in the midi program I would be using?

[Richard]

With certain drum VSTi's it is tricky to get the desired response for very soft hits. They tend to trigger too loud a note in response to very soft Aerodrums hits. One solution to this is to set the MIDI filter setting in Aerodrums to more aggressively filter out these notes. I recently noticed that Superior Drummer 3 seems to have added a "soft hit level" setting that looks like it will fix this by allowing you to decrease the volume of soft hits. I haven't tried it yet though.

We will be taking a different approach to user interface interaction in the future and I agree with you that supporting mouse and touch controls would help a lot. The reason we initially decided to use sticks for interaction is because it's handy if your computer isn't within reach of your seat and it lets you adjust a setting while drumming so you can immediately see how the change feels.

[condordontsurf]

Thanks for the response. I am a daily user of Aerodrums for close to two years now. I have played these things for hours at a time. I kind of remember life before them and after. I think for practical use, we just need to be able to tweak settings on the fly. I have of course went through the menus of aerodrums, but found myself just trying to work around it's limitations.

For me, I use aerodrums to listen to music and play along with music. Sometimes, this just means tapping my foot on the high hat or kick drum. I know Logic drums seem to be sensitive. I am still kind of trying to engage in the settings. It is tough, when you just want to sit down and jam.

[condordontsurf]

Wolfgang,

I tried what you suggested and yeah very quiet using Logic drums. I am now wondering how drum hit sensitivity latency (beginner, proficient, and expert) play into this?

[Richard]

The Drum Hit Sensitivity setting is kind of misplaced on the Latency screen as it has nothing to do with latency. Rather it controls a threshold value that determines how hard you need to hit for a sound to be triggered.

The idea is that beginners will have a better experience if small motions of the sticks are prevented from triggering hits that may not have been intended. On the other hand, experts who have good control over the sticks will want very subtle motions to trigger hits so they can play very fast ghost notes reliably.

In MIDI mode, the MIDI filter setting is similar to this but pertains to the MIDI velocity and can be set per drum. Generally you would set these filter values to prevent unintended hits being triggered, if you find that is happening.

[condordontsurf]

Thanks again for the response, Richard. I will experiment with this tonight.

[condordontsurf]

Richard,

IF I have midi filtering set to high and the drum sensitivity set to low on most drums, how does the latency setting work with this? I will experiment with it myself, but would like to hear from an expert.

I am quite pleased with how these are responding with the settings. I may want to actually perform with these in 2020, and want to get it dialed in perfect.

[Richard]

When you say 'latency setting' I assume you mean the drum hit sensitivity setting. This setting is applied before any of the others - when a (potential) hit is detected, if the stick speed is smaller than some threshold speed then no hit will be triggered. The threshold will be bigger for the 'Beginner' setting and smaller for the 'Expert' setting. Personally I always have it on 'Expert' and I would say that anyone who has played Aerodrums a good bit and is comfortable with it should do the same.