Using Roland td-17kvx to trigger session drummer or slate drums vst

[Steven Gerard]

Can someone describe in detail how to use my Roland td-17kvx e drums to trigger session drummer or any other drum vst?  Midi settings/setup, input/output, drum maps (totally clueless on this).  Pretend you're explaining this to a child, (of 62 years).  Lol.  Thanks in advance.

[scook]

While waiting from someone who owns an e-drum kit to reply this may get you started.

According to p10 of the TD-17 Owners manual from https://www.roland.com/global/support/by_product/td-17kvx/owners_manuals/ the TD-17 brain may be connected to your PC via USB. It is a class compliant device so no driver is needed to send MIDI to the PC.

Once configured according to p10 of the manual and connected to the PC, CbB should see the TD-17 brain in MIDI preferences. Unless you plan on using MIDI to record the sounds from the brain consider just selecting the MIDI input and do not select any MIDI output.

With the device enabled in CbB you should be able to add a MIDI track and record the kit.

With MIDI recording verified now comes the mapping exercise. There are several ways to do this. You will need to know what the drum kit is transmitting and what the drum VST expects.

The notes sent by the kit pieces may be set in the TD-17 brain. The Owners manual covers this in the Customizing a Kit section starting on p14. According to p17 the MIDI note assignment is in the Other menu.

If you prefer to use CbB to handle the mapping you can use either the Transpose MFX (add the plug-in to a MIDI track and hit F1 over the plug-in UI to read its help) or the drum map manager. You can either use the TS-17 documentation or simply record the kit pieces too determine the incoming data. Once the data for the kit is recorded you will need to add the appropriate notes to the map for the drum VST (the note data will be in its documentation). There are not many videos about the process. Here are a couple

https://www.blades.technology/music/daws-sonar-and-studio-one/sonar-drum-maps

and

 

While recording you may want to monitor the drums sounds coming from the brain rather than the drum VST to avoid the delay added when monitoring the drum VST from the DAW. This may be done by adding the audio outputs from the brain to you audio interface or mixer.

 

[John Nelson]

BFD3 has presets for all of the Roland kits and most others too.  "Mapping" is a one click thing.  I would assume Superior and the other popular VSTIs do, too. Maybe not Session Drummer though.  I would recommend a step up to a more fully featured drum VSTI.

[Steven Gerard]

Thank you scook and John.  

[Marke Burgstahler]

Thanks guys! I'm probably going to step up to a different drum VSTi...?

[Marke Burgstahler]

Update: I have downloaded and installed demos of Superior Drummer, EZ Drummer...I still cannot configure my Alesis kit to trigger ANY of the VSTi's. 

Alesis even sent me a replacement Nitro Mesh kit brain - same issue.

If someone has been successful in getting an Alesis Nitro Mesh kit to trigger a VSTi such as MT PowerDrum, or SI Drums from within CbB, I need some help. I am at a complete loss. Do you need some electric or acoustic guitars or slide guitars on a project, maybe I could do an internet session for you in payment?