Alesis D4

[BradAllenMusic]

Just purchased a used Alesis D4 for the purpose of using triggers with my drums along with Cakewalk. for the life of me I haven't been able to get Cakewalk to recognize it. Any suggestions? Have read thoroughly through the manual. no luck. May end up sending it back to Guitar Center but I need to know I'm not just missing some obvious setting. Maybe i just need to buy a newer drum module that will work with Cakewalk? 

Behringer U-PHORIA UMC1820 is my interface. Windows 10. Recognizes MIDI keyboards just fine, but not this drum module. 

 

Thanks! 

[RBH]

There's nothing to recognize with the d-4. There are instrument definitions that will populate the factory presets for drum names. Cakewalk will recognize midi note output from the D4. Make sure you understand midi channels, the D4 can be set to output on any of 16 Midi channels.

Hook the D4  midi out to the Midi input via ( 5 pin DIN connector ) of your /behringer UMC - it will pass thru the midi to Cakewalk.

 

[BradAllenMusic]

I will check it out again tomorrow. i've got the MIDI cable set up correctly. I believe I have the MIDI

channel set correctly as well but will look at that again. Maybe that's where I'm missing it. 

[james rector]

Ive got a dm5 in storage (doing nothing atm), no ac adaptor or anything, just the rack unit.  If anyone is interested get at me with a pm.

[BradAllenMusic]

Here is where I'm at. I did get the trigger working. Recording MIDI and audio. One other problem - I can hear the recording after the fact but haven't figured out how to monitor the Alesis D4 while recording. On the audio track it's going to master like every other track. MIDI input into channel 10, Midi output I tried routing to my interface midi out, which then routes to the alesis midi in. But there's no sound that I can monitor. Also tried midi out in drum map manager. i can see various alesis drum-sets there. exactly same results. whenever i try input echo on the midi track I get a horrible buzzing noise and the D4 stops working.

[BradAllenMusic]

I figured it out! Working now. Thank you for your help. ??

[Colin Nicholls]

Regards from a fellow Alesis D4 owner

[RBH]

Sounds like you had a midi feedback loop. Glad you got it sorted. Former D4 owner here and even made my own triggers from some leftover piezo materials I used to manufacture.  Tuning the D4 to different kinds of triggers is actually a lot of fun and can get pretty finely tuned too.  Then translating the midi to a highly multy sampled set is when you get the best payoff for all the work. I think it's still a unique and relevant unit all these years later.