bitman Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 (edited) I have been using the Session Drummer for years. My Alesis kit maps 1:1 to it and I now can enjoy the midi note names for my drum hits. I thought, due to the encouragement from various YouTube channels I should switch to AD2. - What a PITA in comparison. Because the AD2 vsti does not conform to GM drums, you have to use the fiddly drum mapper which is ok, but the end result was these little arrows for drum hits without my newly gifted note names. So after days of messing with it for days, I kicked AD2 to the curb and went back to SD just to get back to where I was. So: What's a contemporary drum synth that maps to GM today than y'all like better than SD? Or am I running down the wrong rabbit hole? TIA Edited October 23, 2019 by bitman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Bone Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 A friend of mine has the same sort of issue, and we ended up editing the kits in AD2 to remap it to follow GM conventions. It is important to note, though, that the AD2 note number mappings support a CRAZY large number of different kinds of variations on the kind of events that can be made for each kit piece - WAY more choices than what are contained in the standard GM drums specs. That gives the user an incredible amount of control over the triggered sounds, and worth looking at. That being said, it would be nicer of they had an easier way of deciding whether or not to use the more complex mappings, versus a GM configuration. Anyways - the AD2 drum kit sounds are quite good, so I suggest you look at changing your loaded AD2 kit's mappings to follow the GM standard, and it has those mappings in its settings, once you specify the GM Drums to be used. Perhaps that would solve your issues, AND give you really nice sounding drums. If I was more awake and not running around already this morning, I would dig back into the manual to find the relevant text to paste that here, so you could see the steps to follow - I apologize for needing to attend to way too many other things in a time-crunching sort of way. As far as other drum synth software, Native Instruments' Battery 4 is good also, and can be purchased stand-alone, I believe, or you can get it in the Komplete bundled software from Native Instruments. Bob Bone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitman Posted October 22, 2019 Author Share Posted October 22, 2019 Thanks Robert. AFAIK, The AD2 synth standalone can be told to map to GM but not the VSTi which is the one I'm using exclusively. I have a support ticket about that into xln but the silence so far makes me believe I'm correct. And yes there are many articulations for various sounds some of which I have been looking for for ages. Like a stick on the rim, and a two stick "click in". I figured worse case I could sample them and use them in SD but I don't want to make a duct tape and wire kludge if I don't have to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scook Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 I doubt the process for the stand alone is any different than the VST but I have not bothered to look. Here is a small video changing the AD2 VST to GM (note the CbB standard header above the plug-in UI). There are also presets for Alesis in the same drop down. Is this the "fiddly drum mapper" mentioned in the OP? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Bone Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Hi @scook - yup that is the screen I was referencing, and that did the trick for my friend, though those other mappings are indeed phenomenal, like they give you drum strikes against the Hi-hat stand, and that sort of thing, so it might also be worth continuing to explore that avenue, in addition to just mapping to GM using the screen in scook's clip. Bob Bone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitman Posted October 22, 2019 Author Share Posted October 22, 2019 (edited) Oh my my Scook! I couldn't find an example on youtube at all. only one for AD not AD2 I clicked everywhere except the ? which to my old brain said is just going to have help in it. But that's helpful so I shall try round 4 with that tonight. Thanks a ton! Edited October 22, 2019 by bitman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davet Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 I found Additive Drums to be way more complicated than I was willing to deal with. I've stayed with Superior Drummer 2, it just works. Never done the electronic drum thing with SD2 but 99.9 % of the MIDI files I've used (downloaded from the net) map perfectly to SD2. SD2 is still available on EBay. FWIW I've purchased "used" Toontrack software off EBay and done the license transfer thing. It works fine. YMMV....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitman Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 SCook, you cook! Thanks a million. AD2 works like I like now! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now