Choosing the right processor

[robcod]

I am tweaking the hell out of everything to make my A2E sound like and amazing set of drums. The irony is that I have an amazing set of drums but they 1) don't sound great in a club un mic'ed. 2) All mic'ed up I am a slave to the sound man 3) everyone plays a regular set . So here I am with a TD-8 loaded with VeXpressions and further tweaked for sounds I like, tweaked for "hot spots", etc but listening back to recordings the drums still sound "triggered", especially the snare that gets a little machine gunny. I'm looking into td-20x or expanded but would hate to dump the $$$ on something that will not perform as I would like. I just want an amazing sounding and natural sounding kit everywhere I go. Consistent like McDonalds fries, everywhere you go they are the same for better of worse! Anyway the gen 16's are pissing me off and my td-8 is doing the same. Electrics with my acoustic cymbals seem to be nice but again I need to make the drums sound natural. Who's got my answer?

Thanks guys, loads or great info on here and you have all been a real help whether you know it or not!!

here they are as a sample
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xc86IKKG1I

[Rhythmos]

Have you considered going with 2Box?

[robcod]

from what I understand about 2 box is that I then need a dedicated computer and addictive drums or similar. Also I like the ease of use of roland but I am not totally against it if it is a clean conversion and a similar price

turns out im wrong about 2box. Great more research....

[perceval]

Yep. 2Box is another module, just like Roland, by it itself. You only need a computer if you want to load your own drum sounds into it.

[fulrmr(Daniel)]

The 20x or TD-30 will be giant step up in sound (especially VEX'd) from the TD-8 but IMHO after having both...I prefer the 2Box. Although it comes with it's own software to convert samples from most of the major popular VST libraries ther is a much faster process with the available 3rd party software on the market (very inexpensive) Also there is a 3rd party alternative to convert the stock storage of 4gigs to 32 gigs which will give you more space to load lots of kits with deep layered samples for your gigs. You should be able to utilize most of your Roland gear(pads) with the 2Box however you will need the proprietary HH or the 3rd party HH control box for the hats as your Roland controller will not work with it.

[robcod]

Thanks guys. The biggest hurdle is everything I am looking at "trying" is at a thousand or so dollar entry level. I am leaning toward the 2box but if I find the right deal on a td'
20x i'm scooping it up. As for the cymbals I either use my gen16's or acoustics on my DIY ekit. The TD-8 original mesh pad kit is set up at home for practice and will not get upgraded again, although I do have a vh-11 hats on it. the Diy kit is my giging kit and I did also just order some triggers from triggera, I have a TruTrak snare that really needs to go.

[fulrmr(Daniel)]

You'll find that most used TD20x's will be the same or more than a new 2Box module....but you might find a deal out there somewhere.

[robcod]

i'm pretty sold on the 2box. The open source is great. You guys should hope I buy one before NAMM because that will insure they release a newer box.

[robcod]

UPDATE: I downloaded the addictive drums free and hooked it up with my MIDI USB cable. The snare was amazing, five minutes later I own Fairfax 1+2. It's taking some tweaking to get things good and my VH-11 is lacking with the td-8 setting in midi. Last night I had my first latency issue with my rate set LOW, not so cool except when I turned up the module sliders and played around but not something I would want to happen on a gig. I do have two issues:
1) when I shut down after saving, AD2 forgets some of my mapping and the TD-8 setting in midi goes back
2) Will an audio interface improve latency or is it just one more extra link in the chain?
This just is the poor mans solution until I can get a 2box but my kids don't see the benefit is not eating for a couple of months to fund Daddy's drum addiction.

Also it seems that a good audio interface is running a lot of money, so man to choose from. At what point is it cost prohibitive and a top end module seem more sensible?

[perceval]

1) You have to save your user settings in the Map window. Once it is saved, AD2 will remember it, and you can also load it back should anything arises.
2) An audio interface will work, or not. There's a lot more to it. Here's a list of articles, for either PC or Mac, that talks about optimising your computer for audio duties. Have a look, try to tweak your computer and see if it helps.

A simple but effective 2-channel interface will be around $150. Paying more will get you either more channels, or better drivers and support with lower latencies.

[Macarina]

You should be able to utilize most of your Roland gear(pads) with the 2Box however you will need the proprietary HH or the 3rd party HH control box for the hats as your Roland controller will not work with it.

Could you elaborate on this a bit more? Thanks.

[robcod]

Thanks Perceval, you are a real asset. Just did some optimizing with performance and power settings. I am going to try this tonight at rehearsal for the first time so I may have several more questions later. I was hoping to get my new triggers by today to set up a new snare and ditch the TRU-Trac (not so true trac)

[angr77]

Robcod / You can in AD2 also set your created map settings + prefered sounds as your the startup choice. When you start/restart AD2 they will show up immediatly which is nice!

Something which is real nice when having 2 computers with AD2 on (You can assign two systems with the AD2 license) is that all your settings are synced to the XLN cloud...and mirrored down to your second system...so you could have one setup in the rehearsal facility...and one at home...giving you the freedome to tweak your drum sound to be perfect!

ANGR77

[robcod]

I was saving my settings and I even saved as start up but in the map where it said make my default, it was always blacked out. I think I have that handled but tonight more issues arose. The snare is almost non existent in AD2 but played in the td-8, then I was having cut out from my QSC k-12, turns out the switch got knocked to limit, then my tru trac snare pad was not firing all the time and has been giving me issues for a time anyway. ( the setting is pd-9), also tom 1 has a MAJOR hotspot. Really makes me want to dust off the old Mapex Orion Classics and just play, no latency issues there. The thing is I just want all this stuff to work great all the time but nothing is ever how I want it. It either sounds fake, triggers wrong, peaks unexpectedly, a cable goes bad, a jack loosens out, the Gen 16's sound terrible, the vh-11 doesn't open fast enough for a good accent, my acoustic cymbals sound weird with electric. Holy moley!! I need a great sounding kit at low levels in any room, that is road worthy, how is that so hard? Oh and it needs to look acoustic...

I think I need to sleep on it, and probably throw more money at it, don't tell my wife!

[fulrmr(Daniel)]

Could you elaborate on this a bit more? Thanks.

Which part?

The 2Box can only be used with it's own HH. No other brand HH controller will work. If you mean the HH controller box JmanWord sells this and it works superbly. Browse though the 2Box compatibility thread for more info.

http://www.vdrums.com/forum/advanced...nks-and-builds