Cymbal cutting out, any suggestions?

[jman 31]

Alright guys, I know this is a Roland forum, but I love this site and think this is the best place to get an answer to my question. I have an Alesis dm-5 module and a diy single zone cymbal. The cymbal will play fine sometimes and then sometimes it cuts out almost as if there was a choke on it (won't play through the whole sound effect). I don't know if its a setting or what. I tried switching the crash with the ride but it still does it which tends to make me believe its in the module. Anyone else had this problem?

Thanks
Jman 31

[Guest]

Alright guys, I know this is a Roland forum, but I love this site and think this is the best place to get an answer to my question. I have an Alesis dm-5 module and a diy single zone cymbal. The cymbal will play fine sometimes and then sometimes it cuts out almost as if there was a choke on it (won't play through the whole sound effect). I don't know if its a setting or what. I tried switching the crash with the ride but it still does it which tends to make me believe its in the module. Anyone else had this problem?

Thanks
Jman 31

Double check the "Retrigger" settiings for the cymbal. Try turning it up and see if that gets rid of the cutting out problem. Sometime if you get too much vibration on the cymbal it can cause it to cut out. I hope this helps. Good luck.

[Gastric]

When I had my D4 my hihat would cut out exactly as you described. The cause was the cable end slowly slipping out of the jack. Apparently it was a bad/weak jack, my recollection was the tip connection end of the jack wasn't bent heavily enough at least when visually compared to the other jacks I had. Solution was to replace the jack.

As far as the technical reason I'm not exactly sure. But maybe the D4/D5 needs an continuous piezo signal to continue to play the sample? If the piezo signal physically cuts out (which is what would happen when my cable would slip out of the jack) then the sample cuts out, too? Just my guess.

[AdamCooney]

Try using one of your other cables and see if that helps at all.

[BarT]

Retrigger (cancel) is called Decay on a DM5, but I don't see how increasing that could help with a sound which is cutting out.

I think it's a limitation of the module which is not easily overcome, as the DM5 only has 16 voice polyphony (compared to 64 on most Roland modules). Alesis suggests things like putting all toms in a single (mute) Group, so that only one tom sounds at any time and precious simultaneous voices are saved.

Bruce

[Guest]

Retrigger (cancel) is called Decay on a DM5, but I don't see how increasing that could help with a sound which is cutting out.

I think it's a limitation of the module which is not easily overcome, as the DM5 only has 16 voice polyphony (compared to 64 on most Roland modules). Alesis suggests things like putting all toms in a single (mute) Group, so that only one tom sounds at any time and precious simultaneous voices are saved.

Bruce

Thanks BarT, you are correct. I was getting the I/O mixed up with the DM5. There is no Retrigger setting. I was looking for a way to adjust the threshold between preceived hits to the trigger. I control that with Retrigger on my I/O. I should have stated the "Nois" or Noise setting. Setting this value up may help get rid of unwanted triggering. If the cymbal is picking up all the little unwanted vibrations, you may hit you 16 voice limit pretty quick. Set the "Nios" up and see if it makes a difference. I figure it is something easy to try and if it doesn't work, try something else.

[jman 31]

Thanks for all the replys guys. I will try some of those options and see if it helps. I'll let you know.

[jman 31]

Turns out it was the setting called decay. I ran that number up and it solved the issue. Thanks again for the comments.

[Guest]

Turns out it was the setting called decay. I ran that number up and it solved the issue. Thanks again for the comments.

I'm glad to hear you got it solved. I guess I should have stuck to my original statement of the retrigger/decay setting after all. Oh well, you got it fixed and that's all that matters.

[jman 31]

I'm glad to hear you got it solved. I guess I should have stuck to my original statement of the retrigger/decay setting after all. Oh well, you got it fixed and that's all that matters.

HaHa, why didn't you say so in the first place? Seriously though, thanks for the help hellfire.