Are there any good options for timpani?

[MonkeyChops]

Hi everyone,
I recently took up timpani for my church. I was hoping I could come up with a good solution for practicing at home since timpani is so different than what I'm used to.

I have a HD-1 connected to my Thinkpad W520 via one of those cheapy midi to usb cables.
The laptop has:
i7 2630QM
16GB DDR3 pc3-12800
Nvidia Quatro 1000M
500GB ssd
Conexant 30672 SmartAudio HD

So far I've played around with demos of Reaper and Kontakt. I have been able to get the HD-1 to trigger a few different instruments but none have timpani as an option. I was thinking that even just triggering a keyboard would work but I don't see how to change what note is triggered as I go. This is all new to me, I never used those programs before. I used cubase a long time ago (win 98 era) just to record some live music from the garage band I was in, but that's the extent of my knowledge.

My plan was to simply hook up the hd-1 to my laptop and use the 3 toms and the snare to trigger timpani notes and just change the notes on the fly with whatever program I use. It sounded so simple to me but I've spent more time trying to achieve that goal than I have actually practicing! So I'm getting the opposite effect of what I wanted at the moment. I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. This is only ever going to be for practice and I don't have much money to throw at this, so I'm looking for a free or cheap solution if possible. It doesn't have to sound perfect. When I started this project I had no idea how expensive all this software was!

I guess my main issue is changing what note is triggered on the fly as the music changes, like what is required with real timpani. I'm not as concerned about the notes sounding exactly like a timpani as much as just being the correct notes. Is there an easy way to achieve this?

[yzf125]

This is very pricey but its just what your looking for >> http://www.native-instruments.com/en...ction-strikes/

[MonkeyChops]

That might work since it has tuning available for each instrument but oddly enough, timpani aren't one of the included instruments. It also doesn't look like the program tells you what note your tuning to. I guess I'd have to pull out a physical tuner which seems odd but that's what I do for real timpani anyways so not a big deal. However, for $300 and having no way to know if any of the provided instruments could actually reach the notes that timpani do, I don't think this is the solution I'm looking for. I wish they had a demo. Thanks for the effort though, I really appreciate it. If money wasn't an object, I'd certainly give it a go.

[yzf125]

You may want to ask questions about it in the NI forum, They have alot of knowledgeable users on there >> https://www.native-instruments.com/f...ms/kontakt.33/ Also email Native Instruments they always answer my questions in a timely matter.

FYI My TD-12 has timpani and tuning can be changed with the Hi Hat controller while playing.

[MonkeyChops]

Thanks, I didn't realize the TD-12 could do that. I knew the upper end Roland modules had the timpani sounds but I didn't know you could control the tuning with the pedal. How does it work for tuning each drum separately? Like say I have #1 drum tuned at 'D' and #2 at 'F' and I only need #1 to change to 'C' in the middle of a song, #2 would have to remain at 'F'. Is that possible?

I assume since your TD-12 has tune-able timpani that most Roland upper end modules made after that also have it then. Do you know if most of them have that feature, or better yet, what the cheapest one is that has it?

I've been wanting to upgrade but as I said, money is tight right now. I was hoping I could find a way to get the set I have now to work until I could afford a nicer set. The stupid kick already went out on my HD-1 and it next to useless already. I have my eyes on the strike pro right now. If it actually lives up to the hype, I might be able to afford one around October. However, with tax return coming up and my need to practice for church, I might be able to talk the wife into something a little sooner.