TD3 to PC for Dummy!

[Julli]

Hi all,

I'm planning to try playing my TD3 kit using PC sounds but I would need some help and advice how to do that. I'm not familiar with MIDI or the PC Audio things so everything seems to be a little bit confusing.

Here's my plan: hardware would be TD3, modern laptop PC and USB-MIDI cable (because the PC doesn't have a "proper" sound card). On a software side, I guess I would need some kind of VST host and some VST instrument, like EZDrummer? At first I would like to use free or demo versions of the software, just to make sure that everything works before buying any expensive SW. So, my questions are:
- is my plan correct, should it work that way or am I missing something?
- could you recommend some free or demo software that would be good to start with?

Thanks in advance,
Julli

[Joe_K]

Forget buying just a USB-MIDI cable and get a better overall sound solution that operates on either Cardbus or Firewire, and provides both audio i/o and MIDI (most likely, Firewire. Your choices and price-points expand enormously.)

You absolutely will need this for very quick audio (low-latency).

Any solution that includes an ASIO driver from the manufacturer is a candidate. You could try a USB Audio interface that provides MIDI as well, but I'd recommend Firewire for consistent output (non-"bursty")

[Julli]

Thanks for the suggestions but I was not planning to buy any expensive stuff at first since my plan is just to get to know something about these things. So on the hardware side, I propably will get that USB-MIDI -cable, just to get started.

But the software is still a mystery, I guess there is a Cubase demo that might be useful, are there any other useful and free VST hosts? Also, are there any demos for the EZDrummer or Superior or other similar software?