Adding extra cymbals to my Alesis Strike Pro Kit

[louisdedecker]

Hello drummers !
I've been enjoying my strike pro kit for some months and would like to add extra cymbals. I do pratice/play at home for fun. Who knows, maybe one day I'll play in a band, play live but let's not get ahead of ourselves

So I'd like to expand my kit with 3 to 5 cymbals (I already bought 2 triggera splashes and 1 triggera china).
I would like to avoid having to use my laptop as much as possible and rely on modules (who could play custom samples?) if possible
Budget: 500-1000€

Here are various thoughts/solutions I had about that, I'd like to have your opinion / ideas :
- currently : strike pro module handles those extra 3 cymbals : I dropped tom1 (using a splitter for 2 mono cymbals) and use tom2 rim shot for the third cymbal. The problem here is that I max out the 200Mb of memory of the module by assigning different cymbals (pretty heavy samples), and I'm not even considering layered sounds which would need extra memory. > so I'm pretty much stuck here

go the "second kit" road
- use a second-hand kit (I saw a roland td6 kit for 450€€euros, a td9 with a broken kick sensor for 480€€€euros) > advantage: decent onboard sounds, plenty of pads to hit on. disadvantage: limited to module sounds
- use a new kit:
-- Alesis DM10 MKII Studio Mesh Kit - 777€€euros€ (https://www.thomann.de/gb/alesis_dm1...o_mesh_kit.htm)
-- Alesis forge kit : 535€€euros€ (https://www.thomann.de/gb/alesis_forge_kit.htm) > almost as cheap as a second-hand roland kit. module seems "decent", possibility to play custom samples. build quality of cymbals and tom pads seem to be crappy
- use a roland SPD-30 (800€€euros€) : advantages: plenty of pads to hit, decent sound library (or not?) Possibility to layer instruments (to further customize my cymbal sounds). could be used as a mini-kit controller.
- buy a separate higher-end drum module : second-hand roland td-25, or the Yamaha DTX700 (870€€€euros) advantage: plenty on-board sounds, possibility to play a (limited) amount of custom samples, multi-layering (yay!). disadvantage: people seem to complain the yamaha sounds aren't that nice (I read "machine-gunning"?), I'll have to buy all the extra cymbals / pads to hit on

go the "sample"-road:
- use a Roland SPD-SX Sampling Pad (715€€€euros): advantage: plenty to pads to hit, connect up to 4 of my extra cymbals to play cymbal samples (since that's what I want to expand). disadvantage: layering sounds is not as good as the spd-30 (can't trigger the second wave based on a velocity threshold). I'll have to find decent cymbal samples
- trigger samples on the Alesis Samplepad Pro (333€€euros€) with the ddrum ddti (170€€euros€) > I read plenty of negative reviews on the Alesis Samplepad Pro
- madness: trigger sample on an akai MPC live (1150€€€euros) with a ddrum ddti (170€€euros€). advantage: it's a sampling beast, total overkill ! use the akai mpc live to produce songs (different objective, I know but why not)

go the software road
- trigger software drums (ezdrummer, superiod drummer) with a ddrum ddti. > the downside here is that I'll need to use my laptop

It's (almost) driving me crazy ... so many possibilities !

This would be my order of preferences :
- Roland SPD-SX
- Roland SPD-30 > I really want to go for it but I fear I'll be too limited by the sounds, that's why I put the spd-sx on first position. (I could buy a cheaper sampler that would be triggered by the spd-30 later ?)
- trigger software drums (ezdrummer, superiod drummer) with a ddrum ddti.
- trigger sample on an akai MPC live > madness I know

What would be your opinion about this ?
Thanks!

[louisdedecker]

Right I guess I'm a little crazy but I'll go with the ddrum ddti triggering the akai MPC live

[urotsukidoji]

Greetings all,

On my Strike Pro kit, I just hooked up a Hosa YPP-118 Y Cable (1/4 in TRS to dual 1/4 in TRSF) into the module – which allowed me to split my single 14" crash cymbal into TWO separate 14" crash cymbals.

It works perfectly to clone that cymbal input! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ huh!

Cheers.
U

[Bertolucci]

Greetings all,

On my Strike Pro kit, I just hooked up a Hosa YPP-118 Y Cable (1/4 in TRS to dual 1/4 in TRSF) into the module – which allowed me to split my single 14" crash cymbal into TWO separate 14" crash cymbals.

It works perfectly to clone that cymbal input! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ huh!

Cheers.
U

Do you suppose that would work, if I were to add a second set of hi-hats? I like having an x-hat, but am curious to see if this is possible.

[dcb974]

urotsukidoji - I tried this with the Hosa YPP-118 and got nothing. No sound off either trigger. I also tried settings the trigger curve to CONSTANT and no luck. Any advise?

[thebigzw]

To the original question:

The 200mb limit is annoying seeing it every time you load the kit, but the effects on the sounds are minimal. From what I understand, It cuts a few samples here and there from various instruments - not the best thing in the world, but also not the end of the world.

Go ahead and build the kit you want and see how well it works being over the limit.

Then another trick to reduce kit size is to use the same instrument tuned differently. You could easily make 2 or maybe even all three of your toms the same instrument, just pitch shifted. It's a common technique on all modules (I even noticed it in some of the vex kits back when I had a mimic). Pitch shifting is a great way to save kit space

As to clonning the hi hat, I made my own "combiner" so I have two pads as the same hi hat input, both using the same pedal.

I would stay away from using an older Roland module because they will sound very different. You could probably pick up a second hand strike module for a good price and keep the same flavor of sounds