FD-7 and midi programing? Newbie questions

[Martin Stenson]

Hi! I've been recording drum patterns with Cubase for about 10 years now, trying to make them sound as "realistic" as possible (quite sucessfully actually). I've especially found that hi-hats are hard to simulate in a satisfactory way, so here's the question:

When using a V-drum sound module with a sequenser, can I record changes made to the sound with the FD-7?

What kind of midi data does it send? Velocity? Would a recorded drum pattern using a FD-7 affect external sound samples (if multisampled that is, low velocity = cl hat, medium velocity = half closed hat, hi velocity = open hat)?

If so, would you recommend a SPD-20 + FD-7 as a low budget "V-drum kit" for midi recording? (using both SPD-20 sounds and external sampler sounds)

Thanks!
/Martin

[e-drummer]

The module transmits Control Change 4 messages for the FD7.
Regarding your sampler question , search the forums using "Gigastudio" for some discussions that might help.

[This message has been edited by e-drummer (edited March 09, 2001).]

[Martin Stenson]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by e-drummer:
>The module transmits Control Change 4 >messages for the FD7.

Thanks. In a home studio environment, as in my case, does this mean I could use any physical midi controller instead of the FD7?

>Regarding your sampler question , search the >forums using "Gigastudio" for some >discussions that might help.

Thanks again. It's strange though as I kind of abandoned the idea of using GigaStudio for drums in favour of Vdrums which, as I've understood it, does more to the sound than just play back samples. Are Vdrummers generally dissatisfied with the sounds of TD10/TD8? As for sounds, would you recommend me going for Gigastudio+pro sample CDs instead of a TD8? I'm not a real drummer, and only plan to program drum patterns in Cubase using SPD-11/20.

Cheers,
Martin

[e-drummer]

As far as using any controller goes this has been discussed at great length and to be honest I can`t remember the outcome so I would advise a search using "SPD" as I think this was the controller being used with a non roland HH controller.

If you are going for the TD modules with a view to having the V-Edit capabilites of the module then I would have to recomend the TD10 over the TD8 as it has far more capabilities as far as editing individual drum sounds goes.
I must say though that the TD modules are not really designed as stand alone modules due to the way that the module uses positional sensing from the pads, It is not the same as "Velocity switching" that you may know of in the "sampler" realm.
The TD modules use a control change message that is sent just before the midi Note message to tell the module where abouts the pad was hit and what sound to play.
This can be programmed but is not as easy as programming a standard drum module or sampler.

I can`t speak for the rest of the guys here but I personally am over the moon with the sound of the V`s.
While I think it was me that kicked of the Gigastudio thing this was in reply to being able to get all the DDrum sounds on a PC and triggering them from the VKit and was not because I was dissatisfied with the sound of the V-Drums.

You may want to check out the LM4 from steinberg first as this is coming down in price and from what Ive heard (verbally not audibly) the 24bit wizoo kits are the dogs b******s.
Good luck
steve lynch