BFD2 via Midi with Drumit5 kit feedbacks

[Perico]

Hi everybody,

I have my Drumit5 since a long time now, playing firstly with internal sounds then VST export sounds with SDSE (Thanks again Lustar). So I decided to test BFD2 via Midi. Firstly I bought a Midi/Usb cable : http://www.roland.com/products/en/UM-ONE_mk2/. Connect Midi to Drumit5, Usb to my Laptop (Recent Dell M4800 workstation with 16Gb Ram, SSD, Intel i7, internal Sound Card with ASIO4ALL v2.11 Beta2) and then use the laptop Mini Jack audio output to enter in my ADAM A7 active monitors.
I succeeded to map everything correctly but not the HiHat. But that was not my main concern. The main problem was a big latency. I understood then that lowering the ASIO buffer size to the minimum allowed by my internal Sound Card (64 samples) improved a lot the latency issue. I still feel some latency so I think I should buy an external Usb Audio Card. First question : do you have some recommendations for a Sound Card?
I've noticed another thing : the audio quality of my laptop internal Sound Card is poor. I've played a looped groove with BFD2 with my laptop and then with my 5 years old Mac Mini (using the internal Sound Card which by the way allowed a 32 samples buffer size) and the difference is amazing!!! I knew that Macs were mainly used in music industry, but now I really understand why!!

Now let's talk about the HiHat mapping in BFD2. I did not succeed to setup correctly the HiHat even looking at this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uu45pQT5DY
I noticed 2 things when playing with my drum connected via Midi to my laptop. The Midi small icon on the bottom right corner of BFD2 did not blink at all. However the Midi In red light in my Roland UM-ONE cable blinks and sounds are played so maybe it's a BDF2 bug. By the way I use the BFD2 2.3.1.6 64 bits version and in the video he's using the 2.0.4.17.
Second thing : in the video when the guy is setting the pedal I don't see the "Closed, 1/4,1/2,3/4 and Open" boxes turning to red. Is this another bug? Did someone succeed in setup correctly the Hi Hat? Is there somewhere another step by step user guide to make it works properly?
HitHat working now! I've missed a little tweak in 2box brain : UNIT / HPED / MIDI set to CC4 and not CC1.

I have now one more test to do is trying BFD2 via Midi but with my Mac Mini. I just need a Usb extension cable to reach the Mac and then I will be able to check if the latency is shorter using the 32 samples buffer size internal Sound Card of the Mac.

Thanks for reading this long post and I hope this could help others Vst and Midi stuff newbies like me!

[Perico]

I've tried BFD2 via Midi with my Mac Mini and it works perfectly without latency (Audio buffer size set to 32 samples). I add just the same problem than with my Pc Laptop : the Midi icon of BFD2 does not blink and the "Closed, 1/4,1/2,3/4 and Open" boxes not turning to red.
With the much better audio output from the Mac Mini internal Sound Card it's very enjoyable!

[mcrackins]

I picked this up last month to replace an aging M-Audio card/Mixer combo I was using.

It is tenfold better and absolutely silent. Check out the features. I haven't tried MIDI yet, but it's supposed to have really low latency. I like that it can be used as a stand alone device without a computer.

http://us.focusrite.com/usb-audio-interfaces/scarlett-18i8

[norseman]

Hi everybody,

I have my Drumit5 since a long time now, playing firstly with internal sounds then VST export sounds with SDSE (Thanks again Lustar). So I decided to test BFD2 via Midi. Firstly I bought a Midi/Usb cable : http://www.roland.com/products/en/UM-ONE_mk2/. Connect Midi to Drumit5, Usb to my Laptop (Recent Dell M4800 workstation with 16Gb Ram, SSD, Intel i7, internal Sound Card with ASIO4ALL v2.11 Beta2) and then use the laptop Mini Jack audio output to enter in my ADAM A7 active monitors.
I succeeded to map everything correctly but not the HiHat. But that was not my main concern. The main problem was a big latency. I understood then that lowering the ASIO buffer size to the minimum allowed by my internal Sound Card (64 samples) improved a lot the latency issue. I still feel some latency so I think I should buy an external Usb Audio Card. First question : do you have some recommendations for a Sound Card?
I've noticed another thing : the audio quality of my laptop internal Sound Card is poor. I've played a looped groove with BFD2 with my laptop and then with my 5 years old Mac Mini (using the internal Sound Card which by the way allowed a 32 samples buffer size) and the difference is amazing!!! I knew that Macs were mainly used in music industry, but now I really understand why!!

Now let's talk about the HiHat mapping in BFD2. I did not succeed to setup correctly the HiHat even looking at this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uu45pQT5DY
I noticed 2 things when playing with my drum connected via Midi to my laptop. The Midi small icon on the bottom right corner of BFD2 did not blink at all. However the Midi In red light in my Roland UM-ONE cable blinks and sounds are played so maybe it's a BDF2 bug. By the way I use the BFD2 2.3.1.6 64 bits version and in the video he's using the 2.0.4.17.
Second thing : in the video when the guy is setting the pedal I don't see the "Closed, 1/4,1/2,3/4 and Open" boxes turning to red. Is this another bug? Did someone succeed in setup correctly the Hi Hat? Is there somewhere another step by step user guide to make it works properly?
HitHat working now! I've missed a little tweak in 2box brain : UNIT / HPED / MIDI set to CC4 and not CC1.

I have now one more test to do is trying BFD2 via Midi but with my Mac Mini. I just need a Usb extension cable to reach the Mac and then I will be able to check if the latency is shorter using the 32 samples buffer size internal Sound Card of the Mac.

Thanks for reading this long post and I hope this could help others Vst and Midi stuff newbies like me!

Just to clarify in case someone new finds this thread.

The issue with MAC is not the hardware that much anymore but the MAC OS X audio drivers.

Windows audio drives have HUGE latency issues because of their architecture. To make Windows compatible with a plethora of different hardware manufacturers Microsoft created the WDMM model. In this model there's a layer of software that runs off of the CPU to deal with audio.

On the MAC OS case the CORE AUDIO drivers are much more straight forward and as the OP mentioned here, they're much faster.

One option then it is to install MAC OS in your laptop if your BIOS supports it.