Switching from Roland to 2box

[jeff42]

Hey everyone, I have been playing and gigging live weekly with Roland V drums for about 12 years now starting with a Td-8 and currently have a Td-12 (vexed). Last week I made the leap of faith and ordered a 2box module. It should be in my hands in a few days. So really this post is to say hi and to ask what I should expect out of my Roland pads and adjusting to life with 2 box.

I already know about the Hi Hats so I bought a 2box Hihat AND just ordered Jman's HihHat conversion kit

Will there be problems with my 3 zone cymbals? Cy-12s?

What about my PD-105s? PD-105X? PD-85? and PD-8 (black rubber pads)?

How fast can you switch between kits in a live situation? Sometimes I have to switch in the middle of a song (we do 90% medleys in our show)

Right now I am not interested in buying different drum pads or a hybrid kit although they look awesome! I hope to be able to keep my set up like it is. I like the ability to fold up the rack a bit with the drums on it and place it in the van after a gig. (our tear down time is usually 20 minutes- half hour max, set up time for me is 10 minutes and is no more than 40 minutes for the whole band)

Any advice you can give me going from Roland to 2box would be greatly appreciated. What can I expect? Pros, cons all that stuff... Let it flow and don't worry, I am not one of those Roland to I die kind of people either. I wont be offended. LOL

[edtc]

hi Jeff

your question has been anweared many times here ... please take some time to search ...

[Jman]

Hey everyone, I have been playing and gigging live weekly with Roland V drums for about 12 years now starting with a Td-8 and currently have a Td-12 (vexed). Last week I made the leap of faith and ordered a 2box module. It should be in my hands in a few days. So really this post is to say hi and to ask what I should expect out of my Roland pads and adjusting to life with 2 box.

I already know about the Hi Hats so I bought a 2box Hihat AND just ordered Jman's HihHat conversion kit

Will there be problems with my 3 zone cymbals? Cy-12s?

What about my PD-105s? PD-105X? PD-85? and PD-8 (black rubber pads)?

How fast can you switch between kits in a live situation? Sometimes I have to switch in the middle of a song (we do 90% medleys in our show)

Right now I am not interested in buying different drum pads or a hybrid kit although they look awesome! I hope to be able to keep my set up like it is. I like the ability to fold up the rack a bit with the drums on it and place it in the van after a gig. (our tear down time is usually 20 minutes- half hour max, set up time for me is 10 minutes and is no more than 40 minutes for the whole band)

Any advice you can give me going from Roland to 2box would be greatly appreciated. What can I expect? Pros, cons all that stuff... Let it flow and don't worry, I am not one of those Roland to I die kind of people either. I wont be offended. LOL

Hi Jeff, welcome to the forum. Here is a thread where I discussed setting up Roland cymbals for the 2Box module:
http://www.2box-forum.com/index.php/topic,1722.msg15642.html#msg15642
As far as the PD-105, 105X ..... Roland modules and pads work utilizing quite a bit of crosstalk between the head and rim zone of the pad. 2Box works better with more isolation between head and rim. So you will want to do some tweaking of the trigger parameters for sure. In this thread I wrote down some steps to go through on a Piezo/Piezo pad: http://www.2box-forum.com/index.php/topic,1871.msg16736.html#msg16736

[Murgen]

Switching is a matter of a dialerknob (you might want to pre-set your kits according to the song and gig list before the gig) and depending on the quality of the kit (the more layers the more data) a new kit usually loads within a second.

[jeff42]

Well I have had the 2box since monday. Had a few hours here and there to get into it.  Here are a few observations I have made so far:

* first off, I am not "completely" sold right out of the gate. I am hoping that will change. I do like what I hear but I am not hearing THAT much of a difference between the stock sounds and my vexed td-12, but the sounds on board are nice and seem quiet usable right out of the box for a live situation.  I need to hook up the band PA in my garage over the weekend and try em through there.

* The module does take getting used to because it does not operate like the roland modules. (I knew it wouldnt, just sayin.)

* The 2box HiHat is pretty "meh." I will keep it and will be only be used as a back up. I got Jman's HH box and I will be using my VH-12.  I didnt spend a ton of time with Jman's box so I do need to tweak that a bit but even so, I got more from that than the 2box HH.

* I easily loaded and triggered a sample. BIG plus for me. There are tons of samples I plan to trigger with my band that I couldn't before with just the TD-12.

* I like the sounds 2box offers on the site- I DL'd them all- BUT I cant fit them on the card. So I guess I am going to go through the card and get rid of EVERYTHING I don't need. I did already back it up on my PC. (QUESTION: If it would get erased where do you download the stock sounds from?) I will be doing the SD card extender soon but for now I am making room for a few good kits I can use live.

* I plunked down some more cash for Superior Drummer 2.0 Hopefully I'll find or be able to make a killer live kit. I don't want my live sounds to be good. They already are with my roland... I want them to be GREAT!

* The roland snare and 3 toms trigger great!

* My 3 roland crash Cymbals (roland cy 12 r/c) are triggering OK- NOT GREAT. I guess I will have to mess with them.

* My ride (also a roland cy 12 r/c) is all messed up. LOL. I guess I will have to mess with that A LOT. I cant seem to get a good bow bell separation.

There is promise but honestly wasn't blown away right out of the box. I wont be gigging with this until I have it totally how I want it and I hope I can... I am hoping once I spend more time with it and I wrap my head around the module and what i can do I will be very happy.

[Jman]

Well I have had the 2box since monday. Had a few hours here and there to get into it.  Here are a few observations I have made so far:

* first off, I am not "completely" sold right out of the gate. I am hoping that will change. I do like what I hear but I am not hearing THAT much of a difference between the stock sounds and my vexed td-12, but the sounds on board are nice and seem quiet usable right out of the box for a live situation.  I need to hook up the band PA in my garage over the weekend and try em through there.

* The module does take getting used to because it does not operate like the roland modules. (I knew it wouldnt, just sayin.)

* The 2box HiHat is pretty "meh." I will keep it and will be only be used as a back up. I got Jman's HH box and I will be using my VH-12.  I didnt spend a ton of time with Jman's box so I do need to tweak that a bit but even so, I got more from that than the 2box HH.

* I easily loaded and triggered a sample. BIG plus for me. There are tons of samples I plan to trigger with my band that I couldn't before with just the TD-12.

* I like the sounds 2box offers on the site- I DL'd them all- BUT I cant fit them on the card. So I guess I am going to go through the card and get rid of EVERYTHING I don't need. I did already back it up on my PC. (QUESTION: If it would get erased where do you download the stock sounds from?) I will be doing the SD card extender soon but for now I am making room for a few good kits I can use live.

* I plunked down some more cash for Superior Drummer 2.0 Hopefully I'll find or be able to make a killer live kit. I don't want my live sounds to be good. They already are with my roland... I want them to be GREAT!

* The roland snare and 3 toms trigger great!

* My 3 roland crash Cymbals (roland cy 12 r/c) are triggering OK- NOT GREAT. I guess I will have to mess with them.

* My ride (also a roland cy 12 r/c) is all messed up. LOL. I guess I will have to mess with that A LOT. I cant seem to get a good bow bell separation.

There is promise but honestly wasn't blown away right out of the box. I wont be gigging with this until I have it totally how I want it and I hope I can... I am hoping once I spend more time with it and I wrap my head around the module and what i can do I will be very happy.

I would suggest setting the crashes to CyEdg trigger type, and plug the ride in using the Bow/Bell input and set it as CyCup. That is the most compatible trigger type for Roland cymbals. You will get Bow/Edge/Choke on the crash cymbals and Bow/Bell with the ride and should get excellent separation.

[Murgen]

Answered your delete question on Facebook. For the record, hook up to your pc/mac and make a backup of the full SD. Than do whatever you want with the Samples and mp3, you can always put them back via your backup.

[fulrmr]

Many of us were not "wowed" with the module right out of the box. I had the TD-30 and 2Box side-by-side for a year and although the 2Box was winning the challenge, it was only after I loaded some kits from S2.0 that my mind was completely blown and the TD-30 was then sold. The boys at Vex do a superb job with the Roland gear (I had most every one you could buy for my TDW-20/20X modules)...but they cannot match the quality of true deep layered samples that are at your disposal in the 2Box.

I also used a control box mod with my VH-13 top pad. You may be better off selling the VH-12 and getting a Yamaha PCY135 to use for your hat with the control box and then use the left over cash to buy even more gear such as an SDX or 2 for S2.0.

[jeff42]

I am hoping as I get more familiar and start playing around with SD2.0 I will be WOWED.  I dont think the 2box module sucks at all and even the stock sounds are good just not amazing and the cymbals have me a little bummed. especially the ride. I switched to the cycup setting for the ride but I guess I need to mess with more settings because it still doesnt give me what I need, its better but not right.

I just have to get comfortable with it and that is taking longer than expected. I'll keep playing though!

[rush1234]

To use the Yamaha PCY135  as a hihat with the Jman mod ,,, do you need to  mod the pcy135 also ? I thought I had read somewhere.  i hope not )) .

and yes  the wow factor wil hit you when  you are running SD 2.0 or Addictive Drums etc.
with the extremely kind help from Jman and Lustar im a happy 2box drummer  .but stil i have to do the hihat stealt mod ,, but there is some work to do under the hihat pedal to fix it . i have a Gibraltar hihat stand no leg .

[Jman]

Yes, there is a slight mod that would need to be done to get both bow and edge zones for Hi Hat with the Yamaha PCY-135/155
http://www.2box-forum.com/index.php/topic,1010.0.html

[rush1234]

Hello Jman

Thnks for the Link  i hope its not to hard to do . are there hihats (non 2box) that  works without a mod  or is this one to focus on...

[rush1234]

oh boy there goes my hope for another hihat grrrr to hard to do .. you also  need an additional circuit board for the level detection i read , that is  not realy clear to me ,do you take the yamaha circuit board out and replace this with the one in the video ..?

[jeff42]

I spent some more time with 2box last night. I got my VH-12 Hihat to work better and the cymbals too. The ride is a bit iffy but I will spend time with that this weekend.

SD2.0 should arrive tomorrow and I only have one gig this weekend (friday night) so I will have some time this weekend to dive in deeper and hopefully get some superior drummer sounds on the module. I plan on setting up the band PA in my garage Saturday afternoon to really HEAR the 2box through our PA system. I have only been hearing it through headphones so far.

[Jman]

oh boy there goes my hope for another hihat grrrr to hard to do .. you also  need an additional circuit board for the level detection i read , that is  not realy clear to me ,do you take the yamaha circuit board out and replace this with the one in the video ..?

If you have anybody you know that solders (or electronics repair shop) it is actually a simple little mod. It will only take a couple minutes. It is just soldering one tiny wire across two points on the Yamaha board. The only additional thing needed is my HH box/magnet which you already have.