FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN STUDIO RECORDING - BETTER DON'T READ

[Shiva]

Regards to all 2Box users,

with all the best intentions and hopes to use this e-KIT in the studio for professional session
we set up the 2Box yesterday in my studio to record a new album (with a metal band).
We started with great expectation and everything looked like a really great idea and solution instead
of going with a real KIT. After all the wiring and preparations the problems started coming up one after another.

First problem was the kick. There was no way we could make it work with a double pedal. We even
screwed the double pedal on the wooden board underneath so the two beaters could be centred perfectly
above the trigger. No luck. The trigger refused to trigger both beaters. Sometimes one didn't trigger,
sometimes the other. We tried different foams and mesh settings but no luck. Threshold setting didn't
help either. We could reduce the ghost notes a bit. The over all feeling of beating this e-kick was really bad.
We gave up on the kick recording and just used the kick from demo track for now. Later on we will just use
the mouse to write the kick into a midi track.

Next problem was with cymbal zones. Ah yes, first one of the cymbals went mad, triggering strange sounds even when not
touched. We replaced the cable and it was OK, so no big deal. The response of the triggers in these cymbals was a nightmare
for us. We never had any experience with e-drums before so this was a big challenge. We went through the settings many times
reading the poor written manual but no luck. We could not figure out how to assign different sounds to different zones and at the
same time get a usable MIDI info in the DAW for later use with Superior Drummer. There were also many cymbal ghost notes triggered
when hitting the toms in the MIDI file. I think this is due to cheap China rack. It would be better to use the separate stands for cymbals
to avoid crosstalk. Anyway we gave up on recording the final tracks of cymbals together with the snare and toms. We decided to
record these later BUT the real ones instead.

Next nightmare was the Hi-hat. We have the latest 1.30 and 1.04 updates. The hi hat can only be recorded with the sounds from the
2Box. We could not make it work with the Superior Drummer at all. We gave up on this too. We will replace the hi-hat sounds later with
a real one. So much for the e-drum benefits.

However I must congratulate the 2Box team on the snare and toms work. These sound great, response is very good, the feeling when
playing is super nice. If only the other parts of this drum KIT would work as good as the snare and toms.

I admit we do not have a lot of experience with e-drum KITs so one can blame us for not knowing how to tune them up to work nicely...
BUT I went through the forum before posting this and people have the same problems. IMO the drums should be designed and programmed
in such a way that any lame person can make them work. For now I can only say the 2Box drums are not yet on the level one could use them
in a true hi-end recording session or a live gig. They have too many issues. Hope people from 2Box will correct these problems so they can meet
the big expectations.

Regards, TP

[hwasser]

Ehm, i dont have that doublekick problem, i have recorded black metal at 200 bpm with double pedals and even blastbeats with no problems in triggering. Some doubletriggering though, but that is because mesh is to bounce against hard beaters (u also feel bouncyness against snare and toms, but I think that is just a benefit, makes me play faster).
I have ordered 2 softer beater, I'll tell if that does the job against doubbletrigger.

The cymbalzones are weird, 2box developer said that the technique used right now isnt working right and with the next module software update, a complete new technique will be used that works better. That update are supposed to be completed any time now.

I think the hihat plays ok. But I want to have a setting to set the open to closed better, I think right now it is like this (9 closed and 1 opened):
98765      4      3     2     1
It should be more like this:
9 8  7   6   5   4   3   2    1

With midi I have only used Addictive Drums, and addictive drums have a midimap-preset for DrumIt Five! (which works perfect, just plug'n'play)

[Shiva]

I wish we had such luck with double beater. Anyway, this is not such a huge problem... we will make them in MIDI later.

I am glad to hear we are not nuts regarding the cymbals 

I will check the addictive drums today, hopefully this will raise our moral about these 

[Shiva]

Another issue. We removed the cables from the cymbals but the toms still trigger cymbal ghost notes in the MIDI file. Any solutions?

[hwasser]

edit: Oh read wrong

Experiment with midimap in Superior, if that doesn't work, experiment with midimap in the module.

[Shiva]

edit: Oh read wrong

Experiment with midimap in Superior, if that doesn't work, experiment with midimap in the module.

Any specific suggestions?  We tried to assign different zones to different MIDI notes but no luck. When changing
the settings of one zone we lost previous settings for other zones....

Do you have any settings which work for you and could be uploaded into our system to make a shortcut?

[hwasser]

Any specific suggestions?  We tried to assign different zones to different MIDI notes but no luck. When changing
the settings of one zone we lost previous settings for other zones....

Do you have any settings which work for you and could be uploaded into our system to make a shortcut?

Nah, I used a preset in addictive drums, addictive drums 1,5 adds complete presets to all digitaldrums (almost)

[Shiva]

Is there any chance to shut off some zones? For example the rim of the toms which trigger cymbal ghost notes?

[spoenk]

maybe with the hihat u didn't pay enough attention to the continuous controller settings?

with the hihat it is important to adjust the controller settings in the software you are using...got the 2box to work fine with battery...on the module u can choose whether cc1 or cc4 is the parameter which controls the open/closed behaviour of the hihat...in the software, the samples need to 'know' which controller values trigger them ...

[Shiva]

Huh, we managed to make some progress. Addictive drummer saved the situation with the hi-hat. Thanks for the tip!
Still no luck with the kick though, so we just used the mouse. Over all work is very slow as we need to record the cymbals
separately cause one of the cymbals goes wild from time to time

[Baby Samus]

Why not just use real cymbals and record those instead?  Always sound better than samples or COSM where cymbals are concerned...

[Shiva]

Not decided yet, we might still record the real cymbals and hi-hat later on, we'll see how it all sounds
after the rest of the instruments kick in...  I also need to figure out the new approach with using only
the SSD, AD and SD2 platforms on drums. It's first time for everything. If I can make drums to sound at
least as good and real as the real drums on my other productions, I will be more than happy.

BTW, one cymbal went dead, confirmed