Dialling in Speedlight ride

[docadiddle2]

I've done an A2E conversion this year using a DI5 Mk2 module with a Speedlight hihat and ride. Both cymbals are lovely to play although as Welshsteve has mentioned elsewhere, hihat only single zone but I can live with that. Ride separation of 3 zones is excellent but I'm struggling with the edge sound being far too loud and can't work out how to bring it down. The manual doesn't seem too good on this. Any advice guys?

PS: the first SD card shipped with the unit turned out to be faulty, kept missing hits when playing multiple pads close together. I assumed it was a trigger problem and spent ages tweaking and resoldering them but an email to 2 Box support quickly identified a likely card issue, new one sent out and all is fab.

PPS: will post a vid and pics of conversion when I get time.

[Lustar]

It's good to know about the SD cards.

There's only a gain setting for the cymbal bell in the Unit settings so it's not possible to adjust the volume of all cymbal zones from the module itself. But you could try to lower the gain of the cymbal and increase the bell gain. It would apply to all kits so even though the bow may be too low it may be more convenient if it gets you closer to your ideal settings.

Once you have a good starting point that works for most cymbals it's always possible to adjust the volumes in the dsnd files with DSoundTool or DSound Manager. You could lower the volume of the edge compared to the other zones, or increase the bow and bell. I would always save as a new dsnd file because adjusting the volume is done directly on the samples.

with DSoundTool: open DSoundTool, click File > Open, browse to find the dsnd, adjust the volumes, click File > Save as
with DSound Manager: double click on the dsnd file in the Windows file explorer, adjust the volumes, Save as
or from a kit in DKit Manager: right click on a pad button, select Edit to open the dsnd in DSound Manager


For the Speedlight hihat there's also a way to keep only a single zone in your hihat dsnd files. It can be used to save space on the card or to avoid selecting the zone you need every time with the Sound setting on the module.
with DSound Manager: double click on the dsnd file in the Windows file explorer, uncheck all the zones you don't need, Save as

[docadiddle2]

Thanks Lustar, I'll now be able to stop looking for the edge gain setting! What you say sounds like it might help but I'm pretty happy with both bow and bell so could end up with a quiet bow sound. Adjusting the dsnd files sounds like it's probably what I need but unfortunately I'm a Mac man and if I'm not mistaken the Dsound apps are Windows only??

[Lustar]

DSoundTool would be the way to go then, it works on Mac. DSound Manager can run on Mac but with Parallels or Virtualbox. It may also just work with Wine (DKit Manager doesn't work with Wine though).

[welshsteve]

I've done an A2E conversion this year using a DI5 Mk2 module with a Speedlight hihat and ride. Both cymbals are lovely to play although as Welshsteve has mentioned elsewhere, hihat only single zone but I can live with that. Ride separation of 3 zones is excellent but I'm struggling with the edge sound being far too loud and can't work out how to bring it down. The manual doesn't seem too good on this. Any advice guys?

Are you talking about all ride cymbals?

because from my experience, if you have the ride set up right for you, you should find all zones (for the vast majority of the ride) perfect. I found the speedlight out of the box a little on over sensitive side for me, so I adjusted the gains of all the pads down a notch or so, so only maximum hits were registering a peak trigger. midi 127, 0db gain reading etc.

There is one of the rides on the module though that the edge is pretty usable as a sound. It's one of the Randy Black ride. The bell and bow are fantastic and perfect for metal, the edge? Yeah, not only is it not a usable sound, but it's also pretty loud in relation to the other zones. I don't think it's a error of the mixing, I know the cymbal it was sampled off it's an exact reflection of it.

[docadiddle2]

I'll check that out Steve. Cheers.