Any recent developments/improvements on Hi-Hat? (direct or via MIDI)

[ddrummer68]

I love my original Drumit 5, just as I loved my ddrum 4.  But the hi-hat has always been the thing that breaks my flow, and the feeling of playing a musical instrument.  With the MKII or other new hardware/software, is there a solution that helps the hi-hat function excellently?  Mimic, eDRUMin, and - from what I hear - Roland have implemented very playable hi-hats.  I just can't get there on the 2Box, even using the magnetic trigger add-on boxes.  I have two different such boxes; can't remember if I bought from Jerry L. or someone else.  Better, but not excellent.

My ideal setup is to trigger the 2Box via MIDI from my eDRUMin.  However, 2Box doesn't respond to CC4 messages coming from eDRUMin. So, no open/close.  The Drumit manual reads as though CC4 is sent from 2Box, but not received.  Is that correct, and if so, would it be difficult to enable send/receive on CC4, possibly as an OS update?

I could also live with installing another pad/foot pedal to control the 2Box open/close hi-hat, if there's one that's known to work very well.  I searched documentation and other posts.  Many of them were somewhat old, so I hope it's not a problem that I'm asking again.  Thanks for any suggestions - even if it's just a pointer on a better search term that would turn up the info! 

[welshsteve]

Hi have an edrumin, I will check for you if you can change the hihat output to "foot control' which I believe is the cc for 2box, unless of course I am wrong, but I am pretty sure it is. The edrumin is designed to work with all kinds of modules and VSTs so it would be a fair assumption it will work with the original 2box module. If you get the 4 channel version, I would also put the snare on the edrumin too, you'll get way better functionality with it.

[Karbonfaiba]

From owning the 2box for a while now I've come to a similar conclusion. Having had experience in both worlds I think there one main issue I'd like to see addressed with 2box; cymbal muting.

Why would this improve hi-hats?

2box has a simplified hi-hat engine (Roland may do this also) that plays a pedal splash sample as both a chick and splash.

This compromise means there cannot be any natural ambience on chicks (or mutes) which makes it sound bad next to a VST which can play the full chick sample (that chick sample might last up to 4 seconds long) But this system also means very reliable splash events as a positive, when there is no transmuting support - which itself isn't a perfect solution either.

There is nothing you can do with eDRUMin that will resolve this as it's not a problem with triggering. 2box either needs a function to adjust the fade out time on all mutes. So I can choose to use chick samples with long ambience and sacrifice splash functionality. Crash muting might also be affected though if it's universal (programming dependant).

An alternative least resource effecting solution: Make a mute event jump the currently playing sample forward a few seconds (or scroll 75% through) instead of killing the sample completely - this should sound more natural all round. The same should occur to currently playing semi-open hihat samples when closing the pedal.

You could also fake this with a digital reverb to mask the sudden cut off but I doubt 2box will program reverb as it would have been implemented already if it was possible.

[ddrummer68]

I now recall asking 2Box support this same question via FB Messenger in April of 2020 and got no response.  So I just sent it in via email to support@2box-drums.com.  I feel like I must be doing something wrong, but cannot get the 2Box to respond to incoming CC4 data via MIDI.  Had the same issue running directly from the Mimic to the 2Box.

[ANGR77]

Hi!

I just made a test with my MKII and OS 1.36.3 against a my Mac/Logic X over midi.

I recorded the midi stream from my 2box/Hihat (playing on bow/edge + pedal ) first...and then replayed it back over midi to my 2box module. According to my tests this is working great!

So I don't think a Hihat stream from a another module would be any problem. (Note: But the Hihat pedal in the 2box module needs to have been calibrated in advance - otherwise the pedal mapping won't be right) - could this be your problem?

So, I can just confirm That it I s working to receive midi streams on my 2box module with advanced pedal and hh patterns. No problems here.

Settings:





Best regards

Anders / www.Zourman.com

[ddrummer68]

Anders, thank you so much for doing that.  Yes, a non-calibrated HiHat could be the problem... and I would never have considered that.  I now may have to buy one of your ATV-compatible boxes.  Looks like electronic drums center doesn't list them, so I may order from your website.  I'm happy that you've given some hope that this can work.

[ANGR77]

Thanks for the order!

Yes, I hoping the info above might solve your experienced hi-hat problems.

Best Regards

Anders / www.zourman.com 

[edcito]

I never understood why the default CC pedal setting was 2... many new users will never change it to CC4! so they won't get the data sent...