Kick trigger DIRECT to midi for the beatmakers....

[noisyneil]

Hi.

 

So here's the thing. I know a lot of people who program drums using keys or the small MPC-style pads on their controllers. Trouble is, you have to play the kick drum with your fingers too, so if you're a drummer, this feels kind of counter-intuitive. Wouldn't it be great to be able to play the kick with your feet? Currently the only ways I know to do this are:

 

a) to buy a kick trigger and drum module with midi output.

 

b) to use a kick pedal and mic up a real kick drum or piece of wood or whatever, then replace the audio with midi after the fact. Trouble with this method is you don't hear the sound you're triggering while you're playing the part.

 

There must be a way to have a kick pedal trigger midi directly. Nobody makes a straight-to-midi (or usb) single trigger pad. Short of designing it myself (I have zero skill in that regard), is there a way to achieve the same thing?

 

Perhaps you could plug the trigger output jacks into the hi-z inputs of your interface and somehow have the 'blip' they produce translate into a midi message in real time that triggers the kick drum sample in whichever sampler or instrument you're working in within your DAW.

 

Am I making any sense?!?!

[JakobP]

If you have a midi keyboard you can buy a cheap sustain pedal, then convert the sustain signal to notes in Logic...

[Mark R]

...MPC-style pads... Trouble is, you have to play the kick drum with your fingers too, so if you're a drummer, this feels kind of counter-intuitive. Wouldn't it be great to be able to play the kick with your feet?

 

...Perhaps you could plug the trigger output jacks into the hi-z inputs of your interface and somehow have the 'blip' they produce translate into a midi message in real time that triggers the kick drum sample in whichever sampler or instrument you're working in within your DAW.

 

Am I making any sense?!?!

 

Yes, makes perfect sense and I know what you mean. I was also looking for an old drum midi brain to use only for its foot pedal inputs until I found an AU plugin that does this directly for audio inputs.

http://www.audiofront.net/

The 'DSP Trigger' is surprisingly sophisticated, has a 20min evaluation period (closing and reopening will reset the trial period). The developer also has available a simpler-older free version in his downloads section.

[noisyneil]

thanks! will check it out! what's the latency like? i'm wondering if it will sync nicely... with the controller pads, all on one drum instrument.

 

my backup plan is to strap an LPD8 to a table leg and line the beater up with one of its pads! haha.