How to get roland td4 to record each drum on new track?

[MnMrecording]

Hi everyone, let me start by saying I am a real novice at this recording stuff. I've been using garageband to do some simple guitar tracks for the past year or two and recently decided to upgrade and get more involved in my recording. I am using logic express 9 and a saffire pro 14 to connect to my imac.

 

I cannot figure out how to get my roland TD-4 to connect to logic express and play each drum on a different track. So far, when I try to play the drums I get the signals to record but it won't seem to let me record more than one pad at the same time. For example, if I hit the high hat and snare at the same time only one comes through. I am connecting my midi-out from the vdrums directly to the saffire pro midi in. I have had success connecting the L/R channels of the vdrum to the L/R audio track inputs in the saffire, but I want to get the midi working so I have more control over each drum.

 

I saw some posts that mention I need to set the vdrum to send each pad to a specific channel, but I couldn't quite get that to do anything.

 

Help please!

 

Also, a side issue I'm having... when I hit the highhat (either through midi or audio track) I find that its not letting the tone ring out. Its making it a short, techno type of strike that only lasts for a split second. The other symbols are ringing fine though, so I'm not sure why the highhat is not doing the same. Any thoughts on that would be helpful as well.

 

Thank you!!!

[MnMrecording]

So... I investigated this quite a bit in other rooms/people and am posting the answer in case anyone else is looking for the same topic. What I've found out is the TD-4 will only let you push midi sounds out to 1 channel, so it cannot separate from the kit.

 

But... what you can do...

 

1. For Midi - there is a tutorial on youtube that explains how to assign a specific note on the midi piano roll view (which is triggered by the drum) to a specific channel. Once you have that set up, you can then choose in your track which auxiliary channel to use. The tutorial has a much better explanation and you can watch what's happening. My problem is that it appears some of the constraints with logic are preventing my high hat from ringing properly.

 

So... another approach which does not use midi, but still allows you to edit each drum individually...

 

2. This is perhaps not as good as using midi because you're somewhat limited in what drum sounds you can use (ie can really only use those provided on the drum kit) but you can still add effects to it after. In this scenario you are recording audio, not midi. So you need to connect your left and right channels from the drum kit into your input for logic. In my case I'm using Saffire pro 14. What you do in this scenario is, on the TD-4, select your drum type (ie heavy, fiber, etc) and turn the volume off for all components except two (for example kick and snare). Then, take those two (kick, snare) and pan one all the way to right, and the other all the way to left. That way you have 2 distinct mono tracks coming out of the kit into 2 different track channels in logic. Now, play a loop through a section of the song as if all drums were on. That way it doesn't feel like you're only playing 2 drums, you can hit the high hat or other symbols, but only the kick and snare will be recorded. Once you get the kick and snare done, you can do the same process but put all symbols on one track (ie Left) and all toms on another (ie right). Play the same section of the song and your drums will match up. Then, if you need to, you can manipulate each track on its own and lets say one snare hit is off beat, you can manipulate the audio wave to line it up.

 

Option 2 takes more effort, but I find that in my case I get a much better sound from the drum and it keeps up with quick rolls, high hat ringing, etc. It sounds less processed. if others have additional suggestions I'd love to hear them, or thoughts on how to get midi to properly allow for a high hat to resonate or for a quick drum roll to sound more human, and not like 12 very fast individual hits on the midi keyboard.

[Audiogrocery]

What I've found out is the TD-4 will only let you push midi sounds out to 1 channel, so it cannot separate from the kit.

 

Refer to the Logic Manual about the Environment "Mapped Instrument" object - this is your tool ! You can patch it between the Physical Input and the Sequencer (in Click & Ports) and assign a custom midi channel for each Drum pad.

1.Go to the Logic Settings -> Recording and enable "Autodemix by Midi Channel" to switch Logic into "Multi Player/Live mode".

2. Create a "Multi Instrument" in the Environment (named T-4) and assign a number of Arrange Tracks for that Multi (according to your drum pads). Arm the Multi Sub tracks and hit Record. After the recording when hit stop, all midi data will be autodemixed by midi channel to the T-4 Multi sub tracks.

 

The whole midi processing is: Real time Drum Pitch Midi Channelizing (via the Mapped Instrument), Autodemix by Midi Channel (Logic Sequencer Channelization). The result is - all incoming Drum Pads (pitches) will be recorded on separate midi channels/tracks.

 

A.G