Hi there,
I’ve just started using the triggers. I happen to be trying them with the Remo Silentstroke heads. It’s quite nice that the acoustic drum sound is almost negligible.
However, I’m having a lot of trouble training the system because it seems like the mesh heads also inherently suppress the variation in the tone that you’d get from a snare with a regular head. There doesn’t seem to be enough difference (at least in my setup) between [centre and edge], and [side stick and rim shoulder]. I’m also getting a lot of cross/false triggering, between the different pads.
I’ve setup and trained the system as described. Any advice would be much appreciated. Also, is there such a thing as too much training?
Cheers,
Jivraj
Hey man,
Try using different tensions high vs low and remove your bottom head. You want to kill any u wanted resonance that can trigger another wound. Also…since tone from the drum isn’t your goal you can get more variance out of each tuning. After you do this Re train the drum and adjust the threshold. As a new user myself I am somewhat in the dark about the threshold part but just experimenting is the way to go with this new and awesome technology. Hope that helps and the the other admins chime in.
-Matt
Hi Jivraj,
Glad to hear you’ve gotten started. You shouldn’t be having any problems on account of the mesh-heads - the sensors are sensitive enough to pickup the timbral differences between gestures that we can’t hear ourselves.
The problems your are describing sound like you may have too much input gain set on the channels of your interface. The sensors require very little, if any channel gain. The gif on this page of the online documentation shows what the thresholding panel should look like when the level is set properly - the interface used in that gif is slightly quieter than most, so it required a minor level boost.
Yes, there is such a thing as too much training. Each gesture is different, and we now have recommendations for a rough number of hits required for each, but the system works best if you don’t go too far above 100 training hits per pad (some pads, namely the rimshots, require less training, around 30+ hits). As your drum naturally goes out of tune, you’ll want to retrain fresh by right clicking each pad in learn mode and selecting “clear training.”
Also, version 1.2.0 and up has a hit counter, so make sure you’re up to date! (It also has a bunch of cool new features and some bug fixes) You can always get the latest version of the software by referencing your original download link.
Hope this was helpful.
Let me know if you have any more questions, and always feel free to email us if you run into a snag at support@sunhou.se (or just open up the chat on our website).
Best,
Steven
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Thank you @Mattheweltonsmith and @stevenz for your valuable advice! I really appreciate it. Looking forward to optimising my setup with what I’ve learnt from both your replies.
Best,
Jivraj
Hey I’m also experimenting with a mesh head – the problem I’m coming across is that I can’t get loud-volume responsiveness.
Like for example, I train the center pad with 100 or so hits including hits that are as loud as I can play, physically. But then when I leave training mode and play the pad, I can’t get the pad to trigger the loudest velocity no matter how hard I hit it – in fact the highest velocity I can get it to trigger is barely halfway.
Is this an issue with mesh or is there something I’m not doing correctly in training? I’ve also tried purposefully not playing as loud as I can while training, and had the same effect. No matter how hard I play, I can only get the velocity to hit a little over half of it’s potential.
Hey Chris, it sounds like your interface’s input level is too low. I use the thresholding panel to set the level. Check out the gif on this page to see what the panel should look like when the gain is set correctly.
In the thresholding panel, the scrolling gray indicator is just below the zero line with my channel input gain set at zero. It looks the same as in the demo gif.
What I’m confused about is: how high up should a maximum-volume strike register in the thresholding panel? For me a FF strike on the mesh head only registers at about halfway up… which I’m assuming means that I wouldn’t be able to make use of the entire velocity range. Maybe that is just the way it works with mesh heads?
Ah, okay, I think I know what it might be, because you should be able to make use of the entire velocity range even with a mesh-head. The sensor is reading the pickup element, which will vibrate at the same intensity regardless of whether it is applied to an acoustic or mesh head. Perhaps the head of your sensor is pointing up too far away from the pickup element? The head of the sensor should be close to 6 mm above the drumhead.
Here is a diagram of the different extremes of bad fitting sensors. Depending on the drumhead, you may be able to just attach the sensor to a different place on the rim (where it has more lip to grab onto).
This might be it! I will investigate. Thank you!
Well I checked the alignment of my sensor and it looks ok?.. here’s a picture:
Does that seem right? The light isn’t supposed to be shining directly on the metal pickup, right?
Here’s what my thresholding screen looks like when I play as soft and loud as possible:
It just seems like I’m only getting about 1/4 or 1/3 of the potential velocity range.
It looks like your sensor is a bit too far off the drum head. One thing you can do to get the sensor to point down closer to the pickup element (when you’re using mesh-heads) is tighten every lug on the drum, except for the two surrounding your sensor. That will pull the head slightly away from that portion of the rim and give your sensor more rim to grab onto.
The displayed hits on the thresholding panel don’t go all the way to the top. Here’s what my panel looks like with a very quiet hit followed by a full volume rimshot:
Perhaps a better check would be to create an arbitrary velocity controller and monitor the velocity input on there:
A full volume hit should send the indicator all the way to the right. But the best test is sampler volume output, of course. A normalized sample should register a healthy signal level on the corresponding channel meter if it is activated by a hit at full power.
The velocity controller meter is really useful to look at for this! I’m having some more luck today – trying it on a different drum with a better shaped rim. Still not able to register a full-velocity 127 hit unless I physically hold the sensor down closer to the head but it looks like I’ve identified the issue. Will keep experimenting!
Im also experiencing the same issues as you Chris as far as I can tell my sensor is fitted correctly (parallel and as low as the rim allows) even when tuning down the lugs next to the trigger I just can’t get the full velocity hit to register?
Hi! Can you write into support@sunhou.se? Please send us a short cellphone video of you striking the drum at full velocity with the shot focused on the threshold panel, and then maybe show us your threshold panel settings on the second window.
Thanks!
