Is it possible to use a standard piezo drum trigger with the Sensory Percussion software? Of course, I don’t expect to get all the benefits of the software (e.g., different zones with different samples). But if I made a kit with the same sample in every zone, could I trigger that sound with a regular trigger connected to one of the audio inputs on my audio interface? Or is there a setting in the Sensory Percussion software for accepting signals that come from a piezo?
I have a ddrum kick trigger that has an XLR jack. I’ve plugged that into my interface.
For anyone else who wants to do this, if you try the straightforward approach (plug your piezo trigger into the audio interface and manipulate its signal in Sensory Percussion software), you get an error in the software saying that the sensor (the piezo trigger) is not recognized. So if there’s a way to do it, then it must be a switch in the software somewhere that lets it accept standard piezo signal. The amplitude on the piezo signal is high enough (registers in both the audio interface external meters and the Sensory Percussion software meter). It’s apparently just not the right type of signal (I guess).
I realize I filed this question under support. But if this feature not present, then this is really a feature request: enable standard piezo triggers, through the audio interface, in the Sensory Percussion software. That would allow all of us who have standard triggers laying around to combine them with the Sensory Percussion trigger(s) in the same software interface. I’d think this would be a pretty common use case.
Hi
I’m asking myself the same question.
I’m very interested to buy the starter pack with software and 1 trigger and I would like to use 1 or 2 classic triggers (that I already have) with the software.
I own a 3 sensors pack and i’m very interested too in this question.
i’ve seen a couple of Mason Self’s videos in which he uses a roland kd7 (or similar) instead of the drum sensor. is that possible?
I have been using the KD-7 successfully as a kick in sensory percussion for a while. You do lose a huge amount of functionality by not using the SP sensor, but for me it makes my set up extremely portable and I find that worthwhile for now. I made a quick video explaining how I set it up. I haven’t tried this with other pads, but I’d assume as long as it sends out a voltage spike you should be able to train it.
Hey @Mason, I’m just about to try moving over to using SP from quite an involved set up combining traditional Roland triggers with a TM-6 Pro trigger interface and contact mics running in to Ableton Live. I use this set up to do a lot of manipulation of sound and visuals (https://youtu.be/1ugT2ox70Jo). I was checking out some of your tutorials and found them really useful to get an idea of what’s possible with SP. One key part of my set up is using a contact mics as triggers on my main and remote hihats and also a MorfBeats Micro Marvin. I’m hoping there will be a way of using this approach alongside a full 4 SP sensors on the kit. First of all do you have any experience of doing anything like that and secondly do you know if you can run two instances of the SP VST plugin in Ableton so that I can create additional channels for other contact mic inputs that I want to run through the SP plugin? Thought you might be the guy to ask as you seem to be pushing the Ableton/M4L side of things more than most. Thanks!
hey! Sorry for the slow response.Really cool stuff you’re up to!
You can definitely use more than one instance of the SP VST at a time, just make sure you route sensor input tracks to the appropriate instance (and you do have to route to every instance separately).
I’m tinkered with a variety of non official sensor input to SP, and you can definitely go pretty far. Auto-level won’t work with most of the alternative inputs, but aside from that everything works as expected as long as you’re thoughtful about it. Just make sure to train it really well if there are timbral distinctions (the void zone helps a ton). I actually have explored training a micro marvin with a contact mic and I could only reliably get two zones out it (the main surface, and then any of the springs), which makes sense considering how complex the timbre is. For my purposes even those limited results were still extremely useful since you could still extract speed and velocity out of it. Hope that’s helpful!
Hey Mason, thanks for this! I managed to borrow a SP sensor to test all of this out and got it sussed out already. I even had quite a lot of success training the software to recognise bow, edge and open sounds on my acoustic hihat when I use a piezo on it. Anyway I’ve taken the plunge and am now on board as a SP endorsee and just received a set of 3 sensors from them. Am currently using a standard Roland trigger on the kick drum, SP sensors on the acoustic drums and piezos on my remote mini hats.and it’s all working great. Thanks again for all the tutorials you’ve put out. It really helped me suss things out from a distance before I got hold of the sensors and software. Also been really enjoying checking out your music.
Hey, I have a ddrum bass trigger, wondering if you have any experience with the like. Could this work with SP? The info for the trigger says to use an xlr to 1/4” cable, but obviously the SP sensors use standard xlr with phantom power.
Just wondering if the sensor might work, if I should avoid letting it see phantom power, and if I can just use a standard xlr?
Edit: I tried it out and it’s working. How can I use multiple triggers and piezo though? I have three SP sensors, and the bass trigger. This is taking up the four available routings.