E-Kit Velocity Viewer

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Minerman
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E-Kit Velocity Viewer

Post by Minerman »

I found this home-made, diy JS (Reaper) plugin a few months ago, & I'd been using an instance of it for each kit piece (kick, snare, hh, etc)...So I posted about it in the Reaper forum & the guy who made the original plugin was nice enough to go the extra mile for me...

This is really only for playing an e-kit, someone tapping beats on a keyboard might find it useful, but it has really helped me because I can actually see how hard/soft I'm hitting my e-drums, in real time...

I sent this guy a small donation because of the time & effort he put into this for me...Maybe some of you that use an e-kit will find it useful...

Image

Features:
  • Display note velocities in real time.
  • Use custom or pre-defined drum-map presets.
  • Display minimum and maximum note velocities.
  • Display last captured note number and note name.
  • Display one or all MIDI channels.
  • Configurable number of grid lines.
  • Configurable number of velocities per column.
  • Configurable font size.
  • New drum-map presets (Roland TD12, EZDrummer, Superior drummer)
I hacked around in the code & set it up so all my kit pieces/drum pads are visible, & the mapping is saved to a txt file, so it was pretty easy to set up for my e-kit, even with a custom, self-made drum map that I use...

Here's the link:
https://github.com/Erriez/erriez-reaper-jsfx
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rammer24
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Re: E-Kit Velocity Viewer

Post by rammer24 »

That is really cool.
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Re: E-Kit Velocity Viewer

Post by Minerman »

rammer24 wrote: Wed Aug 02, 2017 12:34 am That is really cool.
I like it a lot man, it's been very helpful with my playing on the e-kit...That's something that's probably completely different on a real kit, using an e-kit with drum software is different because the samples/sounds depend greatly on the velocity of each hit, & each sampler/vsti has different dynamic sweet spots...

I try to hit kick/snare around 100 to 110 or so during a verse, then bump it up a bit for a chorus/lead break, but it's pretty damn hard sometimes to be consistent for me, I get excited & whack the fuck out of 'em, which is ok, but kills any dynamics...In short, 127 is the max velocity & once I've hit that, there's nowhere to go...

I'm trying to play all the way through a song, without editing any of the midi, but it's proving harder for me because of all the programming I've done & I know what I want in each section/part, just getting there without editing anything is a challenge for me...

This little plugin plus having an extra monitor mounted to my drum rack (plus a second keyboard & mouse) has helped a lot, & I've improved a lot, but I've still got a hell of a long way to go...
E-kit 8-2-2017.JPG

I had the kit turned around facing my desk & used the zoom tool on my computer to be able to see the screen from across the room, but with the 2nd monitor it's much easier & I've got more room because the kit is basically against the wall now, instead of sitting out in the middle of the floor...
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rammer24
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Re: E-Kit Velocity Viewer

Post by rammer24 »

I wish that was around when I used to live in an apartment and did the drum machine thing.

I remember putting my snare hits at 120, more or less, and then working everything around that. But back in the day, I don't think the drum machines I was using were as sophisticated as they are now. Now, I think the actual timbre/sound changes depending on velocity. When I was programming drums, I'm pretty sure the sound stayed exactly the same and it was just the volume that changed.
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WhiskeyJack
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Re: E-Kit Velocity Viewer

Post by WhiskeyJack »

Minerman wrote: Wed Aug 02, 2017 7:02 pm
rammer24 wrote: Wed Aug 02, 2017 12:34 am That is really cool.
I like it a lot man, it's been very helpful with my playing on the e-kit...That's something that's probably completely different on a real kit, using an e-kit with drum software is different because the samples/sounds depend greatly on the velocity of each hit, & each sampler/vsti has different dynamic sweet spots...

I try to hit kick/snare around 100 to 110 or so during a verse, then bump it up a bit for a chorus/lead break, but it's pretty damn hard sometimes to be consistent for me, I get excited & whack the fuck out of 'em, which is ok, but kills any dynamics...In short, 127 is the max velocity & once I've hit that, there's nowhere to go...

I'm trying to play all the way through a song, without editing any of the midi, but it's proving harder for me because of all the programming I've done & I know what I want in each section/part, just getting there without editing anything is a challenge for me...

This little plugin plus having an extra monitor mounted to my drum rack (plus a second keyboard & mouse) has helped a lot, & I've improved a lot, but I've still got a hell of a long way to go...

E-kit 8-2-2017.JPG


I had the kit turned around facing my desk & used the zoom tool on my computer to be able to see the screen from across the room, but with the 2nd monitor it's much easier & I've got more room because the kit is basically against the wall now, instead of sitting out in the middle of the floor...
Thats pretty cool minernuggs. I can't even wrap my head around how much work you have put into that whole set up. I do have a question now for you and it would also require feed back from the guys who use real kits?

Wouldn't watching the velocitys in real time be an added distraction / frustration during recording? Say you start recording a track and you get part way through and you see you hit a 127 on the snare. Do you keep going and edit it later or do you call it a take and start over again? Or is this more of a tool for you to watch while you learn how your ekit responds to your playing and it doesn't really factor into your recording workflow?

Are you able to override some of the midi features to kind of have a max velocity of only your sweet spot so that if for some reason you do hit it to hard it won't go over that threshold? Like set a min and max velocity that you could play inbetween?

Fascnating set up miner. I'm impressed.
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Re: E-Kit Velocity Viewer

Post by Minerman »

Thanks Rami,
Superior/Slate/whatever usually sounds "right" with the snare hits around 100-110 or so, depending on the song of course...That's usually what I start out with programming a song, but again, it depends on the song...And yes dude, the timbre/sound changes with velocity, although it's still nothing like a real kit...

This is definitely the way to go IMO if you can't use a real kit because of the noise...Thanks again dude...
WhiskeyJack wrote: Wed Aug 02, 2017 8:39 pm
Thats pretty cool minernuggs. I can't even wrap my head around how much work you have put into that whole set up. I do have a question now for you and it would also require feed back from the guys who use real kits?

Wouldn't watching the velocitys in real time be an added distraction / frustration during recording? Say you start recording a track and you get part way through and you see you hit a 127 on the snare. Do you keep going and edit it later or do you call it a take and start over again? Or is this more of a tool for you to watch while you learn how your ekit responds to your playing and it doesn't really factor into your recording workflow?

Are you able to override some of the midi features to kind of have a max velocity of only your sweet spot so that if for some reason you do hit it to hard it won't go over that threshold? Like set a min and max velocity that you could play inbetween?

Fascnating set up miner. I'm impressed.
Well dude, like I said I try to play how I'd program the hits, but it's a damn fine line sometimes, so it really depends on how bad I fuck up...:minernuggs:
I try not to edit the midi at all, but sometimes that'd be impossible, so a little flub here/there ain't gonna hurt I don't suppose, but I do honestly try to get all the way through a song without stopping & without any edits, but...

Each drum pad has it's own gain level & velocity curve, so you can pretty much set each pad up any way you'd want dude...There are like 15-20 different velocity curves for each pad, plus gain, minimum level, all kinds of shit, so it's possible to set 'em up to where it would never hit "127" on the scale, or really about any way you'd wanna set 'em...

Sometimes the little plugin is a distraction, but in all honesty it's helps dude...I'm trying to learn to play dynamically, but I'm not sure an e-kit is anything like a real kit on that, so a little help here/there ain't gonna hurt IMO...

Thanks guys... :minernuggs:
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liv_rong
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Re: E-Kit Velocity Viewer

Post by liv_rong »

Very cool, interesting and complicated. How much does a velocity hit at 110 and 127 really differ? I dont know, just asking. I like the natural imperfections of real drums between the velocity of each hit and where it is hit on the drum and any push/pull that occurs. And it smoothes out a bit with some compression while still retaining the dynamics. What do you mean by killing the dynamics also? BTW, Im not arguing or debating, just trying to understand more.
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Re: E-Kit Velocity Viewer

Post by Minerman »

liv_rong wrote: Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:28 pm Very cool, interesting and complicated. How much does a velocity hit at 110 and 127 really differ? I dont know, just asking.
It really depends on the drum plugin, but most of the time the "crack" or "shotgun" sound is usually in the harder hits (from like 115-127) for example...The softer hits do have some of that, but it's more prominent in the harder hits...

The drum plugins I use do change pitch/timbre to a point with different velocities, but I don't think it's anywhere close to how a real drum responds...I honestly don't know though because it's been years since I sat behind a real kit & I only screwed around...Back then I never even thought of most of the things I do now...It's quite a difference between trying to make good recordings at home & just climbing behind a kit because the bud I just smoked had kicked in... :biggrin:
liv_rong wrote: Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:28 pmI like the natural imperfections of real drums between the velocity of each hit and where it is hit on the drum and any push/pull that occurs. And it smoothes out a bit with some compression while still retaining the dynamics.
Toontrack's stuff is pretty good at mimicking this, particularly on their snares...To me, their drum plugins are as close to a recorded kit I've found, but others are pretty good too...
liv_rong wrote: Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:28 pmWhat do you mean by killing the dynamics also? BTW, Im not arguing or debating, just trying to understand more.
Well dude, I may be way off here myself, but when I program my drums, I'd always try to have the hardest hits during a chorus/guitar solo/etc, & make the hits during a verse or whatever a little softer, to give the impression the band/player dug in a little harder in parts, or eased up a little, depending on the song/part/etc...

In short, if I whack everything at full/highest velocity, there's no "headroom" left, & all the hits would basically be the same, which would result in the machine-gun/robotic sounding fake drums...

Here's an example of what I'm trying to explain, same drum loop, the only thing that changes are the snare velocities...

Snare hits @ 90-100 velocity:
Verse 1.mp3

Snare hits @ 100-110 velocity:
Verse 2.mp3

Snare hits @ 115-125 velocity:
Chorus 1.mp3

Snare hits 127/max velocity:
Chorus 2.mp3
The differences are pretty subtle between the first couple clips, but comparing the last clip to the rest, I think it's pretty apparent...
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liv_rong
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Re: E-Kit Velocity Viewer

Post by liv_rong »

I get it. Makes sense.
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