Controlling SampleTank from e-drums

[garrettendi]

Hi

I have an e-drum kit with a MIDI out (via USB). Is it possible to use this in either a DAW or the standalone app to control the drum kits in SampleTank? So, if I hit my snare pad, it would play the snare sample on my PC.

Would I need to do anything special to make this work?

[DarkStar]

It certainly should be possible.

There will be a few aspects to work out
(a) getting the MIDI from the e-drums kit into your DAW
(b) and from the DAW into the ST3 plug-in
(c) getting the right MIDI notes into ST3 e.g. MIDI from the e-drum Snare to trigger a snare)

The last can be tackled in (at least) two ways:
(a) check out what "Drum mapping" ST3 uses, that is, which drum kit pieces are mapped to each note; it is likely to be GM ("General MIDI") or iMAP (as designed by Sonic Reality who, I think created many drum kit instrument to IK Multimedia),
(b) configure the e-drum kit hardware (which one are you using - another user may have the same) to send the desired MIDI notes
(c) if (b) is not possible a MIDI Note Transposer plug-in could be used in your DAW to remap the e-drum MIDI onto the MIDI expected by ST3.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... rumMap.gif
(which I originally created, but someone-else has claimed the credit )
https://www.sonicreality.com/imap.php

[garrettendi]

Thanks DarkStar

I have already checked the MIDI maps for my Alesis Forge kit, and SampleTank's Alt Rock Kit, and I can confirm both use the same GM maps, so that should be fine.

As for connecting it up, I have already managed to get my USB MIDI digital piano to trigger in both the DAW and the standalone app, so I believe this should be no different for the Forge kit?

I think that standalone app allows you to choose a MIDI input?

[DarkStar]

Yes, if you can get the MIDI from the digital piano into your DAW and ST3 I would expect the Alesis to work in the same way (but I do not know the specifics of that product).

And, yes, you can select a MIDI Input Device in the standalone ST3 program (or in your DAW). ST3 has a Setting window.

[garrettendi]

Thanks DarkStar. I'll give it a go soon. Looking forward to seeing if the Alt Rock Kit is better than my Alesis Forge's sounds.

Just so I know, how big is the sample library for the Alt Rock Kit in Sampletank CS (the free one)? I can't find any documentation and I don't have my PC to hand right now. How realistic would you say it is?

[DarkStar]

I do not know the content of ST3 CS, but for the full Alt Rock kit the file holding the samples is 607MB. I like it, ymmv

[garrettendi]

Thanks! I imagine the Alt Rock Kit in ST3 CS is scaled down but should sound relatively similar.

Cheers!

[garrettendi]

Sorry, I just thought of an additional question.

Are the drum samples sensitive to the velocity of a hit? So if I play softly, will the samples be quieter? If not, is there a way around this?

[DarkStar]

Yes. they are volume sensitive. I just tried a few here and there was about a 30dB range.

[garrettendi]

Thanks. I've been using Sampletank CS for a while but barely scratched the surface.

If all goes well with my drum tests this weekend I think I might get the full version!

[cowboyrooster]

Does anybody know how to get sampletank to trigger in logic pro?
My KAT drum pad transmits on midi channel 10. Sampletank and logic see the input notes coming in, but sampletank will not PLAY the note. Any suggestions?

[DarkStar]

Hello cowboyrooster and welcome to the forum.

In SampleTank (ST3),
(A) load the drum kit instrument into the 10th instrument slot (that's the one on MIDI channel 10, by default).

Or (B) change the MIDI channel for the slot(s) where your drum kit is loaded to 10.

[cowboyrooster]

Yeah, I did that. It will not play the note. Logic sees the notes coming in and sampletank will light up the square "10" icon indicating that the midi note is coming in but no sound. I can use a midi keyboard and it works but not the drum pad. It doesn't like the kat drum pad for some reason I don't know what is going on. I bought the Peart drum samples so I could do this, but no.

[cowboyrooster]

If I use any other plug-in instrument the drum pad works, but NOT in sampletube. WTF???

[cowboyrooster]

I am using the usb out from the KAT ktmp1 pad. No sound. If I plug in a regular midi cable to my external sound card it somewhat works. I will hear one note out of 5 or 6 hits. Very strange. But the usb midi out works fine on all plug-ins for logic except sampletube. ???