Alien DD-55 Midi Drum Trigger Interface

Midi Drum Trigger Processor

 (19 Votes)
1.5 (Updated 13 years ago)
195.7kB
September 04, 2007
Reaktor 5 or lower
Instrument Other

DESCRIPTION

A midi trigger processor for the Yamaha DD-55 drum pad, however it can also be used with most other midi trigger devices.

The Alien DD-55 Interface processes midi note input and enables it to be displayed and mapped to any midi note and channel for output.

The midi output can trigger other Reaktor instruments, external midi sound sources, or be recorded into a midi sequencer etc.

The Alien DD-55 Interface also enables the setting of a user defined Note duration. This feature was the main reason for developing this processor, and it means you can use the Yamaha DD-55 drum pad with midi sound sources or midi environments that can't deal with it's native VERY short midi Note duration times.
You can also use it to easily trigger sustained sounds for the duration of your choosing.

More info in the readme...

v1.5:
Added 'Mono Mode' function and preference setting.
When enabled, 'Mono Mode' ensures that no more than one Note On is active at any time from each Processor in the Alien DD-55.
This means that when the Midi output is recorded into a Midi sequencer, it will be more tidy visually and therefore easier to edit. If 'Mono Mode' is NOT enabled, longer 'Note Duration' settings may cause overlapping notes to occur for the same Channel/Note. This setting may also affect the sound of some sustained sounds, depending on if the sound source device allows more than one instance of a sound to be played back on the same Midi channel/note concurrently.

Added 'Note Out AutoTest' function and preference setting.
'Note Out AutoTest' enables the sending of a Midi Note On event whenever you change a Processor's 'Midi Out' Note number value.
This speeds up and simplifies the process of choosing sounds to trigger from a Midi sound source. Every time you choose a new Note value, any sound receiving on that Channel and Note will be triggered once automatically.

v1.4:
Improved compatibility with trigger devices that send longer Note On durations.
More help in the Readme for setting up.

v1.3:
Fixed incoming Midi indicator light that wasn't working reliably on short duration notes.

v1.2
Fixed bug where trigger was being sent from Note Off, not Note On.

Work around for bug where Test trigger was not working when using Cubase 4 as a host, was working fine in standalone mode.

COMMENTS  (9)

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John Kammeyer-Mueller
12 years ago
Wow, thank you very VERY much. I was so frustrated, thinking that I made a mistake when I bought the dd55, but now you've saved it for use in Reaktor and any number of other vsti that can't deal with those short trigger times.
Thom McIntosh
13 years ago
Hi Jonathan, thanks for your interest. It's a simple midi only processor, there's no sound shaping going on. Maybe somewhat unusually for a reaktor instrument its more of a 'helper' than something that 'creates'. I wanted to build something that made triggering sounds with my drum pads alot faster to set up and able to be saved. I also needed it to solve a fundamental problem with the drum pads I own having a midi note length that is too short for many midi instruments to cope with. I've plans to add more features in the near furure. T
Jonathan Style
13 years ago
I played with a for a few min. I thought is was interesting, is there any sound shaping I didn't see any. I want to look at it more closely again when I have time,to see how you did the Midi learn that is very cool.
Thom McIntosh
13 years ago
Pelle, Excellent, thanks for letting me know. T
Pelle Skovmand
13 years ago
Indeed it does, great! Thanks a lot! Pelle
Thom McIntosh
13 years ago
I just posted an update v1.4. I hope this fixes the trigger problem with longer (overlapping) Note On events received from some trigger devices. Pelle, does this update solve problem you reported working with the Octopad II?
Thom McIntosh
13 years ago
Thanks Donovan, glad you like it! Pelle, thanks for the problem report, I don't have an octopad but I'll see if I can emulate the problem and make a fix. T
Pelle Skovmand
13 years ago
Hi Thom, Very great indeed, so easy to set up, i love the midi learn. One thing though, i have an octopadII, and the minimum note duration time for the triggers is 0.1sek, This gives problems with your triggering system, When fex. i hit pad2, then pad3, before pad 2 has sent its note off message. result; three pad2 sounds. Its kind of the opposite of the DD-55 which you say has very short note duration times. Could it be a solution to filter out the note off messages somehow? Pelle
Donovan Stringer
13 years ago
Wow, that's killer! Thanks for that. :D
now