Pad settings...the meaning of each?

[dschrammie]

Hey everyone - I've only just gotten going with a Megadrum, got Superior 2.0 running and set up (a HUGE thank you to whomever it was that wrote that Wiki!!!), and now I'm dabbling with pad settings. I'm just starting with the snare, just to try to get familiar with navigating through the menus and to get comfortable with everything. In the process, I'm finding that there are some settings that I just don't understand, or at least I can't really tell what is being affected. Granted, some are quite obvious and simple, but others have me perplexed.
Here's my list of pad setting questions (I'll skip the pad settings that I understand)...I'm referencing the documentation portion of the main site, for pads settings: http://www.megadrum.info/content/pads-settings

>ComprLvl - Compression level on the input. Typically, I would think that this means that it won't allow the input signal to exceed a certain level, that it's being compressed to stay within certain limits. However, I'm not sure what the graph means. Referring to the graph, I understand the x-axis, the 1-127, as the velocity or signal strength as translated into a MIDI message. But what does the y-axis represent, the 0-140? Also the explanation says that the graph is for a Linear curve setting. Any idea or explanation of what the graph looks like with a different curve (or does it even matter)?

>LvlShift - Level shift on the input. This is another one that I'm not really sure what it's doing, or why. Part of me wonders if it's similar to a comp-limiter processor, and like the compressor above, is perhaps forcing the signal strength to be within certain limits. But again, I don't know what the graph is telling me. I also don't know what the various settings (0,8,16,24, etc.) are referring to.

>HighLvl - High (top) level of the input. Okay, so based on what I think I understand, if you strike the pad hard enough that the relative electrical signal is above this level then the MIDI velocity will be 127. I guess my question is, based on that, why wouldn't you just always have this set as 1023? Is there any advantage to setting high level to 1000? or 950? and while on that subject, what does this high level number (1023) represent? 1023 is some amount of what? Oh, and a little side question: Without the use of MCT, how do you know if you are or are not consistently topping out with a level of 127? And I'm assuming that it isn't necessarily a "bad" thing to consistently have a level of 127 - for example, it's not going to burn anything out, right? It's simply a lack of dynamic level, it's always loud, right?

>DynLevel and DynTime - This is one that I have no clue what it's doing. It says "Suppose you hit a pad and it produces a peak signal of say 500. Now if Dynamic Threshold Level is set to 0 than an initial dynamic threshold for the pad will be set to a half of the peak signal, i.e. to around 250." What does that mean? In the simplest lay-terms possible? And I understand that the DynTime affects how long it takes for the Dynamic Threshold Level to reach 0, but I just don't understand what that means nor how it affects the sound that I'll hear or the response that I get from the pad.

>MinScan - Minimum scan time for the input. To be honest, I don't really know what this means either. I mean, if I strike the pad and it's within the limits that the Megadrum recognizes as a strike, then why does it keep sampling before marking the signal as "registered"?

>DualMidWidth - the explanation says "The width of signals for rim shots. It can be set between 0 and 15. The higher the value the easier to get rim shots and more likely to get false rim shots on head or rim hits vice versa." Now, this may be a matter of semantics, but I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly. When you say "rim shots", are you referring to what drummers actually call rimshots? That is, striking the head and the rim at the same time and getting an acoustically different tone out of the drum that is like harmonics, used as large accents? Or are you using the term "rim shot" as simply meaning a signal received from the rim trigger/piezo instead of the head? I just want to be sure that I understand, because if there's a way for me to get a rim shot from Superior, then I definitely would want to know how to trigger it properly. I used rim shots quite a bit with my acoustic drum set.

Okay...those are the questions that I have for now. I'm sure that I will have many more as I dive further into the various settings, especially when I try to get the hihat set up!

[dm9876]

Hi dschrammie!

So glad to hear the wiki page useful to someone.

I'll answer for those which 'I think' I understand and am actually using.

>HighLvl

the 1023 is simply the integer representation of the ADC (analog to digital conveter) input. 0-5 volt input produce value between 0 and 1023 (for a 10 bit ADC). I think you have partly answered this one in your following question.. what if a maximum hit velocity only maxed out at 500... well if you left HighLvl setting at 1023 then you would get a proportional midi velocity level.. ie 500/1023*127 would only give you a midi velocity of 62 so full strength hit on your pad would only play back the sample for a medium strength hit...

hence set auto high level to yes.. give a few strong whacks.. then toggle back to the HighLvl to see what strength it was.. then go back and turn off auto high level.

There are reasons of playability you probably want to make sure the Auto high level (peak input) is below about 900 or so. If its over this you need 'voltage dividers' to reduce the input voltage. (dont ask me to explain it I don't understand.. I would have thought anything less than 1023 would be fine.. but not in practice)

>Without the use of MCT, how do you know if you are or are not consistently topping out with a level of 127?

Dont know, just use MCT or some other midi monitor tool...

>And I'm assuming that it isn't necessarily a "bad" thing to consistently have a level of 127 - for example, it's not going to burn anything out, right? It's simply a lack of dynamic level, it's always loud, right?

right... it would just sound awful. you want it to be good range.. ie light hit produces low velocity midi note... and you should really have to whack it hard to get the full 127 (if at all)..

>DynLevel and DynTime

as opposed to re trigger time which is a hard time threshold that all subsequent signals are masked for a set time frame.. these two combine to make a more practical way to filter out the re-triggers (usually retriggers are like mechanical oscillations in the system so first signal when you hit is a real hit (from the stick) then you get some smaller signals coming in after.. the DynLevel / DynTime work so that you can filter out small inputs that come quickly after the first, but if it was a big input coming quickly after the first it is likely to be another hit (from the stick) as opposed to a false trigger... A short retrigger time might mask out this second real hit.. but DynLevel / Time could allow it to come through without getting false triggers.

so its like a slowly reducing envelope following the first hit.. if your subsequent signals are within the envelope they are masked. if they exceed the envelope they are passed as a valid hit.

Hope the concept makes sense?

Dean

[rockdude]

Good reply Dean!
All this should be in the Wiki!

[dschrammie]

Dean - thanks for the reply. That explanation of the DynLvl and DynTime makes sense now. And actually, when put that way (how you've explained it), it sounds like a rather intelligent way to go about it. Is that how most modules (like Roland's and yamaha's) do it as well? That's more just a question out of curiousity than anything else.

And yes, the Wiki page was very useful. Getting the communication happening between the Megadrum and Sup. 2.0 was made so much easier. Granted, if I read through all of the instructions and spent an entire afternoon and evening fiddling around with stuff, I would have eventually gotten it all figured out. But that little write up was like a "Quick Start" guide which was perfect for me. I've only gotten through the process of getting the MIDI communication actually happening, so I'm sure I'll be referring to the rest of the Wiki as I continue to get more pads connected (and I'll apologize in advance for the questions that will undoubtedly be coming your way!).

So now Dmitri...how 'bout those other questions of mine? Just kidding...take your time.

To be honest, one other thing that I don't really "get" is the positional sensing. I just don't know what these various numbers mean - what does Positional 1, 2, and 3 mean? It says "corresponding to three variations of PS". What are the three variations?
Now, on the other hand, I don't know if it matters for my purposes. Does Superior recognize positional sensing and actually play back different tones based on the strike location on the head? My impression is that it doesn't, in which case I'm better off to just leave positional sensing turned off, yes?

Okay...I suppose since I'm at work I should probably get some actual work done!

[rockdude]

Does Superior recognize positional sensing and actually play back different tones based on the strike location on the head? My impression is that it doesn't, in which case I'm better off to just leave positional sensing turned off, yes?

Okay...I suppose since I'm at work I should probably get some actual work done!

Superior Drummer can handle positional sensing.
...btw, I'm also at work

[dschrammie]

Superior Drummer can handle positional sensing.
...btw, I'm also at work

Heh, yep, after doing further reading today I found that out. Now that means I have to figure out how to make that setting work too! Arrgh!
(and I have yet to get any substantial work done!!! eeek!!!)

[dm9876]

well I just installed my replacement chip on the weekend (with the encrypted firmware) after having it sit on the bench for weeks. So I too will be trying to do the positional sensing thing before too long. When you figure it out share here and we can update the wiki page as well for any SD2 specific parts. I do know that SD2 uses CC16 for positional sense (same as MD), so I suspect that once you get the MD setup it will probably just work.

remember that positional sense is just an experimental feature, so doco may be lacking etc.. best to look at the other forum threads relating to it.

Dean

[dm9876]

>>Without the use of MCT, how do you know if you are or are not consistently topping out with a level of 127?
>Dont know, just use MCT or some other midi monitor tool...

of course now I remember... you just use the VU meters on the LCD display, it's low resolution by default so is hard to tell precisely. You can enable the "big VU meter" setting and you will get a much higher resolution display.

Dean

[dschrammie]

well, fortunately I did get MCT communicating with MD, so I'll just stick with watching that.
I was going through the Superior owner's manual last night...holy cow, that software is able to do A TON of stuff! This is going to take a while to learn...but I have a feeling that once I start to get comfortable with it I'm going to be REALLY happy with it!

[jman 31]

well, fortunately I did get MCT communicating with MD, so I'll just stick with watching that.
I was going through the Superior owner's manual last night...holy cow, that software is able to do A TON of stuff! This is going to take a while to learn...but I have a feeling that once I start to get comfortable with it I'm going to be REALLY happy with it!

Glad you got it working. I have used MCT several times with that module.

J