hi hat set up, step by step guide/recommendation

[dschrammie]

I'd swear that I saw a thread that had one of the more experienced guys here laying out a step by step guide to setting up a hihat with a typical foot pedal (like the Roland FD-8), but I can't seem to find it. Anyone know which thread/post that I'm talking about? or anyone want to lay out a guide for me?
I have a CY-5 that I'm using for a hihat with a Pintech hyperhat pedal.

[dmitri]

It is in http://www.megadrum.info/content/hihat-pedal-settings

[dschrammie]

Yes Dmitri...I had pretty much assumed that was going to be your reply and I should have mentioned to start that I have in fact read all of the documentation pages and I'm well aware of that page with hi-hat settings. But that's just it...it's a page that briefly talks about/describes the settings. No offense meant here at all, but it doesn't explain or describe how to use the settings. This especially applies to the LowLevel, HiLevel, and all of the various levels of open/closed. Some kind of descriptive example for each would really help.

Just for example, under HiLevel it says:
"Set the high level of the pedal, when pedal is fully depressed. If set too high you may not be able to get fully open HiHat pedal.

You should adjust both low and high level so that the values were as far apart as possible and yet the pedal reaches extreme positions. Use VU Meter (not very accurate), Big VU Meter (more accurate) or CC messages (with MIDI-OX). When using CC messages and MIDI-OX as a guidance you need to achieve such a configuration that CC messages are not sent by MegaDrum in extreme pedal positions."

If it could be followed by some process description: "To do this, start by ___________ ....." and go from there explaining how to actually determine settings. It sounds like I'm apparently supposed to switch to Big VU Meter and use it in some way to determine some settings...but how, I have no idea. That's why I'm asking if anyone has any kind of step by step description of how to actually come up with the right settings. And though it seems that the hihat settings are probably the most involved/complex, this need for a step by step guide applies to all of the Megadrum's settings...I still don't really have any idea how to determine what are the appropriate settings for my snare or kick. If I showed you the settings I have for those inputs and you asked me "how did you determine those numbers?" my reply would be that I just arbitrarily picked them.

[dmitri]

I myself often deal with various types of documentation where I need to read and re-read it (and often test it) to understand it. Sometimes I blame myself, sometimes authors of documents.

In the documentation, which I gave the link to, it says:

Next screen HiHat Pedal->LevelsAuto:

<HiHat Pedal >
LevelsAuto: Yes

If set to Yes MegaDrum will try automatically adjust HiHat Pedal->LowLevel nad HiHat Pedal->HiLevel after you pressed the pedal a few times. You may use it initially as a guidance for proper Low and High levels of the pedal. Once you saw what levels were auto set you'd better set it to No and adjust LowLevel and HiLevel values s manually. Default is Yes

Then further down what you already quoted:

Next screen HiHat Pedal->LowLevel:

<HiHat Pedal >
LowLevel: 90

Set the low level of the pedal, when pedal is fully pressed. If set too low you may not be able to get fully closed HiHat pedal.



Next screen HiHat Pedal->HiLevel:

<HiHat Pedal >
HiLevel: 900

Set the high level of the pedal, when pedal is fully depressed. If set too high you may not be able to get fully open HiHat pedal.

You should adjust both low and high level so that the values were as far apart as possible and yet the pedal reaches extreme positions. Use VU Meter (not very accurate), Big VU Meter (more accurate) or CC messages (with MIDI-OX). When using CC messages and MIDI-OX as a guidance you need to achieve such a configuration that CC messages are not sent by MegaDrum in extreme pedal positions.

Big VU Meter is explained in http://www.megadrum.info/content/miscelenous-settings

Please, you, or somebody else, tell me how all of these should be re-phrased and, if others agree it is better, I will correct the documentation.

[dschrammie]

Well, why don't I start with the basics and maybe, just maybe, I'll start to figure some things out along the way. Please forgive me for probably being very ignorant and needing help with the absolute basics.

"Next screen HiHat Pedal->LevelsAuto:

<HiHat Pedal >LevelsAuto: Yes
If set to Yes MegaDrum will try automatically adjust HiHat Pedal->LowLevel nad HiHat Pedal->HiLevel after you pressed the pedal a few times. You may use it initially as a guidance for proper Low and High levels of the pedal. Once you saw what levels were auto set you'd better set it to No and adjust LowLevel and HiLevel values s manually. Default is Yes."
I'm trying to make sure I understand what to actually do. It sounds like I set LevelsAuto to yes and then what? stomp the pedal a few times? And then will MCT display what the Auto setting establishes as the low and high settings? and then switch LevelsAuto to off and I use those numbers as a point to start from? Am I on the right track with that? And if those numbers are not, in fact, immediately displayed in MCT then is my only other choice to count blocks in Big VU meter (I don't use MIDI-OX)? If so, how does that tell you what a low level and high level are?

next question -
After the write up for HiLevel, it says this:

"Next screen HiHat Pedal->OpenLvl:
Next screen HiHat Pedal->SOpenLvl:
Next screen HiHat Pedal->HOpenLvl:

<HiHat Pedal >OpenLvl: 8
Measured against CC MIDI message value: 0 - for fully open, 127 - for fully closed. Set the level below which HiHat hits registered as open/semi open/half open hits.

Next screen HiHat Pedal->ClosedLvl:

<HiHat Pedal >ClosedLvl: 110
Measured against CC MIDI message value: 0 - for fully open, 127 - for fully closed. Set the level below which HiHat hits registered as semi closed and above which as closed hits."

Is there a process that I'm supposed to use to detemine what starting points I should use for these, or do people just start arbitrarily choosing CC MIDI values until they find what works?

[dmitri]

If it is not clear from the documentation, I'll say it here - MegaDrum can be configured using exclusively buttons and the LCD without any reliance on any other software, including MCT. The documentation is written on this basis. So when I wrote "MegaDrum will try automatically adjust HiHat Pedal->LowLevel nad HiHat Pedal->HiLevel after you pressed the pedal a few times" it literally means that it will update Pedal->LowLevel and HiHat Pedal->HiLevel and you can look up them by just going to these menu screens. I really don't understand why up until now you are the first who got confused about where to look up LowLevel and HiLevel HiHat pedal settings.

[dschrammie]

If it is not clear from the documentation, I'll say it here - MegaDrum can be configured using exclusively buttons and the LCD without any reliance on any other software, including MCT. The documentation is written on this basis. So when I wrote "MegaDrum will try automatically adjust HiHat Pedal->LowLevel nad HiHat Pedal->HiLevel after you pressed the pedal a few times" it literally means that it will update Pedal->LowLevel and HiHat Pedal->HiLevel and you can look up them by just going to these menu screens. I really don't understand why up until now you are the first who got confused about where to look up LowLevel and HiLevel HiHat pedal settings.

Well, ignoring the "subtlety" of the comment, I do appreciate that you have now made that clear to me.

For the most part I got the hihat pedal working last night. Chicks, splashes, open, closed. Unfortunately I didn't realize that the firmware version that I have doesn't allow for the multiple levels of open/closed. Oh well, all in time I guess.

One thing that I haven't figured out is why I'm not getting separate bow & edge signals. The cymbal pad is a Roland CY-5 and I checked on my Roland TD-10 to be sure that it was in fact a 2 zone cymbal pad (on the TD-10 I was able to get 2 different cymbal crash sounds between the bow and the edge). I checked to be sure that I'm using a stereo cable and checked that signal is getting through from one end to the other on all 3 conductors. I tried striking at multiple locations and at multiple strengths and MCT didn't register "Rim Hit" at all. I wasn't able to go through all the various/possible scenarios because MCT got stuck in "writing to slot 1"...it just went on and on and on until I had to just shut it off because I was tired. I'll have to do some more checking/experimenting when I get home, but it's very possible that I may come back with questions.

[dmitri]

For the lack of any details on how the HiHat is configured I can only assume it is not properly configured as dual zone piezo/switch pad. See http://www.megadrum.info/content/pads-settings for documentation.

[dschrammie]

For the lack of any details on how the HiHat is configured I can only assume it is not properly configured as dual zone piezo/switch pad. See http://www.megadrum.info/content/pads-settings for documentation.

Yeah, that's my guess as well. I'll have to go through the various settings tonight...keeping my fingers crossed.

[dschrammie]

Well, I fiddled around a little more and I discovered something else...don't know how I missed this the first time around. For my current set up I'm only connecting one pad at a time so that I can learn some of the ins & outs of the Megadrum set up and get used to how to work with it. So I only have the hihat pedal (Pintech Hyperhat, similar to a Roland FD-7/8 style) and the hihat pad (Roland CY-5) connected. Because the interface is quick and easy to use, I have been using MCT...it was set to "quick access". I was trying to make adjustments for the hihat pad and happened to have the pedal depressed, so when I struck the hihat pad I suddenly realized MCT was switching to "Tom 4"...and it was triggering a floor tom in Superior. I thought maybe I accidently clicked on Tom 4 or something, so I did it again...sure enough, it switched to Tom 4 again. Hmmmm...I checked the little input layout that Jman included with the Megadrum (Synthex v1.8) to make sure that I was, in fact, in the right input. Yep, according to the layout I was in the hihat input. So I decided check all of the inputs by connecting the hihat pad to each individual input on the Megadrum and striking to see what MCT would switch to. Snare, kick, tom 1, 2, and 3 were normal...then I had 2 inputs switch to tom 4 (one of which is supposedly the hihat), crashes and ride seemed correct, and then I had several Aux inputs that made MCT switch to only Aux 2. Then I did the same thing with the Megadrum - I set Megadrum to Quick Access and went through every input in the same process. It listed the inputs in the correct way, that is, it matched the Synthex input layout. So I'm not sure what's going on there with MCT, but as a result, this was screwing up my mapping to Superior.

Next issue:
I went back to the Megadrum Wiki that outlines the note numbers and made an adjustment to a pedal note, I think maybe the Edge Closed note number, or something like that. MCT is currently set at sending settings to Megadrum automatically...well, when I made the note change it the message came up that it was sending settings to Megardum and the little "progress" light started going back and forth...back and forth....back and forth....and on an on. It got hung up again. Eventually I ended up just shutting down MCT...so I'm not sure what's happening there.

And finally, a settings question...again.
Under HiHat pedal settings, for HHinput it reads:
"<HiHat Pedal >HHInput: 2
Set the input number which will be paired with the HiHat pedal as a HiHat cymbal. It is set to input 2 by default which is a default HiHat cymbal input. It can be set to any even input number corresponding to a Bow input of a dual (3 zone) cymbal."

Now, based on the input set up for my Megadrum (below), does that mean my HHInput will be 8? (assuming that Kick is 1, snare is 2, etc.). (I'm not positive that all the cymbals are drawn in the right place because I'm working from memory here, but I know that I have drawn Kick, Snare, Pedal, and Hihat in the correct locations):