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What exactly do drum triggers do? Can someone give me a quick and brief explanation because Im thinking of buying some.

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Big_D Thu, 01/06/2005 - 18:39

Drum triggers capture drum hits (sort of like mics for MIDI), the hits are recorded as MIDI code and any MIDI drum sound can be triggered with the code. Some people use a kick or snare trigger so they can replace the original sound with a different one. I'm sure some one else could give you a better explanation.

I'm curious, if you don't know what they are why do you want to buy some?

therecordingart Thu, 01/06/2005 - 18:42

Ok...very crude explanation:

You place a trigger on a drum....you hit the drum and the trigger senses you hit the drum and it sends a signal to the trigger module. Depending on what sound you have assigned to the trigger in the module...the output has the potential to be a snare, kick, tom, even a car horn...you can make your drums sound like absolutely anything you want.

anonymous Sun, 01/09/2005 - 15:39

Its just I was under the impresion that drum triggers captured the sound of the drums cleanly. Like say, if I have triggers on the drum set, I can equaliza the drums from the computer, and if I want to turn up say the snare in a certain part of the song, I just turn up the volume on the snare and only the volume of the snare goes up without background noise.

Question, because Im buying equiptment tomorrow, do I need a module for this?

Also, is it true what I think, that they are just like mics but only capture the sound im recording and nothing else?

I don´t want say, the sound from the toms seeping into the snare, and vice versa, I want everything recorded in individual tracks and cleanly. If not, I´ll just buy a set of drum mics.

Please help, cuz tomorrow Im going shopping(online)

Big_D Sun, 01/09/2005 - 18:56

Also, is it true what I think, that they are just like mics but only capture the sound im recording and nothing else?

No they are not, I guess my explanation was a little over simplified. Triggers capture the hit on the drum and turn it into an electrical impulse (like a mic) but they do not capture sound. They capture the hit in it's place in time so the hit can be replaced with a drum sound. You can't listen to it, as it is not a drum sound that it captures. For arguments sake just imagine it as a "click" everytime the drum is struck. In your computer or MIDI device you replace the "clicks" with say the sound of a snare drum. A good set of triggers will not be activated by a hit on another drum, in other words no bleed. Each drum has it's own "click" and you can replace any "click" with any drum sound you choose. A trigger from the kick drum can be replaced with a kick drum sound, tamborine or a barking dog if you wish. It's not a bad alternative for people with bad drums and/or a worse room.

Hope that helped

anonymous Thu, 01/13/2005 - 19:29

ok, so say a record one snare hit (and toms and bass, etc) with a conventional mic. Can i still record with the triggers and then replace the "clicks" as you say with the sound recorded from the conventional mic?

Its just that I dont have a room conditioned for recording drums, and i just ordered the triggers 2 hours ago. I didnt have cash for a module, which I would have preferred, but can I acheive this?

Big_D Thu, 01/13/2005 - 19:47

ok, so say a record one snare hit (and toms and bass, etc) with a conventional mic. Can i still record with the triggers and then replace the "clicks" as you say with the sound recorded from the conventional mic?

Yes you can but you'll need to make samples of each drum sound. It would be easier to start out with some drum sample libraries and use those to replace the trigger events. I would post your new questions on the Digital Audio forum and someone (David comes to mind) could help you with the technical issues of making samples as I don't do much MIDI.

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