6APTAWEB wrote: Could I do this?

Absolutely

6APTAWEB wrote: Does any of that make sense?

Absolutely

6APTAWEB wrote: How do I do this? - Please help me.

Here goes...

Triggers are the first step. You can buy them or make them. I've picked up old electric drum pads over the years and also have a Roland Ocatpad. Making a trigger is super-simple. There are tons of tutorials on the net that explain how to do it with simple radio shack components.

With something like an Octapad or DrumKat you can set each pad to trigger a certain MIDI note. You can also set up velocity sensitivity for each pad. I would imagine that the newer stuff allows you to use different MIDI channels per pad per velocity and all sorts of MIDI wickedness. My stuff is old so it's one pad/one note.

If you just buy triggers you need a way to convert the trigger to MIDI data. Drum brains do that sort of thing. But there are some other alternatives. One of the most commonly used devices for this are the Alesis D4 and D5 drum machines. Basically they are rack mount drum modules that have trigger inputs. They also have a MIDI in and out. You can use the triggers to play the internal drum sounds on them or you can configure the triggers to send a MIDI message via the MIDI out to whatever device your heart desires. With this, you are basically just getting MIDI note/velocity data. If you want to do more you may want to take a different route.

The alternative to all of this would be to get some sort of MIDI controller. It can be a keyboard controller or maybe just a pad controller. Several of the keyboard variety are more than just keyboards. They have knobs, sliders and drum pads to control all sorts of MIDI devices and data. Then there are the pad controllers like the Trigger Finger that have a grid of pads which are fully programmable and can control all sorts of different MIDI data.

Basically, what you want to do can be done in a few different ways and can be done on the cheap.

And, as luck would have it, this guy has one(DM5) and isn't sure he wants it anymore.

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Thank you very much. The problem with the sound modules is that I'm paying for the internal sounds when I don't really need them.

Is there just something I could use to get the triggers to send a midi signal to whatever program I'd be using.

This seems like it might be the right thing...

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or this

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Yea, the DM5 is like one of those boxes only older. Much much older:)

Youd have to look at what you want from the boxes above to make a decision. Roland is big in the field...but that Alesis trigger IO looks like a good fit for the money.

Wait up! Couldn't I just get triggers and put them through my Motu 8pre? and just make midi tracks corresponding to those inputs?

but then I probably can't use reason...but then again I probly can't use it even if I buy the Alesis or roland trigger to midi interface. Anyone?

From what I've read, that is possible. The signal from a trigger is pretty low so you would probably need the gain from the 8pre to boost the signal from the triggers enough to be able to work with it in your DAW.

Give it a shot and let us know what the results are!