Please help an idiot

drum sequencing with finger trigger

hi guys… actually, i don’t consider myself a complete idiot, but here’s what i have and what i’d like to do: i have fruity loops and an m-audio trigger finger… i want to record drum patterns in real time using the trigger finger, but i have no clue where to start… i did have an alesis sr-16 which did exactly what i want to do, but i was very unhappy with the response of the pads… i want to be able to create patterns, then arrange them into a song… i know that i can do this in the “grid” display of fruity loops using my mouse, but this just takes far too much time… i would like to use the trigger finger as if it were a dedicated drum machine, just like the sr-16… hit “record”, let it loop while i just hit the pads to create a pattern… i’m convinced this is possible using a computer and the trigger device… are there any dedicated drum sequencing applications that will do what i want?..

thanks,
percussionless in pawtuckney

Don’t know what a M-audio trigger finger is, but this is maybe what you are looking for.
Got it working with microphones as well. (Before I built that midi drumkit).

E-Kit trigger

It looks like it is discontinued, so if you have problems finding it, I’m sure someone will have it. (It is/was freeware)

HtH
Wihan

thanks for the note, wihan… i’ve not been able to locate the app thus far…

the trigger finger is nothing more than a midi controller (although this model uses usb)… it is has four sliders, eight knobs, and sixteen trigger pads… you can find it here… the manual that comes with the controller is very limited, as is the software… and sadly, my knowledge of midi is very little…

as of last night, i have made ~some~ progress… i discovered that i could indeed loop record in fruity loops exactly like i’d like to do… i was also able to link controller functions to some functions in FL, such as the volume knobs for channels linked to a knob on the controller, and some sliders linked to sliders on the controller…

and i am able to trigger a drum event by tapping any of the sixteen pads, but this is where progress stopped… it seems that the pads all control the same channel, but at whatever note i programmed into the controller… if i programmed pad 1 as F#3, then that’s the note that fruity loops would play for the currently selected channel… the confusion is that no matter which of the sixteen pads i tap, it will only trigger one FL channel at a time, although it may be different notes… so, i am able to trigger the snare using all sixteen pads OR any one other instrument, but never more than one at once… to trigger another instrument, i have to select that channel in fruity loops…

i spent quite a while trying to figure out how to assign different channels to the pads on the controller, but no luck… i’m certain that it is possible in fruity loops, but i’ve just not yet come across the solution…

at the moment, i am growing more discouraged by the minute… if anyone could help ease my pain, i would be very appreciative…

thanks, guys!
isaac

Even if you get it to work, will it allow you to put in some dynamics ?

Just a sideways thaught, but what about something like this, or the DD-35 from e-bay ?

Or even a regular midi keyboard ?
Get one of those very cheap edirol touch sensitive ones and bang your rythm out on it. I think that’ll be easier to setup as well, and you’ll have a midi controler to boot for other things…


Good luck !
Wihan

Btw - if you want Ekit trigger, PM me, I’m sure I’ll be able to make a plan…

Hey isaac,

Out of curiosity, I just watched the short Trigger Finger video at M-Audio’s site to see what it can do. If I’m reading you right, you’re assuming that to play different sounds simultaneously, you need a separate channel for each pad. This is not necessary. With MIDI, you can play multiple notes simultaneously through a single channel. So, according to the video, the idea seems to be to assign a unique note–not channel–to each pad, which is the logical thing to do (that’s how a MIDI keyboard basically works, except the keys are the “pads”). As a matter of fact, just for starters I’d stay with a single channel for simplicity’s sake just to get it working, then experiment later with multiple channels as you find it necessary for more complex setups.

Anyway, toward the end of the video, they mentioned that to set different notes for different pads, you touch a pad while in “Edit mode”, then twist “Knob #1” to change notes. So it looks like you’d touch Pad 1 then twist the knob while tapping it until you hear the sound you want, then touch Pad 2 and twist the knob, then Pad 3, etc. I figure this’ll make more sense to you than me, but hopefully that gets you in going the right direction…

HTH

Tony