Old 06-05-2019, 10:49 AM   #1
purple24
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Default MIDI drum resonance

The snare hits on MIDI drum parts recorded via an e-kit I've noticed often have a slightly different resonance/sound dependent on where exactly on the trigger I physically hit. This is a good thing of course because it means a more natural sound akin to a real snare head, but because of my not so good technique I sometimes have annoyingly different sounds between two snares (tight to resonant). I can't figure out using the Reaper MIDI editor how I can make them more uniform. There is nothing distinct between the two different hits - they correspond to the same note, have velocity readings that are very close and are similar in note duration too. Is this something "baked in" to my E drum recording? I'm thinking surely not because that goes against the premise of MIDI?

Does anyone know what I'm talking about or advise on how to help, haha.
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Old 06-05-2019, 11:39 AM   #2
Glennbo
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Depending on what you are using for your drum sounds it could be velocity that manages the switch, and if that's the case altering velocity is easy enough.

It could also be randomization doing it, and that is not so easy to work with. A long time ago I used some DW drum samples in Superior Drummer 1 and the snare had one way too ringy sample that would show up unexpectedly in projects. In my case it was that randomization was on. Even though I use a set of V-Drums when recording midi drums, I was still using the randomize function to make each hit be varying samples. I had to disable randomize on the sample pools and only use alternating L/R samples.

The last place you might find it is in polyphonic pressure. Some drum pads/modules transmit poly pressure for positioning, or cymbal chokes. I would look in the event list view to see if anything like that is in your data.
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Old 06-05-2019, 11:53 AM   #3
lunker
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One thing you could try is to take one snare note in the MIDI editor, and copy it several times so that the same exact note (same duration, velocity, etc.) plays several times in a row. Make sure that if there is any underlying CC data or aftertouch (not sure if the e-kit would add anything like that) that it stays the same for each note.

If the snare sounds different each time the note is played, then it is some kind of randomization in the sound library that is causing the difference.
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Old 06-05-2019, 01:02 PM   #4
purple24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lunker View Post
One thing you could try is to take one snare note in the MIDI editor, and copy it several times so that the same exact note (same duration, velocity, etc.) plays several times in a row. Make sure that if there is any underlying CC data or aftertouch (not sure if the e-kit would add anything like that) that it stays the same for each note.

If the snare sounds different each time the note is played, then it is some kind of randomization in the sound library that is causing the difference.
Thanks to you and Glennbo for your replies - it appears to be randomisation. Even identical copy and pasted snare hits have slightly different nuances - can confirm they are different because I exported it and checked the waveform in Audacity just to be sure.

I'm using EZD2. Unfortunately, having just read a thread about this on Gearslutz, I don't think randomisation can be disabled. :/ Hey, at least my technique isn't as bad as I thought It's the drums' fault! It's not a huge annoyance on ordinary snare hits, but any kit that has brushes I find is just awful because of the sample variance. I guess I could technically export a single lone snare brush hit that I like and then import it as a standalone sound for each snare hit... is there some kind of easy way to do that lol?

Last edited by purple24; 06-05-2019 at 01:17 PM.
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Old 06-05-2019, 01:20 PM   #5
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I went from EZD1 to Superior, so I don't have EZ Drummer II but on EZ Drummer I there is a "Humanize" button that disables it. In Superior Drummer 2, it has independent control for random, alternating, and a few other things. I disabled random once I figured out that was causing my occasional <PRANG!> snare hit to pop out in a project.
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Old 06-05-2019, 01:46 PM   #6
purple24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Glennbo View Post
I went from EZD1 to Superior, so I don't have EZ Drummer II but on EZ Drummer I there is a "Humanize" button that disables it. In Superior Drummer 2, it has independent control for random, alternating, and a few other things. I disabled random once I figured out that was causing my occasional <PRANG!> snare hit to pop out in a project.
Thanks, that's it!
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