Electronic foot percussion
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The forum for petitions, theoretical discussion, gripes, or other matters outside deemed outside the scope of helping users make optimal use of MOTU hardware and software. Posts in other forums may be moved here at the moderators discretion. No politics or religion!!
The forum for petitions, theoretical discussion, gripes, or other matters outside deemed outside the scope of helping users make optimal use of MOTU hardware and software. Posts in other forums may be moved here at the moderators discretion. No politics or religion!!
- Prime Mover
- Posts: 2439
- Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:19 am
- Primary DAW OS: MacOS
- Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Electronic foot percussion
I've been gigging around with my girlfriend a bit recently. What we really need is to form a hard rock/metal band, but I've gotta stay so focused on my primary band, that I really don't have time for that. I have been experimenting with trying to play some simple drum patterns with pedals. I really hate to use backing drum tracks if I have to, and since I already play drums, and my feet are relatively unused, why not? We recently put together a pretty amazing (IMO) version of "Sweet Dreams" (just celebrating it's 30th birthday this year), using two pedals for kick and snare. But it's kind of a crude setup, and one of my pedals has a slight delay (maybe 10ms). I've been experimenting with using an expression pedal, which is tricky, but I might be able to play a little faster on.
But if I want to continue this direction, there's a couple different ways I could approach this. I could get a few electronic kick drum pedals, which would be nice and responsive, but maybe a little difficult to manage. Also, no kick pedals/pads I'm seeing have USB out. The other option is something like an organ pedal controller, which also could be useful in other applications too. I'm always designing Max/MSP controller patches, so the type of data it puts out doesn't really matter (wrote a little program to translate CC data into MIDI notes, for instance).
Anyway, I know there's other people out there doing this, what seems to work?
Edit: Actually, this looks almost perfect, for a number of reasons:
IK Multimedia iRig BlueBoard
However, I'm concerned about how responsive it would be. Looks to be more for doing toggle-style changes than accurate percussion. However, bluetooth would be nice, and I could plug my expression pedals into it. I'm currently using an Alesis QS8, which is notoriously bad at recognizing expression data.
But if I want to continue this direction, there's a couple different ways I could approach this. I could get a few electronic kick drum pedals, which would be nice and responsive, but maybe a little difficult to manage. Also, no kick pedals/pads I'm seeing have USB out. The other option is something like an organ pedal controller, which also could be useful in other applications too. I'm always designing Max/MSP controller patches, so the type of data it puts out doesn't really matter (wrote a little program to translate CC data into MIDI notes, for instance).
Anyway, I know there's other people out there doing this, what seems to work?
Edit: Actually, this looks almost perfect, for a number of reasons:
IK Multimedia iRig BlueBoard
However, I'm concerned about how responsive it would be. Looks to be more for doing toggle-style changes than accurate percussion. However, bluetooth would be nice, and I could plug my expression pedals into it. I'm currently using an Alesis QS8, which is notoriously bad at recognizing expression data.
— Eric Barker
Eel House
"All's fair in love, war, and the recording studio"
MacPro 1,1 2Ghz 7GB RAM OS 10.6.8 | MacBook Pro 13" i5 1.8Ghz 16GB RAM OS 10.8.2
DP7/8 | Komplete 7 | B4II | Korg Legacy Analog | Waves v9 (various) | Valhalla Room | EWQLSO Gold
MOTU 828mkII | MOTU 8pre | Presonus BlueTube | FMR RNC
Themes: Round is Right and Alloy
Eel House
"All's fair in love, war, and the recording studio"
MacPro 1,1 2Ghz 7GB RAM OS 10.6.8 | MacBook Pro 13" i5 1.8Ghz 16GB RAM OS 10.8.2
DP7/8 | Komplete 7 | B4II | Korg Legacy Analog | Waves v9 (various) | Valhalla Room | EWQLSO Gold
MOTU 828mkII | MOTU 8pre | Presonus BlueTube | FMR RNC
Themes: Round is Right and Alloy
- daniel.sneed
- Posts: 2241
- Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:01 pm
- Primary DAW OS: MacOS
- Location: France
- Contact:
Re: Electronic foot percussion
Just to say, I've been thru this and have gone the analog way.
A good piece of spruce wood, four small rubber feet, an electro-acoustic sensor, a matching transformer, an xlr plug and voila.
Only bass drum, sets in seconds, totally reliable, expressive and... great sound.
BTW, you can see the thing at work in my avatar!
A good piece of spruce wood, four small rubber feet, an electro-acoustic sensor, a matching transformer, an xlr plug and voila.
Only bass drum, sets in seconds, totally reliable, expressive and... great sound.
BTW, you can see the thing at work in my avatar!
dAn Shakin' all over!
DP11.31, OS12.7.4, MacBookPro-i7-3.1Ghz-16GoRam-1ToSSD
Falcon, Kontakt, Ozone, RX, Unisum & Michelangelo, LX480
Waldorf Iridium & STVC & Blofeld, Kemper Profiler Stage, EWIusb, Studiologic VMK, ControlPad
JBL4326+4312sub, Behringer X32rack
Many mics, mandolins, banjos, guitars, flutes, melodions, xylos, kalimbas...
DP11.31, OS12.7.4, MacBookPro-i7-3.1Ghz-16GoRam-1ToSSD
Falcon, Kontakt, Ozone, RX, Unisum & Michelangelo, LX480
Waldorf Iridium & STVC & Blofeld, Kemper Profiler Stage, EWIusb, Studiologic VMK, ControlPad
JBL4326+4312sub, Behringer X32rack
Many mics, mandolins, banjos, guitars, flutes, melodions, xylos, kalimbas...
Re: Electronic foot percussion
IMHO trying to trigger drum parts via MIDI is always problematic,most if not all of the top shelf edrum kits trigger via trigger inputs which in my experience are always faster,no perceivable lag and more accurate.
I know this is not what you want to hear but MIDI for me is not ideal for triggering drums or percussion.
I know this is not what you want to hear but MIDI for me is not ideal for triggering drums or percussion.
2012 Mac Pro 3.46GHz 12 core 96 gig,Mojave, DP11.01,Logic 10.51, RME UCX,Great River ME-1NV,a few microphones,UAD2, Komplete 12U,U-he,Omni & way too many VI's,Synths & FX galore!, Mimic Pro w/ SD3,Focal Twin 6 monitors, Shunyata...........
- Prime Mover
- Posts: 2439
- Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:19 am
- Primary DAW OS: MacOS
- Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Re: Electronic foot percussion
No, that's not a bad route. Maybe not affordable now, but there are some good benefits to it. I mean, real kick drum pedals are second to none, IMO. I just wish there were trigger pads that went right to USB, instead of voltage. I could go the arduino route, but all I need right now is ANOTHER DIY project!
One thing that might be really amazing is to get a double-kick pedal with two triggers, and set the left to play a snare (makes sense because my left HAND is used to playing snare anyway). I want to get an acoustic drum kit someday (when I move into a bigger place), so a real kick drum pedal, or even a double kick pedal would be a fine investment. Only problem is, I don't know if anyone makes individual kick triggers that can work with a real double-kick pedal and give you individual sounds. So far I'm just seeing one big head trigger, in which case I couldn't set the left to a snare.
I also have to judge space and ease of setup, and use. I play with an X stand, and I really prefer standing up, though this obviously limits my foot percussion abilities.
One thing that might be really amazing is to get a double-kick pedal with two triggers, and set the left to play a snare (makes sense because my left HAND is used to playing snare anyway). I want to get an acoustic drum kit someday (when I move into a bigger place), so a real kick drum pedal, or even a double kick pedal would be a fine investment. Only problem is, I don't know if anyone makes individual kick triggers that can work with a real double-kick pedal and give you individual sounds. So far I'm just seeing one big head trigger, in which case I couldn't set the left to a snare.
I also have to judge space and ease of setup, and use. I play with an X stand, and I really prefer standing up, though this obviously limits my foot percussion abilities.
— Eric Barker
Eel House
"All's fair in love, war, and the recording studio"
MacPro 1,1 2Ghz 7GB RAM OS 10.6.8 | MacBook Pro 13" i5 1.8Ghz 16GB RAM OS 10.8.2
DP7/8 | Komplete 7 | B4II | Korg Legacy Analog | Waves v9 (various) | Valhalla Room | EWQLSO Gold
MOTU 828mkII | MOTU 8pre | Presonus BlueTube | FMR RNC
Themes: Round is Right and Alloy
Eel House
"All's fair in love, war, and the recording studio"
MacPro 1,1 2Ghz 7GB RAM OS 10.6.8 | MacBook Pro 13" i5 1.8Ghz 16GB RAM OS 10.8.2
DP7/8 | Komplete 7 | B4II | Korg Legacy Analog | Waves v9 (various) | Valhalla Room | EWQLSO Gold
MOTU 828mkII | MOTU 8pre | Presonus BlueTube | FMR RNC
Themes: Round is Right and Alloy
- Gravity Jim
- Posts: 2005
- Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:55 am
- Primary DAW OS: MacOS
- Location: Santa Rosa, CA
Re: Electronic foot percussion
These guys makes several models of wooden analog foot drums with built in pickups.
http://log-jam.co.uk
http://log-jam.co.uk
Jim Bordner
MacPro 5,1 (3.33Ghz 12-core), 32g RAM, OS X 10.14.6 • MOTU DP 10.11 • Logic Pro X 10.2.5 • Waves Platinum, UAD-2, Slate Digital, Komplete, Omnisphere 2, LASS, CineSamples, Chipsounds, V Collection 5[color]
MacPro 5,1 (3.33Ghz 12-core), 32g RAM, OS X 10.14.6 • MOTU DP 10.11 • Logic Pro X 10.2.5 • Waves Platinum, UAD-2, Slate Digital, Komplete, Omnisphere 2, LASS, CineSamples, Chipsounds, V Collection 5[color]
- Prime Mover
- Posts: 2439
- Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:19 am
- Primary DAW OS: MacOS
- Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Re: Electronic foot percussion
Meh, to be honest, I'm pretty set on the digital route for this. I play out of my laptop (Jambalaya), and I can cue up different kinds of sounds for different tunes, and I also don't have to worry about running out different signals. I'm already part of the way there with CC pedals, and I like what I'm getting.
At this point, I'm thinking about just buying another good sustain pedal. My biggest problem is that the secondary pedal I'm using right now is a cheapo footswitch that seems to be reading a delay. That and the fact that the pedals keep sliding!!! But this looks like a great solution for that:
http://www.stageworksgear.com/products/ ... effect.htm
I think it would solve a lot of problems if I would just sit down.
At this point, I'm thinking about just buying another good sustain pedal. My biggest problem is that the secondary pedal I'm using right now is a cheapo footswitch that seems to be reading a delay. That and the fact that the pedals keep sliding!!! But this looks like a great solution for that:
http://www.stageworksgear.com/products/ ... effect.htm
I think it would solve a lot of problems if I would just sit down.
— Eric Barker
Eel House
"All's fair in love, war, and the recording studio"
MacPro 1,1 2Ghz 7GB RAM OS 10.6.8 | MacBook Pro 13" i5 1.8Ghz 16GB RAM OS 10.8.2
DP7/8 | Komplete 7 | B4II | Korg Legacy Analog | Waves v9 (various) | Valhalla Room | EWQLSO Gold
MOTU 828mkII | MOTU 8pre | Presonus BlueTube | FMR RNC
Themes: Round is Right and Alloy
Eel House
"All's fair in love, war, and the recording studio"
MacPro 1,1 2Ghz 7GB RAM OS 10.6.8 | MacBook Pro 13" i5 1.8Ghz 16GB RAM OS 10.8.2
DP7/8 | Komplete 7 | B4II | Korg Legacy Analog | Waves v9 (various) | Valhalla Room | EWQLSO Gold
MOTU 828mkII | MOTU 8pre | Presonus BlueTube | FMR RNC
Themes: Round is Right and Alloy