Mandala Drum Forums

Hello Fellow Mandaliers,

I have a question to put to the group:

How am I (or am I?) able to change note number transmission and vary gate times with my Mandalas? While I can use midi notes 60-65 for any sound I want within, say Battery, I seem to be stuck using the same notes whenever I use a "keyboard" based VST. I know that within VB this is possible (at least the notes - I don't recall trying to vary the gate. Maybe via the ASDR...), but I don't always use VB within my DAW - Ableton Live. The main reason I don't use VB exclusively is that it only supports 3 Mandalas currently. I am using all 3 versions of Mandala pads and I would like them all to be be edited within something simple. Performance-wise to use similar note structure across different sounds and pads. Adjustable gate time would be a great help as well, because as it stands now, I have to lean on a note to get any sustain with some synthesizer sounds. A neat technique, but not always feasible. Maybe a Max/MSP patch? Or perhaps A VB software upgrade is in the works? Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Graham

I talk about this a little in a youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF6xgJbX ... ture=g-upl

Unless you have Max/MSP already, I'd try PureData (or PD). It's free and can do front end MIDI processing for your software of choice.

Morgan,

Thanks for that. I will invetigate further at home. I do have Max/MSP for Live and last night I tried using some of their MIDI effect presets, which I had not done before. They worked well for pitch and note length, but maybe not as precisely as I was envisioning. I had a handy box called the Simmons MTM a while back and it did all of these things pretty well. I am also reminded of a Midi Mapper made by both Yamaha and Axcess(?) that did similar things. I will do some more work tonight with some of the ideas I gleaned from your video and excellent blog post. I may have to create a device myself, but I'm in no way well-versed in Max. Any other thoughts from anyone, please post them.

Graham

quiquebucho wrote:Hello Fellow Mandaliers,

I have a question to put to the group:

How am I (or am I?) able to change note number transmission and vary gate times with my Mandalas? While I can use midi notes 60-65 for any sound I want within, say Battery, I seem to be stuck using the same notes whenever I use a "keyboard" based VST.

Graham

Graham,

You can use Instrument or Drum racks within live.
Drum Racks automatically gives you the option for the note out ( when you add instruments to an assignable drum field it appears in the device window)
Instrument racks can be implemented for more diverse control first you need to add an instrument then restrict the key input to just one note e.g 60. Also ad to the midi effect chain either pitch or scale so you can choose your note out. Copy/Paste this instrument 6 times then go back through each instance and adjust by a semi tone. Voila!
Instrument rack allows you to control/restrict the note in per instrument the velocity range and effect fades per instrument e.g. if your playing zone one and then move to zone 3 the effect tail of that instrument will start to fad rather than play through the new sound.
The good thing about the racks is you will be able to all your changes as a rack rather than each individual change. You can also implement the macros to change all the note outs etc.
You can also build a more intricate device with max4live. I did this last year to convert my TD9 incoming notes including the CC## HH so i could play keyboard based instruments in a linear fashion. This allowed me to have presets i could assign to a controller and have the drum kit change from random notes to consecutive groupings chord pairs and then shift up and down octaves. It seems to have contracted a bug i don't know how to fix and it sometimes does not work till you whack it over the head a few times but it is fun.

Hopefully that's helpful and i did not just repeat whats already been suggested.

Regards.
D