I started on a Song, found a Bass Drum (C 0) I liked from the All Kicks and set to work adding snare and hi-hat, etc. on separate tracks. But the Bass Drum Volume is really low, so low that I cannot get it loud enough to mix with the other instruments even at 127.

But of course there is no way to go into Voice Edit (as I might to raise the volume on a regular Voice) for a drum so now I’m stuck—and also wondering why that Kick Drum would be THAT low. So low that I’m thinking there might be some other setting that has sneaked into the equation.

So back I go to the same old Power 1 or Power 2 or Dry Standard Kit and wonder why it should be so hard to use a different bass drum.

So what gives?

Increasing the Amplitude Level from the default of 100 to 127 isn’t the only control of volume that exists for the drum (Bd Normal St1-2) at C0 in the All Kicks kit. There are two other things that can be done…

1) Look at the EQ setting for C0. The default setting is Boost12 (+12dB), but it can be set to Boost18 (+18dB). That additional 6dB may be all you’ll need. However, if you require a bit more…

2) The default Amplitude Velocity Sensitivity for the key is +32. If that’s reduced a bit (to +25, for example) the volume will be increased when the key is struck at anything less than maximum velocity, although at the cost of some loss in amplitude touch sensitivity.

(The defaults above are settings found in the XF, but should be the same in the MOXF.)

I will try those things. Thanks. Boosting the low and midrange EQ got me where I needed to be. Now is that something I have to save as a User Voice anymore, or is it fine from Song to Song. I’m never sure about the Voice Edit aspect when it comes to tweaking Voices within a Performance or Song/Pattern. The Amplitude Velocity Sensitivity, same thing?

muscarella - 27 April 2020 11:48 PM

I will try those things. Thanks.

You’re welcome.

 

muscarella -

Boosting the low and midrange EQ got me where I needed to be. Now is that something I have to save as a User Voice anymore, or is it fine from Song to Song. I’m never sure about the Voice Edit aspect when it comes to tweaking Voices within a Performance or Song/Pattern. The Amplitude Velocity Sensitivity, same thing?

It’s unclear to me what you did.

If you edited just C0 in the All Kicks kit, then in order to use that in any Performance or Song/Pattern, the kit would have to be stored in a User Drum location. That’s unlike an edited Normal Voice, which can be stored as a Mixing Voice local to a particular Song/Pattern.

If you EQ’d the Song/Pattern Part where the drum kit is being used, then the EQ would be applied to the entire kit - all 73 instruments would be affected. That might not matter if only the bass drum was used on the Track.

I see, I think. Drum sounds can’t be stored directly to the Song/Pattern as Mixing Voice feature allows you to do on regular voices. Thus the need to make a User Drum version if I intend to use it more often. 

I am using just that one bass drum from the All Kicks on track 10 and the rest of the kit is on other channels. And the EQ I’ve done on track 10 DOES stay with the Song/Pattern so that should get me what I need for that one song.

While on the subject of Mixing Parts and Drums, what happens when you use the Job\Mix Track function to combine the Parts onto one Part/Track. I realize it’s just the MIDI Note events but does one of the Drum Parts become the parent Voice for every other set of Note events. Does the Volume of the part get carried over or just the Gate/Velocity data?

muscarella - 30 April 2020 11:14 PM

I see, I think. Drum sounds can’t be stored directly to the Song/Pattern as Mixing Voice feature allows you to do on regular voices. Thus the need to make a User Drum version if I intend to use it more often.

That’s right.

 

muscarella -

I am using just that one bass drum from the All Kicks on track 10 and the rest of the kit is on other channels. And the EQ I’ve done on track 10 DOES stay with the Song/Pattern so that should get me what I need for that one song.

Yes, that should work for your purpose.

 

muscarella -

While on the subject of Mixing Parts and Drums, what happens when you use the Job\Mix Track function to combine the Parts onto one Part/Track.

The first thing that might be helpful to clarify is the relationship between a Part and a Track, since they are not the same. A Part (Voice) defines how the tone generator will create the sound. A Track contains the data that’s applied to control the Part - note on/off, modulation, etc. That is, a Part receives the MIDI data sent by a Track, and reacts to it.

 

muscarella -

I realize it’s just the MIDI Note events but does one of the Drum Parts become the parent Voice for every other set of Note events. Does the Volume of the part get carried over or just the Gate/Velocity data?

All data of the two mixed Tracks gets applied to the Part (Voice) that’s set to receive it. For a Normal Voice, that would be the full extent of it.

For a Drum Voice, of course, there are 73 “instruments” in the kit - the mixed data in the Track will apply to each instrument based on note number. That’s why it’s often best to edit an individual note in a kit, rather than the Part - by doing that the instruments in a mixed Track will retain their separate characteristics. Otherwise the Part settings (Volume, EQ, etc.) will get applied to the all the mixed data from the Track, affecting any of the 73 possible instruments.