MIDI Expression with DIY optical hi hat controller

[Rob]

...I just reread your original post. You're using a TS cable. I think that might be the issue. I think you need to wire it up to a TRS cable (even though you only connect two wires. Have a look at the last page of the MIDI Expression Control Manual. I'm not sure if that's the issue, but it's worth a shot.

http://www.audiofront.net/MIDIExpression.pdf

[Chrisblob]

Some questions:

• How have you wired up your sensor to the TRS cable?
• If you connect your optical pedal to Trigger I/O without calibrating, what is the value range of CC4?
• Am I correct in assuming that the note being generated when the pedal passes half is not the 'foot chick' note?

Regards,
Rob

I had wired the LDR across a TS cable, and also had the hat trigger wired on a TS. I powered down, swapped to a TRS cable for both, powered up again, and it made no difference - Trigger I|O still sends a hit at the halfway point. I even tried a combination of TS on the trigger and and TRS on the pedal - still the same result. It would seem as though I do not need to wire anything to the Ring on both of the cables, but perhaps I do? The trigger cable is wired as per usual, with + on the piezo wired to Tip, and - wired to sleeve. Trigger seems to work quite nicely

I then powered down the Trigger I|O, powered up again, and logged the CC4 values - they ranged from 0 to 122 (125 if pushing down harder), so it appears that previous calibration was saved. So I did a factory reset of the Trigger I|O. After that I logged the CC4 values again, and this time they ranged from 40 to 115. After running the hi hat calibration again the CC4 values return to 0 to 122-125 seen previously.

The note received at the halfway point is the note set for closed position on the Trigger I|O, which is F#1/42 to match with the chosen MIDI note in BFD2. Open position on the Trigger I|O is also set to F#1/42, but the pedal position is set to G#1/44, which I have mapped pedal sound to within BFD.

Without any other ideas my proposed solution of routing CC4 back to BFD2 via a MIDI Expression instead of the Trigger I|O still seems best to me.

Regards,

Chris W, NZ.

[Rob]

The problem is that MIDI Expression currently doesn't support the foot chick articulation and splash articulations. You could just use MIDI Expression to track your CC4, but then you'd have to rely on BFD 's 'auto pedal' events to get your chick back.

P.S. Have you tried the Alesis forums?

[Chrisblob]

The problem is that MIDI Expression currently doesn't support the foot chick articulation and splash articulations. You could just use MIDI Expression to track your CC4, but then you'd have to rely on BFD 's 'auto pedal' events to get your chick back.

P.S. Have you tried the Alesis forums?

BFD2 handles all the pedal and splash events without trouble. I have thankfully however found a solution.

I wasn't too happy with the length of travel of the hi hat pedal - it was too long (over 70mm from open to closed), so I modified the pedal to stop on a firm rubber stopper at around halfway down. I then reprogrammed the Trigger I|O to send a pedal note at halfway in place of a variable tip note, and then adjusted the articulation points in BFD2 to match the newly adjusted pedal travel. There are still a few stray hits happening when I'm playing just off fully closed, but for most hi hat tricks/sounds it works pretty much as expected. I'll focus on playing it for a week or two and get a feel for the hi hat setup before I decide on any further poking and prodding

There are still a few things to do - I've got the ring input free on my kick and snare inputs, a free ring input on one of the generic inputs, and the TRS ride cymbal input is unused (my dual-zone ride is plugged into a generic input, as Trigger I|O was somehow creating choke events on a cymbal with no choke capability. I might do a side stick, a generic pad (cowbell?), and a 2nd ride cymbal. Were you still interested in the PDF or image of my optical sensor drawing?

Chris W, NZ.