Possible to Enable Bell Sense on Hihat cymbals?

[John]

Is it possible for Roland bell sense to be used on cymbal pads for the hihats? I was thinking that most edrum hihats don't have a bell zone, while at the same time many VSTs have a hihat bell articulation that could be taken advantage of to make normal hihat pads feel more realistic.

[Rob]

Yes, it is possible. You tried an weren't able to?

[John]

Yes, it is possible. You tried an weren't able to?

I have not yet purchased, just wanted to know beforehand. I know it says in the manual that the bell sense works on Roland CY type pads, but there was no mention of the VH-11 or any other hihat cymbals.

[Rob]

That is correct. Only the pads listed in the manual support bell sense. There is nothing stopping you from using of the listed pads as a hihat cymbal. I guess your question then is more about adding bell sense support to specific hihat pads. I have a VH10 and VH13. Neither is a good candidate for bell sense--the bell detection just wouldn't be reliable enough.

[John]

That is correct. Only the pads listed in the manual support bell sense. There is nothing stopping you from using of the listed pads as a hihat cymbal. I guess your question then is more about adding bell sense support to specific hihat pads. I have a VH10 and VH13. Neither is a good candidate for bell sense--the bell detection just wouldn't be reliable enough.

Ah, I see. You mean pairing up a Roland CY cymbal with an FD8 pedal or something to achieve the bell sense. It seems like an alternative to when bell sense isn't working on a pad, is to just use positional sensing on that pad, and set up a zone that's closest to the actual bell area of it.

[lalo]

I used a gewa 14" hihat which has 3 zones and set it up as Yamaha and it worked perfectly

[John]

I used a gewa 14" hihat which has 3 zones and set it up as Yamaha and it worked perfectly

How well does that cymbal trigger? I saw the 65 Drums review of the set that pad is sold with, seems like he was having some problems. Is the bottom cymbal a dummy, or does the pad have a "tight" articulation like the VH-13? If it does, I suppose it's not a bad value.

[Rob]

The bottom cymbal of the VH-13 is also a dummy. The tighness all comes from the position of the VH-13 plunger (FSR) and whatever application you are triggering in.

[lalo]

If you set it up right it works great, only thing is it has some hot spots if you hit it right over the piezo but since it won't rotate you just place it so you don't hit that spot.