Better HH control with a Zendrum and SD3

[Jay M]

I haven’t done any e-drumming in almost a decade.
I want to use my old Zendrum with Superior drummer 3.

I have a Roland KT 10 and an FD 9. The Zendrum has a kick input and HH input.

I’m able to get all the HH variations when I move the pedal, but no chick and splash. My assumption is that it’s because the zendrum is so old that it doesn’t generate the closed and splash notes when I close the pedal.

Will adding an edrumin solve my problem?

I’d like the high hats be pads on the zendrum but the foot pedal to control them. So basically there will be two midi controllers for one HH.

If this will work, then I’d get a 10 input model in case I ever want to use a normal edrum kit.

Thanks,
~Jay

[Rob]

Will adding an edrumin solve my problem?

You certainly could use an eDRUMin to process your hihat. You wouldn't be able to use the hihat levels mode, but you can have it generate CC4, the closed hihat pedal note, and hihat splash.

If this will work, then I’d get a 10 input model in case I ever want to use a normal edrum kit.

The nice thing about using an eDRUMin 10 for this purpose is that you can connect the Zendrum directly to the MIDI In DIN on the back of the unit.

[Jay M]

Thanks for the quick reply. That’s really helpful.

It looks like the edrumin 10 will solve my problem.
But what is the HH level mode?

~Jay

[Rob]

https://www.audiofront.net/eDRUMin_1.6.pdf#page=31

Hihat Levels mode can only work it the hihat pedal and hihat cymbal are connected to the eDRUMin.

[Jay M]

I received my eDRUMin 10 today. I had it set up in about 10 minutes. WOW! it's pretty amazing. I'm using it for the kick and HH pedals. Even the kick feels much better than the input on the Zendrum.

The Kick pedal is a Roland KT-10. It's in input 1 and I selected mesh head (the default). It seems to be working perfectly. Is that the best setting for that pedal?

The HH pedal, Roland FD-9, is REALLY good. Maybe it can be perfect with some fine tuning.
The issue I have might be my bad technique. I tend to bounce my foot on the HH pedal to keep time. On a real HH, it doesn't affect the sound - at least not in a bad way, but in SD3, it's constantly changing the openness of the HH, and it sounds really bad and unnatural. I have noticed, on youtube videos, that eDrummers never bounce their HH foot. So maybe I just need to be more disciplined.

One thing I like about the Zendrum is that It forces me to think. On a real kit, I play almost 100% by feel. On the Zendrum, I am forced to think about what, and how I play. 10 years ago, there was so much latency, I also needed to listen to my time, not just feel it.

Thanks for your help, and a great product,
~Jay

[Rob]

The default pad type is fine for the KT-10, although you could probably change the input to mono to offload processing a ring piezo that isn't there.

The hihat sound you're hearing is the 'auto-splash' feature in SD3. I recommend updating to the lastest version, which finally allows you to disable it.

[Jay M]

Thanks, I'll make those changes.
~Jay