eDRUMin 10 MIDI I/O

[MJB]

I'm currently running my electronic drums into a Pearl Mimic Pro, which is great for day-to-day use (and I imagine would excel live, if I played e-drums live), but for various reasons I think for recording that I'd prefer to use an eDRUMin to trigger a VST by MIDI. I tried an eDRUMin 4 a while back, and while it was great, the number of inputs was limiting for what I wanted to do. Enter the eDRUMin10! I'm excited that development has continued on this product and it now appears to be fully realized, and I've heard only great things.

I do have one quick question: if I keep all of my pads plugged in to my Mimic, but then run a MIDI out signal into the eDRUMin's MIDI in, and then run a MIDI out from the eDRUMin to my audio interface - would I get the same functionality as if my pads were plugged directly into the eDRUMin? i.e., would positional sensing, hotspot suppression, and everything else still work? If so, I could keep the eDRUM in more or less permanently set up, and just mess with the one additional MIDI cable when it was time to record...

[Rob]

f I keep all of my pads plugged in to my Mimic, but then run a MIDI out signal into the eDRUMin's MIDI in, and then run a MIDI out from the eDRUMin to my audio interface - would I get the same functionality as if my pads were plugged directly into the eDRUMin?

No. eDRUMin needs to processes the signal from the pads in order to do its magic. But you can simply plug the Mimic into the USB host port of the ED10 and that will allow you to use the ED10 to trigger sounds on the Mimic, as well as trigger sounds in a VST.

[MJB]

Thanks for the response. How would I plug the Mimic into the USB host port? The Mimic has a USB port, but I think it's only for software updates or for loading playalong tracks (i.e., not for triggering via MIDI over USB or something).

[Rob]

Really. I'll look into that.

[Rob]

You're right. Shocking. In that case you would need to use MIDI cables to connect the two devices, but the functionality would be the same.

eDRUMin would forward its MIDI over the MIDI out DIN to the Mimic. Also, the eDRUMin combines MIDI from its MIDI in DIN with its own MIDI and sends that to your computer.

[MJB]

I don’t think the Mimic can do MIDI thru, either, which is why I never really incorporated the eDRUMin-4 that I have. Oh well, if I have to unplug all of the pads from the Mimic and move them over to the eDRUMin to record, it’s not a big deal. I just thought it would’ve been sort of elegant to be able to go back and forth without moving cables around. Thanks for responding. I have an eDRUMin-10 on order; looking forward to trying it out!

[Rob]

The Mimic has MIDI in and Out ports, so I don't know what else you would need. As far as I can tell, it should work as I described.

[Ddrummer68]

I am running it this way: eDRUMin MIDI DIN out into the Mimic. USB into the Mac for SD3/BFD3. I use one preset for Mimic and another for Mac. So, depending how much time/energy I have, I can either play straight into the Mimic for simplicity, or power up the Mac and launch the VST for flexibility. eDRUMin seems to have no issues with either.

[MJB]

Thanks for the input!

So, just to be super clear and make sure I understand: All drum pads into the eDRUMin. MIDI out from there to the Mimic's MIDI in port. USB cable from the eDRUMin to a computer running SD3. If you just want to sit down and practice, you fire up the Mimic, and get onboard sounds triggered by the eDRUMin via MIDI. For something more involved, you boot up the computer and DAW/VST, triggered by MIDI over USB. Correct?

Do you lose positional sensing, hot-spot suppression, etc. when MIDI goes through the Mimic? Not a bigg deal, as I don't have those features now. But they are really attractive when it comes to recording with a VST.