Problems interfacing Roland TD-9 with Live

[adamchertok]

I currently have a midi>USB converter running my Roland TD-9 it into Ableton Live on my macbookpro.

the way i've got it set up now, it's just a midi line in, so Live is treating the set like midi triggers (i.e., it doesn't recognize crecendos, or the sounds programed into the TD-9), so the set just triggers sounds within Live...meaning I have to arm a clip, and select a preset kit in Live to get it to play. For this purpose, it works great... I haven't figured it out yet, but I presume I'll also be able to set the drums to trigger whatever sounds, clips, tracks, etc. I want.

More importantly for now, the TD-9 has a solid set of built in kits, so I'd like to be able to get Live to recognize the midi sounds that the TD-9 creates. Is this possible? Is there some setting in Live I'm overlooking to make this happen?

Thanks in advance

[jerry123]

Lots of info on this at http://www.vdrums.com/
You would need to run audio from the TD-9 into your PC.
You can run MIDI and audio so you can capture a performance through MIDI, and then flips through sound sets using the TD-9 audio.

[adamchertok]

Thanks, but you kind of lost me at "flips"? not sure what that means.

I'll check out that site, thanks.

[slirak]

Please disregard this if it's already obvious to you, but it seems to me that you slightly misunderstand the relationship between MIDI and audio.

There is no such thing as a MIDI sound. MIDI is a protocol for transmitting and receiving musical notes (and other performance related stuff like pitch bends), not the actual sounds. It's a digital counterpart to sheet music really.

What comes out of the MIDI Out port of your TD9 when you hit your snare pad isn't the sound of the snare pad, just information about what pad you hit and how you hit it (velocity and pad position).

So when you record a MIDI performance in a DAW like Live, you turn your performance into something akin to a sheet of music, that can be played back by any MIDI capable sound source, like Live's built-in virtual instruments, a third party plug-in (Addictive Drums is popular among MIDI drummers) or indeed your TD9 module. But MIDI in itself makes no noise.

Just about any DAW is perfectly capable to record audio as well as MIDI of course, but the two are separate functions. So how to make ends meet?

There are basically three strategies for using an e-drum kit with a DAW like Live:
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1) Don't bother with MIDI. Simply use an audio interface and connect the audio outs of the TD9 to the audio ins of the interface. Then record the sounds of your TD9 module as pure audio. This is by far the easiest way to get the sounds from the TD9 module in to Live. It's also the least flexible way. You'd only be using Live as a stereo tape recorder (albeit a very powerful one). You won't be able to trigger any of Live's virtual instruments or any third party virtual drum kits. You will only have very limited editing and mixing options.

2) Don't bother with the TD9's sounds. Connect the MIDI Out of your TD9 module to the MIDI In of a MIDI interface, just like you've already done. Then get yourself a drum kit plug-in (like Addictive Drums) and slap it on a track in Live and play away. Or use one of Live's built-in devices, like Simpler. Since a plug-in or Live device runs inside of Live, its audio will be available in Live without any further ado. This is a very powerful and flexible method, yet pretty easy to set up and work with. You'll record all your performances as MIDI, so you can easily edit single drum hits, swap sounds and tweak the mix of each drum to your heart's content - all this after the actual recording. This is also the route most e-drummers end up going. You will however not get the sounds of the TD9 module in to Live this way.

3) Now it gets tricky. Connect the TD9's MIDI Out to your MIDI interface's In and connect your MIDI interface's Out to the TD9's In. Set Local control to Off (p 51 in the TD9 manual). Please note that you'll have to change this setting back each time you wanna use the TD9 without being connected to Live. Connect the audio outputs of the TD9 to the audio inputs of an audio interface. Now you can do what you could do in scenario 2 above. But you can also do this: create a new MIDI track in Live. Put the Live Instrument "External instrument" on the track (not to be confused with the effect "External effect"). Select your MIDI interface in the MIDI To menu. Select the TD9's receive channel (default is 10 I believe) in the menu below. Select the inputs of your audio interface that the TD9's audio outputs are connected to, in the Audio From menu. Leave the Latency box at zero for now. Now you can record what you play on the TD9 as MIDI in Live. When you play back the recorded MIDI performance, the TD9 module will receive the performance and play it back with whatever sounds you dial up on it. And you'll be able to hear the sounds of your TD9 module - within Live. The audio is still not recorded in Live, which is a good thing. When you're happy with both your mix and your performance, you can use Live's Freeze function to record the actual audio. This is all very nice, but since the TD9 doesn't have separate audio outs for each drum sound, you'll loose the ability to do a detailed drum mix within Live. I.e. if you want to put Live's reverb on the snare drum, but not on the bass drum - well, you can't.

There are variations on the above strategies, but I'd say these are probably the most common ones.

No matter what method you choose, you'll need a low latency audio interface. The built-in audio interface of your Macbook Pro might suffice, but most users end up getting a dedicated audio interface eventually. However, latency and what sound card to get is beyond the scope of this post - because now it's time for me to get an Easter ale!

/Jonas