Ableton Forum

How do I go about triggering Impulse slots with a DR-202 drum machine? Is it a simple case of setting up translators in Bomes MT/MidiOx so that the drum pads send notes starting at C3?

I've never used impulse before (I want to use multiple instances to trigger one-hit samples) and when I tried to set it up last night I had NO LUCK getting the impulse to work...

Also - can you have multiple instances of impulse on a track? I'd like to have 3 instances of impulse in my live set - would that mean 3 tracks, each with an impulse on? And how would you control 3 different impulses - would each impulse be triggered by notes C3 onwards, but each one on a different midi channel?

I think I'm missing a trick by not incorperating impulse into my sets - help a guy out!!!

I think the DR-202 should be able to send note out information without having to use any translator..

Probably need to have a look at a parameter inside the DR menus that says something like 'MIDI internal/external'..

And then check if you can change the note number that it sends from each pad..
(if it is not starting at C3 anyway)

Here you can download an extended Impulse rack..
http://www.thecovertoperators.org/archives/43

Thanks Poster - and thanks for the link! My next question was going to be:

Can you put multiple instances of impulse in a rack, or a chain, and use a midi knob as a selector for the impulse to use? Then you'd only need one set of pads to play across a number of impulses. Right?

I'm at work right now, but when I get home I'll check out the link you provided...

Cheers!

Patch wrote:Can you put multiple instances of impulse in a rack, or a chain, and use a midi knob as a selector for the impulse to use? Then you'd only need one set of pads to play across a number of impulses. Right?

yep..
you can use the rack Chain ruler to select which Impulse should receive the notes..

You can do that with racks.
Actually, I've made one for you, it's no big deal.
Here you go: 3 Impulses Rack (it may look like a textfile at download, just change the filename to 3Impulses.adg)

I've mapped the rack's chain selector to macro control 1, which means: If you just MIDI map macro control 1 to a midi knob, you can switch between the three Impulses in the rack. (values 0-32 = Impulse 1, 33-94 = Impulse 2, 95-127 = Impulse 3)

I don't know which notes the dr-202 sends, but it probably would be the simplest solution to put a "pitch" midi effect in front of the rack and tweak it till it transposes incoming midi notes alright for Impulse.

Cheers,
Zerobae

Nice. My thanks to you both! This is gonna be a lot of fun...

(Pure goddamn genius, by the way Zerobae! I would have NEVER of thought of using a Pitch effect to alter the incoming information. Cheers!!!)

I'm not having any luck with this...

what's not working?

I don't know where to start! I managed to get ONE button working on the DR-202, and I managed to get it working on 3 or 4 different impulse slots - but I could not see any correlation between the way I'd put the setting on the "Pitch" effect, and the way it was effecting the incoming midi signal.

As Live see's it, the DR-202 sends the following midi messages (on channel 16 at the moment):

C1
B0
D1
E1
F#1
A#1
D2
D#2
B1
C#2
G1
C3
C#3

If you can make head or tale of this I'll buy you a BIG DRINK.

Is it using the GM drum midi map?

I do not know. I'm searching through the DR-202 manual for anything that can help me. I'd hoped that I'd be able to specify (within the DR-202) what each of the pads would send - but it doesn't look like that's possible...

I've also tried using MidiOx to translate the data from the DR-202 into something that impulse can use. Even that's not proving straight forward...

Patch,

The 8 slots on the Impulse are from C3 or C4 onwards, and only uses the white notes, so C, D, E, F, G, A, B. If you've programmed the 202 pads to any of the "black" keys, they won't trigger. i'm testing it out right now on an M-Audio o2 and i've got the keyboard transposed +1 octave and it's triggering every slot from C-C, so i'm not sure if that's C3 or C4. and yes, create another Impulse on another midi track, use the Pitch plugin to transpose it, say, -14, which will allow you to trigger the next impulse from the D above the C that's assigned to the last slot of the first Impulse. So, say impulse 1, try programming your pads
C3, D3, E3, F3, G3, A3, B3, C4, D4(for the next impulse), etc etc.

Let me know how you make out.

oh....i may have missed the part of your msg about the dr-202 not being able to reassign midi note numbers for the pads....i have a feeling it can. it should be in the first few options in the MIDI menu of the machine...

Patch wrote:I do not know. I'm searching through the DR-202 manual for anything that can help me. I'd hoped that I'd be able to specify (within the DR-202) what each of the pads would send - but it doesn't look like that's possible...

I've also tried using MidiOx to translate the data from the DR-202 into something that impulse can use. Even that's not proving straight forward...

Can you wrestle it into shape with a scale plug in? I assumed you tried all that.

With the scale plug in you can just pick off a note or two.
Maybe-
- send the 202 to 3 different midi tracks (one to handle each octave).
- for track 1 use a scale plug in to move the # notes to natural notes
- track 2 use the pitch plug in to get the D#2 and C#2 into D#1 and C#1, then use a scale plug in to change D#1 and C#1 into D1 and C1, for example.
- track 3, same for track 2

Then send each track out to midi yoke/IAC and make another midi track to listen to that midi yoke port.

or...



wait for it....



use a rack!! I can't help with that now.

Patch, is there a MIDI effect called "GM to Impulse Remapper" in your Live Device folder? (Path: MIDI Effects/MIDI Effect Rack/GM to Impulse Remapper). I've had some luck putting this and a pitch effect tuned to +24 semitones in front of the Impulses Rack.

Playing the notes you listed through this combo, every Impulse pad got triggered.

Also, I'm not sure if the GM to Impulse Remapper rack is part of the default Live effects library?!

Edit: Every Impulse pad gets triggered