External Triggering: Chapter 6
interaction between the pads, and a high Noise floor setting would be selected to reject the high level of ambient Noise and vibration. In certain cases with crosstalk and Noise floor settings too high, softer hits might become rejected because the DM5 assumes that they are Noise.
Instead of compromising between the two parameters, there are two methods which can improve this scenario.
Method One:
➀First, attach an inexpensive contact transducer to the center of the drum stand and plug it into a DM5 input.
➁Next, go to Ext Trig page 1 and select the Velocity Curve setting of 0 (Unassigned) for this trigger.
➂Go to the next page and set the Xtalk, Decay and the Noise levels all to 00. This low level will allow the maximum amount of Noise and stand vibrations to be detected by the DM5.
➃Using the TRIG LEVEL meter (at the bottom of the display), adjust the level to select a “hotter” than usual Gain setting. Since in this case the gain is effected only by the stand vibrations, a very strong signal is needed to maximize the trigger's performance.
➄Now as the stage vibrates, or when other signals trigger the drum stand transducer, the suppression function will note this signal and determine that any softer signals coming from the other three pads must be crosstalk. Also, if the suppression function sees a soft signal from the three main pads but little or no signal from the drum stand transducer, it will assume that the pad signals are valid hits and trigger the DM5 sounds.
Method Two:
In severe cases, this is another way in which the Unassigned feature can be used. For this scenario lets use the bass as the reason the surrounding Noise level is making proper triggering difficult. Each time the bass player “pops” a string, the vibration triggers the tom 1 pad.
➀First, take a direct out from the bass amplifier, and plug it into an unused trigger input on the DM5.
➁Next, go to Ext Trig page 1 and select the Velocity Curve setting of 0 (Unassigned) for this trigger.
➂Go to page 2 and set the Xtalk, Decay and Noise levels all to 00. This low level will allow the maximum signal to be detected by the DM5.
➃Using the TRIG LEVEL bar graph meter, adjust the level according to the severity of the false triggering. If notes are constantly triggering, use a high gain. If only occasional, select a lower level.
➄Now when the DM5 receives a signal (from the tom 1 pad) which was generated by the string pop from the bass, not only will it compare this signal to the other drum pads, it will also compare it to the bass. In essence, the DM5 isolates the bass from the Noise floor and “thinks” the bass is a another drum pad. It will now treat it the same as any other pad and “filter” out the unwanted signals.
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