problems with midi data from edrums

[bpmorton]

Hello

I've been having issues with drum sounds getting choked short/quite from both keyboard input and from an electronic drum kit. I started seeing this problem with Reason 10 on some old song files that I've been working on for years. The ride cymbal hits where sounding choked off (Reason Drums original version). Never had that problem before and the only thing I was able to do to fix that file was split off every other cymbal hit to a different track and NNXT.

The problem has also come up with a new track made in Reason with an electronic drum kit. I have isolated the snare hits and uploaded a Reason file that demonstrates the problem. Maybe someone can test this out on their system. I'm using the ID8 piano sound here to make the issue more audible. Some hits sound muted or low volume despite having high velocity levels.

[bpmorton]

ok, the fix is to lengthen all the notes. WTF?

[guitfnky]

never had the first version of RDK, so maybe that’s partly why they did a version 2.0? sounds like it could be fixed by maxing the release settings on the NNXTs. if they really set it up that way out of the box...that’s a super-weird decision on Props’ part.

[WongoTheSane]

Your zip file is empty. You have to save the file, quit Reason and only then zip it, otherwise the file is still open in Reason and will be compressed as a 0 bytes file. Can you reupload it?

[bpmorton]

Your zip file is empty. You have to save the file, quit Reason and only then zip it, otherwise the file is still open in Reason and will be compressed as a 0 bytes file. Can you reupload it?

yeah, here it is

[bpmorton]

@WongoTheSane

ok that last one was bad as well. try this

[WongoTheSane]

Yes, got it this time! I can confirm what you're seeing. Your notes are really really short, like, some of them are even less than a tick:

length.PNG (5.65 KiB) Viewed 715 times

Reason has more internal subdivisions so that's not a problem: the little asterisk simply means that the length of the note is in the subtick range. Still, it's short. And when played with NNXT or ID8 for instance, they are indeed played at a lower velocity. But when played in Kong, they play exactly as expected. I have no idea why this is; my best guess is that it's an ancient mechanism that was put in place to handle duplicate hits, like when the drum stick double bounces on a pad sometimes. Some manufacturers choose to eliminate that bounce (my MidiKat used to do that, with a setting to define the duration under which the second bounce was to be eliminated), while others (apparently, PH) choose to play the bounced (short) note at a lower volume. Keep in mind this is just guessing on my part, it's the first time I'm even noticing this.

I've tested some VSTs and some other Rack Extensions, and they don't seem to have this mechanism in place. PH instruments don't all exhibit the same behavior: Radical Piano doesn't lower the velocity for short notes, while NN19 does.

And as you've noticed already, the solution is to make sure that all the notes have a length that's not below a few ticks. Select the clip, F8, Note Lengths, choose Fixed with a length of 0.0.0.10 and you should be set. Alternately, you might be able to set your controller to send longer notes?

Still, nice find!