Using Roland TD-11 V-drums as controller

VCV Rack
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The Roland TD-11 is an electronic drum kit and controller with each instrument assigned a MIDI note number. To control a modular drumkit, a la Vult, AutoDafe, SV, etc. I use MIDI-Gate to sort the incoming note numbers to the appropriate instruments. However, as this module is monophonic, I cannot play faster than the envelope length of the samples or patches. Using MIDI-CV, which is polyphonic, results in a much more realistic and musical effect, allowing for flams and rolls - but I cannot separate the incoming note data (kick, hat, snare etc.) which all arrives on the same channel. As I am running Linux, I think maybe I can use Jack to insert some kind of midi utility before VCV in the MIDI chain, which splits notes to seperate channels, which would allow me to use multiple instances of MIDI-CV, each assigned to a different channel. This will likely cost me some precious CPU cycles. Can someone suggest a more elegant solution?

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Ever find a good solution for this? I’m running into the same problems.

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Just an idea though (I haven’t tried it), but maybe you can run each active note from MIDI-GATE through a module like Grande Tails, which would make each channel polyphonic. It might use up some CPU though.

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BGA ASSIGN does a similar function. I use both TAILS and ASSIGN quite often.

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After much experimentation I have settled on using a number of MIDI-CV modules, each set to a different MIDI channel, triggering my own custom VCV drum patches. The key was to use retrigger outputs rather than gates or polyphony.

Using Reaper (and MIDI note-to-channel mapping plugins), I can capture extreme note densities from either the TD-11 or any other note repeating sources, (all the way into FM-style modulation, actually.)

I have set up multiple channels in the same patch to control hi-hat choking, or sidechain a bass envelope with the kick drum, etc.

Currently I am trying to capture more MIDI data from the TD-11, such as velocity and aftertouch, to modulate other sound parameters. Using velocity CV I can create custom percussive envelopes, which can be then converted into MIDI CC…

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