Overview

Welcome to the help manual!


Sit down and relax. Reading this manual will help you make the most of your Megadrum.
Megadrum Config Tool will allow you to configure every single parameter of your Megadrum. You will also be able to monitor all MIDI events generated by your Megadrum: see current position of your hihat pedal and last velocities of your hits. But there is even more. With this tool you will be able to update MD's firmware and even accessing some 'hidden' parameters to make your MD even more personal. To see a detailed list of features and changes, please visit the version history. If you like this project, you may consider making a donation (button on the left) (email address is rules_83@hotmail.com).

Note: from now on we'll refer to "Megadrum" as "MD", and "Megadrum Config Tool" as "MCT".
Note: you can print the entire help manual by selecting File->Print in your browser.

Click on the next tab to see how to install MCT and start using it!

Install/uninstall

Prerequisites:

- Software requisites:
You must have at least version 5 of the Java Runtime. You can download it here:
http://www.java.com/download/

- Hardware requisites:
The MCT needs Megadrum to have a firmware version equal or newer than version 20081006, which was the first version supporting the new sysex approach used by this application. Anyway, I recommend you to have always the latest firmware version installed in your Megadrum, as this software will always be updated to work with the last firmware. It is also recommended to have a bootloader installed in Megadrum, to be able to perform firmware updates with MCT.

How to install (online installation with Java Web Start):

After you have installed Java, then to install this tool browse to the URL:
http://www.megadrum.info/configtool/install.jnlp
Your browser may show it like a text file:
You must save it (File -> Save as...) to your disk. You must have a file with .jnlp extension, like this:
I recommend using Firefox for doing this, as the damn Internet Explorer will not show it like a plain text file. Besides, if you right click the link and select "Save as" it will append the extension .htm to the file and not the .jnlp extension. You will have to rename it.

Double click the JNLP file. Java Web Start should automatically open it. If not, select "Open with" and open it with the Java Web Start Launcher. In Linux you can browse to the folder where you downloaded it and launch the command: javaws install.jnlp . A progress bar will appear:
And if everything went Ok, Megadrum Config Tool will start for the first time. If it can't find previous user settings it will show a popup. You will have to configure the tool for the first time. (Refer to "Options" tab to learn more about configuring the application).

How to install (offline installation):

If you want to instal MCT in a computer without Internet connection you can download a copy of the last version here:
http://code.google.com/p/megadrumconfigtool/

Take into account that with the offline installation, the application will not auto-update to the last version so you will have to check from time to time if there is a new version available for download.

How to uninstall:

Uninstallation is very easy. Just go to your control panel and enter the application manager (in Windows, the shorcut is "Add or remove programs"). Find the entry for "Megadrum Config Tool" and select to quit it.

Another option (platform independent) is to execute the command: javaws -viewer . This will show the Java Web Start application manager. Here you can see all the applications installed by Java Web Start. You can uninstall them, execute them, see their JNLP file, install shorcuts, etc.

To completely uninstall MCT, you will have also to manually delete MCT user configuration files. They are stored in a folder called "MegadrumConfigTool" under the user's profile folder (in Windows it's usually C:/Documents and settings/yourusername, in Linux it's usually /home/yourusername, and in Mac it's usually /User/yourusername). For windows users, MCT also installs a DLL file called MidiPort.dll. Search for and delete it.

Main window

When you open MCT, the main window will show. Note: As MCT tries to initialize Midi devices at startup, if it could not open a MIDI device, it will show an error message and you will be prompted to change Midi input and output settings. This picture shows how the main window looks:
You will have all the actions that can be done with MCT accessible through the Actions menu and the Firmware menu. Refer to the next tabs to get more information about them. For making MCT more user-friendly, you have the most used actions in a toolbar with quick access buttons. These actions can also be triggered with keyboard shortcuts. Refer to the 'Tips' tab to see the complete list of keyboard shortcuts.

Finally, when you exit the application, it will ask you if you want to send current settings to MD and save them to slot 1. If you click Yes, all the setting shown in the application interface (hihat pedal, miscellaneous, and pads) will be sent and saved to MD.

Actions

Clicking in the 'Actions' menu will show you all the possible actions MCT can do with Megadrum.
Quick access actions:

All actions related to loading/sending configs to MD are available in a toolbar in the main screen.
Actions for all Megadrum settings:

You can send to MD, with one click, miscellaneous, hihat pedal, and all inputs settings at a time.
You can send them all and, inmediately after, write them to Slot 1 of MD.
You can load from MD all settings at a time.
You can save all settings to a file. This file will have .syx extension, and it contains all the single sysex configuration messages concatenated as follows: Miscellanous, Hihat pedal, Kick, Hihat head, Hihat rim, Hihat 3rd zone, Snare head, ...and so on.
You can load all settings from a .syx file with the format described before.

Actions for miscellaneous settings:

You can send to MD or load from MD the note off delay parameter.
You can save/load to it to a .syx file.

Actions for hihat pedal settings:

You can send to MD or load from MD the parameters of the Hihat Pedal.
You can save/load them to a .syx file.

Actions for selected pad settings:

You can send to MD or load from MD the settings of the pad that is currently selected in the pad list. For the Kick pad, it only sends one sysex message, but, for dual-zone pads, it sends 3 sysex messages: head, rim and 3rd zone
You can save/load them to a .syx file with the format described before.

Drum maps:

MCT drummaps contain only the midi notes and channels of a Megadrum config. That is, midi notes for all pad's head, pad's rim, pad's 3rd zone, and their respective midi channels, and hihat midi notes for half-opened, closed, chick and splash.
With this menu, you can load/save them to a file with extension .mdm (Megadrum Drum Map). When you save a drum map, all the current midi config is saved to a file. When you load a drum map, all the midi config contained in the file is applied to the current config in the application interface. In order to make the changes effective in Megadrum, you have to perform a "Send all settins to MD" action.

Write config present in MD into slot 1":

This option is very important because no change in Megadrum will be saved if you shut it down and haven't ordered it to write its current confid to persistent memory. So, after you have tweaked and sent all your settings to Megadrum from MCT, you must click this action so they are saved in "Slot 1" of Megadrum's persistent memory. Or you can use the "Send to MegaDrum and Write in Slot 1" option to automatically do it.

Firmware

How to update firmware:

First of all, make sure you have Megadrum connected via USB cable and that it has a programmed bootloader. Make sure you have selected the right bootloader you have from the Options menu, and your Megadrum interface as the MIDI OUT device (see the 'Options' tab for more info). Then select the menu option Firmware->UPDATE FIRMWARE.
You will be prompted to select a .syx firmware file. Make sure you select the one that suits your MCU and clock. After you select it, an instructions dialog similar to this will appear (the dialog may be different depending on which bootloader you have selected as they have different ways of working):
- If your bootloader allows clock selection, press the Up button in Megadrum the times needed to set it to the correct value.
- If your bootloader allows clock verification, press the Left button in Megadrum to confirm that you have selected the right clock.
Then press the Down button in Megadrum to set it ready for receiving the firmware. Finally, answer "Yes" or "Proceed" to the instructions dialog and wait about 25 seconds. If MCT has sent the firmware correctly it must show something like this:
Wait a few seconds for the firmware to be written and Megadrum should automatically reboot. If not, reboot manually. Remember that it is adviced to load default config by booting up Megadrum with the Right key pressed for a few seconds. After pressing the "Accept" button, MCT will ask Megadrum which version does it have installed, and then it will show you that info in a popup window.

Replacing input names with custom names:

For most of the people the input names shown in the LCD don't correspond to the actual pads they have connected to each input, because each one of us has its own drum kit with different number of toms, cymbals, and percussion pads. It will be very useful if we could change those names so we can identify easily our connected pads. With MCT this is possible. Select the menu option "Firmware->Edit pad and input names". The following window will appear:
You can change the pad names that will show on the Pad List in the main screen, and also the subpad names (input names) that will show on yout Megadrum menu once you have written a customized firmware on it. Remember that the names' lengths are fixed, so you can't write more than 6 characters for each name (depending on the input). Don't worry if you write a name shorter than the maximum length allowed, as MCT will fill the gap with spaces.
After you have set your custom names, click "Save". Your custom names will now show in the application interface. If you want to apply those changes to Megadrum, so they show on the LCD, you will have to write the firmware again. If you don't mind what the LCD shows (as some people doesn't have an LCD connected to Megadrum) you don't need to update firmware.

Modify firmware with custom input names:

With this option you can select a .syx firmware file to modify it to have the input names you have set in the "Edit pad and input names" window, and then save it to a file, so you can use it to program MD with other tool (like MIDI-OX) if you prefer.

Checking for firmware updates:

You must select the menu option "Firmware->Check for updates". Then, MCT will read the version number from your connected Megadrum and it will connect to Megadrum's website to check if a newer version of the firmware has been released. Besides, each time you run MCT it will automatically perform this action for you, and if a new version is detected it will notify you.

View

This menu allows you to open the Midi Log window and the Application Log window.

Midi Log:

To get more information about the Midi Log window, go to the 'Midi Monitor' tab.

Application Log:

The application log shows you information about events occurred during the current session. There are 3 different kind of events: information events (in blue color), warning events (in orange color), and error events (in red color). MIDI device events are considered special so they are in green color. The application log lets you filter which kind of events are shown, thanks to the 3 check boxes it has on the upper right corner.

Options

Options dialog is accesible by clicking in the menu Options->Configure, or by pressing the key shorcut Ctrl+O
Hardware options:

Number of inputs: Here you can define the hardware specs of your Megadrum. Number of inputs will define the inputs you will be able to configure with MCT. Remember that number of inputs is dependent of MCU type, so select first your MCU type and then your number of inputs.
MCU and clock: Also, if you want Megadrum's firmware to be updated by MCT, be sure to select the right settings, so MCT can download the correct firmware file from the server.
Bootloader: Don't forget about it. Firmware updating process will be slightly different depending on which bootloader you have selected.
Chain ID: Several Megadrums can be connected in chain (connect MIDI OUT from last to MIDI IN from the following, and so on). You can control all the Megadrums in the chain by changing this value. If you want to update the first Megadrum in the chain, change chain ID to 0 and click apply. Then tweak the parameters and send settings to MD. To configure the second one, change this value to 1, click apply, and send your desired config to MD. And so on...

Midi devices:

In & out: Select Megadrum MIDI interface here. You have to select it for both input and outpu channels. For some people, Megadrum will show as "USB Audio Device". For others it will show as "Megadrum Midi USB". Making changes in this panel makes application need to restart itself to correctly open MIDI channels.
MIDI Through: If you want to use MCT at the same time you trigger a sampler with MD, this option is very useful. Select here a virtual MIDI port, and select that same port as input for the sampler. MCT will forward all MIDI events to that port, so you will be able to trigger the sampler.

Loading / Sending:

Live Editing: Settings you have edited will be sent automatically just after you edit them.
Load MD settings at startup: MCT will load all settings from MD when you start the application. Be sure to have MD connected to your computer before starting the application.

Quick Access:

MCT imitates MD quick access feature. If you have Hihat Pedal closed and you hit a pad, that pad will be selected in the pad list of MCT. For making this possible you firstly have to define unique note values for each pad. Those thresholds configure the "sensitivity" of the quick access. Only pad hits with velocity above that threshold will trigger the quick change thing. That will happen if pedal is closed. Pedal is considered to be closed if its value in MCT is higher than that threshold.

Rim Switch:

Inside the Midi Monitor you can see a red bulb that turns on when you hit the rim of a pad. This threshold lets you define which hits will affect the rim switch. Only hits with velocity above that will change the rim switch light. Consider this threshold as a way to avoid false hits (crosstalk) activating or deactivating the rim switch.

Sysex send:

You can set up how much time does the application wait between subsequent sysex loads/sendings when you perform an "all settings" action. Default value is 100 milliseconds..

Look and Feel / Theme:

There are 6 different graphical looks. First 4 of them are very similar. When you select a look, the theme list will change. So first select your desired look, and then the theme for that look. Making changes in this panel makes application need to restart itself to correctly apply new look.

Midi Monitor

Midi Monitor

The Midi monitor is located in the lower left corner of the main screen. When you have Megadrum connected, and configured as the MIDI IN device, every incomming midi event will be registered by MCT. Thanks to this panel you can see interesting information that will make you easier to configure and monitor Megadrum performance.

First of all you have a white panel where you can see graphically the velocity of the last pad hits. Blue bars represent pad hits (the longer the bar is, the higher the velocity of the hit). Orange bars represent cymbal chokes (usually, you will see two or three orange bars togheter because the choke note is sent for all the zones of the cymbal).

Below this panel, you can see two horizontal bars. The green bar represents the hihat pedal position. When it is full, the pedal is closed, and when it is empty, the pedal is open. The blue bar represents the velocity of the last hit, no matter which pad triggered it. (If you want to know which pad is generating those midi events, open the Midi Log with the button in the bottom of the Midi Monitor panel)
Additionally, you have a "Rim Switch" red light. It will turn on when a rim hit is received. A hit is considered to be a rim hit if pads are configured as dual-zone pads and the received midi note matches any of the rim midi notes currently configured in the application interface. It will also turn on if a 3rd zone midi note is received.
Midi Log

You can open the Midi Log window clicking the button in the lower right corner of the Midi Monitor panel or accessing through the menu "View->Midi Log". This window lets you see the last 10 notes received. It will monitor Note ON events (pad hits, shown in blue color) and Aftertouch events (cymbal chokes, shown in orange color). The value inside the bar represents the velocity of the hit. The value in a box under the bar represents the midi note number. As an additional feature, you may see that the pad hits have slightly different colors. This is because each midi note (from 0 to 127) has a different color of a gradient from blue to violet.
If you only want to show a certain midi note number, click the "Monitor only this note" check box and set a value in the textfield. From now on, only events which midi note number matches the value in the textfield will be registered/shown.

Tips

In this section you will find useful tips about MCT. Here are some of them:

- Megadrum will write its configuration files into the folder "MegadrumConfigTool". This folder is created in the user's profile directory. This directoy is "calculated" by finding the user's desktop folder and going up one level.

- For Windows users, the application copies a DLL file in the java library folder. In Windows Vista, due to its high permission restrictions, this file may not be correctly copied (you must have seen an error window when running the app saying something like "Error trying to install MidiPort DLL Library to: <javapath>"). Without this library you won't be able to update firmware. To solve this problem you can manually copy this file to the Java path shown in that error window. You can download the DLL file clicking here.

- To access MCT actions quicker you can use keyboard shortcuts:

F5 = Send all settings to MD
Shift+F5 = Send all settings to MD and write them in slot 1
Ctrl+F5 = Load all settings from MD
F6 = Send miscellaneous settings to MD
Ctrl+F6 = Load miscellaneous settings from MD
F7 = Send hihat pedal settings to MD
Ctrl+F7 = Load hihat pedal settings from MD
F8 = Send selected pad settings to MD
Ctrl+F8 = Load selected pad settings from MD

Ctrl+Enter = Save current MD settings to EEPROM

Ctrl+S = Custom curves editing

Ctrl+U = Update firmware
Ctrl+I = Edit pad and input names
Ctrl+J = Modify firmware with custom input names
Ctrl+K = Check for firmware updates

Ctrl+M = Show Midi Log
Ctrl+L = Show Application Log

Ctrl+O = Configure options

F1 = Show this help manual
F2 = Show recommended firmware version to use with this MCT version
Ctrl+Q = Exit application

(Stay tuned for more tips...)

Credits

Megadrum Config Tool has been written by Raúl Muñoz Benavente
You can contact him here: raul.munoz.benavente@gmail.com
Or you can also find him in the Megadrum forum with nickname 'elrules'.

Many thanks to Dmitri Skachkov for creating such a great MIDI drum trigger. Its perseverance for constantly improving Megadrum was the inspiration for developing this software.
Also thanks to Synthex, for making the building of Megadrum so easy with his all-in-one kits.