Low latency triggering / "optimal marimba" crosstalk

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Low latency triggering / "optimal marimba" crosstalk

Postby pettersundlof » Sat Sep 14, 2019 4:55 pm

Hi!

I have a 45 note "marimba" MIDI controller that I'm trying to make work with MD. I had a 1.5 octave version connected to an Alesis TriggerIO which worked nicely, and I got good results with a high treshold and proper crosstalk settings.
With MD I've gotten good crosstalk results, i.e. nearby notes aren't trigger each other... but:

a) I'm having big troubles getting good responsiveness from MD. If I play 16ths or 32nds it's throwing away bunches of notes... what are some of the settings I need to focus on tweaking?

b) how should I use the crosstalk settings? I don't understand them. Right now I have note E, F, F#, G, G#, A, #A set as crosstalk group 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Does this make sense? Or how should the feature be used?

c) I'm also having trouble getting good polyphony! :( It's often throwing away simultaneous notes...
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Re: Low latency triggering / "optimal marimba" crosstalk

Postby pettersundlof » Sat Sep 14, 2019 5:15 pm

So here is a demonstration of the performance of the 1.5 octave controller connected to an alesis trigger io:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jplPcj7lpF8

And here's the MegaDrum, basically not usable right now (it's missing notes (and can't handle polyphony):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABEzWWr83tw

(and yes, I connected the old device to the MegaDrum via jacks, and it performs as poorly as the newer controller connected to the MD -- I can't test the reverse since I don't have TS connectors with the newer controller)
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Re: Low latency triggering / "optimal marimba" crosstalk

Postby pettersundlof » Sat Sep 14, 2019 5:36 pm

Here's a clearer demonstration of the issues with my MegaDrum setup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3VzPZmadFY
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Re: Low latency triggering / "optimal marimba" crosstalk

Postby ignotus » Sat Sep 14, 2019 7:04 pm

Post screenshots of your settings in MDMFX.
If it ain't broken... fix it until it is.
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Re: Low latency triggering / "optimal marimba" crosstalk

Postby airflamesred » Sat Sep 14, 2019 8:40 pm

Put them all in the same crosstalk group

koby drums - Triggera krigg/Bix - megadrum - Kontakt........... Samples from all and sundry.
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Re: Low latency triggering / "optimal marimba" crosstalk

Postby pettersundlof » Tue Sep 17, 2019 11:09 am

Back to tweaking after a weekend of work.

Going to try with the same crosstalk group, airflamesred! Thanks

ignotus wrote:Post screenshots of your settings in MDMFX.


Here's two example shots of four inputs!
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Re: Low latency triggering / "optimal marimba" crosstalk

Postby ignotus » Tue Sep 17, 2019 12:00 pm

First of all, those threshold levels look waaay too high. If you have to raise them that high to avoid crosstalk, you're going to have to address the problem physically in the marimba keys. Then, Dynlevel is also way too high to get reliable fast triggering, no wonder there are missed hits. Putting keys in the same crosstalk group will help prevent triggering adjacent keys, but it will have a negative effect on polyphony, as this setting tries to choose one hit out of several detected and blocks the rest. So you really have to go with a compromise, and most importantly, if crosstalk is an issue, tackle the problem as much as you can physically in the keys themselves.
If it ain't broken... fix it until it is.
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Re: Low latency triggering / "optimal marimba" crosstalk

Postby pettersundlof » Tue Sep 17, 2019 2:40 pm

Yes, I've been tackling that today, adding dampeners underneath the keys to minimize vibration travel from hits.
Putting them in the same xtalk group indeed worsened the missed keys/polyphony problem... I set xtalk group to 0 again.

But adjusting DynTime and slightly lowering the threshold has yielded quite usable and musical results. I'll continue tweaking and will post updates, if anyone's interested :)
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Re: Low latency triggering / "optimal marimba" crosstalk

Postby airflamesred » Tue Sep 17, 2019 4:39 pm

That's a good point about crosstalk groups, especially if you're thinking in 2 and 4 mallet scenarios.
I do think though that threshold as high as that means some physical changes.

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