Alesis Trigger iO manual

REFERENCE MANUAL[...]

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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1 REGISTRATION ....................................................................... 1 FRONT PANEL OVERVIEW .................................................... 2 REAR PANEL OVERVIEW ...................................................... 2 HOOKUP[...]

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1 INTRODUCTION Congratulations on your pu rchase of the Alesis Trigger IO USB/MIDI Percussion Interface. With the Alesis Trigger IO, you can connect your favorit e acoustic drum triggers or electronic percussion p ads and control sounds o n external drum machines, modules or softw are devices. Here at Al esis, we take pride in building electronic i[...]

2 FRONT PANEL OVERVIEW 1. FUNCTION UP/DOWN – These buttons are used to select thr ough different functions on the Trigger IO. 2. VALUE UP/DOWN – These buttons are used to cycle through kits and parameters for the different functions. 3. FUNCTION LEDs – Each function on the Trigger IO is paired with a corresponding LED on the panel. These LED [...]

3 HOOKUP DIAGRAM Please study the following di agram to connect your Trigger IO. POWER ADAPTER (OPTIONAL) AT TACH 2 BUTTON FOOT SWITCH HERE AT TACH A DDITION AL TR IGGERS HERE TO EXTERNAL MIDI MODULE TO COMPUTER 1. Before tu rning on the T rigger IO, co nnect all trig gers, pads, foot switches, MID I devices and external modu les as show n above. I[...]

4 COMPUTER INSTALLATION The Trigger IO is a Plug-and-Play device s o there is no driver or speci al software installation required. When the Trigger I O is connected to a comp uter, it will automatically be recognized a s an available USB devic e. How to connect and use the T rigger IO with a software application: 1. Connect a USB cord from the USB[...]

5 ! A Note About Audio Latency Latency describes the time that it takes for your sound card to respond to a c ommand. In ot her words, this is the time that it takes for your computer to proces s incoming da ta (for example, MIDI Note events) and output a so und. The lower your lat ency is, the faster your computer will respon d to commands and out[...]

6 GETTING STARTED – USING KITS What is a Kit? A Kit, also known as a Preset, is a collection of parameters which describe different configurations of the Trigger IO. Thes e parameters include the MIDI Note Numbers assigne d to tr iggers, MIDI Channel s on which the triggers are sending informati on, as well as associated Program Cha nge messages.[...]

7 PROGRAM CHANGE MESSAGES A Program Change , often r eferred to as a P atch Change , i s a MIDI message use d for sending data to devices to ca use them to change to a new program. This allows you to tell a hardware or software dev ice which soun d to play. For example, if your Trigger IO is controlling a rock drum kit in your DAW or on an external[...]

8 EDITING KITS Editing kits is a powerful tool for customiz ing your Trigger IO. When you are editing a kit, the information displayed on the screen will always refl ect the parameters of the last trigger in the current kit that was hi t. To modify the parameters of a certain trigger, just strike it – this is often refe rred to as “chase m ode?[...]

9 TRIGGER MIDI NOTE This is the MIDI Note Number that the particular pad or trigger is sending. For example, if you are controlling a n exte rnal drum machine, there are unique MIDI Note Numbers associated wi th the kick drum, snare drum or h i-hat. If the initia l configuration does n ot trigger the sounds yo u want, change the MIDI Note Numb ers [...]

10 SETTING GLOBAL PARAMETERS Global parameters change how your connected trigger s function in a gener al way. The following parameters wi ll affect each trigger input o n a global level, regardle ss of the specific kit that you are working with. So even if you change kits, the settings for each trigger input will remain in place as lo ng as they a[...]

11 GAIN The Gain parameter describes how a trigge r will react when it is engag ed. With a high gain setting, you don’t have to engage th e trigger very hard to achieve a maximum velocity output. On the other ha nd, with a lo w gain setting it is harder to achieve a maximum veloc ity output when engagin g the trigger hard. If you find it very eas[...]

12 VELOCITY CURVE A Velocity Curve describ es how a trigger’s veloci ty varies with the force applied. This is a useful feature when trying to customize how a trigger resp onds to your playing style. Different Velocity Curve s will have different input/output ratios associated with them and will cause a dif ferent response, so take some time to g[...]

13 THRESHOLD False triggering occurs when a trigger is engaged accide ntally, often due to stage vibrations. The Threshold setting helps pre v ent false triggering. The threshol d value is the minimum velocity needed to be regi ster ed for the trigger to output data. This Threshold should be set based on your pla ying style. Try different Thr eshol[...]

14 X-TALK (CROSSTALK) Crosstalk occurs when trigger s in close prox imity are falsely triggere d. For example, when using acoustic drum triggers mou nted on a drum kit, hitting a certain drum may cause the dru ms to vibrate and ot her triggers to trigger as well. There is no d efinitive way to deal with crosstalk. Setting a combinati on of Gain and[...]

15 RETRIGGER The Retrigger setting describes how the Trigger IO interpr ets and outputs successive triggers from the same input. The Retrigge r setting is the minimum amount of time between successive triggers need ed to generate a second s ound. For example, if a trigger is engage d t wice withi n a 50 ms time period and the Retrigger setting is 1[...]

16 TRIGGER TYPE You can select the type of trigger you are us in g in the Trigger Type function. There are many different types of triggers available on the market today – too many to cover individually in this manua l – but most tri ggers can be grouped into the categories outlined below. Please consult you trigger devices’ do cu mentation t[...]

17 USING HI-HAT PEDALS When using a hi-hat pedal connected to t he Hi-hat pedal input on the Trigger IO, the Hi-hat input (Input 3) c an send two differe nt MIDI Notes, depending o n the position o f the Hi-hat pedal. In effect, this allows you to assig n two different notes for the hi-hat input (Input 3) and with th e pedal toggl e between w hich [...]

18 SENDING MESSAGES In addition to global p arameters, there are four special functio ns available on the Trigger IO: the All Notes Off message, the Return to Default Value message, and the Factory Reset message, as well as MIDI SysEx messages. You might rarely have to use these, but it is good to k eep in min d t hat they are available in c ase yo[...]

19 USING THE TRIGGER IO WITH BF D LITE The Trigger IO comes bundled with the BF D Lite software drum m odule, which includes high-qual ity drum samples. You can trigger these drum samp les directly from the Trigger IO with the authentic feel and control of playi ng a real drum kit. Once you have installe d the BFD Lite software, you can begin pl ay[...]

20 DEFAULT SETTINGS FOR THE TRIGGER IO The Trigger IO has been initialized with a pr eset which aut omatically map s the first 8 trigger inputs to drum sounds in the BFD Lite softwar e. You can access this configuration by selectin g preset 0 on the Trigger IO while in Kit function. The configuration of the kit is labe led on the back of the Tri gg[...]

21 CUSTOMIZING YOUR KIT IN BFD LITE You may wish to custom ize your kit to your desir ed playing styl e. You can qu ickly switch the sounds that the pads are trig gering by ch anging the MIDI No te Number that the pad is assigned to. To do so, make sure that you are in Pad Note Num ber function by pressing th e function button until the LED n ext t[...]

22 OTHER APPLICATIONS OF THE TRIGG ER IO The Trigger IO can be used for a variety of applications w hich use MIDI as their control protocol. For example, the Trigger IO can be used to trigger melodic s ounds on sound modul es or VST instruments. This means th at you can play pitch ed instruments, such as vibrapho nes, marimbas, xyl ophone, even a p[...]

23 UPGRADING SOFTWARE As we continue to im prove the Trigger IO t o provide you the best user experience, software upgrades may be r eleased at www.alesis.com . Please check regular ly for software upgrades and latest news from Ale sis. UPGRADE PROCEDURE To see if your software version is the most current version avail able, you will nee d to compa[...]

24 TRIGGER IO KIT PRESETS KIT#0 – BFD LITE INPUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 CHANNEL 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 ZONE TIP MIDI NOTE # 35 38 46 55 47 45 43 49 55 53 CHANNEL 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 RING MIDI NOTE # 35 40 48 54 35 35 35 58 35 35 HI HAT FOOT SWITCH – CHANNE L 10, MIDI NOTE # 44 (INPUT3) CLOSED HI HAT NOTE # 42 KIT#1 – GM DRUMS I[...]

25 KIT#3 – CHROMATIC 1 INPUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 CHANNEL 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 TIP MIDI NOTE # 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 CHANNEL 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ZONE RING MIDI NOTE # 61 63 65 67 69 71 73 75 77 79 HI HAT FOOT SWITCH – CHANNE L 1, MIDI NOTE # 35 (INPUT3) CLOSED HI HAT NOTE # 42 KIT#4 – CHROMATIC 2 INPUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 CHANNEL 1 1 [...]

26 TROUBLESHOOTING SYMPTOM CAUSE SOLUTION The display does not light up. No power. If you are using USB power, c heck that th e power switch on the back of t he Trigger IO is in the OUT (USB) position. If you are using an AC adapter, check that th e adapter is plugged into a live power outl et and that t he power switch is in the IN (AC) position. [...]

27 SYMPTOM CAUSE SOLUTION Notes sustain continuously. Stuck notes due to incomplete MIDI d ata. Send an All Notes Off message by pressing function up and function down buttons simultaneously. Pad triggers when another pad is h it. Gain, X-Talk and Threshold not set correctly. Please refer to “Setting Global Parameters” sec tion to fine tune the[...]

28 SYMPTOM CAUSE SOLUTION Improper open and closed hi-hat sounds Variable-position pedal no t calibrated properly. If your hardware or software program does not completely open or close your hi-hat sounds as it should as your foot moves through the range of your v ariable-position hi-hat pedal, the Tri ggerIO probably needs to be calibra ted to m a[...]

29 MIDI IMPLEMENTATION Function Transmitted Recognized Remarks Basic Channel Default Changed 1-16 1-16 X X Memorized Adjustable by us er per pad Note Number: 0-127 X Velocity Note On Note Off 1-127 0 X X After Touch X X Pitch Bend X X Control Change Ctrl # 4 Ctrl # 64 0-127 0-127 X X Foot Pedal CC messa ge Sustain Pedal C C message Program Change 0[...]

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