hypno|sapien

Zendrum ZAP Note Mapping

2010-03-02T14:45:00.008-04:00

createdigitalmusic.com recently ran an article about drum mapping on midi controllers:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/02/25/fast-fingers-video-mappings-shows-you-pad-drumming-on-mpc-ableton-beyond/

It's a great writeup about an equally great video where Brandon Murphy explains his mapping setup on his MPC controller. So I thought I'd take a moment to share my mapping setup, both for drums and melodies. I believe the Zendrum ZAP has the ultimate layout for finger drumming, with offset rows like a computer keyboard, allowing for really fast and expressive playing. Here's how I map standard drum kit sounds:

And here's how I note map for use with melodic instruments (C blues scale):

And here's a short video that shows me using these mappings. Well, the drum map is slightly different in the video than what I'm using now. And I had just gotten the ZAP when I made this video, so I'm going a little crazy on the thing...

In the video, I'm triggering sounds from an E-mu PX-7. Now I use Battery 3 kits, hosted in Kontakt running in Ableton Live. This gives me the freedom to load numerous Battery kits into Kontakt, switch between them using program change on the ZAP, and still only run one sample engine (as opposed to running a chain of Battery kits, which can get very cpu intensive hosted in Ableton Live).

As for the kit setups, I like to use different sample for right hand and left hand on snare and toms if they're available. If not, I use the "alternate stroke" articulation function in Battery to simulate the variations that come with real hand-to-hand playing. As for the snare, I will usually map a rimshot sound to the highest velocity level for my two main snare sounds (right hand and left hand), then I'll use the "drag" articulation on the third snare pad. Playing the drag articulation repeatedly gives the effect of a drum roll, while hitting it only once just before a snare or tom gives a snare ghost-note drag effect. Pretty useful... I also like to map a kick up between my two crash cymbals, as a kick gets layered with a crash sound 90% of the time.

Finger drum on!

HAITI2010

2010-01-21T10:02:00.000-04:00

Next Generation of the Octapad

2010-01-20T16:55:00.001-04:00

Roland has really stepped it up with the SPD-30:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/01/19/namm-picks-rolands-octapad-updates-a-classic-percussion-controller/#more-9164

Electronic Didgerodoo

2009-11-18T14:53:00.000-04:00

This is too cool: http://yaktronix.blogspot.com/2009/11/electronically-modified-didgerodoo.html

Staying in sync...

2009-11-10T15:47:00.002-04:00

Just saw that my good friend and musical partner Mark Kunoff made it on CDM with a letter he wrote to Peter regarding ableton sync issues:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/11/10/live-music-makers-ask-how-can-we-get-in-sync/#more-8297

Here's a thread from the monome board where I described the backline setup in more detail, in case anyone is interested:

http://post.monome.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=5452

Imogen Heap w/ Monome 256 on Letterman

2009-08-31T09:30:00.000-04:00

New Monome Audio/Video Cutting Patch

2009-08-25T10:16:00.000-04:00

64 (Video) Fingers from Charlie Visnic on Vimeo.

Monome-Controlled Art/Sound Installation

2009-08-25T10:06:00.003-04:00

The Stealth Project at ISEA 2009 from NOVA on Vimeo.

Wacky, Wild, Concertinome...

2009-08-04T09:48:00.001-04:00

Monome as chair...

2009-07-31T10:49:00.003-04:00

or so my sweet baby girl believes...

What is that thing?

2009-03-23T23:09:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Monome from sam_square on Vimeo.

another molar video

2008-07-06T18:33:00.002-04:00

here's some more improv/jamming...

monome 256 and zendrum zap improv

2008-06-17T17:32:00.003-04:00

this is some improv with ableton live 7, molar vsti, and ni battery 3

i've come to call this one "unagi":

new zendrum zap videos

2008-06-17T17:27:00.003-04:00

here are some new videos demonstrating the playability and sensitivity of the zendrum zap:

more videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/hypnosapien

new othership video

2008-06-17T17:23:00.002-04:00

othership is a project in collaboration with mark kunoff (manic audio kinetics)

here's our first video of an improv jam:

hypno on cdm - zendrum zap

2008-06-17T11:27:00.005-04:00

my video demonstration of the new zendrum zap (which i had the pleasure of working with zendrum creator david haney to design) was featured on createdigitalmusic.com

here's a link to the cdm post:

cdm-let your fingers do the drumming

and here's the video: