Recording Alesis Nitro Mesh Electronic Drum Kit in Cakewalk

[@JustDaNorm]

What electronic drums do you all use in Cakewalk? Have you downloaded my free pdf of KZbin tutorials? Get it here eepurl.com/h1Mipb

[@mrdrummer30001]

My guy! You are a beauty, I have been looking for a video to record on an electric set for hours now and this is the first one that actually worked for me. Thank you!!!

[@JustDaNorm]

Thanks so much. I’m glad that it helped. Let me know if you have questions or trouble. All the best!

[@ownagemunky]

Thanks for the video man. I downloaded the MT Power DrumKit 2 and found my e-drums's preset, but honestly I feel like cakewalk's SI kits are just flat out better.

[@JustDaNorm]

You’re welcome! The SI Kit is pretty decent especially for being free

[@nojyeloot]

Hey man, I wanted to drop by and say thank you so much for making this video. It was really enlightening and helped us make some decisions on buying an e-kit. Learned a lot of good stuff here!

[@JustDaNorm]

Hey. Thanks for the comment. You’re welcome. I’m glad it helped. Please let me know which EKit you decide to buy. All the best!

[@mguti091]

Thank you for this, I was able to split my audio per instruments.

[@JustDaNorm]

Cool. Let me know if you have questions.

[@abc456f]

How did you do it? He has 4 tracks, all with the entire performance. Then he deletes the bass part from the first track. Then the next thing he shows is somehow magically the first track has only the bass, next track snare, then toms, then cymbals. How do you get from deleting the bass part to breaking out the individual drum pieces? I'm going crazy trying to figure this out. I'd really appreciate if you could explain it to me. Thanks in advance.

[@danroxas]

omg!!! this is the tutorial ive been looking for. thank you very much! God bless

[@JustDaNorm]

I’m glad it is helpful. Keep posted with questions. God Bless also!

[@luccio9268]

Amazing!! Thank you very much

[@JustDaNorm]

You’re welcome.

[@Matt-ez8js]

Very helpful.

[@JustDaNorm]

Awesome. Glad it’s helpful!

[@MrHhkrohn]

Great tutorial on this. I've been messing around with it, I have mine connected to the pc, I believe it was the only option back then for me.. I did not try the first audio option you did due to cheap sounds from my alesis kit. Steven slates are sounding great... I will get acoustic drums and see if I can do something with it as well👍 Thanx!

[@JustDaNorm]

Whatsup dude? I miss you bro. Hope you and the family are well. Yeah. I was asked to make this tutorial a while ago. Finically had to pull it close to computer. Yeah use the Steven. When I move to house this year I will setup drums and talk about recording acoustic more often.

[@MrHhkrohn]

@@JustDaNorm no worry. Busy writing stuff and going old school. Gonna record on multitrack tape 🙀

[@JustDaNorm]

Cool that will be fun. Let me know how it goes

[@clarencebentley158]

Hey man you didn't happen to go to Pisgah Forest Elementary in Brevard NC did you? I had a good friend from my youth named (Justin Norman) and you look just like him. My name is Jay Bentley. I'm a musician now and happened across your channel! Very good stuff btw!

[@JustDaNorm]

Hey Jay Thanks! I must have a twin out there lol. I was born and raised in St. Louis, MO. My actual name is Norman or JustDaNorm. Welcome for the channel. Let me know if you have questions

[@nrbdrummer4665]

I am recording my alesis nitro mesh kit through midi option. but i do not want the sound of any vst , rather can i get the actual sound of my alesis kit through the midi cable option ?

[@JustDaNorm]

Hello. In order to get the actual sound of the Alesis. You have to use the 1/4 inch cables and run it into an audio interface.

[@adrianharper2510]

thanks for the vid!

[@JustDaNorm]

Hey Adrian. You are welcome. Keep me posted with questions.

[@PeRiKuPazZz]

I have a problem that I can hear on my pc only open hihat sounds but can not hear when hitting with the sticks. All is connected correct in a module. Can you help me to solve this?

[@JustDaNorm]

Is this for the Nitro Kit. Are you only getting open hihat on the unit itself or are you using it in Cakewalk. Usually you have to have the hihat controller pedal plugged up in the right spot. You also may have to turn brain off and then back on. You can change the sound but it should automatically work correct. You have to keep the hihat pedal closed or pressed down to hear closed hihat sound

[@jacklondon3289]

I have the same issue. Did you resolved the problem? I use the Alesis Turbo Mesh Kit

[@JAYNIXFLIX]

I'm really struggling with all of this. I have a Donner DED-200 and just want to record with a preset directly into cakewalk. Nothing fancy yet, just a straight recording. I can't seem to have the drums register through the program. I can hear through my headphones, but it won't actually record it. It's not even showing that my hits are coming through on the program, but I can hear me playing in my headphones. This is the third DAW I've attempted this with and I don't know what I am doing wrong. Do I need an interface to accomplish this? It just seems like I'm missing something simple. I'm obviously a beginner at any of this, been playing drums for years but never had an electric kit, let alone tried to record anything. I just wanna record some practice sessions to send to my band between practices so they can see how the songs I'm learning for them is progressing. Can anyone help? I am really lost and frustrated. appreciate any assistance from anyone.

[@JustDaNorm]

I’m sorry you are having issues with this. In order to record your preset you have to use a usb cable and plug it into your computer. If you don’t see it register I will definitely check Donner website for drivers. When you mention hearing through headphones. Are the headphones plugged directly through the DED-200 or into your computer? If they are plugged into the DED then you won’t hear the sound coming out of the computer. After the drivers are loaded then in Cakewalk / Midi sources make sure your unit is checked as input. If you want the exact sounds in your DED then you need an audio interface or plug it into computer via 1/4 inch to 1/8inch

[@Bumbo03]

Can you use this daw for live playing with electric drums? I would really appreciate an answer

[@JustDaNorm]

Sure you can use it as sound source for your electronic kit. Basically use your kit as a controller and use sounds out of Cakewalk. All you need is the USB plug into computer

[@Bumbo03]

@@JustDaNorm fantastic, thank you

[@JustDaNorm]

You’re welcome!

[@Legolancer]

hey, do you what channel is used on the alesis nitro when using midi? im having a couple of problems with getting my kit to trigger the midi

[@JustDaNorm]

Normally midi channel for drums is channel 10 and 11. It depends on what virtual instrument you are using though. I would start with channel 10 and see if that helps. You can set Cakewalk to Midi Omni which will send or receive all channels.

[@Legolancer]

@@JustDaNorm thanks, I tried this and it’s still not working. My cakewalk is not detecting midi from my kit and I’ve tried 2 different DAWs now.

[@JustDaNorm]

@Legolancer Try plugging in different usb cable or moving it to a different port. Definitely restart the computer. In Cakewalk make sure under Edit / Preferences / MIDI Devices that your drum kit is enabled in the input. Keep me posted. I will have to make a troubleshooting video if there are still issues.

[@Legolancer]

@@JustDaNorm hey, thanks for your help. I’ve currently tried 3 different usb midi cables, one regular midi cable, two different drum kits and is still not working. Also tried multiple ports aswell. For the record, my midi keyboard is working, but the drum kit isn’t.

[@JustDaNorm]

Have you tried installing drivers for drum kit or reinstall drivers? If this doesn’t work then it might be an issue with the drum brain. I don’t think it should be that. It’s gotta be something very simple.

[@catcollar]

Thanks. Gonna see it if works

[@JustDaNorm]

Cool keep me posted

[@catcollar]

@@JustDaNorm it works! Now I've another issue lol. I'm using a yamaha thr30ii trying to lay down guitar with the drums. But yea man the drums are working so thanks!

[@JustDaNorm]

@catcollar cool glad it works now. You mentioned a new issue. What’s going on?

[@abc456f]

​@catcollar how did you do it? I end up with 4 tracks each with the entire performance except the first track which has the bass removed. What am I missing? Thanks in advance.

[@catcollar]

@@abc456f what drum kit are you using?

[@MetalHead62]

I have that same kit.

[@JustDaNorm]

Awesome. It’s a cool set

[@abc456f]

You lost me on how you assigned the individual drum parts, bass, snare, tom's, cymbals to separate tracks. That's question 1. Question 2 - is each track on a different midi channel? I know channel 10 is usually for drums, or is each track assigned to a different midi channel? If I could get these two questions answered, I'd be ready to record my TD-17KVX. If anyone can help me out, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

[@JustDaNorm]

1st Question. What I did in this video was record one instrument track using my Alesis as a controller. After that I duplicated that track 3 more times. Then I went into piano roll and clicked on midi data I wanted to delete via keyboard note. So bass drum is on C3 then I can delete by clicking that key and pressing Delete. This allows me to have different track for each drum part. 2nd question…. Since I separated tracks and each track has its own instrument (Si Drums) I don’t need to worry about midi channels. Hope this helps.

[@abc456f]

​@JustDaNorm You deleted the bass part from the whole track but then that track became the individual bass track? Is that right? Sorry for my ignorance. While I've got you I have some other questions. Can this be setup to record to separate tracks in real-time? I also noticed something in my preferences, midi devices that I hadn't seen before. I'm seeing the number 2 before my Focusrite USB MIDI and also number 2 before my TD-17. Everything seems to be working but I hadn't seen the number 2 to the left of those devices before. Thanks a million for responding. Not many creators take the time to do it so I really appreciate it.

[@abc456f]

​@JustDaNorm Followed your example exactly. All I end up with is the first track with no bass and the rest of the performance, and the other three tracks with the entire performance, no splitting of drum parts. ?????

[@abc456f]

Someone please explain to me how you can delete the bass part from a track and next thing, magically, that track has ONLY the bass part AND the other 3 tracks have the drum pieces split out into snare, toms, cymbals? I know I must be missing something because a couple of people got it to work. I knew before I even tried it that it couldn't work, it makes no sense. But I still went ahead, followed the instructions to a tee, and got the results I expected. 4 tracks all with the entire performance except the top track with the bass removed. I'm glad I'm bald because I would have pulled my hair out by now. So I'm begging and pleading for someone to help me out. Thanks very much, peace.

[@BongSwansong]

Been looking for hours on how I can plug in my alesis set into DAW but what I found is I'd rather just sell my set and give up. This stuff is just too hard to figure out. lol Screw this. Not worth learning to play over THIS.

[@JustDaNorm]

Please don't give up on the Alesis drum set. Its a cool set. The main reason I would use an electronic set is so I can get as close to a real drum feel as possible. Then you can use the sounds in Alesis or simply use drum sounds in Cakewalk or other installed instruments.

[@abc456f]

What he explained here makes no sense. It's not you. He does know his stuff but following his instructions to the tee, I do not get the same result. Even before I tried it, I knew it couldn't work. He has us deleting the bass drum part from a track and then magically that track has ONLY the bass part? And how did the other tracks end up with individual drum pieces? There's something here he's not explaining.

[@abc456f]

It looks like you deleted C2, not C3. Anyway, after you delete the bass part, you say, "now that you've separated everything". How did you seperate everything? All you did was delete the bass part from the original track. Why would that action seperate everything? This is the exact point where I am lost in space. I've watched the video over and over. Either I'm going to look more stupid than I am, or the instructions are incomplete, or there's something about my setup that's wrong. But I am able to record my Roland td-17kvx to midi and hear it playback. It creates midi events and I was able to duplicate the track three times. I was able to delete the bass from the original track. Seperate everything, ahhhh no.

[@JustDaNorm]

This video should help. I just made it earlier today. It’s a two part video. First deals with activation. Second shows the process of duplicating and splitting drums kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYm8i4yVd62BgJIsi=e3pmHkTrJM2l89pV

[@abc456f]

​@JustDaNorm Thanks for making this. I figured out yesterday the mistake you made in the previous video where you deleted the bass part instead of deleting everything but the bass part. Now it makes total sense. Since I want to record with my td-17kvx and have the drum parts going to different tracks, I'm going to make the investment in EZ Drummer 3. Mid-range cost plugin that does what I need it to do.