MIDI driver for "Soul Drum"???

nosscaj · Guest

This is a repost of a topic from a couple years back. I never found a solution, so...

The Soul Drum system is an inexpensive, full-size USB electronic drum system that's great except for one critical flaw. No MIDI driver exists for it so you are forced to use the proprietary app that comes with it, which sucks. I'd love to use it to control Reason. I contacted the manu. and got a broken English response saying that they do not have one available. Shame on them! I'd pay good money for this? Anyway, just wondering if anyone out there has a good solution for this problem. Thanks!

email: m.l.jackson@gmail.com

Brien · Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 3:31 pm Post subject:

I suppose using drums as a controller is not as out there as it reads:) but I would suggest getting a MIDI patchbay.

This will allow you the flexability to "play" the drums and the Pbay sends the information to the computer via the MIDI port.

Hope that will get you some where.

Brien · Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 3:46 pm Post subject:

Aw man, thats completely USB driven. I am sorry, didn't completely get it all into my head.

Still, somewhere in that chain, it seems a patchbay(software driven) would help in this process.

Now I am just guessing.

Dan Coughlin · Guest

I have been looking for MIDI drivers as well because the Software that is included with the "Soul Drums" is terrible. There's a huge lag between hitting the drums and hearing the note / sound. Also, it would be nice to trigger MIDI devices.

After a bit of probbing it turns out that both Windows and Macintosh computers recognize the drums as a game controller. I did this on a macintosh but it looks to be the same on the windows side (just uninstall the included software). So when plugged in, the computer recognizes each individual channel (in the box where you plug the drums in, channels 1-10) as game controller buttons (buttons 1-10, respectively).

Now that you can do this, there are a number of programs (at least for OS X) that let you either map different computer keyboard keys to the 'game controller' (in our case, the Soul Drums) or lets you directly trigger a virtual MIDI channel.

In the first case, you can use a program called 'USB Overdrive' (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13443) and map Buttons 1-10 to different computer keyboard keys. Now in your drum program (such as Battery or iDrums), you can convert those key presses into the appropriate drum sound. The amazing part is, this is instananeous. The sounds and response is way better than the original Soul Drum software. From my initial playing around, this is sufficient for my needs with the drums and it turns this play set into something that works really well. I can't believe the company didn't include a similar software package!

But there are also ways to directly trigger a MIDI input, which is what the person on this forum was looking for. There is a program called junXion (again, for OS X) that takes game controller inputs and converts them to virtual MIDI triggers. (http://www.steim.org/steim/junxion.html) By playing with a few settings in junXion, you can trigger different MIDI channels with each of the different drum pads. This, also, is instananeous and amazingly more efficient than the original soul drum software. For some reason I get a muddied response from the bass drum pedal, but the drums themselves seem to work fine.

One of these days, I'll get around to making step-by-step instructions as well as looking into how you would do this on the Windows platform but for those out there will Soul Drums (I've seen similar posts to this one at other sites), there is hope for actually having a working set of drums.

Brien · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:26 pm Post subject:

You have really done a lot of work on this Dan. So using device as a controller (note the lack of the word "trigger") could the module in Reason, Subtractor Polyphonic Synthizer, be "played" like you would do if using a keyboard?

That would be cool:)

dcoughli · Guest

Sure can. Using junXion you can control any software that works with MIDI devices.

nosscaj2 · Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 2 Location: El Segundo, CA

For some reason my login credentials aren't working, but I'm nosscaj who started this thread...

Thanks to everybody for chiming in on this. I am still looking for a Windows solution to this problem. It's encouraging to hear that there are solutions out there that do a better job than the included software. Seems reasonable (no pun intended).

I'd love to see that step-by-step you mentioned, dchoughli!

Thanks again!

nosscaj2 · Joined: 30 Jun 2006 Posts: 2 Location: El Segundo, CA

Finally! A solution...I think. I kind soul sent me an email with detailed instructions on how he managed to bring my "dream" to reality. Here they are:

I noticed your thread about using soul drums to create midi events.
Here is how I managed to get my Soul Drum VD100 set producing near-real-time midi events on a windows XP machine.

1) Get Maple Virtual Midi Cables (http://www.hurchalla.com/Maple_driver.html) - the download link near the top should lead you to v3.56
This program gives windows a fake midi cable that any program (reason, battery, kontakt 2, etc.) will believe is a real midi cable connection.
This should be installed first. There is nothing to configure once it is installed - but give your comp a reboot to be safe once its done.

2) Get VMidiJoy - which stands for Virtual Midi Joystick (http://www.vellocet.com/software/VMIDIJoY.html) - make sure you get the "USB only" version 2.6.2
This will turn your drum set (which windows thinks is a joystick) into a midi generating device.
This should be installed after Maple Virtual Midi Cables was isntalled and after you rebooted your computer.
Once VMidiJoy is installed, make sure you click "Edit" and set your "MidiPort:" to say Maple Port 1
And I would suggest setting your "poll time" to "20ms" if you have a decent computer
Next, make SURE that the box to the immediate left of "Active" is glowing white/blue ish - if not, click on it, and it should become active.
Also, this screen will have a section at the bottom left called button mode, where all the left hand boxes should be set to "Note On/Off (note, vel)"
The "Data1" boxes will all be set to whichever midi note you want to use, ie. C-3, or G#2, etc.
The "Data2" boxes should all be set to at least "100" for testing, as this is the velocity of the midi generated notes. If they are left a 0, you won't hear anything.
And lastly, I leave the last set of boxes called "MIDI" to say "1" - this is your middle channel.

3) The only thing left at this point is to open up your host software, ie "Reason, Battery, Cubase, etc." and set your midi input to "Maple Port 1" and channel "1"

I managed to get this whole setup working and there was no lag at all using Reason and the Soul Drum VD100 USB drum set.
If you do get lag, it is computer related, as the VD100 USB connection is more then enough to handle the different midi events.

Hope this helps. It was a pain in my ass to figure out - and then I bought a professional keyboard and I'm selling the drum set now lol.

If you don't need this anymore, please consider posting it to the forum that you asked the question in. I didn't want to sign up for a user/password just to answer one question.

Good luck,
Dan I.

Thanks, Dan I., Where ever you are!

hillrod · Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 1

I'm trying that program, but all I see are MIDI assignments for 8 buttons, when the console has 10.

Do you know a way to control the hihat? I'm trying other programs and that is the one hurdle I can't get over.

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