Alesis DM5 Hi-Hat

[Guinness]

Hola. Could use some help here...

My DM5 Pro Kit is not quite doing what I want. The hi-hat is bizarre. First, I can't get it to choke with hi-hat pedal. (is that what that's called? choke?) Any suggestions there?

I guess I can live with that, but it kinda sucks. (I can't choke the symbols, but I can live without it. :( )

Aside from that, the hi-hat open is not staying open. If I hit it softly, it'll ring. But if I hit it harder (12 on the meter), it sounds closed. I tried it in all the kits, and it's the same. I even change triggers, same issue. So, something in the settings ain't quite right.

This is day 2 with this kit, so I'm pretty much a moron on tweaking settings. But I tried, and it didn't have any effect.

Your help is appreciated! :D

[Hellfire]

Hola. Could use some help here...

My DM5 Pro Kit is not quite doing what I want. The hi-hat is bizarre. First, I can't get it to choke with hi-hat pedal. (is that what that's called? choke?) Any suggestions there?

I guess I can live with that, but it kinda sucks. (I can't choke the symbols, but I can live without it. :( )

Aside from that, the hi-hat open is not staying open. If I hit it softly, it'll ring. But if I hit it harder (12 on the meter), it sounds closed. I tried it in all the kits, and it's the same. I even change triggers, same issue. So, something in the settings ain't quite right.

This is day 2 with this kit, so I'm pretty much a moron on tweaking settings. But I tried, and it didn't have any effect.

Your help is appreciated! :D
The hi-hat switch should give you "open", "closed", and "foot chick". I have never heard of this issue before. Have you tried doing a factory reset of the DM5 module? Should be listed somewhere in the manual. If you need a manual, you can download it from DMdrummer.com (http://www.dmdrummer.com/index.php?topic=3.0). Also, double check your connections.

As far as choking your cymbals, the DM5 can not do that... Well, it can but, it is a round about way to get it to do that. You need to use the "group" function. If you want more information on choking a cymbal with a DM5, check out DMdrummer.com (http://www.dmdrummer.com/index.php?topic=88.0).

[CharlyG]

Is it plugged into the hi hat jack? You should have 2 inputs for the hats. one is the pedal, and the other is just a tom pad set to be the sticking part of the hihat. Could they be reversed? When I bought my Yammie from cl, the wiring was all out of whack. He had stereo cables going to simple one trigger pads. Then, on the DM5 ( I am no expert), it allows you to program any jack to any instrument IIRC. If bought used or left unused for a while, you might want to do a factory reset so everything matches the manual. Just a few thoughts from another noob.

[Guinness]

The hi-hat switch should give you "open", "closed", and "foot chick". I have never heard of this issue before. Have you tried doing a factory reset of the DM5 module? Should be listed somewhere in the manual. If you need a manual, you can download it from DMdrummer.com (http://www.dmdrummer.com/index.php?topic=3.0). Also, double check your connections.

As far as choking your cymbals, the DM5 can not do that... Well, it can but, it is a round about way to get it to do that. You need to use the "group" function. If you want more information on choking a cymbal with a DM5, check out DMdrummer.com (http://www.dmdrummer.com/index.php?topic=88.0).

Ya, i could choke the cymbal with two triggers, right? (Surge). But for now, that seems like too much effort.

However, fixing the hi-hat is important. I uploaded the Syx file from Alesis last night and the problem still exists. Restoring to factory defaults would do nothing, as it's still in factory defaults. the problem existed with both ROM files (the original, and the one I loaded last night.... MUCH BETTER SAMPLES, by the way)

Also, by the way, I bought this new, so Yes, I have the manual.

CharlyG... thanks for the suggestion, but I tried that. I haven't tried changing cables though... maybe it's a bad cable?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[CharlyG]

it's always good to swap the cable with one on a known working trigger as one of the first troubleshooting steps.

[Guinness]

it's always good to swap the cable with one on a known working trigger as one of the first troubleshooting steps.

Well, I did do that. I took the cymbal trigger and swapped with hi-hat. Same issue. So, it's not the trigger. What I did NOT do was change cables... ie use the cym cable to run the hi-hat. Hopefully it's that simple. :)

(I have a feeling it's not though :()

[Hellfire]

However, fixing the hi-hat is important. I uploaded the Syx file from Alesis last night and the problem still exists. Restoring to factory defaults would do nothing, as it's still in factory defaults. the problem existed with both ROM files (the original, and the one I loaded last night.... MUCH BETTER SAMPLES, by the way)

Actually, they are the same sound samples. They are just tweaked, which you can do yourself once you get comfortable using your module.;)

Back to the hi-hat..If you were to unplug the hi-hat pedal switch (unplug from the back of the module, then turn it on), does it do the same thing?

When the pedal is plugged in does it do anything? Meaning, is the sound of the hi-hat different when your foot is off of it than when it is on it? If you just use the hi-hat pedal do you get the "chick" (sound of the hi-hat closing) sound? Just trying to get more info on the issue. Sorry if it sounds like I'm being a pain.

[Rudy Muntz]

I'm gonna guess that re-patching the hihat pedal and cycling the power button a time or two resolved the problem; I also have a DM5Pro with a recalcitrant hihat trigger-I'm experiencing a weird abrupt choked note on the open hat sound, but it's intermittent. (and seems not to happen with most externally produced sounds) I suspect the cheap pedal may be the culprit; sometimes the foot-chick or 'splash' doesn't trigger, and it takes way too much up-travel when switching from closed to open-real hats open instantly and this is driving me nuts. (doesn't help that the top hat doesn't rise, either) Is there an adjustment that can be made to this pedal or is there a good alternative that works the same only better for a reasonable price? (meaning sub $200, in my case) I'd also like to know if there are any good workarounds for the DM5's lack of a CV input; could I just use a spring-loaded expression pedal attached to an upstream MIDI keyboard to do the gradual opening and closing that my software modules are capable of? Would I then lose the foot chick/splash?

[Hellfire]

I'm gonna guess that re-patching the hihat pedal and cycling the power button a time or two resolved the problem; I also have a DM5Pro with a recalcitrant hihat trigger-I'm experiencing a weird abrupt choked note on the open hat sound, but it's intermittent. (and seems not to happen with most externally produced sounds) I suspect the cheap pedal may be the culprit; sometimes the foot-chick or 'splash' doesn't trigger, and it takes way too much up-travel when switching from closed to open-real hats open instantly and this is driving me nuts. (doesn't help that the top hat doesn't rise, either) Is there an adjustment that can be made to this pedal or is there a good alternative that works the same only better for a reasonable price? (meaning sub $200, in my case) I'd also like to know if there are any good workarounds for the DM5's lack of a CV input; could I just use a spring-loaded expression pedal attached to an upstream MIDI keyboard to do the gradual opening and closing that my software modules are capable of? Would I then lose the foot chick/splash?
The DM5 is not able to handle a variable hi-hat input. Since you are using software you might want to try the Alesis Trigger I/O or if you can wait a little, you might want to look into the DITI from Alternate Mode (http://edrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=928).

[sprackleor]

I'm sure Guinness has moved on from this issue with his hi hats, either resolving it or whatever but I think I know what was causing the issue of the hi hat 'open' not staying open, ie soft hits produce and open sound while harder hits get the closed sound... in the D4 module, among the hi hat samples there are two, one is called close-open and the other is called open-close, which can make either an open hi hat sound or closed hi hat sound depending on how hard you hit the pad.

So in this case if Guinness had the open-close sample assigned to the open state of the hi hat trigger, when hit softly the open sound would play then harder hits would sound closed. It was kind of clunky and not really smooth but it basically worked nonetheless.

I'm not sure if these 2 samples made it into the DM5 and were renamed but it sounds like that is what was causing that bizarre behavior. If its still an issue it might be worth looking into...

[Guinness]

I returned the DM5 and purchased a DM10 instead.

[Johnny Keys]

Ok, so I'm too late to help Guinness with this, but I have a DM5 Pro kit and also experienced the same problem with the open hi-hat getting muted on stronger hits. I found the problem was purely mechanical; the hi-hat pad was rebounding on itself like a springboard and the resulting vibration was triggering a second, much weaker, false hit which was cutting off the played note (because of all hi-hat notes being assigned to group 1 and essentially becoming monophonic - for the crash and ride this would not present a problem as they are polyphonic and any false notes would just layer themselves quietly behind the main note.)

I tried editing the hi-hat trigger parameters for decay and noise and this helped a little, but getting rid of the false triggers in this way also got rid of some of my more subtle triplet playing.

In the end I found the best (and simplest) solution is to slacken off the plastic wing nut on the top of the pad until the pad just begins to flop forward a little. This stops the rapid vibration of the pad, eliminating false triggering and still letting me play fast strokes nearer the "bell" of the pad. Problem solved!

I wonder if this problem only exists for those of us using quadrant-shaped cymbal pads? I would think circular ones would be better counterbalanced and not prone to this "springboard" vibration problem anyway, because you could loosen the nut more without the pad falling over.