Hey all,
I may just be being a bit dim here - it’s not something I’ve done in other apps so not really sure how to do it in Dorico.
I have an Arturia 61 key MKII with drum pads on it, and I’d like to map those pads so that they correspond with the pads in the percussion entry screen in the lower panel.
I haven’t got the first clue how to do it though. Anybody able to help? Apologies if the answer is an Arturia, rather than Dorico solution…
Many thanks
Edd
(p.s. that panel is brilliant btw - so useful having the percussion mapped out there)
You have to download Arturia’s own MIDI Control Center (but be aware that it is for your model, there are multiple downloads with the same name).
From there you can set the midi notes for each pad. But you have to first decide if you want to use staff position or percussion map to enter the percussion:
(I guess using percussion map would make more sense there)
Hey - many thanks for the help!
I thought I’d gotten my head around this, and I made a percussion map for my keylab as shown here:
And adjusted the pads to look like my Keylab pads. I used the default Keylab midi keys for the pads rather than mess with user defined pitches.
However when I’m in insert mode and press the pads nothing happens. Or rather, I can hear a different percussion instrument, and nothing inputs. If I use the onscreen pads they work as expected.
Have I missed something? Do I need to somehow apply the percussion map to the keylab, or the instrument?
I think it is at least important to apply the percussion map to the instrument your trying to input the notes. But I guess you did that already?
I would have taken the approach of adjusting the midi notes according to the different drum VST:s I am typically using. It is quite easy to set up and change different user profiles with the arturia Keylab, you could then have different presets for different VSTs.
I would have thought so but I can’t work out how to do that… - feel like I’m being dim…
I think I see what you mean, but I’m not very au fait with different drum set VSTs yet - I’m not a drummer at heart!
Many thanks for your help with this
Well to be honest I also have just noteperformer and Additive drums… But I still tend to forget where everything is all the time 
Ah, I think I’ve got it backwards - percussion maps are for playback aren’t they? So I need to change my Arturia’s map to align my pads with the HALion drum set presumably
I guess unlike expression maps, percussion maps are both for note input and playback. But I think in the long run it would be easiest for you if you just make a preset to the arturia MKII according to the halion drums percussion map. Then if you later use different vsts it will be quite easy to make presets for them as well.
Stzrt with the Yamaha percussion map provided with Dorico, it’s fairly standard and should give you some results. Then if you need more specific things, you can duplicate and modify it, instead of starting from scratch — I know, I’ve done it before 
oh man, I am totally at sea here - I had a look at the Yamaha drum map, which the drum set is set (haha) to, and I reprogrammed my Arturia with what I thought were all the right pitches, but now I press a cowbell and it notates a floor tom (although it sounds like a cowbell).
Just… what??!
I’d understand if the pitches were an octave out as well, but they don’t relate…
Perhaps you could try playing with the keys first and when you are sure about the pitches (and also the notation works correctly) only then programming the pads?
But make also sure that percussion input is set to percussion map in dorico’s preferences
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I’ll try to program the pads tomorrow, I recently bought keylab 88 so it would be nice to have it working (and match dorico’s software pads)
I think that was it! Didn’t know about the percussion map setting in preferences - haven’t confirmed yet but think that will fix it.
So - it didn’t work. I know what pitches work, playing them on the keyboard. What I don’t understand is how they’re wildly different to the percussion map. e.g. C1 (kick drum) is A1 on the percussion map.
Hi!
Which playback template are you using?
When looking at the percussion maps, make sure that you have the correct one activated, this is the Yamaha XG which comes with the HALion Sonic SE -playback template:
At least there the kick drum is in the correct place (C2)
Then you simply select the pad you want to assign to kick drum, put it to the same midi note (C1 - in Arturia’s MIDI control center everything is one octave lover for me…)
After that you need to click “Store to” and the kick drum should be working.
But there is one thing I could not solve:
With note performer I can write the open hi-hat technique by playing Bb 2 on my midi key keyboard:
I can see in the Note performer Drum Set expression map that it is routed to Hi-hat with “Open 2” -playing technique.
I have copied this exact same entry to my Additive Drums expression map, but it still wont add the playing correct playing technique, but instead writes it to the crash cymbal:
I tried everything I could, even made a minimized percussion map with only bass drum and hi-hat, but I can’t get dorico to add the playing technique the same way it does for note performer.
Even if I copy the note performer percussion map, rename it, and assign that to the drum set to it still doesn’t work…(!)
It looks as there’s the octave problem here, right. Middle C being C3, C4 or C5. Make sure your setting works with Addictive drums and stick to it!
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Ahah! Finally got it - thanks so much for your help. I’d confused the two kick drums, and transposing by the octave was the final key.
What a journey! Thanks again.
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