Please pardon if this is a duplicate. There many posts about “Percussion playback”, but I’m trying to clearly isolate one specific issue, i.e. the correspondence of lanes / channels / faders. Some behavior is confusing when creating a custom kit. Testing with Elements 6.
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I start by creating a new project with template Empty.
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I add a single player and select “Create empty kit”. It gets the name “Percussion”.
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[OK] I visit the Play page and see only Tempo and Chords lanes, mixers for DoricoBeep and Reverb.
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Back to Setup, I click the 3 dots on the green bar in the player and “Edit percussion kit”. I add (for example) “Snare Drum” and “Kick Drum”.
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Back to the Play tab, there is a lane “Percussion”. Selecting it shows on the left HALion port 1 channel 1, expression and percussion maps for Iconica Sketch. (The lane has a “[>]” button.)
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Clicking [>] expands to show “Snare Drum” and “Kick Drum”. Selecting “Snare Drum” shows everything identical to “Percussion”. Selecting “Kick Drum” shows HALion port 1 channel 2, maps Default / Yamaha XG.
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[NOK?] The mixer now shows channels “DoricoBeep”, “Percussion”, “Kick Drum”, “Reverb” which seems wrong to me. But maybe it’s just a naming issue with the Percussion mixer.
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[NOK?] Clicking the gear button shows 2 channels, for “Percussion” and “Kick Drum”.
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Clicking the “e” button, I see 2 channels have been added to HALion: “Percussion map” and “[GM 129] Stereo GM Kit”. The presets aren’t what I want, but that is easily fixed. Using the combo boxes, the maps can also be changed to match.
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I can click the gear button and add a third HALion channel. In HALion, I can move the presets from 1&2 to 2&3. I can select “Snare Drum” and “Kick Drum” lanes, and use the spin boxes and combo boxes to realign the channels and maps.
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[NOK] Now when I select the “Percussion” lane it shows still shows port 1 / channel 1 and Iconica maps.
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[OK] Selecting “Snare Drum” or “Kick Drum” lanes shows correct/updated port / channel / maps.
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[NOK] The mixer now has “DoricoBeep”, “Percussion”, “Snare Drum”, “Kick Drum”, “Reverb”. The “Percussion” fader has no effect.
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[OK] “Snare Drum” and “Kick Drum” faders control those channels/instruments separately, as they should.
(Creating a single player “Unpitched Percussion” + “Drum Set (Basic)” does not have the same issues. It also produces a kit, but uses Groove Agent and a single channel and fader. The lane can be expanded to show all instruments.)