Alesis Nitro Kit - Adjusting Trigger Settings For Optimal Performance
The Alesis Nitro Kit is a complete 8-piece electronic drum kit that includes everything you need to play like a pro. While the kit is ready-to-go right out of the box, spending some time to truly optimize the trigger settings can match the response perfectly with any playing style and improve performance overall. This article will cover how and when to adjust the trigger settings on your Nitro kit to optimize performance and response.
Contents
- Improving Pad Response and Increasing Accuracy
- Cross-Talk Settings - Canceled Hits or Pads Triggering Randomly
- Voice settings - Changing the Sound of Your Kit
- Further Technical Support
Improving Pad Response and Increasing Accuracy
If your style of playing is one where you strike the pads very, very quickly, or if you feel like some of the triggers are not picking up all of your hits during the roughs or flams, the individual trigger settings can be adjusted very easily in order to make sure no hits get dropped. For increased accuracy, the Nitro Kit offers the ability to adjust the individual trigger settings in the Utility Menu to make sure that each and every strike and dynamic you want to hear can be expressed exactly as you play it. Below we'll go over the some of the important settings and how they work so that you can adjust the pad response to your playing style.
Sensitivity
By increasing the sensitivity setting for a specific trigger, that trigger will respond to lighter hits more forcefully. Higher values let you produce louder sounds with less force. Lower values require more force to produce quieter sounds.
To adjust this setting, follow these steps:
- Press Voice button to enter the Kit Selection page (if you are not already viewing it).
- Hit the pad whose settings you want to edit.
- Press Utility button to enter the available settings.
- SEN (sensitivity) will be the first option.
- Use the Left (<) and Right (>) buttons to adjust the function.
- To save the adjustments, Select the Voice button.
- Press SAVE button.
- Choose a user kit (between 25- 40).
- Press Save button again.
Threshold
The Threshold setting is similar to sensitivity in that if it is set to a low value, a very light hit will trigger a sound. However, the difference is this: If the threshold setting is increased, there will be absolutely no sound until the pad is hit with a certain amount of force. This allows for accidental unintentional hits to automatically be eliminated in real-time.
To adjust this setting, follow these steps:
- Press Voice button to enter the Kit Selection page (if you are not already viewing it).
- Hit the pad whose settings you want to edit.
- Press Utility button to enter the available settings.
- THR (threshold) will be the second option after you press Utility button twice.
- Use the Left (<) and Right (>) buttons to adjust the function.
- To save the adjustments, Select the Voice button.
- Press SAVE button.
- Choose a user kit (between 25- 40).
- Press Save button again.
Velocity Curve
The velocity curve settings are essential to getting a pad to feel right in your hands. A perfect velocity response will follow your playing smoothly and naturally. Some units have a small number of available curves, some have many, and some even let you design your own velocity curves from scratch.The curves are shown in the Appendix.
To adjust this setting, follow these steps:
- Press Voice button to enter the Kit Selection page (if you are not already viewing it).
- Hit the pad whose settings you want to edit.
- Press Utility button to enter the available settings.
- CUR (Velocity Curve) will be the fourth option after you press Utility button four times.
- Use the Left (<) and Right (>) buttons to adjust the function.
- To save the adjustments, Select the Voice button.
- Press SAVE button.
- Choose a user kit (between 25- 40).
- Press Save button again.
Rim Sensitivity
Controls how responsive a pad's rim is when you hit it.Higher values let you produce louder sounds with less force. Lower values require more force to produce quieter sounds.
To adjust this setting, follow these steps:
- Press Voice button to enter the Kit Selection page (if you are not already viewing it).
- Hit the pad whose settings you want to edit.
- Press Utility button to enter the available settings.
- R-S (Rim Sensitivity) will be the fifth option after you press Utility button five times.
- Use the Left (<) and Right (>) buttons to adjust the function.
- To save the adjustments, Select the Voice button.
- Press SAVE button.
- Choose a user kit (between 25- 40).
- Press Save button again.
Hi-Hat "splash" Sensitivity
Controls how responsive the hi-hat "splash" effect is when you hit the pedal. (To create this sound, tap your foot on the pedal but lift it up immediately instead of leaving your foot down.)
To adjust this setting, follow these steps:
- Press Voice button to enter the Kit Selection page (if you are not already viewing it).
- Hit the pad whose settings you want to edit.
- Press Utility button to enter the available settings.
- S-S (Hi-Hat "splash" sensitivity) will be the sixth option after you press Utility button six times.
- Use the Left (<) and Right (>) buttons to adjust the function.
- To save the adjustments, Select the Voice button.
- Press SAVE button.
- Choose a user kit (between 25- 40).
- Press Save button again.
Cross-Talk Settings - Canceled Hits or Pads Triggering Randomly
Every time you strike a pad, the entire kit vibrates. Vibrations travel through the rack and can sometimes trigger other pads. This tendency is called 'cross-talk', and due to the physical nature of drums, it is unavoidable (even on an acoustic kit). A more accurate description of this setting would be "crosstalk compensation", as there really isn't a way to prevent the physical tendency for vibrations to travel.
This setting, however, uses an algorithm to separate intentional hits from unintentional crosstalk triggers; the result, when tweaked correctly, is that you only hear the sounds you want to hear. Most often this setting does not need to be adjusted, but some playing styles (heavy hitters) may want to consider fine-tuning it to improve response. If you're noticing pads canceling each other out or pads triggering randomly/when striking a different pad, this is the setting for you. Adjusting the cross-talk setting to somewhere in the middle is usually a good start.
To adjust this setting, follow these steps:
- Press Voice button to enter the Kit Selection page (if you are not already viewing it).
- Hit the pad whose settings you want to edit.
- Press Utility button to enter the available settings.
- CRO (Cross Talk) will be the third option after you press Utility button three times.
- Use the Left (<) and Right (>) buttons to adjust the function.
- To save the adjustments, Select the Voice button.
- Press SAVE button.
- Choose a user kit (between 25- 40).
- Press Save button again.
Voice Settings - Changing the Sound of Your Kit
The voice settings are used to obtain a certain sound from your kit, like turning up the volume on your snare drum or panning a cymbal to the right or left. While the kits are arranged in a certain manner out of the box, you may feel the need to make some adjustments and personalize your instrument. Below we'll discuss some of the popular settings for adjustment and how and when to adjust them.
Pad Volume - Volume Pad help controls how loud you want the voice (patch) of the select pad is trigger. To adjust this setting, follow these steps:
- Hit the pad whose settings you want to edit.
- Press Voice button to enter the Kit Selection page (if you are not already viewing it).
- Vol (Pad Volume) will be the second option after you press Voice button twice.
- Use the Left (<) and Right (>) buttons to adjust the function.
- To save the adjustments, Press SAVE button.
- Choose a user kit (between 25- 40).
- Press Save button again.
Pad Panning - Pad Panning can be used in an audio mixer to reduce or reverse the stereo width of a stereo signal. To adjust this setting, follow these steps:
- Hit the pad whose settings you want to edit.
- Press Voice button to enter the Kit Selection page (if you are not already viewing it).
- PAN (Pad Panning) will be the third option after you press Voice button 3 times.
- Use the Left (<) and Right (>) buttons to adjust the function.
- To save the adjustments, Press SAVE button.
- Choose a user kit (between 25- 40).
- Press Save button again.
Pad Pitch - This help control how high or low the voice note is. To adjust this setting, follow these steps:
- Hit the pad whose settings you want to edit.
- Press Voice button to enter the Kit Selection page (if you are not already viewing it).
- PIT (Pad Pitch) will be the fourth option after you press Voice button four times.
- Use the Left (<) and Right (>) buttons to adjust the function.
- To save the adjustments, Press SAVE button.
- Choose a user kit (between 25- 40).
- Press Save button again.
Pad Reverb - Pad Reverb control the series of tightly-spaced echoes. To adjust this setting, follow these steps:
- Press Voice button to enter the Kit Selection page (if you are not already viewing it).
- Hit the pad whose settings you want to edit.
- REV (Pad Reverb) will be the fifth option after you press Voice button five times.
- Use the Left (<) and Right (>) buttons to adjust the function.
- To save the adjustments, Press SAVE button.
- Choose a user kit (between 25- 40).
- Press Save button again.
Further Technical Support
Whether you are a customer or dealer, if you already own a Alesis product, or if you just have pre-sales questions, the Alesis technical support team is available to help!
Each product has a dedicated support page on the website where you can find manuals, specifications, software updates, drivers and troubleshooting guides: www.alesis.com
Visit the link below to connect with any of the following support options: online community support, phone support, email support.