Hello everyone, I recently purchased the Surge Mesh SE that came with BFD Player bundled and it was finally released for download this month. Since I’m an early adopter, I suppose I have to work to figure some bugs out. I have the software and the included “dark mahoganny” preset pack installed on my M1 Macbook Air. I’m excited about the sound quality and the relative ease of use of the interface, but at this point I’ve encountered an issue that might be a deal breaker if its not sorted out soon. The hi-hat volume when I play a closed hat sound is very quiet, but when I play it open it sounds more normal and balanced with the rest of the kit. This isn’t something I can fix in the mixer screen since there is only one slider for the hi-hat. So I can crank up the level and get a little more normal level on the closed sound, but then its crazy loud when I open the hats. So I’m thinking this is a software issue that needs to be ironed out. I confirmed that my Surge SE kit works fine to play the built in kits in Garage Band, so I don’t think there are hardware problems. The other annoying thing is that there is no “in between” hi hat sound, so I only get a sound fully open, or fully closed. This is not ideal obviously. Since the software was bundled with the kit, I’m hoping they work to get these issues fixed. I for one might invest in more kits if the issues are fixed. Anyone else seeing this annoying hi-hat behaviour with BFD Player? I have version 0.9.0.32, so maybe this is still a beta version?
The BFD Player hasn’t been released yet and I haven’t encountered any questions over at alesisDRUMMER , so you are one of the 1st to actually have it an use it so until the BFD Player (and a User Guide/Manual) is actually released to the Public , it’s going to be hard to troubleshoot anything unless someone with BFDdrums actually has the module or one of the Retailers such as Andertons that released a DEMO for the Surge SE and the BFD Player software on Youtube.I would check/ask questions there and see if they can be of any assistance.
Some of the Kits may not have a full range of articulations for the Hi Hat…hard to say and I would only be speculating without having the software.
The Surge module (Also Nitro/DM7X) is based on the Medeli DD512.The link is to a more in-depth manual.
The Hi Hat for these modules is a bit different for MIDI mapping compared to other Alesis modules as there is a 1/2 open note sent.
Open Hi-Hat (46)…
1/2-Open Hi-Hat.(23)
Closed Hi-Hat(42)
Yeah, I see on the BFD site here they are saying that BFD Player is “coming soon”, but over on my Alesis product page I was given a download link for the software and one preset pack. That’s why I’m suspecting the version I have is more of a beta version. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what comes up as more people get access to the software and report their experiences. The BFD Player midi mapping specifically includes a setting for “Alesis Surge Mesh SE”, so I’m surprised based on this that they appear to have not mapped the half-open setting for the hi-hat. Hopefully they fix that. At the moment, the volume issue on the closed hi hat is basically making the software unusable. I’m getting much better results using the Surge SE with the kits in Apple Mainstage.
Normally I wouldn’t post anything like this, but yes you’re right. It isn’t a software issue so much as a content issue. I think it is a bug personally.
But if you go into the Zildjian Sweet Hihat 16 on disk, and find the articulation you think is too quiet… say the ClosedT folder (closed tip) you will see a file called BFDArticTweaks.xml:
Open that up in a text editor:
The value at the top called trim_dB … adjust that to something like 4, or 5. That will make that articulation a bit louder for you.
I’m going to fix this in a future patch.
Thanks!
Drew
Also yes, BFD Player is ‘soft launched’ right now for new Alesis customers only.
Thanks so much for the info! I will give the tweak you suggested for the hat volume a try. Also - I figured out the missing “half open” sound on the hi hat and got that working today. Apparently the Alesis Surge module doesn’t always send the same midi note for each piece of the kit for all the presets in the module. There is some variation I’ve found from patch to patch. The solution for this is that I dedicated one of my user presets in the module for use with BFD and I was able to program the half-open sound and get it to work. Just a heads up to anyone who is using the same module to feed the midi data to BFD Player to check this (I’m sure all the smart people did already, haha).