Using Zendrum Crossfade

Contributed by Jeremy Slead

This is to clarify setting up your own crossfades using the Zendrum's built-in crossfade feature.

If you want to use the Zendrum's 4-note velocity crossfade feature, and your Zendrum supports it, here's how it works: If you keep going higher with the numbers in the "no" screen, you will eventually go above 127. The numbers then start over, but also showing a red light "dot", telling you that you are in crossfade mode. The number on the screen is the note that will play when you play very lightly. It will also play the next three successive note numbers as you play louder and louder. NOTE: these sounds do NOT play at the same time (stacking). Rather, you are moving between the four notes depending on the velocity of the hits.

The tricky part is, the notes in your module will need to be set correspondingly. In other words, if you want a snare drum pad crossfading between cross-stick, brush snare hit, stick snare hit, and rim shot, these four sounds will need to be set to four consecutive note numbers in the module (like 36, 37, 38, 39) with the note you want played on the loudest hits in the highest note number position (in this case, rim shot on 39). Your Zendrum's pad note number would be set to *36 ( * meaning the red light). The trouble here is, many of the typical drumset instruments are set up in modules on note numbers near each other, so as you set up these crossfades, sometimes you are reassigning notes you wanted to use on other pads on your Zendrum, so you may have to go back and put THAT instrument on a note number that is not included in your crossfade. Make sense? I hope so!!!

For "stacking", or playing more than one instrument at the same time from the same pad, you will need to set your module up differently. Some modules will allow you to use more than one drum sample to comprise a sound, others have "drum link" (Alesis DM-Pro) to stack 2 notes at a time, and some modules simply allow you to set more than one instrument to the same note number. Some can't do it at all.