Alesis DPC

It just occurred to me that I neglected to describe the most important part of my MIDI timpani setup: My Alesis drum pad controller. It's really easy to program. The only problem with it is that during a live performance, say at a place in a song that calls for a quiet timpani roll, you can hear the sticks hitting the drum pad. (I have a DVD of one of the Oliver! performances, and when I wear headphones, I can hear these noises. Of course, only an electronic percussion geek would care.) One way around this is to turn up the volume on the amp. Timpani mallets may work too, but that defeats the purpose of having the Alesis, since I want to use sticks for everything. Sorta like Neal Peart and his MIDI marimba setup, but in his case, the volume is cranked up!

Oklahoma!

Well, the musical for the 2009-2010 academic year is Oklahoma! A fine choice, if I may say so, because it means I get to play timpani again. After almost two years of thinking about the problem, I finally figured out how to add dynamics to my MIDI timpani setup: Add a volume control pedal! I don't play the electric guitar (or the electric organ), so I never knew this sort of thing existed until I decided to peruse a guitar catalog one day. My kid has a Fender amp and a guitar effects box with a volume pedal (who knew?), so we plugged the output of the MIDI keyboard into the effects box (which in turn is attached to the amp) and then I played a drum roll on the Alesis drum pad controller (it drives the keyboard) while he adjusted the pedal at the same time, and voila! dynamic control like a real timpani! His effects box makes too much noise in the amp for my taste, but that's not a problem, I guess, if you play your guitar at high volume, but in my case, I would need a quieter setup. Perhaps a simple pedal like this Behringer may do the trick. Stay tuned.