Have a kick or snare that’s not quite cutting through how you’d like it to? There is the right way to do things, a combination of proper miccing techniques and EQ/Compression… but sometimes perhaps due to a poor initial recording, or just a lack of technical skill/software, you just can’t get it quite to where you would like to hear it.

Luckily for us, there is a wide array of options when it comes to drum VSTis and samples, like Toontrack’s Superior, XLN’s Addictive Drums, and Steven Slate Drums. For this example, I will be using MT PowerDrumkit 2, as it is one of the better sounding free drum plugins.

If you’ve been on REAPER for any length of time, you’ll have noticed that you can use any track as MIDI or Audio, but it is also capable of doing both! REAPER comes out of the box with a plugin called JS: Audio To MIDI Drum Trigger. This plugin allows us to have audio on our effected track, allow a percentage of the original signal through, and trigger a midi note based on the set threshold being passed by the audio signal.

Place your MIDI trigger and drum module onto your kick track. If you already have processing on your kick drum, just place this two plugins at the end of the chain. Open up the interface for the JS:MIDI Trigger, and let’s look into the parameters on that.

Open Threshold: What amplitude the midi note will start to draw at.

Close Threshold: What amplitude the midi note will cut off at after drawing.

• Free VST MIDI Plugins & More. Chordz is a VST plugin that allows you to trigger full chords by playing single notes. Each trigger note is associated.
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VST 4 FREE - Free Audio Plug-ins and Archives Free audio plugins archive - Instruments and effects for audio software. Plugins for Cubase, FL studio, Reaper, Ableton and other VST/AU platforms. Addictive Trigger listens to your track for several seconds, analyzes the incoming hits and automatically sets a number of different parameters based on the source material. In most cases, this is all you need.

Retrigger Interval: How long the software will not allow a second trigger after an initial trigger.

Original Signal Mix: Self-explanatory, What % of the original signal will come through the mix.

MIDI Channel: Leave it at 10, we are usually routed to go through all 16 Channels.

MIDI Note: This sets which note will be triggered. Presuming you want to trigger your kick, set it to 36.

Trigger Align: If your trigger sounds behind or ahead of the beat, set this accordingly. (or small movements to play with phase between sounds).

From here, we will want to set our threshold to match our original input. You will want your Open Threshold a 4-6 dB below the volume of your average kick hit. Your Close Threshold can be set 4-6dB Below that. While listening through your kick track, keep lowering the Open Threshold until every kick hit is picked up. If you are hearing false triggers, you have gone too far.

The style of music will determine how you set your Retrigger Interval. If you are working with slower music without any rapid double hits, you can set this around 80-150mn to really shut down any false triggers. If you are working with some blistering metal, you may want to leave it close to 30-50ms. When listening through your mix, after you are certain in your threshold settings, this is the next place to shut down false-triggers.

Your Original Signal Mix is completely up to you. If you are going for 100% sample replacement, leave it at 0.

If you are bolstering your kick drum, your MIDI Note can be set to 36. Reference THIS chart, if you are trying to trigger any other drum.

(The Audio To MIDI Drum Trigger tends to output low velocity notes, the MIDI Velocity Control plugin displayed above is a quick fix!)

At this point, after enabling your drum module, your trigger should be fully functional!

OPTIONAL

Up next, is routing your MIDI signal to a separate track. For a little more control over your sound, you may want two separate channels for your triggered sample and original kick. I’ll be explaining two steps, one step to have the midi directly routed to your drum module from track to track, and one step to record the midi output for manual control over the input.

Step One

Remove your drum module from your kick drum track, and place it onto a new, empty track. On your MIDI Drum Trigger, set your Original Signal Mix to 100. You will be able to adjust this track’s volume separately from now on.

Open the routing section of your kick track, and add a new send. In the dropdown menu, select the track you have placed your drum module on.

Press the “MIDI” button on the send, which looks like the end of a midi cable.

In the audio dropdown of the send, choose “none”. In the MIDI dropdown, select “All>All”

Now your original kick will be playing from the kick track, and sending the MIDI information from the trigger plugin to your Drum VSTi track. While you can stop here, the next step will be recording that MIDI information.

Step Two

Right-click the record-arm button on your VSTi Drum Module track. Select Record: Output>MIDI. You will need to disable the Drum VSTi to capture the MIDI performance, so press the Track FX button, and Record arm the track. Press the record button, and while your track plays through, it will be writing the signal from your trigger. After you’ve captured the performance, you can delete/disable the trigger on your original kick track. The Send can also be deleted, if you are confident with your trigger settings. Turn the FX back on for your newly recorded trigger track, and you’re finished! You’ve now got a MIDI performance of your kick drum for fine-tuning.

Hope some of you found this useful, stay tuned for future tutorials, articles, and personal news!

Chordz is a VST plugin that allows you to trigger full chords by playing single notes. Each trigger note is associated with a separate chord. Each chord may consist of any number of notes. Play complicated chord progressions with one finger, with a MIDI keyboard or a drum-pad, or trigger chords from single notes added in your DAW's piano roll.

A chord can be set up to include individual notes spread out over several octaves (two octaves both below and above the octave of the trigger note). This means you can easily create chord inversions and other custom chord voicings, for example double certain notes, both above and below the root note. The chord suggestion feature suggests diatonic chords based on the selected scale and root note.

When 'easy mode' is enabled, you can play the chords in any scale using only the white keys, with 'C' always being the I chord. The black keys can then be used for chord variations (for example 'C#' to trigger a major seventh or ninth chord, while 'C' triggers a regular major chord).

The keyboard can be divided into three zones, one for playing chords, the other two (one below, and one above, the chord trigger zone) for playing single notes. Each zone can be independently transposed up or down by any number of octaves. This allows you to play chords with your left hand, while your right hand plays the melody.

Optionally, single notes outside the chord trigger zone can be forced to stay within the selected scale. When easy mode is enabled, it will follow the chord trigger setup (for example, if scale is set to F minor and a C note will produce a F minor chord, a C note outside the chord trigger zone will play a F note). This will ensure that you will always stay in key, and never hit a wrong note.

The plugin supports optional velocity scaling and randomization for each note of the chord. Another feature is the start and end delay (this can also be randomized), which can be used to, for example, emulate strumming or to create more unpredictable results (works great with sounds with a long attack and/or decay, such as pads or strings).

Chordz comes with more than 40 scale/chord templates, and a chord library with more than 50 chord types. You can add your own custom templates, and new chord types by editing the relevant text file. And you can, of course, customize the chords directly in the GUI.

Chordz can also work as an educational tool. You can use Chordz to better understand the various musical scales and corresponding chords, as well as to learn those scales and chords by following the visual guides on the plugin's virtual keyboards display.

System Requirements

Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10. VST2 compatible 32-bit or 64-bit host.

License

This plugin is free to use for commercial or non-commercial use, but is copyrighted and cannot be distributed without permission.

Download & Installation

Click 'Download', open the downloaded zip file and extract the dll file to your VST plugin folder (Chordz32.dll if you use a 32-bit host, or Chord.dll if you use a 64-bit host).

Version History

v1.12

• Added 'Check for Update' command to main menu.
• Fixed: Sometimes crashed if multiple instances open in same project.
• Fixed: Info panel background flickering when updating text.
• Various minor fixes.

v1.11

• Fixed some issues with hiDPI support.
• Fixed: Preview Chord feature did not work in Reaper.
• Fixed: Sometimes the preset panel closed when dragging the preset list scollbar with the mouse.
• Various minor fixes.

v1.10

• Support for hiDPI displays. Select scaling (100%, 125%, 150%, 175%, 200%, or Auto) from the main menu.
• Now possible to enter a specific value by right-clicking a control and choosing 'Enter Value' from the popup menu, or simply by double-clicking the control.
• The current knob value is now shown below the knobs.
• Copy chord setup from one trigger note to another with copy/paste.
• You can now transpose the scale up or down a semitone at a time by clicking the two transpose buttons below the trigger keyboard.
• Increased max length of chord ID from 6 to 12 characters.
• Easier to select middle knob value with a MIDI hardware controller (can be selected with both MIDI CC value 63 and 64).
• Now possible to turn off confirmation dialog box when applying a new template (unselect Confirm Apply from the main menu).
• Possible to change the data folder location containing the settings and preset files with a shortcut file.
• Fixed: GUI issues when Windows 10 app scaling was set to 'System (Enhanced)' for non-hiDPI hosts.
• Various minor fixes and enhancements.

v1.03

• Fixed: Dialog boxes shown behind plugin window in Reaper if plugin window was pinned ('stay on top').

v1.02

• Fixed: Poly Aftertouch and Program Change midi messages not passed through plugin.

Trigger Vst Free Plugins

v1.01

• Fixed: Problem highlighting keys in virtual keyboard when looping was enabled.
• Fixed: Problem automating Start/End Delay Random parameters.
• Fixed: Plugin would crash/plugin window not display on some Windows installations.
• Fixed: Problem setting parameter values with mouse in Ableton and Bitwig.

Free Drum Trigger Vst

v1.00

Trigger Vst Free Plugin

• First release.