Improvements Discussion

Plugins/Software EXC!TE SNARE DRUM
1

We are thinking about a few improvements of the EXC!TE SNARE DRUM plugin.

Linearity and wider dynamic
Beats Basteln made a nice review of our plugin and discovered that the dynamic range of the plugin could be improved, having not enough “legroom” in the silent end. With a test normalizing a velocity sweep he pointed out that there is very little nonlinear sound coloration in the drum.

Triggering via selected MIDI Notes
The plugin now triggers on any MIDI note. We are considering changing this, so that the user can select one normal and one accent (rimshot) Note. General MIDI Standard would be 38 (D2) Snare Drum 1 and 40 (E2) Snare Drum 2 (Accent/Rimshot).

Tooltips
The VST3SDK has in-built toolips when mouse hovering over parameters. However, they show up too late and they don’t work cross platform (not implemented on Linux).
It would be nice to have one line of help text at the bottom of the plugin to show our custom verbose tooltip explaining the parameters. Maybe with the option to switch it off.

Choking
Make it possible to dampen/stop the snare reverberation by touching it. (MIDI)

3

I think making use of the natural ergonomics of a 12 note/octave keyboard could be an interesting way to go. For example, use D# and F# for „normal“ hits (index fingers) and E and F for rim shots(thumbs). You could also use another key for choking, and use aftertouch on that same key to slightly raise the tuning of the drum, like pressing down on a real drum head.
Furthermore so you could use another key to trigger a roll, using aftertouch to modulate the velocity of individual hits.