Puting together my edrum laptop

[pfarber]

Well the first of two Lenovo laptops arrived. $50 delivered for an I5 4Gb laptop. I had to add an HDD (I seem to have quite the collection of spare parts... no, I'm not a hoarder, honest) and buy an HDD tray ($2) to make it look pretty. I reused a copy of Win 7 that was then upgraded for free to Win10. Win10 kicks ass.

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There are dozens of these laptops available on ebay. One caveat to this specific laptop is that the 'lowjack' BIOS was enabled. It doesn't effect operation, and one call to the company should get the laptop out of the 'lowjack' system. Just a caution, READ THE AUCTION DESCRIPTION.

So then I went to Sweetwater and bought two things. EZDrummer2 and a Beheringer audio interface. Both were on sale because of Black Friday, so I saved about $100 by buying now. I'm sure there will be another sale at the end of the year, though.

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This added $160ish to the cost. The EZDrummer2 software is basically recorded drum sounds that the Crimson drum module will trigger with MIDI data over USB and the UMC202HD is a 24-bit/192kHz AD/DA converter. Basically its a really fast sound card. The UMC202HD can record audio and send to a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for processing AND also take the digital audio from a DAW or EZDrummer and convert it back to analog audio for playback via a stereo/speakers. The reason I bought the audio interface is that I didn't think the laptops sound card would be fast enough to keep latency low enough. But by using the ASIO4ALL driver my $50 laptop has 1.5ms latency. That means when I trigger a drum pad, the signal goes to the drum module, to the laptop, into EZDrummer2 and out the sound card in 1.5ms. Almost instantly!!!!! FOR A $50 LAPTOP!!!!!!!! My PC can only gets down to 6.5ms!!! Both are incredibly good times, btw. Another bonus is that I I now have a semi-professional level recording device for dubbing videos, if I so choose. I can also plug in a guitar and use amp modelling apps like Reaper and not have to buy individual amps or effects pedals.. simply get a plugin for the DAW and POW! Muh tones! The UMC202HD comes with a license for Tracktion DAW, which means I won't have to buy a DAW, either.

I am extremely happy with my setup. It sounds FANTASTIC. Drum module sounds have to be optimized to reduce storage space and the CPU in the modules doesn't really have the HP for a lot of sound processing. EZDrummer2 opens up a LOT of those option. Yeah, I now have a laptop chained to my drum set... but oh well. For home use its absolutely not a problem. PLUS I can run HDMI to my TV and use it to stream videos/movies etc. It's a LOT more convenient than using the current method I have with my PC.

[pfarber]

The audio interface showed up today. USPS was delivering till 7pm tonight. they must have gotten slammed over black friday. Oh well.. I got my stuff.

Here's my current laptop / drum module setting and how it's running. Remember this is a $25 laptop I'm using.

I am not using the free ASIO4ALL driver, but the Behringer one. Not sure if there is a huge difference as both are sub 3ms

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Output bit rate

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My $25 laptop specs. 4Gb Ram and even with EZD2 running I don't use more than 2Gb total.

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Sound is miles ahead of the stock Alesis module. There were some mapping issues as I have a fully pimped out kit (I added two cymbals) and I needed to change the MIDI note on the module to trigger the right sound in EZD2.

There are a few things that are not 100% with the EZD2 to Alesis module MIDI mapping and I will figure them out later as they I really don't use cymbal muting much when I practice.

So far I'm less than $250 into this little project and am super happy with it. Granted, I already had some pieces that saved me money.. like a copy of Windows that could be upgraded to Win10, cables etc. Starting from scratch I would say that you would put about $400 into this if you didn't get to but the items on sale, didn't have some parts already etc. But cool thing is I also now have a laptop to use to stream tv and in the garage.

[pfarber]

Today was an interesting day. Was noticing a ton of static/pops when playing drums through EZD2 and the UMC202HD. To rule out the drum module I ran straight to the amp and it sounded fine (although dead because stock drum modules suck). So I figure its either the laptop or audio interface. Various setup changes got me no where. I also changed the ASIO driver to the Behringer one and even windows sound... still static.

So I set everything up back to my 'stock' config and start to google. I hit on a random DAW post about INCREASING buffers to smooth out pops. So I increased the UMC202HD buffer from 64 to 128 and it the pops/static went away!!! I did get a little increase in latency (2-4ms) but still all in all not noticeable at all... and more importantly EZD2 was sounding great again.

Here's my current, static and pop free config:

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On a side note, I dialed in my double bass pedals so time to get the rumble on!!

[pfarber]

On another side note I splurged and got a condenser mic for the audio interface. Now I can play with the acoustic guitar and even sing (or record fart noises). May even podcast or overdub some videos from out in the garage.

For $25 + 12 in cable its it small price for a new toy.

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[pfarber]

Been doing some reading and ran across a lot of reviews for the UMC202HD. Seems like it was a pretty good choice. Honestly I basically picked a price point and went from there. The most common thing in the reviews was to compare the UMC202HD to the Focusrite 2i2. I really don't agree with the comparisons based on two main points.

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First is price. The UMC202HD is $60. The Focusrite is usually found at $150. So for more than TWICE the price I don't believe that you get TWICE the performance.

Second was the build quality. Most reviews blather on about the 2i2's metal body. Um.. the UMC202HD has a metal body.

Third, for the price you have to compare the UMC202HD to the Focusrite Solo, but the Solo is still 50% more at $99. But the UMC202HD is a clear winner over the Focusrite Solo because the solo only has 1 XLR input.

I'm not sure what the bias is all about. Both are good products but compared side by side the Behringer UMC202HD is a better value.

It seems that the microphone I picked (again, mostly based on price and the kit) is widely accepted as a very good budget mic. At $25 for the whole kit there are few complaints, other than the quality of the mic arm. But still, the ENTIRE KIT (mic, arm, pop filter, isolation mount) is ONLY $25. The next most commonly cited mic was the Blue Yeti that goes for $100. 4x the price!!!