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I'm going to by a MIDI drum set (probably Roland TD4KX2) together with Alesis Percpad. My aim is to connect both devices to my PC and use Superior Drummer for sound. I was thinking about buying an external sound card, but the problem is that they don't have more than one MIDI I/O. Then I came across Cakewalk UM-3G Interface, and now I think I'll go with this one. But I'd like to know for sure, that by connecting my drums to PC I'll get desired result (host sound from Superior Drummer, and have minimal latency while playing)

So my question is, whether UM-3G would fit my needs.

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The MIDI interface itself should work fine in terms of transfering MIDI signals to your PC. I have a similar setup with the UM1-EX and a TD3KV drum kit. Your bigger challenge will be getting your PC set up with very low latency. You will need a fast PC and an audio interface with good drivers, as for playing drums you really need as low latency as possible. I find it hard to tolerate more than 5ms latency playing the drums even though I can cope with longer latencies for keyboard sounds.

You should also bear in mind that you might need to adjust the velocity curve in your sampler or pad sensitivity on your kit as I have found that the MIDI velocity levels coming out of my TD3KV did not map nicely to the right velocities on my sound module (EZDrummer in my case).

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  • Thanks for your answer. Will I get more than 5ms latency using regular realtek sound card and ASIO drivers from Cubase? Or should I buy a separate audio interface (m-audio perhaps) to serve as a bridge bitween MIDI interface and PC to achieve low latency?
    – Sorantis
    May 5, 2011 at 21:51
  • realtek isn't likely to have brilliant low latency drivers, but you can easily test yourself by loading Cubase up with your busiest project and seeing how low you can get the latency before you start to get glitches or dropouts.
    – Mark Heath
    May 5, 2011 at 22:02
  • I guess you're right. First I'll go with the setup I've described in my question. And if I'll feel latency kills my nerves, I'll just buy a decent usb sound card.
    – Sorantis
    May 5, 2011 at 22:23

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