Drum Trigger listens to a drum track, detects every hit, and converts each transient into a MIDI note with velocity that tracks the original dynamics. Drop it on a kick, snare, hat, or tom — get clean MIDI you can route to any sampler, drum machine, or hardware module. Tighten the kit without losing the groove.
Drum Trigger is built around the simplest possible flow — drop it on the track, dial in the detector, route the MIDI. Everything in the editor maps to those three steps, and the live trigger view shows exactly what's being detected as you play.
Load Drum Trigger on any track carrying a single drum element — a kick mic, a snare top, a tom close mic, a closed hat. One instance per hit type keeps detection focused and tight.
Watch the live trigger view as the track plays. Threshold sets the floor; Sensitivity tunes how hard a peak has to be; Retrigger blocks doubles for a configurable window. Aim for one orange marker per real hit.
Pick a MIDI note, a channel, and a velocity range. Send to a virtual MIDI port for hardware, an instrument plugin on the next track, or DDM S1 sitting alongside in the same session.
The detector watches the input envelope for sudden rises above your Threshold. Sensitivity scales how sharply a peak has to climb to count as a hit. The Retrigger lockout blocks doubles. Velocity is mapped from the peak height against your Vel Range — so a soft ghost note and a backbeat smack come out at the right MIDI velocities.
Send MIDI to a virtual port so hardware modules or other apps can receive triggers. Off keeps MIDI inside the host only — useful when you're routing to an instrument plugin on the next track.
Pass the original audio through alongside the MIDI output, or mute it so only the triggered instrument is audible. Useful for A/B comparison between the source kit and the replaced sound.
A focused single-channel transient detector. One kick mic in, one MIDI stream out. The Triggers display in the editor draws the envelope in blue and stamps each detected hit with an orange marker so you can validate every trigger by eye in real time.
Transient detector · Live trigger viewEach hit's peak height is mapped against the configurable Vel Range and clamped to your Min/Max Velocity — so a softly brushed ghost note and a hard backbeat smack come out at different MIDI velocities. The replacement sample breathes with the player, not against them.
Peak-tracked velocity · Min/Max clampAssign each instance a MIDI note (GM-standard kick = 36, snare = 38, hat = 42) and a channel. Stack three instances on three drum mics, send them all to channel 10 with different notes, and feed a sampler that hears all three at once.
Per-instance note + channel · GM-compatibleToggle Virtual MIDI on and the plugin advertises a CoreMIDI port. Any hardware sampler, drum module, or external app receives the triggers in real time. Off keeps the MIDI inside the DAW for plugin-to-plugin chains.
CoreMIDI virtual port · DAW-internal modeMonitor audio sends the original drum signal through alongside the MIDI — useful for parallel layering. Disable it and only the triggered instrument sounds — useful when you're fully replacing the kit element with a sample.
Pass-through · Mute for replacementBecause the velocity tracks the original performance, the replaced kit stays human. The detector preserves the timing of every hit — including the small drag and push that make a real kit feel alive — and lets you swap the sound underneath without touching the feel.
Groove-preserving · Sample-replacementA great take with a so-so kick. Drop Drum Trigger on the kick mic, route the MIDI to a sampler with the kick sound you actually wanted, mute the original. The performance lands intact, the sound is new.
Keep the original snare audible (Monitor audio on) and route the MIDI to a sample layer underneath. Use the original's transient for attack and a tuned sample for body. The composite is bigger than either alone.
Virtual MIDI on. The drummer plays an acoustic kit; the triggers fire a hardware sampler in real time. Useful for hybrid kits, electronic-percussion stacks, or feeding a drum module that lives outside the DAW.
Drum Trigger sends one MIDI hit per drum strike with a velocity that tracks the original performance. Feed those triggers into DDM S1's drum engine — each pad can hold up to eight velocity-layered samples with smooth equal-power crossfades — and the replacement kit responds the way a real drum does. Soft ghost notes get the soft sample. Backbeats get the hard one. Nothing flattens; nothing sounds robotic.
Drum Trigger reads each hit's peak energy and stamps it into MIDI velocity. DDM S1's drum engine reads that velocity and picks the right sample from up to eight zones — crossfading adjacent layers across a ±0.05 equal-power window so transitions disappear into the playing.
The result is a replaced kit that breathes with the player. No machine-gun stepping between zones. No flat single-sample feel. Drop Drum Trigger on the kick mic, route the MIDI to a DDM S1 pad loaded with 8 layers, and the song's groove stays intact while the sound becomes whatever you want it to be.
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Drum Trigger is an original Dreamlab Digital Media product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from any hardware or software manufacturer. Full licence terms at dreamlabnet.com/daw2/eula.html.