⚠️ NOTE: This guide is for acoustic drums only. For guidance on how to connect electronic drums, see this article: https://support.melodics.com/en/articles/6757591-connecting-your-electronic-drums
Most acoustic drums will work with Melodics. If your drums aren’t working correctly or you need help setting them up, follow this guide.
1. Make sure you've got acoustic drums selected as your instrument.
When you first set up Melodics, you'll be prompted to choose your instrument. Choose Drums > Acoustic Drums.
Or if you're already a Melodics user, you can go to Settings and under "Selected instrument", choose "Acoustic Drums".
2. Select your inputs and outputs.
Input device: Melodics will listen to your acoustic drums using your microphone. Select which microphone you would like to use by clicking on the "Input device" dropdown menu.
In most cases, "OS default" is the best choice — this will most likely be the built-in microphone on your computer or iPad. If you would like to use a different microphone, make sure it is connected, turned on, and then select it from the dropdown menu.
Output device: Melodics will play audio out of your speakers or headphones. Select which audio output you would like to use by clicking on the "Output device" dropdown menu. For more information on audio output settings, take a look at this guide.
Note: you must use headphones while playing Melodics. Not only do you protect your ears, it helps Melodics isolate the sound of your drums from the backing track.
3. Calibrate your kit.
Melodics will calibrate to the unique characteristics of your drum-kit. For the best Melodics experience, it's important to calibrate your drums carefully.
💡 Important tip for calibration: Play your drums how you would normally play them. You don't need to play louder, softer, rims, edges. Just hit the center of your drum normally.
Follow these steps in-app:
Sound check: Let's just make sure Melodics can hear your kit well.
Calibrate your kick. Hit your kick drum multiple times so that Melodics can learn how it sounds. Watch how the circle fills up and turns solid green, keep going until it's full.
Repeat for the snare drum. Be sure to watch out when it asks you to switch to the snare drum.
And finally, map your hi-hat. Melodics only needs to map your kick, snare, and hi-hat. Make sure your hi-hat is always closed.
You can always re-calibrate your kit at any time in settings. Just hit the "Calibrate drum-kit" button.
✋ Tip for left handed drummers: turn on "Left hand drums" in settings to flip your layout for lefties. All content can be learned left or right handed.
Troubleshooting tips
Acoustic drums for Melodics isn't perfect. Sometimes Melodics may fail to hear one or two of your notes, and that's normal. We expect at least 90% accuracy for most setups. If you find your drums aren't being heard by Melodics, try re-calibrating and you may wish to consider the following troubleshooting tips.
Adjust your microphone sensitivity for better calibration.
⬆️ If you find you have to hit your acoustic drums hard for Melodics to hear them, try turning up your microphone sensitivity.
⬇️ If you find your acoustic drums are "echoing", or triggering multiple times, try turning down your microphone sensitivity.
How to adjust your microphone sensitivity on Mac, Windows, or iPad:
iPad: there is no input volume control on iPad. Try positioning your iPad nearer or further from your drums. Make sure the microphone on your iPad is not obscured.
💡 Tip: We recommend setting your microphone sensitivity to about 20% for best results, but every setup is different so it may require trial and error.
Make sure Melodics can access your microphone.
Particularly on iOS, you must give the Melodics app permission to use your microphone. Melodics will prompt you to give access the first time you use it, or you may need to set this up manually.
Setting up an external microphone.
Melodics is designed to work with the internal microphone on your computer or iPad. But it is possible to use an external microphone by selecting it in the "Input device" menu in Settings.
If you are using an external audio interface to connect your microphone, make sure your microphone is connected to the FIRST audio input on your interface. Melodics defaults to this input. If you are using multiple microphones, you'll need to combine all sources into one channel.