apTrigga Adds Options

Look Ma, no module! Allan Leibowitz ventures into the world of module-free triggering thanks to a new plugin.

- Allan Leibowitz

WE’RE INCREASINGLY HEARING about hybrid – or the augmentation of acoustic drumming using electronics. Commonly, gigging drummers need to trigger samples or loops from recordings so that they can recreate the sound of the original song.

The options to date have generally centred around triggers, modules, trigger to MIDI interfaces (TMI) or computer-hosted VSTs.

That has recently changed, and already some big acts are skipping the module or TMI and instead plugging their triggers or pads directly into the same audio interface that is handling their live drum mics, going through audio solutions like Ableton Live or Main Stage.

How? Well, it’s thanks to a plugin that triggers samples through audio input and transient detection – apTrigga3. In layman’s terms, the plugin listens to the triggers through the interface and replaces the impulses in real time with preloaded samples – all with zero latency.

What’s in the box?

As with most software solutions these days, there’s no box. Instead, there’s a surprisingly small download which contains the plugin and some sound samples in .wav format.

The plugin is not a program that runs by itself – it requires a host like ProTools and Ableton. For the less experienced, it also runs in Logic, Main Stage and even Reaper.

In action

I tested apTrigga3 in a variety of DAWs, both using some sessions prepared by the developer and starting from scratch on my own.

I tested the plugin with a variety of sources – a range of drum pads, a miced acoustic drum and even finger snaps and chest beating. With all of those, you need to connect a trigger source to your computer via an interface.