Hey team, I want to play drums live (kick, snare, high hat) by using trigger pedals of some sort to play OT drum samples. Stupid question… this is a MIDI thing obviously, right? Has anyone on here used OT for a scenario like this? Thanks!
You can trigger Flex and Static slots with midi notes.
I triggered them with a midi drum controller (DD65).
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You could also trigger slices if the foot controller outputs the right notes to the appropriate channel. And I think you want to have the “audio note in” MIDI control settings set to “map/track”, then set the particular track to slices by pressing MIDI + up/down to set the MIDI trig mode.
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Thank you for the reply! Do you know of a midi controller that’s in the style of a foot pedal ?
I def will be triggering slices, so this is good to know, thank you.
You might wanna play with LFO on volume to avoid triggering samples at same volume each time.
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instead of a foot pedal midi controller have you considered a midi foot pedal controller? I know that sounds confusing but midi solutions has a box that can be programmed using their app or whatever you want to call it, to send cc or program change or whatever you have it learn to do - in fact it will send one message on depression and another on release if that’s what you program it to do. It then can use a standard non latching footswitch with a trs cable and it will auto-detect the polarity of the switch. I don’t know if this is enough functionality for you or not, but I thought I would mention it if you’re thinking about a foot pedal to control midi.
this is the box in question:
https://midisolutions.com/prodfsw.htm
it just goes in line since the program lives inside the box once you set it up. again, this may not be enough functionality for you but the website has a lot of info about what can and can’t be done with it.
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FYI: The Nektar Pacer MIDI foot controller has a template for the Octatrack and presets can be made to transmit MIDI note information. I’ve been putting it to similar use with a Machinedrum.
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I have the Yamaha MFC10 and the Roland FC200. Both can send notes.
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The Morningstar MC6 I have can send MIDI notes. 6 switches isn’t that many for sample triggering, though. Even if you added some additional switches (you can use two of any generic, 2 button footswitch to expand it) you’d probably be doing a lot of bank switching (in the controller, not OT banks) f you want to trigger more than a few samples, but it’s a really nice MIDI footswitch and works perfectly with the OT.
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Yes MC6 and MC8 are really capable.
With FC200, 12 notes available per page. Affordable.
Extra switches/pedals inputs.
3 modes : Notes, CCs, Program Changes.
MFC 10 allows to play 10 notes per page IIIRC (up to 4 notes per switch, alternating 2 notes is on a switch is also possible.
If i’m correct, it is 6 switches but with different actions trigerring different messages (long press, double tap, … the manual lists 8 of them). That means something like 48 samples being able to trigger. Starts to be hard to memorize which action triggers what 
I can’t remember all of the different variations, but the more functions per switch the less practical it is in actual use, so if portability isn’t an issue I’d say get the one with the most buttons over the one with the most functions per button, in this case at least.
is that something I can do with the midi solutions footswitch controller mentioned below? If so, would I be able to change slices on OT and have it change on my foot pedal as well?
Looks like you can set up that box to do that yeah, according to the manual. But if it’s only got one pedal input you’ll only be able to trigger one slice at a time, there is the MIDI Solutions F8 but at that point I’m pretty sure you’re better off with one of these other dedicated footswitch controller options.
If you change the sample on the OT different slices will be triggered if that’s what you mean. If the pedal/footswitch puts out particular notes those are always going to correspond to slice 1/2/3/4/etc on the OT, so you need to either change the sample chain or have a nice way to tab to a different set of notes in the foot controller.
It sounds like most of these have quick preset change buttons but if they don’t then you could use something like a Blokas Midihub to effectively change the set of notes and channels on the fly. Amongst other things I use mine for selecting where MIDI from my main keyboard goes in the setup by toggling buttons on a Faderfox UC4 which bypasses filters to let messages through. Very handy device to have for a small-medium setup that has a bunch of MIDI devices to get working together.
Another thing to consider is that if you’re trying to rhythmically tap out drum sounds with your feet you might not want the usual springy switches. I would imagine that you would want some kind of pads instead that offer proper resistance.
Sadly it seems like no one makes a dedicated foot pad drum controller, I’m not too sure why exactly. It’s possible to DIY something a bit like this -
You wouldn’t have use of any velocity sensitivity output for the OT as it doesn’t support it (unless you use something like the Blokas Midihub to craft a workaround as I have). You pretty much just want something nice and responsive to tap at with your toes/heels.
Maybe the MIDI foot controllers mentioned in this thread are basically fine for this task, I haven’t got experience with them tbh.
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Fortunately they have screens to help reminds what’s going on ! 
For note send purpose, I think a midi processor is useful if you already have a midi foot controller that can’t send send midi notes. Otherwise I’d directly buy a midi foot controller sending notes. Edit : pads with velocity make sense, a midi processor to map velocity to VOL would be necessary indeed.
@Medaillons you didn’t mention how many samples you’d want to trigger, size and price of the midi foot controller…
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Another cheap solution : a drum trigger to midi like Alesis Trigger IO, around 70€/$ second hand.
10 inputs, you can use DIY switches for it.
I guess one screen for each switch can’t display 8 names of different samples at once though.
That’s the main reason why i would not try to play drums triggering OT slices/samples: no velocity, no round robin… You could as well play them with a keyboard or the OT trigs.