The wording on the Alesis Control Pad may be a little misleading here. The input jack labeled "Kick" is for a midi footswitch controller and not a drum trigger such as a Roland KD-8 trigger pad. If you wish to use a seperate drum trigger you need to use one of the two external trigger jacks and assign it to a kick drum sound. Similarly, the Hi-Hat jack is for a seperate footswitch to control the on/off action of the Hi-Hat sound, not trigger to the Hi-Hat sound.