I'd like to make drum triggers

Hi folks,

I've been thinking about using triggers on my acoustic bass drums to be able to tweak my sound better without mics and eqs etc. I am looking at an Alesis DM5 so that will amplify/process the signal. (This is a fairly common setup)

Just curious if triggers are just a dumb piezo or if there is more inside. They are priced at around 30-60 bucks a piece, plus they have a habit of stopping working after a while.

Would be great if I could just bust some out. I have metalworking abilities so I can make the casings no problem.

Thanks

Paulo540 said:

Hi folks,

I've been thinking about using triggers on my acoustic bass drums to be able to tweak my sound better without mics and eqs etc. I am looking at an Alesis DM5 so that will amplify/process the signal. (This is a fairly common setup)

Just curious if triggers are just a dumb piezo or if there is more inside. They are priced at around 30-60 bucks a piece, plus they have a habit of stopping working after a while.

Would be great if I could just bust some out. I have metalworking abilities so I can make the casings no problem.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Edrum triggers are really not that complicated, they consist of a piezo disc and a cone shaped piece of foam you can make yourself using sanding block foam >>






Take a look at my DIY Edrums and drum trigger for playing sounds through a PC >>>> http://www.morse-code.com/id208.htm this is just a 16 channel drum trigger, it does not produce the drum sounds only sends MIDI to PC or other MIDI capable synth....



I fabricated everything from scratch including all the PCB's and the mesh drum heads themselves >>


I used $1.99 piezo speakers from Radio Shack, all my Cymbals are Dual Zone, cost me around $50.00 dollars to build (only cause I went with the 1/4" phono jacks for the connectors and those are kind of pricey at Radio Shack)

Better than the Alesis DM5 IMHO, this has velocity control and all sorts of other goodies the Alesis doesn't have...... the project is all available including firmware at www.Edrum.info

My .02

Cool kit, thanks a lot. What software do you use?

Paulo540 said:

Cool kit, thanks a lot. What software do you use?

Click to expand...

For just playing MIDI I use Edrum Monitor Ver 2, for games me and my sone have been having a blast playing DTXMania (check it out here http://www.roknjam.com), it is a japanese game that was put out before rockband and other such games (Some parts of the menus are in English, most is in japanese!, but tailored more towards arcades the drum setup are much more "realistic" in the setup since you can actually use any Edrum such as the Alesis DM5 (with appropriate cables and drivers )

Basically I built my own drum trigger that converts the piezo electric input and translates it to MIDI notes and sends them to synth via MIDI out or via serial to a PC (I just did all electronics assembly and PCB fab, and hardware. That's why I put so much work on the electronics and aesthetics of the unit , the circuit design and firmware credits go to Admir Salahovic @ www.edrum.info ) I then use a Yamaha Serial to MIDI driver on the PC which is used by the 2 aforementioned apps, thats it....


BTW
A lot of people are converting their acoustic sets to eDrums using piezo's, and then using DIY modules such as the one I used, but now they have a 22 channel and another they call Megadrum which I believe has 32 inputs.....

The piezo triggers from edrums are about $6 each. I can purchase xbox drums for $6 each (inside is a 20mm piezo that has a spring on top instead of foam).

Where can I purchase cheaper piezo discs than $6 each? (I want a larger qty, like 10-100) These work by pressure right? Which is better spring or foam? Any other tips would be greatly appretiated....(I appretiate edrums but can't afford that for what I'm doing.) What is the proper name "piezo pressure sensors" or "piezodiscs"?

cdpaw said:

The piezo triggers from edrums are about $6 each. I can purchase xbox drums for $6 each (inside is a 20mm piezo that has a spring on top instead of foam).

Where can I purchase cheaper piezo discs than $6 each? (I want a larger qty, like 10-100) These work by pressure right? Which is better spring or foam? Any other tips would be greatly appretiated....(I appretiate edrums but can't afford that for what I'm doing.) What is the proper name "piezo pressure sensors" or "piezodiscs"?

Click to expand...

They are actually used as speakers or transducers.... you can find them in any "sound" making toy or those music playing greeting cards.....

Foam is better to use, actually the foam in those foam sanding blocks works the best, you just have to peel the sanding layer off, comes off quite easily once you get a corner started.

and they do not have to be cone shaped, as long as the foam is about the same size as the ceramic part of the piezo, when you attach it to something, use double sided sticky tape, but only apply it to the outside radius of the piezo.

Radio Shack has them for $1.99 each, those actually work quite well for drum triggers (although you would have to remove them from the casings... or leave them in for the crashes and cymbals, makes them easier to mount.) >> http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062402

B. Morse

Thank you!

You can get bare piezo transducer discs - I get them from Maplin Electronics here in the UK, I'm sure other parts sellers stock them.

First item on the search result here:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=PIEZO transducers

3 lead piezeo disc-2/ $1. or 100 for $ 40 @ The Electronic Goldmine.