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| OK tech heads... Piezo Capacitance and making drum triggers. [message #93725] |
Mon, 17 December 2007 22:14  |
Kim
Messages: 1246
Registered: October 2005
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Senior Member |
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A mate of mine wants to make some drum triggers out of every day cymbals,
so any assistance or knowledge would be good.
In particular he is looking at some piezo mics for the triggers. We're wondering
what the capacitance spec should be and what relevance it has.
I've never paid attention to piezo stuff and don't see the relevance of the
capacitance figure, and what might be good or bad for a given application...
....but any advice on how to hook up a piezo as a drum trigger would be just
grand. :o) His drum brain seems to have most of the circuitry though, so
I think we just need the piezo and lead and we're right... hopefully. :o)
Cheers,
Kim.
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| Re: OK tech heads... Piezo Capacitance and making drum triggers. [message #93728 is a reply to message #93726] |
Mon, 17 December 2007 22:46  |
Kim
Messages: 1246
Registered: October 2005
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Senior Member |
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Aaron,
The plan is to back the cymbal in rubber. That way you just get a kinda "tick"
sound, but the drum stick bounces off it like you hit a cymbal, rather than,
say rubber. ;o) ...which is what the factory pads are made of.
The dude just left and I don't recall the brain brand. Not a "major" brand.
Picked up 2nd hand for about $700. I'll find out tomorrow if you like.
Cheers,
Kim.
"Aaron Allen" <know-spam@not_here.dude> wrote:
>A cymbal would be a terrible trigger, as they will resonate a lot and
>trigger wildly after being struck the initial hit. You need something much
>less acoustic in quality. You'll have the same problem, to a lesser degree,
>using a normal drum.
>
>What kind of drum brain?
>
>AA
>
>"Kim" <hiddensounds@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:4767573f$1@linux...
>>
>>
>> A mate of mine wants to make some drum triggers out of every day cymbals,
>> so any assistance or knowledge would be good.
>>
>> In particular he is looking at some piezo mics for the triggers. We're
>> wondering
>> what the capacitance spec should be and what relevance it has.
>>
>> I've never paid attention to piezo stuff and don't see the relevance of
>> the
>> capacitance figure, and what might be good or bad for a given
>> application...
>>
>> ...but any advice on how to hook up a piezo as a drum trigger would be
>> just
>> grand. :o) His drum brain seems to have most of the circuitry though,
so
>> I think we just need the piezo and lead and we're right... hopefully.
:o)
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Kim.
>
>
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| Re: OK tech heads... Piezo Capacitance and making drum triggers. [message #93729 is a reply to message #93725] |
Mon, 17 December 2007 22:56 |
Rod Lincoln
Messages: 883
Registered: September 2005
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Senior Member |
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Kim, I did a TON of tests with this back in the day. (circa 1990) and depending
on the piezo and the brain your hooking it up to, you may or may not need
to do anything. Basically, as a rule of thumb, I'd say set your drum brain
trigger sensativity to 50%, of whatever half way up is. If the triggers work
great...and I mean great...no false triggers, rolls are tracked cleanly,
volume is linear, or at least pleasingly believable, then your done. If not,
try soldering different value resistors between the hot and ground ( I did
it in the 1/4" plug so the vibration of the stick hitting the trigger wouldn't
cause it to come loose) Until you achieve the above results. Then tweak the
drum brain sensitivity controls slightly to taste.
What Aaron said is totally right, If the cymbals are used in the classic
sense. I suppose if your taping a bunch of foam underneath them, they would
work. I found the old tunable Remo practice pads made great triggers if you
glued/caluked the piezo to a piece of plastic and stuck it right between
the head and the foam. I used cassete cases for the plastic. Just 1 half
of it cut with scissors so it's just a flat piece of plastic about 2" by
4".Calk the trigger on it (or hot glue) and your done (except for the resistors)
Rod
"Kim" <hiddensounds@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>A mate of mine wants to make some drum triggers out of every day cymbals,
>so any assistance or knowledge would be good.
>
>In particular he is looking at some piezo mics for the triggers. We're wondering
>what the capacitance spec should be and what relevance it has.
>
>I've never paid attention to piezo stuff and don't see the relevance of
the
>capacitance figure, and what might be good or bad for a given application...
>
>...but any advice on how to hook up a piezo as a drum trigger would be just
>grand. :o) His drum brain seems to have most of the circuitry though, so
>I think we just need the piezo and lead and we're right... hopefully. :o)
>
>Cheers,
>Kim.
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| Re: OK tech heads... Piezo Capacitance and making drum triggers. [message #93730 is a reply to message #93728] |
Mon, 17 December 2007 22:58 |
Rod Lincoln
Messages: 883
Registered: September 2005
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Senior Member |
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I guess we're up at the same time. The rubber should work. (hmmm...I think
I've used that line on a girl before ;-)
Mr. Snortyhorse
"Kim" <hiddensounds@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>Aaron,
>
>The plan is to back the cymbal in rubber. That way you just get a kinda
"tick"
>sound, but the drum stick bounces off it like you hit a cymbal, rather than,
>say rubber. ;o) ...which is what the factory pads are made of.
>
>The dude just left and I don't recall the brain brand. Not a "major" brand.
>Picked up 2nd hand for about $700. I'll find out tomorrow if you like.
>
>Cheers,
>Kim.
>
>
>
>"Aaron Allen" <know-spam@not_here.dude> wrote:
>>A cymbal would be a terrible trigger, as they will resonate a lot and
>>trigger wildly after being struck the initial hit. You need something much
>
>>less acoustic in quality. You'll have the same problem, to a lesser degree,
>
>>using a normal drum.
>>
>>What kind of drum brain?
>>
>>AA
>>
>>"Kim" <hiddensounds@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:4767573f$1@linux...
>>>
>>>
>>> A mate of mine wants to make some drum triggers out of every day cymbals,
>>> so any assistance or knowledge would be good.
>>>
>>> In particular he is looking at some piezo mics for the triggers. We're
>
>>> wondering
>>> what the capacitance spec should be and what relevance it has.
>>>
>>> I've never paid attention to piezo stuff and don't see the relevance
of
>
>>> the
>>> capacitance figure, and what might be good or bad for a given
>>> application...
>>>
>>> ...but any advice on how to hook up a piezo as a drum trigger would be
>
>>> just
>>> grand. :o) His drum brain seems to have most of the circuitry though,
>so
>>> I think we just need the piezo and lead and we're right... hopefully.
>:o)
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Kim.
>>
>>
>
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| Re: OK tech heads... Piezo Capacitance and making drum triggers. [message #93732 is a reply to message #93730] |
Tue, 18 December 2007 00:26 |
Jamie K
Messages: 1115
Registered: July 2006
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Senior Member |
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I haven't converted cymbals but that approach of deadening the cymbal
with rubber should work OK.
Like Rod I created some trigger pads from Remo practice pads. I wired
the piezos straight out to 1/4" plugs and they work fine with both an
Alesis D4 and a DDrum 4 brain.
I cut a circle of a hard laminate material (forget the name), wood-like
but more dense and only about 1/4" thick. I glued the piezo to the back
of this resonating material. Between the resonating circle and the drum
head I put a circle cut from a mouse pad. This gave the pad a better
stick response. I cut the original foam down to make room for the
resonating circle and mouse pad circle, what's left of the original foam
is behind the piezo, so it's well protected. These homebrew pads still
work great, I still sometimes use some of them for extra triggers on my
DDrum kit.
Cheers,
-Jamie
www.JamieKrutz.com
Rod Lincoln wrote:
> I guess we're up at the same time. The rubber should work. (hmmm...I think
> I've used that line on a girl before ;-)
> Mr. Snortyhorse
> "Kim" <hiddensounds@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Aaron,
>>
>> The plan is to back the cymbal in rubber. That way you just get a kinda
> "tick"
>> sound, but the drum stick bounces off it like you hit a cymbal, rather than,
>> say rubber. ;o) ...which is what the factory pads are made of.
>>
>> The dude just left and I don't recall the brain brand. Not a "major" brand.
>> Picked up 2nd hand for about $700. I'll find out tomorrow if you like.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Kim.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Aaron Allen" <know-spam@not_here.dude> wrote:
>>> A cymbal would be a terrible trigger, as they will resonate a lot and
>>> trigger wildly after being struck the initial hit. You need something much
>>> less acoustic in quality. You'll have the same problem, to a lesser degree,
>>> using a normal drum.
>>>
>>> What kind of drum brain?
>>>
>>> AA
>>>
>>> "Kim" <hiddensounds@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:4767573f$1@linux...
>>>>
>>>> A mate of mine wants to make some drum triggers out of every day cymbals,
>>>> so any assistance or knowledge would be good.
>>>>
>>>> In particular he is looking at some piezo mics for the triggers. We're
>>>> wondering
>>>> what the capacitance spec should be and what relevance it has.
>>>>
>>>> I've never paid attention to piezo stuff and don't see the relevance
> of
>>>> the
>>>> capacitance figure, and what might be good or bad for a given
>>>> application...
>>>>
>>>> ...but any advice on how to hook up a piezo as a drum trigger would be
>>>> just
>>>> grand. :o) His drum brain seems to have most of the circuitry though,
>> so
>>>> I think we just need the piezo and lead and we're right... hopefully.
>> :o)
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Kim.
>>>
>
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