Home-built edrumpads - Newer Designs?

[markert]

I have been building my own drum pads for my alesis d4 unit for several years. I use the remo practice pads and piezos from Radioshack. These work pretty well and my design is excellent(I was a mechanical engineer in a past life) but I want to know if home-built technology has moved past this remo/radioshack era.

Specifically, recently I bought some Pearl mesh practice heads and have been using some Ddrum triggers on these. Works pretty well, but I want something more elegant. When I go to the music store, I generally spend alot of time trying to see inside the Vdrums or Hart mesh pads. Seems like they just have a mesh head with a "column" of foam or something connecting the mesh head to the piezo trigger. Damnit, I know I can reproduce this, but I need input from any other garage edrum builders! $200-300 is alot to pay for one mesh pad from roland or Hart. Especially if we can think up a design using a $7 mesh drumhead, my existing drum shells, a $2 cord, and a $1.49 piezo from RadioShack.

[e-drummer]

Ive read a lot of stuff about this very subject on a particular discussion forum but I`m a newbie here so I dont want to start posting url`s to different forums.

But from what ive read it seems the main problem with home made pads or even mixing pads and modules from different companies is that the positional sensing dosen`t seem to work too well if at all.
This is where the module detects where on the head the stick strikes and plays an apropriate sound.

I have a Roland V-drum Pro kit and while you dont get a 100% capabilites of a real drum or a real cymbal , this feature can really add a little bit of life to the sound.
In particular the snare and the ride cymbal.
If you hit the snare on the outer edge you get a distinct ring.
And the ride cymbal can change from a bell sound to a clean ride sound to a more earthy sound if played towards the edge of the pad.

[Tim Brown]

Originally posted by markert
I have been building my own drum pads for my alesis d4 unit for several years. I use the remo practice pads and piezos from Radioshack. These work pretty well and my design is excellent(I was a mechanical engineer in a past life) but I want to know if home-built technology has moved past this remo/radioshack era.

$200-300 is alot to pay for one mesh pad from roland or Hart. Especially if we can think up a design using a $7 mesh drumhead, my existing drum shells, a $2 cord, and a $1.49 piezo from RadioShack.

Hang on to your Hat!

Drum Supply House, is working out a deal with a Company for "Do it yourself" Mesh head electric drums!

When Andy get's everything going, that's going to be awesome.


Tim

[markert]

OK, tell me more!

What is this Drum Supply House? What do you mean by do-it-yourself mesh kits? Is this just plans you can buy or actual kits?

[Tim Brown]

Originally posted by markert
OK, tell me more!

What is this Drum Supply House? What do you mean by do-it-yourself mesh kits? Is this just plans you can buy or actual kits?

Drum Supply House is a Drumshop for people who build their own drums, and repair drums.
Andy said that they are working out the details right now.

These will be actual kit's that you build yourself.

I built my Acoustic kit from them, and after going through 12 Name brand kits-this one is exactly what I wanted the whole time!

So, I know that the E-Drums will be awesome.
I have a ddrum2 set that I augment my Acoustics with, so when i can build my own Pads of the mesh type -I'll sell the ddrums at that point.


Tim

[Salabim]

do a bit of surfin'
there are heaps of sites devoted to making your own pads...

there are also a few crews round the place that will make em for ya and that sorta thing...

Tim

[RichB]

I'd like to get in on this.

I did the Remo Radio Shack deal too. Real happy with the proformance. I use them with the Alesis DM5. If there is one problem I notice is the speed detection on the snare. If I do fast rolls sometimes hits get lost.

I was going to order one of those Pulse pads for the snare to see if it's worth it. Any of you guys every try these?

[Tim Brown]

Originally posted by RichB
I'd like to get in on this.

I did the Remo Radio Shack deal too. Real happy with the proformance. I use them with the Alesis DM5. If there is one problem I notice is the speed detection on the snare. If I do fast rolls sometimes hits get lost.

I was going to order one of those Pulse pads for the snare to see if it's worth it. Any of you guys every try these?

Hi Rich,

For the Snare pad-I would use either of th following:

the 2" Piezo Speaker that Radio Shack has (it is made by Panasonic-and you can get the "Panasonic version" from http://www.digikey.com for about $1.00-$2.00 each) This is the same model that Hart uses for it's "Bassdrum" triggers.

Multiple Smaller triggers wired in parallel.



I've seen the PULSE inserts, but I haven't personally tried them-I mean, I can build the thing for less-so why bother?


Tim

[RichB]

Thanks Tim,

I'll give it a try.

Rich

[markert]

The Pulse inserts are junk. I ordered one out of curiosity and it is essentially a hard piece of particle board (actually Masonite) with a trigger stuck to the bottom. Hard as a rock. The foam you see in the catalog actually goes on the bottom.