Comments on: Homemade drum triggers

By: Rob Sedleski

Rob Sedleski — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:37:19 +0000

I bought a Roland TD-6 that came with a whole bunch of auxiliary electronic percussion equipment included:

-Alesis D4 module / brain
-11 cymbal boom arms w clamps, foams, and washers
-10 home made drum pads (metal plates w foam and rubber covering; piezoelectric sensors with RCA outputs

I just use the TD-6 on its own, so I’m thinking that these items might be of interest to those in this forum. I live in Vancouver, BC, and my email is rob.sedleski@gmail.com.

If you know of anyone that might be interested, please pass this along.

Thanks!

By: Emory Stafford

Emory Stafford — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:30:38 +0000

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By: Big Dave

Big Dave — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:01:07 +0000

Hello Everyone,

Does anyone know if it's possible to assign the same triggers in every drum set to kick, snare toms, etc.
in the D4? I don;t want to have to change around wires
every time I change sets! can anyone help me/ manual doesn't really cover this very well...

dave

By: John

John — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:15:39 +0000

why even bother with triggers just mic your drums (or frisbee or whatever you can beat on) with any old cheap crappy mics. Gate them very tightly and route them to an output from your DAW interface to run directly into your trigger unit( alesis d4, roland etc) record the output of that unit via midi into reason or whatever midi sequencer you use, then you can use any sound you’d like from your sound banks. IF you have multiple outputs you can re-record all the drums at once. If you only have a few just record them a track at a time.

By: julian

julian — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:56:20 +0000

I have an old roland spd-8 and a pd-5. both pads work well put compared to new pads a little on the hard side. do you think it would be possible to glue some extra rubber on top and it still working. and where would i get it?

By: Mauricio Quintana

Mauricio Quintana — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 23:36:57 +0000

I have been drumming acoustic for some years. I like the versatility that an electronic set can give, although the sound may not be ‘perfect’ (whatever that means…)

The idea of a piezo unit from Radio Snack sounds great!! I will be trying that very soon. I have a Yamaha DD-50 drum machine which came without pedals and am hoping to be able to use these triggers for that. However, I am wondering, will the little speakers from watches, electronic toys, etc work?

I Can’t see why not as these are also piezo transducers…

I may give it a try and let you all know.

Thanks for the info.

By: danny r

danny r — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 17:59:47 +0000

How well would a piezo (radio shack) transducer work with a Roland TD-6

By: MM

MM — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 22:45:07 +0000

I have played drums professionally and have also played my own DIY electronic drum set for over 10 years. The electronics are every bit as sensitive and responsive as real drums and the sound out front is better. What you lose in real time nuance, you gain by have perfect sound reproduction and hundreds of different sounds at your command. The Alesis D4 is the best trigger interface in my opinion. the cymbal sounds aren’t very good, but the pad sensitivity adjustments and cross talk features are better than Rolands modules. You can get one used for about $125.00 and you can just midi out nto other sounds if you choose.

By: Jo martin

Jo martin — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 02:56:27 +0000

I want to trigger up my acoustic kit and wondered what I’ll need. I do have an Alesis idMO1 drum machine/ION iETO1 pads and also a Zoom RT-123 drum machine. I wondered if either of these would be suitable modules for triggering?

Many thanks, Jo

By: Brett

Brett — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 08:05:47 +0000

OK, I have two Radio Shack piezo units. I wonder if a Frisbee would work as a playing surface? Maybe for a cymbal?

By: max

max — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 02:09:35 +0000

i triggered my set and it works great, i mounted the transducers inside the shells and used mesh heads to keep them quiet. only thing is that the feel is off from real heads but not by much. i got an alesis d4 and sounds great

By: MATT

MATT — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 03:18:35 +0000

I COULD NOT PUT UP WITH THE FEEL OF AN ELECTRIC KIT, SO I BOUGHT A CHEAP VINTAGE DRUMKIT AND i CUT ALL THE DRUMS SO THEY WHERE APPROX 6 inches THICK THEN PUT PIEZOS ON ROUND ALLY PLATES COVERED WITH 1 LAYER OF FOAM ON THE TOP SIDE(directly under the drum skin)THEN STUFFED THE UNDERSIDE BEST I COULD.
I THEN CUT A CIRCULAR PIECE OF PLYWOOD TO JUST FIT INSIDE MY DRUM AND SQEEZED IT AS CLOSE TO THE TOP SKIN AS POSSIBLE AND PUT A FEW SMALL SCREWS THROUGH THE SIDE OF THE DRUM INTO MY CIRCULAR PIECE OF PLYWOOD.DRILL A HOLE IN THE SIDE OF THE DRUM TO FIT A JACKPLUG SOCKET IN,SOLDER THE PIEZOS AND YOUR AWAY.
AND WHAT AN EXCELANT DRUMKIT, IT LOOKS FANTASTIC AND SOUNDS SUPERB.
I USED THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL KIT APART FROM REAL CYMBALS,I HAVE PLASTIC HIHATS WITH THE ORIGINAL PEDAL AND AN ADDITIONAL ON/OFF FOOTSWITCH
I CAN SUPPLY YOU WITH LOADS OF BEFORE AND AFTER PICS OR INSTRUCTIONS IF YOU LIKE?

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:56:26 +0000

Hi there, i am looking to trigger my acoustic kick drum live.
I was going to use a Ddrum Pro Trigger and trigger samples from my laptop.
Does anyone know if theres a trigger to USB converter?
Any recomendations for a soft sampler (Mac OSX)?

Cheers

By: opg

opg — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 20:21:45 +0000

piezo pickups are CHEAP. You can buy a Piezo Transducer at Radio Shack, which, when the black casing is taken off, is just a copper disc with two wires. You connect the wires to a 1/4″ jack. The disc gets placed on/underneath the drumpad you want to use and picks up the signal when you hit it. From there, you will need a Trigger-to-MIDI convertor. If you don’t have a MIDI port on your computer but want to use your USB port, you’ll have to get a MIDI/USB interface, like http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=rec/search/detail/base_pid/701379/ which are very cheap.

By: mihran

mihran — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 14:45:43 +0000

I came across this site and I think it would be awesome to build an electric kit — i just need to know exactly where to buy piezo pickups, and how to wire them to 1/4″ jack to plug into a module (or trigger to midi transformer most likeley, that i’ll convert to USB and use to record into reason in real time).. could someone take some time to explain how to do this?