Acoustic/Electronic drum conversion

[JrummerJ]

Well, I posted this is show us your kits a few days ago, and it got a very mediocre respose. So, this seems like a good place to put it. My Pearl exports, converted into a jungle kit and then into an e-kit.

I already owned the Ddrum module, the Pro triggers, and the Roland pads, so the whole conversion cost less than $400. The Paiste 101 hi-hats converted into nearly silent e-cymbals work great!

Here they are:

[JrummerJ]

More....

[-Rob-]

Cool, thats a great idea! I've actually been tempted to put some mesh heads on my kit and then add some triggers like you. It keeps the look of acoustic but has the capabilites of electronic! :)

[Serge]

Mine:

[JrummerJ]

Thanks Rob! It is very easily portable with the small drum sizes. Might have to get a Gibralter rack for it someday, too.

Serge, nice kit. Mesh heads on the toms and real heads on the snare and kick? What module are you using and does it work well?

[Serge]

Real heads all around tuned for efficient triggering. The house systems we play through have sufficient power so there's no accoustic bleed.

Overall it works fine other than the odd mis-trigger. The most difficult issue was set up and teardown. To acheive an acceptable time frame, I've built my own "snake" that rolls up quite easily and compactly, and I have added a 4 way DI box that also serves as a headphone mixer to give me an in-ear mix.

Ch1 kick
CH2 snare-toms-perc
Ch3 vocal
Ch4 click track.

The kit takes me 10 minutes to set-up, while the electronics add an extra 10.

Tear down is about the same. The nice thing is that I give the soundguy 3 XLR cables to the FOH and I'm set-up.

[JrummerJ]

Serge, that is cool. I used to trigger the full size kit that is in the pictures above when our band was gigging. Worked very well. I actually did not alter the tuning of my kit, but tuned the triggered samples to match. Sounded good if you were close or far enough back to hear the blend of the two sounds.

J

[g@haar]

JrummerJ : that's really cool.
I'm have some vague plans to live on my own, but that also includes no more drumming OR doing what you did. I faced one problem, and that were the cymbals. How did you solve that? What kind of triggers did you place underneath them?

[JrummerJ]

JrummerJ : that's really cool.
I'm have some vague plans to live on my own, but that also includes no more drumming OR doing what you did. I faced one problem, and that were the cymbals. How did you solve that? What kind of triggers did you place underneath them?

Hi g@haar,

The cymbals were a total di-it-yourself experiment that turned out great! They cost me about $75 to make both. A note, these are single zone and not chokeable since that functionality doesn't work with my Ddrum module. They can be made to choke by adding a pressure switch.

They are basically a pair of Paiste 101 hats ($40 from musiciansfriend), some adhesive neoprene (purchased from edesignaudio.com - v4 Teklite), 2 $3 mousepads from WalMart, some double sided tape, and a homemade trigger that I made from 3 parts you can buy at RadioShack (part numbers: 273-073, 274-252, and 270-1801).

1) build the trigger box
2) Apply neoprene to underside of cymbal (cut out hole for the trigger box)
3) Apply trigger box w/ double sided tape
4) Apply mouse pad using some 3M spray adhesive
5) Put em on a cymbal stand and rock out!

Some DIY links:
http://www.drumbalaya.com/Beatnik-mirror/mykit.html
http://edrum.for.free.fr/

Any other questions, just let me know.

J

[g@haar]

Cool, thanks a lot man!
The guy from the first link has some serious HTML issues though!

Now i was wondering, if i would put mesh heads on my toms and snare, stick a Piezo between 2 layers of foam, and put it directly onto the mesh heads, would it work too?
It's hellalot cheaper than buying actual triggers (would cost me around 300 euro).
Offcouse i'll have to find a way to "stick" the foam to the mesh heads and cymbals, but it's about the principle...

[JrummerJ]

Cool, thanks a lot man!
The guy from the first link has some serious HTML issues though!

Now i was wondering, if i would put mesh heads on my toms and snare, stick a Piezo between 2 layers of foam, and put it directly onto the mesh heads, would it work too?
It's hellalot cheaper than buying actual triggers (would cost me around 300 euro).
Offcouse i'll have to find a way to "stick" the foam to the mesh heads and cymbals, but it's about the principle...

On those DIY links I posted, there are some great example of triggers that have been made. Most of them involve fabricating a beam that goes inside the drum between two lugs and then mounting the trigger underneath a foam cone that touches the underside of the head.

Like this: http://www.drumbalaya.com/Beatnik-mirror/conversion.html

The mexh heads aren't cheap though! Mine (HArt Dynamics magnum series) were $140 for a 8, 10, 12, 13, and 16. The rime trim they sell is awesome, but also expensive.

I don't think you can see it in the pictures, but the snare has their rim trim, black, and the rest of the drums have some clear fuel line over the bottom half of the rims.

J

[g@haar]

On those DIY links I posted, there are some great example of triggers that have been made. Most of them involve fabricating a beam that goes inside the drum between two lugs and then mounting the trigger underneath a foam cone that touches the underside of the head.

Like this: http://www.drumbalaya.com/Beatnik-mirror/conversion.html


Yeah, i saw that, but i'm not willing to drill holes or mount something like that into my shell, that's why i asked if it would be possible to stick it directly to the mesh head :) Like an actual trigger, with without the housing offcourse.
Because a trigger is actually nothing mor than a piezo on a piece of foam. All the metal is just for mounting it to the rim. But i'm just kicking in open doors here ;)

[JrummerJ]

Yeah, i saw that, but i'm not willing to drill holes or mount something like that into my shell, that's why i asked if it would be possible to stick it directly to the mesh head :) Like an actual trigger, with without the housing offcourse.
Because a trigger is actually nothing mor than a piezo on a piece of foam. All the metal is just for mounting it to the rim. But i'm just kicking in open doors here ;)

You don't drill holes, you just fasten it under two opposing lugs, replacing the screws with slightly longer ones.

Take a closer look at the pics, they are mounted where the lug screws are.

[g@haar]

Did some math, and i'm cheaper off buying an electric kit with and Alesis DM5 module.
I'll just use my current kit for rehearsal than.

[DrummerMom4571]

Very cool!