My DIY Electronic Drum
About five months ago i bought a Roland TD-7k electronic drumkit because i wanted to learn to play the drums.I bought it second hand via ebay, and paid 870 euro. In order to have a little more information of the TD-7 module i started a search on the internet, because it came without a manual. Suddenly i ran across a few websites and yahoo groups wich discussed DIY edrums, and that's how it all started!
I saw pictures of DIY edrums and i couldn't believe my eyes, i had to try this myself. I still had an old Vancore high tension drum laying around ( I used to play drums in a marching band, but now i play the trumpet) and i took it apart, bought a pearl mufflehead for 12 euro and attached a crossmember to the inside of the snare. I bought a kids toy carpet for 20 euro (looks like a big puzzle) wich is made from closed cell foam and started to cut out three circles to make a cone and glued it together with double sided sticky tape. The only problem however was that i didn't had a piezo element but i still had an old broken watch in the closet and i realised that there was a piezo inside (it's the thing that produces the alarmsound) so i took the watch apart and removed the piezo. Now it was soldering time, i soldered two wires (speakerwires) to the piezo and to the other side a rca plug. I glued the piezo to the cone and to the crossmember and installed the meshead on the snare, i was ready for a tryout.
At first i wasn't very pleased about the results and tried everything by trial and error to have a better triggering but i had little or no succes. I started again a search on the internet and someone talked about the TD7 module that it is indeed a very good module but it only works good with Roland pads. At that moment i decided to buy a used Alesis D4, for 100 euro via ebay (wich came btw with a manual!). I hooked up the snare to the D4 and couldn't believe my eyes such a smooth triggering, it was even better than my TD-7.
I decided to show the result to a friend of mine, (wich happens to be the instructor of the marching band) who is also a very handy man, i call him Mac Gyver, because he is just like him, he was very intriguid by it and decided to help me to build a complete drumset, he gave me also two other Vancore high tension drums (wich were broken). I decided to use the rack of my td-7 kit, it's the Roland MDS-8, and i bought a secondhand mds-6 (150 euro) to use with my TD7.
This is the complete list of things needed for the job:
First i ordered piezo elements at a local electro shop, i used velleman piezo's (on their website go to SOUNDERS AND SIRENS an then to PIEZO TRANSDUCERS), i used the big (more responsive) TV4 for the drums (1.12 euro x 8) and the TV1 (1.22 euro x 8 ) for the cymbals. I also ordered 10 m. speakerwire and 20 rca plugs (in total around 25 euro). I already had alot of audiocables, because i have a home studio and hunderds of cables to lie around, so i used these.
I also ordered 3 Stagg plastic practice cymbals at my local music shop two Stagg C-14ABS 14'' (for the hihat and the crash) at 9 euro and one Stagg C-16ABS16'' ( for the ride) at 10 euro; (total: 28 euro). i bought another 6 pearl muffle mesheads at 12 euro each (total 72 euro).
At my local hardware shop i bought 3 Metabo backing pads to put on a machine like this , these are very sturdy rubber pads, wich i used as cymbal bells. I don't remember the exact price but i think it was around 5 euro each, total 15 euro. i bought several screws for a total of 7 euro.
This is how we did it:
Drums:
First we removed all the hardware from the sturdy high tension drums, (wich was alot of work) and decided to saw all three of them in half ,so we had 6 drums. Then we installed aluminium crossmembers on the inside, attached to the shells with screws and plugs. As you can see on the picture we drilled four holes to the middle of the crossmembers and screwed 4- M10 (metric) screws in it, on these screws we mounted a little aluminium platform, FYI the screws are not attached to the platform it only rests on the screws! (we drilled 4 holes in the underside of the platform this way we can finetune the triggering by adjusting the height of the platform to the meshead). Next thing to do was to create the cone, i've made it from this material (kids toy carpet, this is in fact closed cell foam and is quite sturdy, and not too soft.) in three different sizes, here you see them al three put together with double sided sticky tape (carpet tape). I glued a piezo TV4 to it with bizon-kit glue( brass side of piezo to the outside ) and put the whole thing together (platform + plastic ring+ piezo + foam cone) with double sided sticky tape. (Between the platform and the piezo is a plastic ring (hard plastic!), wich increases the gain). Time to install the mesheads and to adjust the height of the platform, so that the foamcone is pressed against the meshead (not to much, tho!). Et voilą, a nice and sturdy electronic drumtrigger. As a finishing touch i've put a sort of plastic rim silencer on it (bought it in a store for car accesories and prevents cars from door slam, it came not very cheap tho, 28 euro's for 10 meter!) , wich also gave a modern look to the drums. I Glued a second piezo on the rim of the snare between the plasic rim silencer, (therefore i had to cut the piezo in half with scissors) this way i can play rim shots or sidestick sounds by hitting the rim. (it's also velocity sensitive).
Next thing to do was to mount the drums to the Roland MDS-8 rack. Since i had no hardware, we came up with this solution: we used 5 Threaded Rod Couplers. We drilled two holes in the couplers all the way trough and threaded the holes on the inside. On one side we attached the drums, and on the other side we've put 2 screws, one slightly bigger than the other, otherwise when you turn them around they block each other. (total costs of the couplers and the screws: 6 euro), try to beat this!
Cymbals:
To make a dual zone electronic cymbal you need a backing pad ( I used Metabo backing pads ) to put on a machine like this (here you see a close up of the pad), and a practice cymbal ( i used the Stagg C-14ABS 14'' ). First thing to do is to glue a piezo to the backing pad and let it dry, in the meantime you can take a piezo TV1 still in it's plastic shell and take off the backside like you see here. Now it's soldering time, solder a speaker cable to the piezo wires and tape them off (shield them from each other), then tape it all together. At the other end you solder a RCA plug ( or jack, XLR,...) the trigger is now ready to be put on the cymbal. You take the practice cymbal and drill three holes in it (the two in the front have to match the holes in the plastic shell from the piezo, the third hole just above the bell is for the cable from the backing pad). Now you can attach the piezo to the underside of the practice cymbal with two screws and in between a piece of the toy carpet, here you see it from another angle, and the upside view is like this. Next thing to do is to prepare the backing pad ( do the same soldering as above but do not attach the RCA plug yet, because you have to put the wires trough the third cymbal hole, remember! ), tape the wires to the backing pad with alot of double sided sticky tape, put also tape over the piezo ( you don't want it to come loose won't you), tape also the underside of the practice cymbal and again don't go cheap on the tape. Cut a piece of mousepad material to put in between of the backing pad and the cymbal (this will help to reduce crosstalk) and glue it to the backing pad. Now put the wires through the third hole above the bell and tape the wires together to the underside of the cymbal. Here you have an upside view. The following thing you can leave behind, but my opinion was that the practice cymbals still made alot of background noise, so i've glued a sort of open cell foam to the underside of the cymbal with double sided sticky tape to muffle the awfull sound it produced. And here's the result of my finished dual trigger electronic cymbal (after i've put some mousepad foam on top).
I used this method for all my cymbals, even for my hihat stand from my second DIY project ( Pearl Rythm Traveller ) as you can see here, the only thing i needed to do was to mount a two way switch directly under the pedal (other view), wich plugs in to my D4 hihat pedal input, the second cymbal has no triggers on it it's just to simulate the open - close movement of a real hihat, there is just a big hole in the second cymbal to put the wires trough and also to let the air in and out.
Here you see pictures of my second DIY project:
http://users.pandora.be/philippe.ceuppens3/DIYdrum/rythmtraveller/pearl_rythmtraveller_diy.htm
Here's my 3th DIY project, congas made of waterbottles:
http://users.pandora.be/philippe.ceuppens3/DIYdrum/congas/congas.htm
More to come!!!!!
I decided to put this already online, the rest will be finished this week.
here you see already a video of the completed drum played by me, don't look at the playing, I'M JUST STARTING OUT.
And yet another video wich shows the sensitivity of my diy edrum.
