So last year I needed to keep things quiet for my housemates, and as a drummer that took a bit of restraint. I surfed around on the internet and found some great web sites after reading about a DIY drum set on Hack-a-day, and what do you know, a month later, I had a full electronic set!
This is kind of a general overview, the basic concepts are fairly simple. I looked at a lot of info out there before building my own, and I just kind of planned it as I built, it just takes a little creativity. Sorry to not include any links, just google it, I couldn't find the specific pages I used, but there is a community of people out there who do this stuff.
So an electronic drum set can run you back $600-3000+, sometimes without a module, my main reason for doing this was to save money bigtime. For comparison the cost for me was around $150-200 for all parts, then the module, so a total of at most $370, which as you drummers know is even cheaper than entry level acoustic sets! The most expensive item was the electric drum module or heart of it all which I will get to later. Heres a quick summary of my bill of major materials and costs:
-Drum pads -> 2 used toms 10" and 12" about 20$ each
-Cymbals -> plastic practice cymbals, $30 for a set
-Bass pedal/stands/mounting hardware -> came from existing acoustic set FREE
(note: I had these laying around, I would suggest being a bit creative about your solution if you dont own a drum set. I had first planned on using pvc or steel pipe, it would be much cheaper as a drum stand can run up to about 100$ for a simple studry one, Perl,Tama etc. The bass pedal might be the only thing you need to purchase, check for used hardware etc, or again, this is Instructables, your crafty people :-P).
-1/4" mono Wires (one per pad) & Electronic parts, $30-40
-Wood -> FREE (scavenged)
-Drum Module, $170 (ebay, "Alesis D4")
Basically I'm trying to convey how little money you would actually have to spend to have a working set minus the drum module. This set, after tuning the sensitivity of the pads (function of the drum module), gets about 4-5 levels of "volume" depending on the power of the hit. It's a great set for practice, and I wouldn't hesitate to play it live if I got the cash for a nice amp together...
This is kind of a general overview, the basic concepts are fairly simple. I looked at a lot of info out there before building my own, and I just kind of planned it as I built, it just takes a little creativity. Sorry to not include any links, just google it, I couldn't find the specific pages I used, but there is a community of people out there who do this stuff.
So an electronic drum set can run you back $600-3000+, sometimes without a module, my main reason for doing this was to save money bigtime. For comparison the cost for me was around $150-200 for all parts, then the module, so a total of at most $370, which as you drummers know is even cheaper than entry level acoustic sets! The most expensive item was the electric drum module or heart of it all which I will get to later. Heres a quick summary of my bill of major materials and costs:
-Drum pads -> 2 used toms 10" and 12" about 20$ each
-Cymbals -> plastic practice cymbals, $30 for a set
-Bass pedal/stands/mounting hardware -> came from existing acoustic set FREE
(note: I had these laying around, I would suggest being a bit creative about your solution if you dont own a drum set. I had first planned on using pvc or steel pipe, it would be much cheaper as a drum stand can run up to about 100$ for a simple studry one, Perl,Tama etc. The bass pedal might be the only thing you need to purchase, check for used hardware etc, or again, this is Instructables, your crafty people :-P).
-1/4" mono Wires (one per pad) & Electronic parts, $30-40
-Wood -> FREE (scavenged)
-Drum Module, $170 (ebay, "Alesis D4")
Basically I'm trying to convey how little money you would actually have to spend to have a working set minus the drum module. This set, after tuning the sensitivity of the pads (function of the drum module), gets about 4-5 levels of "volume" depending on the power of the hit. It's a great set for practice, and I wouldn't hesitate to play it live if I got the cash for a nice amp together...
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Signing UpStep 1: Pads 101
So this is really the most important part of this instructable, and it's really not that complicated at all, which was my motivation to build this set in the first place. I'm going to break this step down into parts and give you the important details below:
Piezos:
These are basically buzzers that can be bought at radio shack for about 2-3$ each. I believe they produce a signal when banged around that can be picked up by a drum module, translating the signal into a MIDI voice with the appropriate volume etc proportional to the impact. These are tiny flat discs when taken out of their casing, and are usually isolated from the impact of the stick by rubber/foam etc. Each disc has 2 wires, that you hook to a female 1/4" mono jack. The simplest pad would be say 2 cd-r's with the piezo glued in between them, covered by some material that your drum stick would be in contact with. Just make sure the piezo is attached to a rigid surface if you go the "sandwich" pad route, the vibrations travel better etc etc. Once you purchase these, you must "shell" them to get the actuall ceramic/metal disc out (see pics).
Connection:
Most drum modules/pads work with 1/4" mono jacks, simple 2 conductor wires are used to link pads to module, the black wire (-) from the piezo goes to the tip of the plug, while the red wire is connected to the outer sheath. The cables I have are male ends, while the drum module and pads have female connectors. These are cheap and widely available at electronics stores as well.
My Implimentation:
I first just made the piezo circuit as a test, hooked it up to an amp, and gradually flicked the piezo while turning up the volume. Once I heard a sharp sound from the amp I knew I was in business (this means that the piezo was sending a signal when it was impacted, bumped etc. My 4 main drum pads are 2 toms that I stripped hardware from, and sliced in half (I built a jig for my tablesaw to rotate the drum while cutting, easier options exist :-P). I went with a "suspended bridge" to go across the center of the drum and hold the peizo, sandwiched in in foam, up against the drum head, (the foam just push the head up in the middle ever-so-slightly for contact). I used mesh heads, like screen door material, as the sound the head will produce is useless as the real sound comes from the drum module, plus this keeps it quiet. I wanted to do it this way to emulate the more expensive pads that allow you to use drum heads, the feel is just like a normal set!
Cymbals are much easier, get a flat disc/rigid surface, and glue/fasten the piezo right to it, hook it to a female jack, and there you go! For my hi-hat I had a practice pad laying around, I took it apart, added a cd-r with a piezo glued to it into the sandwich of foam under the drum head. Mousepad material is great for a surface if you desire to change the feel of your cymbals, or if you make flat pads, and skip the real drum look/feel. You could essentially glue 5 piezos+jacks to a board, cover them with mousepad material, and have a finger drum set, thats how easy this is!
If you look in the picture of the full set you can see inner rings in each drum, these are called RemO's and basically help to muffle vibrations. This keeps the reverberation of the drum head down so as to avoid "double-triggering" (basically 2 hits being registered when you only hit the pad once). Rigid sandwich pads probably won't suffer from this much if at all.
The object in the top of the picture of 4 items is a butane torch with a tip for soldering, which I should mentioned is involved in this project. Nothing really hard, just joining wires to wires and to the mono jacks.
Piezos:
These are basically buzzers that can be bought at radio shack for about 2-3$ each. I believe they produce a signal when banged around that can be picked up by a drum module, translating the signal into a MIDI voice with the appropriate volume etc proportional to the impact. These are tiny flat discs when taken out of their casing, and are usually isolated from the impact of the stick by rubber/foam etc. Each disc has 2 wires, that you hook to a female 1/4" mono jack. The simplest pad would be say 2 cd-r's with the piezo glued in between them, covered by some material that your drum stick would be in contact with. Just make sure the piezo is attached to a rigid surface if you go the "sandwich" pad route, the vibrations travel better etc etc. Once you purchase these, you must "shell" them to get the actuall ceramic/metal disc out (see pics).
Connection:
Most drum modules/pads work with 1/4" mono jacks, simple 2 conductor wires are used to link pads to module, the black wire (-) from the piezo goes to the tip of the plug, while the red wire is connected to the outer sheath. The cables I have are male ends, while the drum module and pads have female connectors. These are cheap and widely available at electronics stores as well.
My Implimentation:
I first just made the piezo circuit as a test, hooked it up to an amp, and gradually flicked the piezo while turning up the volume. Once I heard a sharp sound from the amp I knew I was in business (this means that the piezo was sending a signal when it was impacted, bumped etc. My 4 main drum pads are 2 toms that I stripped hardware from, and sliced in half (I built a jig for my tablesaw to rotate the drum while cutting, easier options exist :-P). I went with a "suspended bridge" to go across the center of the drum and hold the peizo, sandwiched in in foam, up against the drum head, (the foam just push the head up in the middle ever-so-slightly for contact). I used mesh heads, like screen door material, as the sound the head will produce is useless as the real sound comes from the drum module, plus this keeps it quiet. I wanted to do it this way to emulate the more expensive pads that allow you to use drum heads, the feel is just like a normal set!
Cymbals are much easier, get a flat disc/rigid surface, and glue/fasten the piezo right to it, hook it to a female jack, and there you go! For my hi-hat I had a practice pad laying around, I took it apart, added a cd-r with a piezo glued to it into the sandwich of foam under the drum head. Mousepad material is great for a surface if you desire to change the feel of your cymbals, or if you make flat pads, and skip the real drum look/feel. You could essentially glue 5 piezos+jacks to a board, cover them with mousepad material, and have a finger drum set, thats how easy this is!
If you look in the picture of the full set you can see inner rings in each drum, these are called RemO's and basically help to muffle vibrations. This keeps the reverberation of the drum head down so as to avoid "double-triggering" (basically 2 hits being registered when you only hit the pad once). Rigid sandwich pads probably won't suffer from this much if at all.
The object in the top of the picture of 4 items is a butane torch with a tip for soldering, which I should mentioned is involved in this project. Nothing really hard, just joining wires to wires and to the mono jacks.
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and just one layer of that mesh will do the job nicely. Better than the Roland or other name brand mesh and a lot cheaper, $ 20 will buy enough mesh for about 3 five piece drumsets (including the bass drum) for an easy method on how to do mesh heads using that type of mesh check out the tuff mesh website . (http://tuffmeshmaterial.weebly.com/how-to-install-tuff-mesh.html)
i have a very cheaper and working method :
1)use the software flexi music orchestra - a very user friendly software to play wav. files etc. on the keyboard
2)download yamaha / ronald / alesis drum samples over the net or from torrents ...they are very quality one and ull have no complaint
3)load all these sample to the key u want for EACH drum/cymbal ...which is pretty lengthy and save it ..
4)then comes the hardware ...use and old PC keyboard -ic ...or if u get confused with the ic pins j...just keep it attached to the plastic sheets which are below the keys ...and the pass out a pin ter . rhe conductor holes ..which is again a time taking job ..but cheap and working
5)now on other ends of the wire ..anttach a piezo...which is the cheapest drum trigger ..of if u r keyboard does not get enouhgh gain on tapping ...the attach 2 /3 in series and keep one above another ,,....and place it beneath the mouse pad (to experiment ) ..the strike u r mouse pad to play ....
was it helpfull ?????/////////////////////////
don't forget to tell me how was it .....
Replyflag[delete]
http://www.instructables.com/id/WORLDS-CHEAPEST-VIRTUAL-DRUM-at-10-Rs500-us/
Check it out.....
Actually i did that circuit accedintely after numorous experiment with that ic.......it works fine with my parameters and ic type in my country....:-)
http://www.google.co.in/imgres?q=keyboard+ic&hl=en&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=ai8z7kheSUpZ1M:&imgrefurl=http://www.okokchina.com/p/Software-/PS2-Keyboard-Controller-IC-424899.html&docid=p6K3PsZurkJ5sM&w=378&h=262&ei=OaR5Tr_MBu_SiAL19tG5Dw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=172&vpy=152&dur=342&hovh=187&hovw=270&tx=165&ty=75&page=1&tbnh=109&tbnw=157&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&biw=1326&bih=578
u can use to wires and older to any combination of right-lift chips and short them to see the key on wordpad ..then attach a .wav file to it ...short the wires again to play sampple .......attach the piezo and strum it to play .....application : put the piezo beneath the drum pad ....
soon to put its instructable ...
my email : siddiq4321@gmail.com
That will be my next project.
HAve goods construtions,
Brainsold
any way let me make the instructable my self and let u know how cool it is .....
Where is the instrutubles of it??? lol
I want to see what IC PINS you are talking about!
Best regards,
Pedro
plz plz mail or chat me at :- siddiq4321@gmail.com
dont know how much times i have to tell u ...and u reply after 1 month ...LOL
any way let me make the instructable my self and let u know how cool it is .....
why dont u come on gmail and chat with me at: siddiq4321@gmail.com
-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!
http://www.amazon.com/Rean-NYS230-Stereo-Jack-Non-Switched/dp/B0008IV5EO
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Zildjian-Cymbal-Mutes-Drum-Set-Pack-444388-i1138005.gc
http://drums-percussion.musiciansfriend.com/product/Pintech-5Piece-Practice-Cymbal-Set?sku=444926
i was thinking about triggers and think i want to use the radioshack piezo's for the cymbals, however, i might want to mess around with either the ddrum triggers or the pintech triggers for the drums. they would fit real nice on the rims and can be placed right under the mesh with some foam in between them and the mesh head (or you can place them on the outside and have them right on top of the head). they already come with quarter inch plugs and would require no extra work. for the price of 20-30 each it's not a bad deal for someone looking to invest a little more into having a complete wired trigger set.
here are some links:
http://www.guitarcenter.com/ddrum-Red-Shot-5-Piece-Drum-Trigger-Pack-101595478-i1136342.gc
http://www.guitarcenter.com/ddrum-Trigger-Kit-105632657-i1135223.gc
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Pintech-Acoustic-Drum-Trigger-with-Trigger-Trap-101188985-i1138288.gc
if anyone has experience with these triggers and has some advice that would be great! thanks again
i am starting to put together all of the supplies i need and came across this, thought it could be of use to anyone trying to make one of these:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=mesh+drum+head
lots of great options in all price ranges for just drum heads all the way to complete sets of snare and toms with mesh heads and mounts.
thanks again!
is your piezo in the middle of those 4 layers? like 2 under 2 on top?