My DIY A-to-E Conversion Build

[lidrummer]

http://www.edrumming.comhttp://www.edrumming.com forum. (http://edrumming.com/forum/viewtopic...cb605ea6c6b81c)
His design really fulfilled all of my requirements and he claimed to have eliminated all sympathetic triggering as well (and by the way, his design really does, I can whack the crap out of the rim and side of the drum as well as other drums and no cross-talk what-so-ever.) I went with his basic design but used a few different elements as noted below.

Materials:
Drums: Source: www.ebay.com

Pacific Chameleon 10x5, 12x6, and 14x7 toms; Pacific CX 14x5 snare. No bass drum yet but I have hardware from a Pacific bass drum and will most likely build an acoustic 16x10 mini-bass to match and use it to convert.

Foam: Source: http://www.foamonline.com
Trigger Platform: Source: Walton Company (cork) and Home Depot (metal)
Sensor: Source: http://www.digikey.com

The sensor is the usual 35mm piezo element. I replaced the ridiculous wires with thicker ones. I got tired of breaking them by just looking at them.

Sensor Coupling: Source: http://www.mcmaster.com
Heads: Source: http://www.music123.com
Hart Dynamics Magnum Kontrol Screen for the top, Evans acoustic for the bottom.

Filler Foam:

[Sabre]

Very nicely done, and well documented.
Thanks for sharing, I love seeing other peoples projects.

[bogiesbad]

Very nicely done, and well documented.
Thanks for sharing, I love seeing other peoples projects.

I agree...great post and nice job on the conversion.

[lidrummer]

Thanks for the compliments. I just executed someone else's design with a few minor mods. The real credit goes to Chris for coming up with this beauty.

I finished the other toms and made a stab at the snare. One thing Chris pointed out was to be sure to get the piezo "dead-on-center" especially for the snare for proper PS. I didn't really pay much attention to this on the toms (singe I only have single zone inputs on my module), however, for the snare I was very careful.

Also, to protect the rims from damage from the mesh, I put in Remo Muffl Rings (sans foam ring). It also provided a nice platform for mounting the rim piezo for the snare. Currently, I only have 1 rim piezo, but am considering adding at least 1 more for even triggering. I'm pretty sure that this has been discussed before but I can't seem to find the discussion, so I will ask the question. I wired up my single center and single rim piezo according to the attached diagram but wasn't sure if the wiring for multiple rim piezos was correct according to my second diagram. Could someone please advise or point me to the correct thread?

More drum pictures to come later.

Thanks,
lidrummer

[JmanWord]

Thanks for the compliments. I just executed someone else's design with a few minor mods. The real credit goes to Chris for coming up with this beauty.

I finished the other toms and made a stab at the snare. One thing Chris pointed out was to be sure to get the piezo "dead-on-center" especially for the snare for proper PS. I didn't really pay much attention to this on the toms (singe I only have single zone inputs on my module), however, for the snare I was very careful.

Also, to protect the rims from damage from the mesh, I put in Remo Muffl Rings (sans foam ring). It also provided a nice platform for mounting the rim piezo for the snare. Currently, I only have 1 rim piezo, but am considering adding at least 1 more for even triggering. I'm pretty sure that this has been discussed before but I can't seem to find the discussion, so I will ask the question. I wired up my single center and single rim piezo according to the attached diagram but wasn't sure if the wiring for multiple rim piezos was correct according to my second diagram. Could someone please advise or point me to the correct thread?

More drum pictures to come later.

Thanks,
lidrummer

Yeah, If you are using the 35MM Digikey piezos you mentioned above for head and rim then your wiring should be fine. The rim piezos are just wired in parallel. And like I say, with that particular piezo that should be the proper polarity. With different brands and sizes of piezos, the simple rule...positional detection for the head, if PS doesn't work, reverse the ceramic and brass leads.

Oh, and as far as the names Plug and Jack..... Well, plug does sound pretty male ..... but Jack.....??? You're right.... if not Jill, at least Jackie might be more fitting

[Gastric]

Interestingly the foam-and-plate design looks extremely similar to what's in my ancient 1990's S&S Industries triggers. The only difference is S&S used a solid piece of foam over the plate, and the piezo is on the underside of the plate.

You can see photos of their design here: http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40679

[lidrummer]

Gastric.

Those are some cool drums. They look like they weigh a ton though. Obviously a thow-back to a better time when companies still used metal not cheap plastic crap.

Interestingly the foam-and-plate design looks extremely similar to what's in my ancient 1990's S&S Industries triggers.

Yeah, I have come to realize in the past year or so that I became interested in drums again (particularly E-drums) two (almost) universal constants:
(1.) Most edrum designs seem to be based on 1 of 2 basic designs: (a.) the trigger bridge/cross bar method or (b.) the hard substrate sandwiched between foam.

AND

(2.) You can trigger just about anything as proven by many folks here, particularly Jman in this post http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40479. Everytime I look at this, it cracks me up. I also think about all the cool and/or stupid things I could do with a piezo. How about a steering wheel e-drum so that when we all drive, we can practice at the same time, afterall, we do it anyways, at least with a piezo on the wheel we can hear ourselves.

Dan

[lidrummer]

Update

So I finally completed (at least for now) my A-to-E set. I got a GREAT DEAL on an unfinished 16" shell from Tom Knipe to use as a kick drum and used the hardware from a PDP bass drum I got of ebay to match the other drums. If anyone is looking for shells, you should check Tom out first. He cuts some fantastic deals and is super friendly and helpful. He cut the shell down for me and I sent him a lug, tension rod and claw and he even drilled the holes for me perfectly for a rediculously LOW price.

I wasn't sure whether or not I could live with the gloss black drum wrap that was originally on the Chameleon toms so I decided to go with a dark abalone pearl on everything except the snare. I think it came out pretty damned good (if I do say so) and it was unbelievably easy to do. I used wrap from JamminSam so there was no contact adhesive involved. I originally thought that removing the old wrap was going to be a pain in my arse but that process turned out to be the easiest part of all. Drilling the holes through the new wrap and reattaching the hardware turned out to be the hardest and most time consuming part.

I originally was going to put a Hart mesh head on the batter side of the kick but that didn't work out so well. It turns out (at least for my drum) that the Hart mesh head didn't fit properly and I had to go with an acoustic head. I don't know if it is the wrap that is causing the head to hang up on or whether it is the wood hoops but I find it strange the the acoustic heads (which are tom heads not bass heads) fit perfectly fine and the Hart does not. Go figure. Anyways, just thought I would throw that out there in case someone else is contemplating building a mesh head 16" kick to be aware that the head may not fit.

I think that I am done now, although the GAS is kicking in (what is it about that GAS?) and I am rethinking a new cymbal design along the lines of a more stealthing but destructive nature.

Here are the pics...enjoy and thanks to the community for all of the great contributions, from which none of this would have been possible.

Thanks,
Dan

[pchanning]

Looks great, good stuff. what did you do with the cymbals? Looks like they are acoustic stuck over an electronic? Is it a just the trigger box underneath?

[SuperPuss]

Great work Dan. Those wraps look fantastic

[KnipeDrums]

Looks Awesome

Hey Dan, You did a great job!!! Thank You for the kind words. I love the wrap job you did, very very sweet. Thanks again I am glad the drum received a loving new home. Tom

[lidrummer]

Thanks for all the kind words. The wrap came out much better than I expected it would and was very easy to do. I am not sure I would use the tape only method with an acoustic set but for an electronic it really doesn't matter.

what did you do with the cymbals? Looks like they are acoustic stuck over an electronic? Is it a just the trigger box underneath?

The cymbals...yes...an ongoing weakness in my overall project. Actually, they are acoustic cymbals over Pintech practice with the piezos mounted to the top of the practice cymbals. It is a modification of one of Beatnik's design but I tried to get cute and make them dual-zone with choke using John F's and Super Pusses' modification to Raper's circuit for the second zone. The 14" crashes work pretty well except for some reason after the first day, the choking capability stopped working. The ride is another story. I don't think that the problem is so much the cymbal design as much as it is the limitations of the TD-3 module. I have to say that Roland really dropped the ball on this one. I can't seem to get the bow sound easily without triggering the bell (via velocity sensitivity). I really with that Roland would have included a bow only ride sound.

I really wanted a reversible design (i.e. no permanent mod to the a-cymbals). I am not completely satisfied with this so I am working on a modification to eliminate the Raper circuit completely but with have to make permanent mods to the cymbals but I think they will be more robust.

Dan

[Vectron]

Great job Lidrummer!
Forgive me for going from E to A here, but I was wondering what your
16 x 10 mini bass drum sounds like acoustically, with just regular acoustic heads? I am very curious as to how small one can go, and still get a good acoustic bass drum sound.

[cheapthrill]

A very nice looking conversion! I agree with everybody on those wraps, they look super-cool.

Very interesting approach on the bass drum...if you decide in the future that you want a different kit for yourself, you could totally sell this as a custom-made acoustic kids set.

[lidrummer]

Vectron,
I only played the kick a few times acoustically and with only the batter head on it. But it doesn't sound too bad. It is a little high pitched but I am sure with the right heads and/or dampening, it could be tuned to get a good punch. I am using Fiberskyn heads right now on it which are probably ideal for an acoustic setup. If I get a chance, I'll pull the guts out and try it out acoustically.

Cheapthrill,
I think the set could definately be used as an acoustic set, perhaps even as a bop/jazz set.

Thanks,
Dan