question on building something similar to edrum!

[Kevin]

hi,

i'm totally new to this but am really interested in building a drum module. i'm reading up everything i can on understanding schematics and hope to tackle this fairly soon.

i have two questions. first, let's say i put two piezo sensors into a single drum pad, and have each one go into an input in the drum brain. i would assume two equally strong midi messages would get sent out into my laptop, and i'd hear an identical snare & tom (or whatever the two inputs are assigned to) hit?

secondly, and i'm mostly hoping for confirmation on the feasibility of the following (to the best of my knowledge a schematic for this does not exist): let's say i have a drum pad with two piezo sensors in it as illustrated above. would it be possible to build a drum machine that takes the two separate signals (that occurs when the pad is struck) and proccess each one in a slightly different manner? more specifically, take the 'first' signal and have the strength of it determine a particular channel (ie snare, bass, hi-hat, whatever), and then take the 'second' signal and have it determine the velocity/attack/usual parameters (like it normally would) and then send that message out taking into account the 'channel' determined by the first? so, for example, if i struck the pad 'quietly' the signal from the first piezo would tell the drum module to use a snare drum, and then the second piezo would tell the drum module to use a 'quiet' snare drum hit. and if i struck the pad really hard, the signal from the first piezo would tell the drum module to use a crash, and then the second piezo would tell the drum module to use a really loud crash.

i know it sounds a little stupid (ie the whole purpose of velocity would be defeated since each instrument would automatically get a certain 'loudness' assigned to it) but this is exactly what i want. do you think building something like this would be at all possible? do you see any huge problems in what i'm describing? let's assume i just wanted to use one of these pads (ie two inputs) - would building something like this be completely different from the edrum, or would it just be a little different?

also if anyone knows of any good beginner documents/material online i'd appreciate it. i have 0 background in building anything mechanic and all these schematics are just confusing as hell to me!

thanks!

[Fisher]

putting two sensors on one pad? if you put two sensors on one pad, you'd have to plug them into 2 different inputs on the brain to get 2 different sounds from the same pad. and even with that, the two sounds will be simultaneous. i don't see much a point in putting two sensors onto one single pad.

most brains handle sensitivity and can accurately output the volume according to your "velocity" or how hard you strike the pad with only using a single sensor. SO... you shouldn't need two sensors if you've got a good brain.

one of my old drum instructors build an electronic kit using a a practice pad drum set, 5 sensors, and a Yamaha DTXpress brain (i think) and it sounded pretty good. could program several different sounds to each pad and the sensitivity was relatively accurate given the "homemade" kit. =)

Are you wanting to use two sensors to create different "zones" on your pad? Wat i mean by this is say the center of the pad would be zone 1, and the outside edge or "rim" would be zone two. Zone 1 could be programmed as a snare hit, per se, and Zone 2 could be a rimshot or cross stick. If you're going for this effect, then yes, i think you can use two sensors, HOWEVER, the sensitivity of the sensors would have to be crazy accurate as so when you strike Zone 1, Zone 2's sensor doesn't pick up the signal and feed it to the brain, thus producing a snare hit AND cross stick simultaneously. Catch mah drift?

As far as reading up on electronic kits, id check out ROLAND's site and check out their V-Drum section (V-Drums are like the industry leader in electronic drums!), or you could check out Yamaha's website. I'm sure they've got more literature on the subject.

Hope this helps somewhat. Take care.

-Fisher