NANO-8 DRUM TRIGGER KIT..

[deadastronaut]

OK, its not a stompbox , but hey its a 1590b..

this is what ive been up to for the last few months....busy busy bee..

with a a bit of help from slacker and mick/ice-9 i finally got it done..phewww..thanks a million guys.

i got sick of trying to play drums on keys, or tiny 1 inch pads etc, and needed/wanted
something i could actually hit...heres the result...
my preliminary pads are still relatively small, but they can be any size i like....very cool.
now my drummer has something to do when he comes round too instead of moaning...
its great for jamming...check it out.

[Kipper4]

Looks great fun. Nice job Rob.

[deadastronaut]

yeah man, it is...

[slacker]

The finished product looks great Rob, nice work.

[deadastronaut]

cheers ian...yeah came out cool in the end...im very happy with it.

thanks for your help man..

[stallik]

Nice one Rob, how did you put the triggers together?

[deadastronaut]

hi kevin..

they are just bog standard piezo disks, the same as normal E-KITS use..

i glued them in the centre of a metal disk, put foam on top, and a thin
rubber on the bottom..

i also tried CD's doing the same thing....

ive actually made a kick pedal too now..crude, but it works ok..

[Mark Hammer]

And those little Arduinos can be gotten for well under $10 these days, like this puppy:  https://www.dipmicro.com/store/ARD-NANOV3-328P

There was a project from the late Charles R. Fischer in Electronic Musician, back in 1992, called the Fingerdrum.  It was a little box set up to provide MIDI output code for triggering drums using 10 little piezo finger pads.  Imagine you put your fingertips down on a box as if you were ready to play piano chords.  Under each fingertip was a pressure pad.

[gtudoran]

Nice job Rob and the enclosure it's just perfect. Excellent job! Congrats.

[deadastronaut]

And those little Arduinos can be gotten for well under $10 these days, like this puppy:  https://www.dipmicro.com/store/ARD-NANOV3-328P

There was a project from the late Charles R. Fischer in Electronic Musician, back in 1992, called the Fingerdrum.  It was a little box set up to provide MIDI output code for triggering drums using 10 little piezo finger pads.  Imagine you put your fingertips down on a box as if you were ready to play piano chords.  Under each fingertip was a pressure pad.

hi mark, yeah this is pretty much the same really,
you can get the arduino nano v3's for as little as a quid now (ebay etc)..

its a really cheap build, 13 resistors, 8 diodes, 2 leds..   
i went fancy with my build,with no offboard wiring, and sockets for each pad/fs
there are drill templates on my site for anyone who wants to build one the same..
and all other info/code etc...

a lazy cheapo version can be built in half hour
with piezos/pads soldered directly to the pcb too...
i made a quick n dirty one for a friend who has always fancied himself as a drummer, he loves it...

just choose your prefered  'midi notes' in the code, re-upload and off ya go...

this was my first ever venture into arduino stuff...lots of fun,
the code just screws my head though...

[mcknib]

Well I wish my head was as 'screwed' as yours Rob it's another excellent wee piece of kit from you it's got the rust ridden cogs in my head moving again with what you can do with piezos etc mind you I'm in the middle of a house move so it'll be a while before I get into it again - nice - very nice indeed

[deadastronaut]

cheers billy,

aww man, ive just finished redecorating and building stuff...

i feel your pain...moving is grief..good luck.

[samhay]

Very very nice.
What do the pads sound like if you hit them with a (drum) stick? Do you have any problems with headroom?

[deadastronaut]

hi sam,

no issues at all..

if you was building pads for hitting hard with sticks, then they would
obviously have to be quite tough...and thicker to get a good velocity sense out of them..soft/hard etc
you could even just hook up proper e-kit pads to it too...so its just a drum brain.
all the research i did showed that all kits are merely piezo triggers anyway...just with 1/4'' jacks
i just wanted to keep this small, and portable..so went with the DC socket /plug route..neato.

any unused inputs are switched to ground, otherwise any 'open' ones would cause mis triggering..


the piezos are very sensitive..but i havent had any 'breakup' if thats what you mean..

[mfunky]

Nice! Love the nanos, I just put one in a 1590b as well for a tap tempo control!

[Ice-9]

It's Nice to see the finished brain and triggers Rob, it sounds and looks great

[Ice-9]

Pencil drum sticks for rock , how about some small model painting brushes for some Jazz Rob.

[Mark Hammer]

I always wanted to have drum pads on a strip of sensors you could attach to the perimeter of your car steering wheel.  A drum brain and mixer would go between the CD player and power amp so you could play drums along with music while you drove.

That would lead to either a lot of accidents or tickets for distracted driving while taking a solo.

[karbomusic]

Nice Rob! I wondered what you would end up with after we spoke via youtube comments. Nice work. I had considered whether a couple TL074s would make good sensitivity controls but some of the sensitivity can be controlled via the NANO code I would assume potentially making that irrelevant? Obviously more complex, DIY brain cells are firing all over so forgive.

It is correct that piezos are the triggers in most triggered instruments going way back. I used to buy them by the bag full back in the late 80s for analog purposes and repairing my drummer's store bought triggers. Used one to turn a ride cymbal into a deranged microphone once.

Glad you are still going with the Nano's I love em. I built a one-knob MIDI CC controller for my DAW a few weeks back but it is still on the breadboard.

[Quackzed]

dude, i'm literally just finishing up a midi drum kit i've been hammering away at for about 2 months!!     i thought of diy ing an arduino type thing but found a roland td3 for short $ and hacked a bunch of guitar hero pads on a diy pvc frame, all parts pretty cheap but time invOLVED . thats awesome that you went totally diy with the brain, nice tidy build!! right on man! reading all kinds of ezdummer vs. addictive dums stuff lol.