Diy Triggers/Contact mics

if6was9

if6was9

Ireland
Jun 13, 2007
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lreland
Been meaning to post about this for a while but only got to actually building and testing this out today.

Basically you can build a trigger for ridicously cheap. Get a piezo transducer- maplin sell them for about a euro, and a broken instrument lead, Lop the broken end off the lead, solder the black lead of the piezo to the ground and the red to the live part of the lead, there ya go!

Tape it up so the connections won't break. They also make decent contact pickups, if you tape it to the body of an acoustic guitar you get a nice pleasant even sound that could definately be worth mixing with a miced tone for a different sound, It'd be pretty killer for live aswell if you've not got a pickup on an acoustic you want to use. I've a friend with a double bass who's seen them used on those too. I guess it'll pretty much work on any acoustic instrument with a vibrating top.

I'm definately gonna throw another 3-4 of these together, Can't wait to try them on a proper drum recording to trigger gates and samples off instead of the miced sound
 
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Yea DIY triggers work great. My first band's first demo's kick was triggered with a radioshack transducer and an Alesis DM5. I can't remember the radioshack part number, but last time I went to make some of these, I discovered that the good ones were suddenly harder to find, and I settled for some "Piezo Buzzers". They kinda worked, but not very well. Too big I'm guessing. Not very sensitive.

Isn't it kind of infuriating that Ddrum sells basically these same things for like $60? You're mostly paying for a fancy protective metal shell and an XLR plug (which by the way can only be repaired by drilling a hole in the shell if a screw ever comes loose, as they use rivets to secure the jack). But they're so damn convenient and pretty it's hard to resist them. o_O
 
yeah- cost me less than 1 euro to build one today as I've tons of old broken leads I've gotten from friends over the last few years.
So do you reckon its better to get smaller transducers- I wasn't sure so i'm after buying a few different sizes to see what works.

Can't get over how decent the acoustic sound is, I've heard a recording with one before but I tried it today and it was totally usable for recording, not great but totally usable in a mix. took really well to treatment aswell and noise really wasn't an issue
 
I would imagine another advantage to the Ddrum triggers is the way they're secured/constructed, which might prevent mistriggers (which of course would almost defeat the whole purpose of using them) - still, this is intriguing...
 
I'm not sure really if it was the size of the buzzers or the fact that they were buzzers and not transducers that made them less sensitive. They also had a much broader frequency response compared to the transducers, which may have played a part. They were still usable, but as drum triggers, the transducers would be preferable IMO. I think the frequency response was more centered around the high mids as well, which made them good for drum triggering.

It's true, nothing beats the pro Ddrum triggers if you can afford them, as their mounting method involves no tape and is solid as hell security-wise, it just sucks that they charge so much for them, probably merely because they have the patent for such a sweet design and can get away with it.

It can take a bit more effort trying to dial in the settings on DIY triggers to avoid false and double triggers, but it can be done, and placement options are nearly endless, but you have to deal with tape or adhesive, which sucks, and makes the Ddrum triggers look all the more purdy. o_O
 
Unless youre talking about some method of turning a regular mic into a contact mic that I am unaware of, you'd get a lot of bleed and it would be loads harder to avoid false triggering. Plus DIY contact mics are so cheap and easy they make a ton of sense economically.
 
Yep, those are the ones- a few leads soldered onto them and you've got some triggers!

RE: Oz - yeah I suppose it should! My bad...
 
Here's an older site with info on how to make these triggers and then put together an entire electronic kit. It's a little more involved than making simple contact triggers, but still a cool little project.

I printed an older version of these instructions out nearly 10 years ago and still have 'em. I haven't actually DONE anything with them, but still... :)

http://www.electronicdrums.com/pads/pads2.htm
 
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