homemade drum triggers??

[dankarghh]

Hey guys,

I've been doing a bit of reading and i'm curious about making homemade triggers using a piezo element and hooking it up to a quarter inch jack, whacking on a bit of foam and hooking it up to press onto the drum head. Has anyone here done this? any thoughts or nice guides i could follow? If im not mistaken this could be plugged directly into an interface without a drum brain? I know nothing about triggers so correct me if I'm wrong.

A bit like this http://www.tizzaa.com/drumtrigger/a_drum_trigger_kit_icon.gif

Cheers guys

 

[midget donkeys]

I actually made one with parts from radio shack a couple of weeks ago. It didn't look as good as the one in your picture though. It cost around 5 dollars to make (I already had a soldering iron). I taped it to a carboard box then plugged a 1/4 cord into it and my audio interface. Then set up aptrigger and used it to trigger some snare drum samples. Its pretty darn cool.

 

[JonWormwood]

We built an internal one that we've played dozens of shows with (into a DM pro) works awesome

 

[jeid]

I would also be quite interested to learn about this. Any info would be grand

 

[JonWormwood]

Really simple to do, buy peizo, take it apart, solder two wires to jack. We used some aluminium stock to mount it, threw some foam (or felt actually i think) in front of it and then voila. And of course a 6t pillow behind it to dampen the bass head. (drummer does heel/toe so it was a bitch to get right otherwise...)

 

[AntonioPetrole]

i built an entire drum kit with DIY triggers. I have a tama swingstar kit with 4 toms, 4 cymbals and kick snare and hats. Drums were super easy to do, just got window screen mesh, i cut out the inside part of the skins on the actual skin (keeping the metal ring but cutting out actualy skins). Then just putting 2-3 sheets of mesh under it and tighten it up, it feels super realistic and triggers nicely as well. If you want i could prob put up a vid of how to do it. To lay the actual trigger in i put 2 L-brackets on the inside of the drum and layed a piece of wood across it. I put the trigger on a piece of styrofoam then I layed a 2 inch piece of foam on top of the so its also touching the mesh. I will post a paint picture of how i did it in a few minutes

 

[nwright]

I've made my own triggers for a friends Guitar Hero drum set...He had a cymbal go bad, and they connect via 1/8" jacks. So I bought the piezo and just wired to the existing cable with 1/8" end and use double sided industrial tape/adhesive and fastened it to the underside of the rubber cymbal...Actually is much more sensitive than the stock drum set! Worked great, lol.

 

[cloy26]

i built an entire drum kit with DIY triggers. I have a tama swingstar kit with 4 toms, 4 cymbals and kick snare and hats. Drums were super easy to do, just got window screen mesh, i cut out the inside part of the skins on the actual skin (keeping the metal ring but cutting out actualy skins). Then just putting 2-3 sheets of mesh under it and tighten it up, it feels super realistic and triggers nicely as well. If you want i could prob put up a vid of how to do it. To lay the actual trigger in i put 2 L-brackets on the inside of the drum and layed a piece of wood across it. I put the trigger on a piece of styrofoam then I layed a 2 inch piece of foam on top of the so its also touching the mesh. I will post a paint picture of how i did it in a few minutes

yah dude, that would be awesome.

 

[AntonioPetrole]

ok so i found out that drawing is hard lol. Go to this site

http://www.edrums.info/acoustic_1.htm

This is where i learned how to do it. With some practice you will find out what triggers well and what doesnt.

 

[cloy26]

Damn, I thought it would be clipped differently. I want a way to easily attach the triggers to different drum sets.

 

[dankarghh]

awesome thanks guys, much appreciated. I'll give it a shot this weekend and let you know how it goes.

 

[Wolfeman]

Damn, I thought it would be clipped differently. I want a way to easily attach the triggers to different drum sets.

Get some steel , bend it how you want it, attach some clamps, add the piezo and foam and jack, and there you go! If you can drill and glue, it's not a hard project at all. Use a Ddrum trigger as a guide.

 

[AllanD]

Does anyone have any info as to how accurate these are?

 

[Wolfeman]

Does anyone have any info as to how accurate these are?

There are some forums dedicated to DIY triggers, and from what I've read on them, they are just as accurate, if not more accurate, than store bought triggers.

It all depends on how you make them.

 

[AntonioPetrole]

There are some forums dedicated to DIY triggers, and from what I've read on them, they are just as accurate, if not more accurate, than store bought triggers.

It all depends on how you make them.

+1, the piezo DIY triggers can be set rediculously sensitive using your drum module settings, so its all about how you mount them and like I said, trial and error and you will figure out the best way

 

[AllanD]

So they have to be put in a module? Also, I would appreciate a PM about these specific forums.

 

[Wolfeman]

So they have to be put in a module? Also, I would appreciate a PM about these specific forums.

Nah you can go straight into a converter if you wish. As for the forums, just google 'diy drum triggers' and some of the first pages have links in them that will get you to some diy forums.

 

[cloy26]

Bump because I'm building some modeled after the ddrum red shot triggers. I am using a piece of metal and bending it, using radioshack piezos, 1/4 jack, foam. But my questions are:

What are the measurements of the redshots... I want to make sure I bend it with the right dimensions. Sadly, I don't have a drum set here to go trial and error with.

also

Should I put the piezo in between the foam cube or put the foam cube on the one side and attach the backside of the piezo to the metal piece with some glue/velcro... Basically, is it bad to glue the foam on the actual transducer (I think) side of the piezo?

 

[dankarghh]

cloy! im looking to do the same tommorrow, i too am curious as to where the element is in the chain, i assume drum>foam>element>steel etc, can you just glue the foam straight on?? and the element to the steel?

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

What are the measurements of the redshots... I want to make sure I bend it with the right dimensions. Sadly, I don't have a drum set here to go trial and error with.

I made a thread asking that same question about a month ago and got no response. If you find out let me know dude.