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3-zone cymbal design choose

PostPosted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 11:11 am
by speterman
Hi all,

I´m in the process of converting a Acoustic to electronic drum and after a month of google researching I´m not able to decide what 3-zone cymbal works better with megadrum ( I hope sythex will sell the 3.1 version on this month).

I want to make a yamaha style 3-zone cymbal with the known schematic, but... what is better to implement de bell and edge switches, piezos with KRC PS converters as explained by PFozz (http://www.toontrack.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=46574), or with diy aluminiun can switches described by elrules (sorry, only spanish but well explained pics (http://portal.batacas.com/index.php?view=article&catid=51%3Aelectronicas&id=277%3Aconstruccion-ride-electronico-3-zonas&option=com_content&Itemid=74)

What experiencies has you with each design?

I´m affraid of the isolation for the 3 piezos in the Pfozz design and how choke works with this cymbal and Megadrum but this design likes me because no parts goes on the top (except noise damper, of course), and has no mechanical parts.
Besides it´s known that elrules design works fine with megadrum, but has diy mechanical parts that I don´t know how many time they will work, and maybe will make more noise (you can correct me if I´m wrong).

My main concern is the noise, but I don´t want ghost notes, or faulty choking, of course.

What can you advise me?

PD: elrules, if you read this you will realize that my bad english is known in spain as "Cuenca´s english", so, of course, I´m from Spain ;)

Re: 3-zone cymbal design choose

PostPosted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 7:45 pm
by elrules
speterman wrote:My main concern is the noise, but I don´t want ghost notes, or faulty choking, of course.
What can you advise me?
An acoustic converted cymbal is quite noisy. And edge switches based on electronics may introduce bad edge/bow hits. The plastic cymbal will vibrate less. For your concerns I will follow my tutorial ;)

speterman wrote:PD: elrules, if you read this you will realize that my bad english is known in spain as "Cuenca´s english", so, of course, I´m from Spain ;)
No, your English is quite good.

Hombre paisano!!!

Re: 3-zone cymbal design choose

PostPosted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 9:04 pm
by speterman
Thanks elrules!

OK, Then I need to find where to buy those stagg practice cymbals, but, as my acoustic metal cymbals are too bad, I´m going to try with them too, using the metal cymbal as one of the switch part. To damper it, I have a good professional foam tape ('borrowed' from work) that appears to reduce quite well vibrations.

I will post the results, of course.

Thanks again!

Re: 3-zone cymbal design choose

PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 8:53 am
by kimouette
You are one step ahead of me!

I was hoping to convert atleast one of my cymbals this week.

Most of the design I,m about to follow is based on Elrule's tutorial. Except for couple of things :

- I will not be using aluminium from soda cans since the tin wont hold to the aluminium (I had a very verrrry hot soldering iron but still, the tin wouldn,t hold to the aluminium) + I believe this material will easily become bumped after a certain amount of hits. So I have chosen to buy Adhesive copper tape that I will stick to some thick plastic mat I found (easy to solder, already adhesive so easy to put on any material and very conductive).

http://picasaweb.google.com/Kim.Tanguay ... 1428668482

http://picasaweb.google.com/Kim.Tanguay ... 2514427058

Here,s the copper tape I bought : http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... %26otn%3D4

- I will be using bitumen tape under my cymbal for sound deadening (that will also prevent the cymbal from vibrating too much, which should also help in terms of crosstalk/false triggering)
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kim.Tanguay ... 8770826290

- my cymbal will be used as half of the switch : http://picasaweb.google.com/Kim.Tanguay ... 5751960594

- 10k resistor will be heat shrinked to the edge-switch wire :
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kim.Tanguay ... 9805719538

- View from the top : http://picasaweb.google.com/Kim.Tanguay ... 6601074306

- View from under :
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kim.Tanguay ... 1158729442

- and finally on the top of my "plastic mat covered with copper tape" switch, I will also add some mouse pad

- The bell switch is gonna be the tough part to build. I will be testing my plastic mat onto it, but at this point I'm not sure how flexible this material will be on this round surface!

Re: 3-zone cymbal design choose

PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 3:42 pm
by speterman
Perfect, as I have various acoustic cymbals I´ll test elrules method and also kimouette's one (and maybe another one that I have in mind)

I expect to start this weekend with the conversions, but I will not be able to test it until I can buy the synthex's megadrum kit.

Thanks a bunch!

Re: 3-zone cymbal design choose

PostPosted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 10:50 am
by whiskey29
I noticed this thread and same question with me.,
Has anyone tried pFozz design ? with KRC ?