Alright, well, some time ago, I said I was going to build myself an electronic drum set. It has been a little past a year since that declaration and I haven't gotten much done. So, I think it's about time I kept a log of all this and I'm going to use this post for my little project.
Modules:
Last year, I bought myself the Roland TD-5 which is currently sitting on my bed cuz I was fiddling around with it earlier today. I'm going to use it to test out my drum triggers and then when I'm done with my tests, I'm going to switch over to my own soon-to-be-home-built MegaDrum. The TD-5 has 8 inputs, 7 of which are piezo-switch capable. However, my MegaDrum will have 17 inputs and 15 of them will be stereo (TRS), capable of piezo-switch and dual piezo. On top of that, each of those same 15 inputs can be split into two mono inputs so it will be expandable up to 32 inputs! I currently need to order some of the components and solder them on to the PCB to finish my Megadrum.
Setup:
I'm going to start small and eventually make my way up to building more triggers. I'm going to start with hihat, snare, three toms, kick, crash 1, crash 2, ride, and splash. Eventually, I want to work in 2 more toms a couple of extra cymbals (maybe a china? an extra ride?) and use the rest of the inputs for auxiliary sounds (COWBELL!!).
So, I'll go ahead and show you what I've got so far...
Winter '07-08
Rack:
I bought a DTXpress rack off of ebay for about $120 shipped. It came with the legs (with braces), two front supports, three long arms, two short arms, three rack clamps + hex rods, and three cymbal clamps (7/8" diameter).
Hardware:
I sold the hex rods and replaced them with Gibralter rack clamps with Roland L-rods for mounting my toms.
I also bought a short cymbal mount with Gibralter rack clamp which I will use for my hi-hat. Also bought a Tama multiclamp with L-rod that can clamp to the cymbal mount. I'll use the L-rod for my snare.
Toms:
Most people like to use real wood toms and cut them in half for their shells. I'm going the super-cheap-diy route so I chose to use cardboard. I bought a 10" diameter quicktube which is used as a concrete form. It's pretty durable for cardboard, but I have no idea how it'll hold up for drumming use. We'll have to see.
My plan was to cut the tube in half and insert one of the halves into the other half. Of course, a section of it needed to be cut out. Using the simple equation "circumfrence = diameter x pi" I figured out how much of the tube I needed to cut. I glued the two parts together so that I had a 2 foot tube that was two layers thick cardboard. My method for measuring the lines was a bit crude, but it ended up being fairly accurate.
One of the troubles I had was that the glue wasn't sticking very well. So, I went ahead and drilled the lug holes and screwed on the lugs that I got for cheap on ebay. Being sure that the inner tube wouldn't shift since the screws were in place, I just used a regular saw and cut along the lines that I drew. I drew my cut line every four inches. This allowed me to make six shells.
I'm going to just spray paint them black and then reattach the lugs.
It's kinda late so I'll just leave it at that for now.
March 14 2008
Okay, my plan didn't work out so well. I found out that the mesh heads that I ordered are about 3/8" too small for my shells! I'm going back to Lowe's today and get a slightly smaller tube so that my mesh head and hoop will be able to fit. I'll take the shells I already made and cut out a section from each so that they can slip into the tubes I'm gonna buy. Then I'll have triple layered shells! This might help the durability of the shells. While I'm there, I'm gonna grab some spray paint, electrical tape, L-brackets and something I can use for the mounting plate for the piezo cone.
The drums I bought on ebay are for 5 lugs and the hoops I have are 6 lugs, so I'm filling in the lug holes with wooden dowels and redrilling new lug holes.