Should I use multiple Piezos to eliminate hot-spots?

[einkahumor]

Hi.

I'm not sure if this is a dumb question but here goes: Is it a bad idea to use multiple piezos to eliminate hot-spots on A to E converted cymbals? I'm thinking it possibly might create some sort of phase distortion on the signal but I've really no idea what I'm talking about. Here's a picture of what I mean (the gray area is bitumen tape):



Any input from you guys would be appreciated.

[einkahumor]

I'll explain what I'm hoping to achieve with this, hoping it will get some responses from you guys. I've come up with a design that will allow the cymbals to spin freely as I play (yup, I'm a spinner) without twisting the cable. For that reason I want to achieve pretty even 360 degree trigger response (and 360 degree KRC switching). My theory is that if I strike the cymbal between two piezos, I'll get a decent signal between these and a weak signal from the one on the other side and if I strike close to one, I'll get a strong signal from that one and a weaker signal from the others. Thus they should even each other out, right?

The question is, do you think multiple parallel wired piezos (see picture above) will distort the signal waveform (phase issues) or is the distance between so short that it won't matter? I know I could (and probably will) just try it out and see but I'm hoping someone here has some experience and/or knowledge of this.

[CyberFly]

More piezo will mean more hot spots. So I don't think this is going to fix the hot spot problem.

If you want your cymbal to spin I think a piezo in the bell would be best. This way it will be closet to the center and you would get the most consistent results, I think. Using a 360 degree switch for the edge and bell zone would look super sweet!

Good luck with your cymbal build!

[kupooglop]

I just made a diy kick drum pad with 2 piezos in it wired in parallel. I wanted a piezo directly under each beater. What I observed is that the piezos are not "matched" in the intensity that they deliver so one is "brighter" than the other. My guess is that you will have 9 different piezos with 9 different intensities. As far as phase distortion, I can't say because I have no oscilloscope to compare the signal from one piezo to a group of them wired in parallel...

p.s. nice picture!

p.p.s. I also didn't use your Keith Raper circuit. It might have a smoothing effect that helps balance multiple piezos.

[einkahumor]

I've moved away from this design because the free-rotation ball-bearing-based cable-extenders (if that describes what they are in an understandable way) that I intended to build for this (so the cymbals could actually be allowed to rotate freely) have begun to seem very expensive, hard to build and just plain ugly.

I actually think that for crashes, splashes and chinas, achieving nice looking 360° choke switches would be quite easy since I don't really need any zone separation on these (I use Superior Drummer 2, which doesn't have multiple zones on these cymbals). The thing is: If we have to stop the cymbals from spinning anyway (because of the cables), then more than 180° choke switches are pretty useless.

If anyone has any ideas for achieving free (forever) rotation of cables then I do believe we could easily build very playable, über cool e-cymbals.