Anybody have experience using Roland PD8 type pads?

[lrizzo2001]

I can put threshold on rim as low as 13 and still trigger aftertouch if I squeeze very hard.
I have to dig out a multimeter to measure resistance, and might need help on what to put the meter on,
I will try an Aux jack tonight
Dumb Question, if my 3rd zone is disabled, why is it still effecting the pads settings? if I strike the drum very hard it triggers 3rd zone, and if I change the 3rd zone note it is changing the sound being triggered at that hard hit, Enabling, and disabling seems to have no effect.
I also tried the settings of the TP80s and what I got was complete loss of Head strikes in Midi when striking the had, now I only get rim and aftertouch. And I'm getting aftertouch when striking the head. So when looking at the midi monitor, I'm no longer able to trigger the Blue Head strikes, I'm getting Green, Yellow and Grey aftertouch.

correct Dmitri, at 16 it doesn't trigger the rim, at 17 it triggers the rim, but also triggers the rim if I hit the head hard, not super hard, but a normal hard snare hit.

Does it produce an aftertouch On/Off when you press/release the rim switch Threshold below 16? At which Threshold you can no longer get aftertouch On/Off when pressing/releasing the switch?
Can you measure resistance between the sleeve and the ring when you press the switch?
Can you test it in a different jack, say in on of Aux jacks (to exclude a problem on the rim (ring) input of the snare jack)? Is the problem the same in the other jack?

Just in case, I re-did the test with a Yamaha TP80S dual zone piezo/switch pad which looks pretty much the same as PD-8. With Gain set to 4 and with Threshold on the edge set below ~20 the separation between the head and rim hits is perfect. This is because the rim switch has no resistors and pressing the the rim switch shortens the edge input to ground and as a result setting signal level on the edge input almost to zero. Don't see why it should be any different with PD-8.

[dmitri]

Dumb Question, if my 3rd zone is disabled, why is it still effecting the pads settings? if I strike the drum very hard it triggers 3rd zone, and if I change the 3rd zone note it is changing the sound being triggered at that hard hit, Enabling, and disabling seems to have no effect.

I guess it a DampenedNote from the 3rd zone which is triggered. Even on a dual zone piezo/switch pad/cymbal you can have a 3rd note when you hit the pad/cymbal while the edge/rim switch is pressed.

[lrizzo2001]

So is this adding to the complexity of getting these pads configured properly? it seems like every little thing I change with gain/threshold makes the pad behave completely different

Dumb Question, if my 3rd zone is disabled, why is it still effecting the pads settings? if I strike the drum very hard it triggers 3rd zone, and if I change the 3rd zone note it is changing the sound being triggered at that hard hit, Enabling, and disabling seems to have no effect.

I guess it a DampenedNote from the 3rd zone which is triggered. Even on a dual zone piezo/switch pad/cymbal you can have a 3rd note when you hit the pad/cymbal while the edge/rim switch is pressed.

[dmitri]

So is this adding to the complexity of getting these pads configured properly?

I can remove DampenedNote functionality if it adds unneeded complexity and if everybody else agrees with it. Does anybody else have a view on this?

it seems like every little thing I change with gain/threshold makes the pad behave completely different

Gain and Threshold are among most important settings and they do affect behaviour of pads if changed considerably for certain configurations. In your case, Threshold on the Edge input should not have noticeable affect once it below certain value and above 0. I'm trying to help you to get to the cause of the problem - it might be a problem with the input, it might be a problem with a cable, it might be a problem with a pad, but at the moment I cannot tell for sure. As I said, setting up a similar Yamaha pad to separate head and rim takes a few seconds and you should have been the same with PD-8.

[lrizzo2001]

Tonight I will have time to play around more with trying different inputs etc. I know that the pad itself and the cable should be fine, as they work flawless when I use both on the Roland TD-7. I have 8 of these roland pads, so I'll certainly play around with swapping them to see if there's any change from 1 pad to another.

Can you give me a quick tutorial on how to test the resistance on the pad? I'm assuming the stereo cable plugs into the pad and I'm testing resistance at the other end of the cable. What do I dial the multi-meter to? (just cause I have one, doesn't mean I know how to use it) lol

So is this adding to the complexity of getting these pads configured properly?

I can remove DampenedNote functionality if it adds unneeded complexity and if everybody else agrees with it. Does anybody else have a view on this?

it seems like every little thing I change with gain/threshold makes the pad behave completely different

Gain and Threshold are among most important settings and they do affect behaviour of pads if changed considerably for certain configurations. In your case, Threshold on the Edge input should not have noticeable affect once it below certain value and above 0. I'm trying to help you to get to the cause of the problem - it might be a problem with the input, it might be a problem with a cable, it might be a problem with a pad, but at the moment I cannot tell for sure. As I said, setting up a similar Yamaha pad to separate head and rim takes a few seconds and you should have been the same with PD-8.

[dmitri]

You can see a video guide for testing resistance in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEYvlh1KaFs
More similar videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... tance+test

[lrizzo2001]

if I did it correctly, resistance measured 6.94

[dmitri]

6.94 Ohm or kOhm?

[lrizzo2001]

meter was set to 20K

6.94 Ohm or kOhm?

[dmitri]

So I understand it is 6.94 kOhm.
You measure it between sleeve and ring?
You did not add any resistors?
What resistance does it show when the switch is not pressed?
Is it 6.94 kOhm on all other PD-8 pads when the rim switch is pressed?