wearable electronic drum set
May 12, 2010 12:03 PM Subscribe
How do I make an electronic drum kit for wearing on the body?
For example, the snare drum would be a pad or sensor somehow attached to the right thigh that the drummer would hit with either hand. (generally, I'm thinking it gets hit with the hands, not sticks. A sensor on the bottom of the right foot would serve as a kick drum. A sensor on the bottom of the left foot should work just like a high hat pedal. Cymbals and toms might be on the knees and so on.
The idea is that it could be set up to work just like a full trap kit but it would be very portable and be able to move around in a performance space with the performer. Preferably, the speaker would also be worn.
Mainly, I need to know what the best input devices are for this. They should be small and light. I think I can take care of the wearability part.
For example, the snare drum would be a pad or sensor somehow attached to the right thigh that the drummer would hit with either hand. (generally, I'm thinking it gets hit with the hands, not sticks. A sensor on the bottom of the right foot would serve as a kick drum. A sensor on the bottom of the left foot should work just like a high hat pedal. Cymbals and toms might be on the knees and so on.
The idea is that it could be set up to work just like a full trap kit but it would be very portable and be able to move around in a performance space with the performer. Preferably, the speaker would also be worn.
Mainly, I need to know what the best input devices are for this. They should be small and light. I think I can take care of the wearability part.
Most drum triggers are piezo transducers. They're cheap and easy to use in just about any application you can think of, including wearable drum triggers. Wire them up to a 1/4" tip-sleeve jack, plug that jack into a drum brain or MIDI translator and you're good to go.
posted by lekvar at 12:10 PM on May 12, 2010
posted by lekvar at 12:10 PM on May 12, 2010
To clarify, I've done something to what you're suggesting, using a Yamaha DD electronic drum kit. It was $20 off caigslist so I felt pretty comfortable playing around with its innards. The older/cheaper DD drums are battery powered, light, and have built-in speakers, but they tend to have limited accessible drum sounds, and, frankly the sounds aren't that great. But they'd be good for beginning your project. Mine has four pads, and only four sounds can be triggered without hassle, but some of the DD's have six and eight pads/sounds. Do some googling and see what you think.
Once I had my DD, I took the housing off and traced the wires from the main board to the rubber pads. Under the pads is a piezo like the one you'll likely be mounting to your clothes. I cut the wires and ran them to 1/4" female tip/sleeve jacks, which I mounted to the DD's housing. Then I wired my external piezo triggers up to 1/4" male tip/sleeve. These simply plug into the jacks on the housing.
Presto changeo, external drum triggers, suitable for whatever kind of racket you're looking to make.
The piezo/jack setup is pretty much the gold standard for triggering electronic drums and can be used anywhere from the nastyest, cheapest kid's toy to the most expensive Roland drum brain. Googleing "diy electronic drum trigger" will give you more than enough information to keep you busy for months.
posted by lekvar at 12:27 PM on May 12, 2010
Once I had my DD, I took the housing off and traced the wires from the main board to the rubber pads. Under the pads is a piezo like the one you'll likely be mounting to your clothes. I cut the wires and ran them to 1/4" female tip/sleeve jacks, which I mounted to the DD's housing. Then I wired my external piezo triggers up to 1/4" male tip/sleeve. These simply plug into the jacks on the housing.
Presto changeo, external drum triggers, suitable for whatever kind of racket you're looking to make.
The piezo/jack setup is pretty much the gold standard for triggering electronic drums and can be used anywhere from the nastyest, cheapest kid's toy to the most expensive Roland drum brain. Googleing "diy electronic drum trigger" will give you more than enough information to keep you busy for months.
posted by lekvar at 12:27 PM on May 12, 2010
Rather than buying piezo buzzers from radio shack and disassembling them, you may want to just buy the raw piezo elements.
Here is a tutorial on building contact mics.
posted by dubold at 5:59 AM on May 13, 2010
Here is a tutorial on building contact mics.
posted by dubold at 5:59 AM on May 13, 2010
Additionally, the issue you're going to run into with triggering drums this way: building the triggers will be the easy part. The way that drum triggers like this work will have inherent complications for the scenario you posed.
Basically, when a piezo element is vibrated or bent, it produces voltage. When used as a drum trigger, the mic is connected to a drum "brain". The brain sees voltage in and triggers a sample. The drum brain needs to have its output amplified in some way. Then you'll need a speaker.
The only drum brains I know of are either rackmounted, like the Alesis DM-5, or a decent-sized box, like the yamaha dtxpress.
While you can probably fit those things into a backpack or something, you're talking about a fairly bulky situation. And, additionally, the drum brain and the amplifier will need to be powered in some way. Don't know if you're envisioning the person moving around with some kind of umbilical attached or what, but that's a factor to consider. Potentially you could have some kind of transformer and a car battery to run all this, but now we're talking about some serious weight.
The other option would be to plug the piezo triggers into wireless mic beltpacks, and set up the reciever somewhere unobtrusive. This will remove any cables from the performer to the brain/amplifier, but will mean that the sound won't be coming from the same point as the performer.
anyway, just thinking it through while drinking coffee. Would be curious to know how you work all this out. Best of luck.
posted by dubold at 6:34 AM on May 13, 2010
Basically, when a piezo element is vibrated or bent, it produces voltage. When used as a drum trigger, the mic is connected to a drum "brain". The brain sees voltage in and triggers a sample. The drum brain needs to have its output amplified in some way. Then you'll need a speaker.
The only drum brains I know of are either rackmounted, like the Alesis DM-5, or a decent-sized box, like the yamaha dtxpress.
While you can probably fit those things into a backpack or something, you're talking about a fairly bulky situation. And, additionally, the drum brain and the amplifier will need to be powered in some way. Don't know if you're envisioning the person moving around with some kind of umbilical attached or what, but that's a factor to consider. Potentially you could have some kind of transformer and a car battery to run all this, but now we're talking about some serious weight.
The other option would be to plug the piezo triggers into wireless mic beltpacks, and set up the reciever somewhere unobtrusive. This will remove any cables from the performer to the brain/amplifier, but will mean that the sound won't be coming from the same point as the performer.
anyway, just thinking it through while drinking coffee. Would be curious to know how you work all this out. Best of luck.
posted by dubold at 6:34 AM on May 13, 2010
« Older Studying a Masters in Amsterdam. Help me move in... | Help me plan out a fun graduation present vacation... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by GuyZero at 12:05 PM on May 12, 2010