[kimouette]

Maybe it’s too late for an answer, but just in case it could help anyone….

The bitumen tape I bought is made by “Bostik GmbH” (a German company)

It is called :

Bitumen-Band alufarben (abdichtungsband)

The description :

Verklebung und Abdichtung von Mettalen, Kunststoffen, Holz und Beton.
Geeignet für die Abdichtung und Verklebung von Regenrinnen, Dachabdeckungen, Fallrohren, Dachdurchbrüchen etc…

http://www.bostik.de/
But dont bother trying to buy the product directly from them! you’ll find it at your local hardware store. I bought mine at Hornbach

[kimouette]

Hey Gastric,

Can I ask you what material you use as “sound deadening”? And do you also put some on the edge of both hi-hats?

I dont know if you have 1, 2 or 3 piezos on the top cymbal, but if you have more than 1, doesn’t the “sound deadening material” affect the piezo’s response by cancelling the vibration?

[kimouette]

Do you guys use the same technique for the hi-hat?
And if so…
Do you put bitumen tape on both the top and bottom cymbales?
How do you manage to position the piezo’s leads so they dont get constantly “squeezed” between the 2 cymbales?

[kimouette]

Hey gastric,

About the petentiometer…
What range of resistance and what tolerance should I be looking for?

Also, since there are 122 potentiometers available at my electronic store, I’m still wondering what aspect that potentiometer must have in order to be used the way you describe it.

https://www.addison-electronique.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=potentiometer&x=0&y=0

[kimouette]

I have a 2 question….

– Is the “Ikea PANNÅ place mat” used only to make the cymbal look better or does it have any indispensable property that I’ll have to be looking for?

– How thick does the “double-sided foam tape” have to be?

[kimouette]

Same question here…

Do you happen to have any more details on the construction, materials, etc. ?

Or otherwise, does anyone know another technique that could be used in order to convert a conventional cymbal to an e-cymbale ?

[kimouette]

Gastric, it’s so nice of you to answer every time I ask a question! Thanks for all your help!

So finally, my motivation kinda got beat up by the complexity of “trying to find the most unexpensive way to build a drum”!
Like I said someone I know will build the Megadrum 32 inputs for me (that’s already a huge economy considering the price of a drum module!). But for the drum itself, buying lugs, hoops, wood (or any other cheap material), 2 pedals etc.. would still cost me more than I was thinking in the first place. I was naive enough to believe that building the whole thing from A to Z could cost barely nothing

So I found a guy selling an old drum (with skins that need to be replaced.. but hey, why would I care !!) for 200$ and I’ll go pick it up tomorrow. I’ll be starting from there.

I know I want to use the “mosquito net technique” as the skins,
but now I’m trying to figure out how I’m gonna fix the piezos in place without using 129038123 different and/or hard to find material.

If anyone could help me on this one, it would be very appreciated!!
Oh and a step by step tutorial with pictures would be even better!!

[kimouette]

Anyone knows an international seller that would sell enough rims and lugs to build a complete DIY drum set just like this one … At the lowest possible price!!

Thanks!!

Kim

[kimouette]

Hi Gastric,

You’re right ! The Megadrum board is definately the cheapest (and at the same time, a good quality) alternative I can chose. Since I’m not very manual and never soldered anything I asked my step-father to do it for me. I gave him the plans and explained what I would like as a final results and he seems pretty motivated!

I dont want to buy any drum module, first of all, because I would still need to do a little bit of electronic to map my piezos to the module and also, because it’s a little too expensive!

At first I thought the all in one kit was perfect, but then, I figured out that 90% of what it is made for will be useless for me (all I need is 8 analog inputs and the usb output). So there are a lot of useless gadgets there that I would be paying for.

So in the end, thanks for your great advise! I will have the Megadrum built for me and I’m sure I wont regret it!

One last question though…

On the megadrum forum I have posted a question to know what I would need for my particular usage. The answer was : one Megadrum32 digital board and one analogue 32 inputs board.
But when we take a look at the “schematics” page, it sais that we need to build TWO analogue boards. Is that true? Will I be needing a total of 3 boards (1 digital + 2 analogue)?

[kimouette]

gastric,

Thanks for the plug!
This suggestion is definately one that could solve my problem.
But it wont be easy to build! I’m not a very manual person, I’ve never built any electronic system and the schematics are pretty scary!
But I started reading and trying to understand, I guess soon (not tomorrow, but soon) I’ll be ready to start building it.
…. unless someone brings a more simple alternative that would be just as effective!

Thanks a lot !!

[kimouette]

If you’re a Mac user all you need is http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio/junxion.html. That software will convert any USB device to MIDI. Which means your Rockband drum kit wit appear as a midi controller in just ANY audio software (ProTools, Logic, Garageband, Reason, Cubase, and of course in any plugin supported by these software… Battery 3 from Native instruments, Ezdrummer from ToonTrack, any Apple Loop plugin etc…)

If you’re a PC user, I’m sure you’ll be able to find something that works like Junxion. But I have to admit, Gamepad Companion and other softwares converting usb to keys instead of MIDI signals, will involve a lot of latency.

Forcing your computer to believe you have plugged a MIDI controller is the best way to control any USB device for musical composing!

[Author]

Replies