Re: Drum shell sizing question for DIY project – Anyone?

[gastric]

I think the general concensus is the smaller the mesh head size the better for triggering. Roland heads are most easily available in 12″ sizes, though you can find 14″ if you look hard. Hart mesh heads are less expensive and are available in just about whatever size you want, including for your 22″ bass. Of course you can make your own mesh heads cheaply using a couple layers of Lowe’s solar screen material bonded onto an old acoustic head hoop. Certainly a ton of options. Which makes it confusing. 🙂

I personally took a cheap-O Groove Percussions 5 piece kit and converted it to electronic using cheap 40mm eBay piezos, the Beatnik crossbar method, DIY cones, and Hart heads, and currently an Alesis Trigger IO, and did a set of brass cymbals using the same 40mm piezos and a PVC sheet underneath for sound dampening.

I’ve had good success with the following exceptions:

* 16″ floor tom still provides poor response and mis-triggers. I haven’t cracked the case on it yet. But it’s frustrating. I can tune it out with module settings but then loose playability for rolls and dymanics.
* I have the same issue on my 22″ bass but it’s not an issue to tune it out via module settings since I have a single pedal and the bass doesn’t require as many dymanics and speed overall.
* 14″ snare requires a boost in gain to get subtle nuanced hits which limits overall range, but it’s still very playable
* 16″ ride rings a bit hard on the bow sounds. I haven’t determined if this is my cheap cymbal, piezo location, or an Addictive Drum issue. I’ve always had issues getting a loud, clear “ping” on the bow sound via Addictive and it tends to move quickly towards a harder crashy sounding hit too easily. Particularly after striking the bell. So it’s probably a cymbal or piezo issue more than anything.
* Overall I get some extremely low-velocity mis-triggers that accompany my actual hits across the board. However, they’re not audible and are only visible when reviewing a MIDI piano roll. Most eDrummers aren’t recording MIDI and I suspect many have similar issues they simply aren’t aware of. But if you can’t really hear it I guess it’s not really an issue.

My general conclusion is:

* DIY is easy and doesn’t have to be hard or expensive.
* Turning out a totally playable/usable product is pretty easy.
* Getting it to work absolutely perfect is difficult.

The V-Drums forum is your best source for DIY stuff. Though not a concise collection that’s the most robust and active source of info available.

Christopher Graham