KVR Audio

lebaron · Post by **lebaron** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:44 pm

Might have been mentioned, possibly on that massive YouTube goodness thread but...

This is awesome.

Don't understand a word he says, but you don't have to.
Guy makes a homemade midi controller snare drum that he plays into Reaktor.

Check it out.

Bob

ugo · Post by **ugo** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:51 pm

thats pretty cool. it looks reasonably sensitive too.

afreshcupofjoe · Post by **afreshcupofjoe** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 10:57 pm

That's nothing. I built a whole drum kit. It was really cheap. Mine has better velocity sensitivity too. I use it to trigger battery or bfd. I'll post pictures if anyone is interested.

If you want to build your own this place has lots of good examples to get you started:
http://edrum.for.free.fr/

ugo · Post by **ugo** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 1:02 am

afreshcupofjoe wrote:I'll post pictures if anyone is interested.

sure, i've be interested to check that out.

stayne · Post by **stayne** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 1:37 am

afreshcupofjoe wrote:That's nothing. I built a whole drum kit. It was really cheap. Mine has better velocity sensitivity too. I use it to trigger battery or bfd. I'll post pictures if anyone is interested.

If you want to build your own this place has lots of good examples to get you started:
http://edrum.for.free.fr/

How much to build me one?

lebaron · Post by **lebaron** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 2:13 am

I've always thought why can't I make drum beats that sound as good as me playing my fingers on random surfaces like a plastic bag, cardboard box, etc.
This build-your-own midi controller idea is so cool, maybe I should learn.

But there's midi generators, and then there's audio generators, like that egg shaker thing someone made. (Anyone remember that?) It was connected to an audio-in cord. I don't think it was midi at all.

I wonder how much electronics background one needs to have to 'roll your own'.

Bob

afreshcupofjoe · Post by **afreshcupofjoe** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 4:51 am

You can hook up the pads directly to audio inputs and then use something like KTDrumTrigger to convert the audio spikes to midi, but then you need a lot of audio inputs if you want to set up a whole kit. I had mine set up this way using 8 inputs for testing and it worked pretty well, but there are obvious advantages to using a dedicated midi trigger unit.

Now I have an alesis dm5 midi trigger unit which I got pretty cheap on ebay. I can connect 12 triggers to it plus a foot controller. The triggers can be anything you want: mouse pads, tupperware, pvc, carboard boxes, water jugs, or even custom made mesh head drums. You just have to connect a $1 piezo element to it somehow. It's very simple; minimal electronics experience is needed.

I used mousepads with sheet metal sandwitched in between, and mounted them on a wooden frame. The whole trigger setup cost me less than $80 in parts. The midi brain was a bit more expensive, but I can't remember how much I paid for it.

All in all it is a pretty decent edrum set for the price. It seems to work just as well as some of the rubber pad sets I've played at music stores. I've seen custom kits people have built that rival the finest roland v-drums in quality, but these are much more involved projects. I just threw mine together for fun.

afreshcupofjoe · Post by **afreshcupofjoe** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 5:25 am

Here's some pictures. Sorry about the poor quality; it's night and my camera has a terrible flash.

crazed one · Post by **crazed one** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 5:32 am

Pretty cool

northland · Post by **northland** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 6:08 am

afreshcupofjoe; you have my respect.

androidlove · Post by **androidlove** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 6:34 am

details please

ugo · Post by **ugo** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 6:58 am

very cool.

tboneuk2 · Post by **tboneuk2** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 7:54 am

Well done afreshcupofjoe. Necessity is the mother of invention (and you save a few bucks too!!) great work man.

Couple of DM5 on Ebay around $150 4 bids 11 hours left. Another 1day left $100.

lebaron · Post by **lebaron** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 2:21 pm

wow, mouse pads as drums. I'll never look at a mouse pad with disrespect again.

But how exactly does the velocity sensitivity work? That's gotta be the most important consideration when making one of these homemade midi generators.

I understand the principle of piezoelectric transducers but how to convert this to midi and get it into my host.

Toxikator · Post by **Toxikator** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 3:34 pm

I think what he's doing is how hard he hits it controls the input level. that is to say, the closer the string gets to the pickup the more voltage is transmitted (at least that's my understanding of guitar pickups) so he probably just sees little pops of varying velocities and uses a Reaktor ensemble made to work like Drumagog or the like to send MIDI note messages from the voltage input.

cool homemade snare drum - YouTube