[ed. note - the following is as yet un-HTML'ed. More elegant graphics will be added at a later date - JM] How to Make Triggers for the D4 Drum Machine ============================================ By Mike Dalton (miked@plaza.ds.adp.com) FIrst, there is no *one* correct method to do this. I will describe the general method I used and then you can try this along with *your* own variations. The following information will allow you to make very inexpensive drum pads that play nicely, and can be used as input triggers to an Alesis D4 drum sounds rack module. THe key here is very simple. If you want to get the essential info and start playin' around with this idea. then do the following: ---------------------------------------------------- Part 1: The down and dirty "proof of concept" 1. Go to Radio Shack and buy 1 or more Piezo buzzers. Note that there are *many* to choose from. THe one that I use is the one that costs $1.49 each (as of 10/94). THey are about the size of a U.S. quarter (you know, 25 cents..quarter) and they have two (not three) wires, a red and a black one. They are also enclosed in a black (incredibly rugged) plastic case. Buy two or three of these to experiment with. 2. Select one of these to be your first experiment-ee. Remove the plastic case. *HOW* you remove the plastic case is up to you. It can be a real pain. *REMEMBER* you do *NOT* want to damage or bend the side of the black plastic case without the hole. The side *with* the hole can literally be broken off a bit at a time by the following: hold the whole thing firmly and taking a small pair of needle nose pliers, bend the plastic case by grabbing around the small whole. Eventually you'll break enough away to allow you to see into the little black case. That brass-colored flat thing in the bottom is the buzzer. Continure breaking the case away until all you have left is the flat brass colored buzzer with its wires attached to the white-colored backside. Note. If in the process of extracting the little buzzer from the black case you pull a wire off, simply resolder it. 3. Now remember, this is the "down and dirty" set of instructions, so... Attach a 1/4" phone plug to this thing, with the red lead to the "tip" and the black wire to the "ring" on the 1/4" plug. (Note: you'd probably be well advised to lengthen the wires a bit first) 4. Plug the whole dangling affair in to a D4 trigger jack and follow the D4's trigger set-up instructions. 5. Tap the small little brass-colored side of the plugged-into-the-D4 buzzer, and lo and behold, DRUM SOUNDS! Okay, enough, now you have proven your inventivness, maybe you are not Thomas A. Edison but the "thrill of it all" has happened. OBVIOUSLY this will work, but even more OBVIOUSLY you still need to build a drum pad assembly into which you will bury this wonderful trigger 'thang'. SO, the next set of instructions will describe what *I* have done thus far. You will *most likely* come up with a better "recipe" (please email it to me so *I* can benefit too!). Part 2: How I made *my* triggers -------------------------------- I went to several local hardware and plumbing supply houses and picked up a bunch of C_H_E_A_P stuff. My theory was that something small and round a few inches deep and wide has probably already been manufactured. I picked up a 5" endcap and a 5" knock out plate for (you guessed it) 5" sewer pipes. Then I did this: ___________________________________________ |___________________________________________| <- 5" circular cut from linoleum <@@@@@@layer of silicon caulking@@@@@@@> --------------------------------- <- 4" circular thin metal disc <@@@@@@layer of 5 minute epoxy @@@@@@> ########### <- piezo buzzer w/out case | | | | ==\ <%%%%layer of thin foam rubber%%%%> /== ===\____________________________________/=== <- 5" Knock-out plate | | | | | | || | | || || | | || || | | || || | ----(black)------------- || --(red)--------__/\________ <- RCA Jack || || ||========================================|| ^ | 5" diameter sewer PVC endcap "Dalton's Drum Trigger Cross Section" I experimented with differant things in the areas of glues to hold all the pieces, and silicon, hard rubber, soft rubbers, foam rubber, etc. in the above "recipe". Differant things gave differant bounce and velocity curves. Once I had a recipe that worked for my needs, I Epoxy-glued several of these triggers to drummers "cage" constructed from 1.25" PVC plumbing pipe and glued with PVC glue. I followed the D4 Manuals instructions for the elemination of false triggering and mounted a piezo buzzer/trigger to the "cage" itself and fed it into the D4. This procedure to eleminate false triggering along with the manuals recommended adjustments to each pad completely eleminated false triggering. This was a bit of fun to do. Now I can lay down a "boom-chop" rhythm track to work the rest of a song out to, and when its finished I can go back, erase the reference track, and lay down the whole drum kit "live-playing" with these triggers. Cooool! Lastly, I bought a Remo practice pad and put a trigger-epoxied-to-a-thin-metal-plate (as shown above) in a slit made in the middle of the foam under the head (take apart a Remo practice pad & you'll "get it". I mounted a jack, wired the trigger, and voila! I have a separate snare trigger in addition to the cage. Closing Thoughts: This was actually a great project. I think the Remo idea is as good as any, but home-made triggers open up a lot of inexpensive options to the MIDI-fied musician. I realized that these little buzzer things are sensitive enough to play with your fingertips. You guessed it. My next project is to build a complete trigger-pad-set that is "finger playable". Your mileage may vary...enjoy!