[sdiy] Electronic drums - Kraftwerk style metal drumsticks....

[steve jones]

On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 13:07:18 -0400, you wrote:

>> What are the pros and cons of using metal sticks and pads to trigger
>> drums? I've seen this done by [Kraftwerk], but I imagine it lacks a
>> realistic drum 'feel'.
>
>I guess it would have a different feel than a normal drum, but metal sticks
>can be springy if they are the right size and material, so you'd still get
>that all-important "bounce" off the pads. Knitting needles, for an extreme
>example, have lots of bounce. Sticks that work well on one surface may or
>may not work so well on another. To paraphrase, "different sticks for
>different kits."
>
>Anyway, the pad material doesn't matter too much if you are only generating
>trigger signals. On the other hand, if you are processing the *audio* signal
>from a drum pad (using a contact mike), then the pad construction makes a
>huge difference. Metal will usually have a slower decay than a rubberized
>pad. More likely to get feedback too, which is good or bad depending...
>(reference John Cage).
>
>
>> Could this be improved with conductive rubber?
>
>Why conductive? Are you thinking that it could generate a signal like a
>piezo? Umm...

The idea was that the metal sticks would be connected via wires to the
drum synth, with the pads also conected, then the contact of stick and
pad would complete a circuit, producing a trigger signal and a voltage
(different pads at different votages?) like on a stylophone. So
conductive rubber could be used for the tips of the sticks for better
bounce and less impact noise. 

I was wanting to explore alternatives to piezo triggers...
>
>Rubber, of course, is used for drum pads all the time.
>
>
>> Does anyone have any experience with this method of triggering, how
>> are different sounds triggered?
>
>Not with triggering, but I've tapped on and with a lot of things. :-)