Drums & Percussion Page
Growing up... I always liked the idea of playing the drums. I had my own Muppet Show drumset
when I was very young, but I didn't actually start learning to
play drums until December, 1996--a few months after I turned twenty. My friend Kenny Harris (who is a pretty darn good keyboard player, BTW)
showed me how to do a basic 4/4 beat and got me started on fills. I bought a nice pair of Afro brand
(now Pearl) bongos at the beginning of 1997,
then a set of three fiberglass congas. After about three months of
drumset practice, I started playing on and off with the youth worship
band at church. I bought my Pearl ELX drums in the fall, as well
as my lovely
brass free-floating snare drum. After a few additions the next
year or so, the set became a seven-piece kit with all Sabian cymbals,
and a double-bass pedal.
In 1999 I started tinkering with electronic drums, especially after finding the Logiztix website (now Electronicdrums.com)
with simple instructions on how to convert a Remo practice pad into an
electronic drum. I bought a remo practice pad kit and converted
the whole thing, with the addition of a converted Remo Rototom for a
snare, as well as converted practice cymbals. I found a used
Alesis D4 drum module on Ebay for a great price to complete the package.
Not long afterward Pearl released the Rhythm Traveler practice kit with
mesh heads. In 2000 spent the $400 on that and began converting it to electronic, as
well, mainly using techniques found on the Electronicdrums.com site.
I then spent about $900 on a Roland TD-8 module.
I
enjoyed tinkering with the sounds for several months, but the Rhythm
Traveler didn't quite play as well as I had hoped. I later
obtained a new ddrum-4 module, and after completely redesigning the
"guts" of the kit, I was able to make it play almost exactly as I
wanted, with positional sensing as well. (I basically recreated the
insides of a typical ddrum pad using foam and an aluminum plate).
I also discovered a rather simple way of testing the
position-sensing accuracy of an e-drum pad for use with the ddrum-4 module.
After a couple months of messing around on my "perfect"
edrums with ddrum brain, I realized that the thing keeping my interest
in the electronic drums was the very effort of trying to get them "just
right." It became a hobby to me (and a frustrating one
at that) rather than a tool for practicing. Hobbies are great,
but I figured that losing about two years worth of
practice in favor of tinkering and maintenance was not the best
trade-off (not to mention the financial cost). So I sold my Rhythm Traveler and ddrum module the
summer of 2001.
Every once in a while, I would send an email to the guy who bought them and he tells me he couldn't be happier.
At least someone's getting some good use out of
them. I started playing in another band in a different church
late in 2001, and continued on with that worship team until 2004.
Unfortunately, I have not actively played with any bands since
then.
We had two incidents involving cat urine and the acoustic drums
while they were set up in my parents' basement, so we had them packed away, but that problem seems to be resolved now.
In February 2007
I took out what leftover electronic drum components I still had
(including my nice Rototom snare) and bought some Peace brand practice
pads on Ebay, as well as a used (well-used) Alesis DM-5. That's
the same 1995 drum module technology that I played with on the set at
our old church--open/close only "switch" hi hat pedal and all.
Based on the old Electronicdrums.com
information, and some innovation of my own, I came up with a trigger
scheme for the pads that seems to work quite well with the old
DM-5 (after only a week or two of tinkering!). So with my existing gear plus $500 more spent, I now I have a usable
set-up at home, and I can still play my acoustics in my parents'
basement. Sweet!
My next project is to work on a trigger pedal so that the kids (who are
too short to reach the pedals) can trigger the base drum sound while
sitting on the throne.
Some fun & useful links:
Electronicdrums.com -- Highly recommended if you are interested in do-it-yourself (DIY) electronic drums
Acousticdrums.com -- Acoustic site by the same people as Electronicdrums.com
If I Only Had a Brain -- my own electronic drum module (brain) parody of the Scarecrow's song from the Wizard of Oz
Checking Position Sensing Accuracy of edrums with a Ddrum4 brain -- I figured this out when messing with my own drums
Ddrums.com -- unofficial site for information and discussion of Ddrum products (my old posts are under the username Drumn4J)
Vdrums.com -- unofficial site for info and discussion of Roland Vdrums products (my old posts are under the name Drumn4J)
Page Added 2-8-2006
Updated 12-14-2007
In 1999 I started tinkering with electronic drums, especially after finding the Logiztix website (now Electronicdrums.com)
with simple instructions on how to convert a Remo practice pad into an
electronic drum. I bought a remo practice pad kit and converted
the whole thing, with the addition of a converted Remo Rototom for a
snare, as well as converted practice cymbals. I found a used
Alesis D4 drum module on Ebay for a great price to complete the package.
I
enjoyed tinkering with the sounds for several months, but the Rhythm
Traveler didn't quite play as well as I had hoped. I later
obtained a new ddrum-4 module, and after completely redesigning the
"guts" of the kit, I was able to make it play almost exactly as I
wanted, with positional sensing as well. (I basically recreated the
insides of a typical ddrum pad using foam and an aluminum plate).
I also discovered a rather simple way of testing the
position-sensing accuracy of an e-drum pad for use with the ddrum-4 module.
We had two incidents involving cat urine and the acoustic drums
while they were set up in my parents' basement, so we had them packed away, but that problem seems to be resolved now.
In February 2007
I took out what leftover electronic drum components I still had
(including my nice Rototom snare) and bought some Peace brand practice
pads on Ebay, as well as a used (well-used) Alesis DM-5. That's
the same 1995 drum module technology that I played with on the set at
our old church--open/close only "switch" hi hat pedal and all.
Based on the old Electronicdrums.com
information, and some innovation of my own, I came up with a trigger
scheme for the pads that seems to work quite well with the old
DM-5 (after only a week or two of tinkering!). So with my existing gear plus $500 more spent, I now I have a usable
set-up at home, and I can still play my acoustics in my parents'
basement. Sweet!