DIY Mesh Head Observations - Improved False Triggering Ideas

[tobykea]

I've been playing around with my DIY mesh head drum the last two nights, trying to get the optimum settings for Megadrum.

Trying to get the ultimate dynamic range, sensitivity, response, and speed at the same time as reducing false triggers is no easy task I've found.

To me, the most demanding processing power required of the Megadrum will come from the snare.
For most drummers, this will be where most of the high speed and subtle playing will come from.

If you can get the snare sorted out to be able to handle fast rolls with no false triggers and have the greatest dynamic range I figure everything else is easy from there..The Hi-hats bringing their own engineering problems of course however in terms of speed, false triggers etc, getting the snare nailed is paramount.

Which brings me to a few discoveries.

Mesh heads inherently have a lot of after vibrations after they are struck. You will see this looking at the Megadrum MidiLog graphs especially if you have the retrigger, Dynamic Level, Dynamic time settings wide open to allow for them.

If you can minimise these mechanical vibrations from reaching the piezo sensor you have won most of the battle in getting rid of false triggers. Rather than have Megadrum try and do all the work here in reducing these false triggers at the expense of dynamic range and speed, there are ways to mechanically improve this which then allows for the easing up on the Megadrum settings which will ultimately give you better dynamic range, faster response and overall, a much better playing experience on the snare. I guess we are all after this.

Now this is not the most elegant engineering fix but you will get the idea. I've used as an experiment folded up bits of toilet paper wedged in between the crossbar holding the piezo sensor/cone and the mesh skin.

I've used two pieces, one at each extremity of the drum so as not to infringe on the centre area playing surface. Having these dampening pieces at each end has greatly reduced the false triggers and has allowed me to ease up on the Megadrum settings. Getting things like Flams going, particularly fast ones where the secondary note is very close to the primary note is much easier when you can ease up on the settings.

It may look very ugly and I'm sure there are far more elegant ways of achieving the same effect but function to me comes before things looking pretty and I'm very happy with the results.

The tighter the mesh head the better also. This improves things alot as well.

Food for thought for all those having trouble with mesh heads and getting them playing fast and with a lot of dynamic range.

This idea may already of been posted but if not, hope it helps.

Cheers,

Toby.

[Maylord.war]

Hi

I'm not expert but i have very excelent results with mesh head, i don't understand the very problem with your kit but i suggest to raise the "Minscan" level, up to 40 -45-50..and try it.

In my pad i use the value 7 in DynLvl and 34or 36 for DynTime. The minscan i use is set on value 35 (because i have a 12" diy snare pad and i would to use the pos sensing capture).

Finally pay attention with the signal of your pad, i use 35mm piezo with Roland (no brand) foam cone, with more session now i had find the correct value for my configuration, in my case add a 10k in serial from positive wiring piezo. If your pad are "hot" you can get easily bad false triggering.

Last question, which material you used for your mesh heads?

Regards

[kupooglop]

If you can get the snare sorted out to be able to handle fast rolls with no false triggers and have the greatest dynamic range I figure everything else is easy from there..

I thought that same thing @ 1 time!