Problem with low piezo signal

[privatex]

Well, today I bought brand new piezos with some 'fmdz' mark on them. They are 2,9 kHz/30V/35mm and they work great. Sensitivity is so good that now I have buzz roll strokes near the rim without any brake and missing hits in rollin (not even one note PS is now present, but not so precise and spectacular as I thought it will be. Maybe fine tuning AD2 will bring better results.Only thing thats left is rim and head in same time played wont give me a sound, theres always one that dominate but together no way.
Here is new configuration. Hi level go up... + new piezo and now Im satisfied with my diy snare pad,work pretty well Similar like your black snare drum Angr on video where you play random just on snare.
Here it is:

[ddropski]

whats fmdz?

what brand or where did you get them?

[privatex]

I really dont know what that means, on ceramic part of element there's that mark and they look same as all other. I tried tons of different piezos and seems that this one's work extremely good with MD. I notice that they are little thicker than all previous. I bought them somewhere on middle Balkan peninsula

[ignotus]

To get the head+rim (=rimshot) sound, look here and specifically at "MBNote", "DualMidPoint" and "DualMidWidth".

As for positional sensing, do you have the rectifier circuit (or the "positional sensing addon board")? If not, it's going to be patchy at best, regardless of the piezo polarity you use.

[privatex]

I know whats rimshot :=) Btw I set rimshots and it work great, thank you man it was hellpful for shure! I like to play one samba beat on rim of snare with some accents on snare head and by accident tried but theres no trigering. Now I undersand way better why, its third zone reserved for rimshots haha
I have ps board and piezo with reversed polarity but as you say its not that good. Must try with rectifier to see if there will be some improvement. Thank you once again and cheers!!

[ignotus]

If you have the ps board then you already have the rectifier circuit - and it doesn't really matter what polarity you use for the piezos. With this board you should be able to get good positional sensing with some tweaking in the settings, though it depends a lot on how your pad is built too.

[privatex]

I read so many different tips about pos.sens., some says that with ps board I need to determine first half wave of my pads, than set them with positive half wave or use rectifier no matter what wiring. Some opposite posts make me confused..
Right now I have ps which manifest diferent volume but no big change in timber vibration and sound (in AD2). I suppose that its matter of VST not MD.

[angr77]

The PS functionality should work quite okey. It is not an exact science but in general it will determine if you hit near the rim or in the center...and in 5-6 steps in between. On my 14" inch snare with triggers from quartz - my optimal settings: Pos Lev: 2, Pos Low: 12 and Pos High on 34. Minscan set to 56.

In the latest AD2 version (2.04) - the midi monitor is back and you should be able to see the PS information sent from MD on cc:16. (0-127) based on where you hit the head.

Best Regards

ANGR77

[ignotus]

I read so many different tips about pos.sens., some says that with ps board I need to determine first half wave of my pads, than set them with positive half wave or use rectifier no matter what wiring. Right now I have ps which manifest diferent volume but no big change in timber vibration and sound (in AD2). I suppose that its matter of VST not MD.

The ps board is the rectifier circuit. If you have it you don't need to worry about half waves, rectifiers or polarities; just the construction of the pad and the settings in MD.
The settings for my 10" snare are Pos Level 2; Pos Low 21; Pos High 29 and MinScan 89 (quite high).

But you're right that there isn't much difference in sound when using it in AD - to know if it's really working it's better to look at the CC messages generated or at the arrow going from left to right on the MD screen when setting up PS.

[privatex]

This is first time that I set up ps from MD and now it work good. LCD was very helpful, my numbers are: pos.level 1; pos.low 1; pos.hi 18; minscan 60. Arrow on LCD cover full line. Numbers are changed in interval from 0 to 17 no matter what I set. I suppose that it is interval for this specific drum pad. Positional sensing change on every 1 inch of drum head so on my 12' snare pad I have 5 positions and it work ok.
Thanks guys, this community is very strong and its a big + for configuring MD. My snaredrum now work extremly well without any miss-hits (false hits...) in strokes, rols, flams, ps work good (theres hope that VST maker gona push this part in advanced waters in the future), rimshots... CHEERS!