Ride cymbal with positional sensing

[dmitri]

On a hunch, what if all Roland is doing is comparing the difference in spike strengths between 2 piezos on opposite ends of the PS range? If the coincident spikes were, say, 30/70%, or 50/50%, or 90/10%, would that not be enough information for the module to deduce approximately where on the pad it was struck?

Roland cymbals, as far as I know, have a single piezo, e.g. piezo/switch or piezo/switch/switch. As I said before, PS from two piezos is unreliable (I investigated it very thoroughly ) and I guess this why nobody does this.

[airflamesred]

On a hunch, what if all Roland is doing is comparing the difference in spike strengths between 2 piezos on opposite ends of the PS range? If the coincident spikes were, say, 30/70%, or 50/50%, or 90/10%, would that not be enough information for the module to deduce approximately where on the pad it was struck?

AFAIK it is only one piezo and their genetically modified sounds are manipulated with filters to give the illusion a timbre change.
I think that what you are after is possible but you may have to change the shape of the cymbal. I'm not sure why PS works on snares and not cymbals?

[Brian Jackson]

Well this has gotten darned interesting. Thank you everyone for the enlightening yet perplexing information. Funny, as a newbie to the e-drum world I would have wrongly assumed no territories remained unexplored. But in a way I kinda dig the backyard engineering that gives us the potential to do great things with lesser resources.

@ignotus:
Thanks for the link to that older thread. It seems our thought processes are running parallel but 3 years apart. I'm willing to experiment and help with data collection. I have a new 20" Meinl ride cymbal that would be a perfect test bed. One of the first things I'd like to attempt is to change the sensitivity curve shape somehow such that each piezo produces a wider dynamic range from edge to bell, resulting in a larger ratio/variance. Dmitri has stated that there isn't a drastic signal variance when striking the cymbal at different locations. But I'm getting too long winded here.

Let's put our heads together.

Regards,
Brian Jackson

[sixbras]

I am looking like Brian, to convert acoustic cymbals to e, keeping the more visual realism, and a reasonable cost .

For Dimitri, 2 piezos on the same carrier prevents the detection of PS on stroke.
Why not consider a mechanical solution , for example by cutting the metal around the bell to separate partially or completely from the body.
We can reinforce or recreate the connection using a silicon disk or sound insulation material, on the under side.

This way, rather than 2 piezos, we would have 2 x 1 piezo that might work in PS.

My 2 cents.