Diy drum triggers?

[IEatCats]

So, im trying to figure out how to wire up a drum kit so hitting the drum closes a switch, wired to a makey-makey acting as a controller (acting as an nes controller, plugged into a glitch art program and projected over the band live). Im planning on picking up the gear for this when taxes come in, so for now im brainstorming.

I was thinking that i could either wire up a conductive sheet/spray on the drumheads and sticks, or use piezos that act as on/offs when the mic level jumps, but i dont know how id go about wiring those up yet.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions or experience similar concepts?

[DRodriguez]

Piezos are definitely the more common solution for triggers. Not much help in interfacing it with the makey-makey though.

[cherler]

The easiest way might be to have a microcontroller watching the piezos and telling the makey-makey what it sees, I don't know much about the makey-makey though.

[controlFreak]

Yeah what kind of trigger does the makey makey want to "see?"


First I'd guess you'd need to load the piezos so you're not getting constant triggers from ambient noise. You want the impulses from the playing attack to generate the desired responsiveness. And you want some simple Logic that "goes high" for a preset pulse length when "told to" ...What is "high" you ask? That is where you want your pulse to be. You want its peak somewhere below the maximum voltage the "makey makey" wants to "see" at its trigger in. And how long should your pulse stay high?

These are fun questions to think about.

[controlFreak]

Quick Google search was very helpful for finding a few schematics to experiment with.