Triggering mesh heads?

[Passeist]

I would like to put mesh heads on regular drums and then trigger them. I figure this would be cheaper then buying something like the Roland trigger pads, and would allow for silent practice, provided I shell out for the real electronic cymbal pads.

 

My questions are:

1) How viable is that idea?

2) Will stick-on triggers allow for dynamics, or will I get the same sound regardless of how hard I hit the drum?

3) What brand of triggers would be good for this?

4) What's the cheapest sound module I can get away with?

 

This is only for a practice kit, so all I'm really worried about is getting a reasonable amount of dynamic response. The drums sounds can be as chintzy and limited as can be.

[DrummerCafe]

I didn't know that you could purchase mesh drumheads for acoustic drums. I see where you are going with this, but here's my thoughts.

 

Knowing about the mesh heads used with the V-drums, I don't think after-market triggers are going to work with mesh drumheads on an acoustic kit. The trigger set-up used on the mesh head kits is very different from the old transducer type triggers ... such as TriggerPerfect, which are made to be used with REAL drumheads or rubber pads with the transducer mounted underneath. Perhaps I'm wrong here, but I don't think the mesh heads even vibrate the same as acoustic drumheads, therefore won't react properly with the standard trigger.

 

I guess what you are asking is if anyone has done this successfully? I personally have never seen this done before, and if it can even work ... that's news to me. Even if it does work, I would suspect that the sensitivity is nothing like what you get on the V-drums or a pressure sensitive pad like on the drumKAT products.

 

Your quest is admirable, and I encourage you to keep researching this to see if it can work as you are speculating.

 

I'll do some checking as well; I'm curious as to what could be done in your situation.

[Steve LeBlanc]

Yeah I agree with Bart...I can't picture this working too well in my head, however, it might be possible.

 

I'll check it out next time I'm snooping around SamAsh (probably tomorrow), they have a DW kit with mesh heads set-up...I'll investigate your idea if I have time.

[captain54]

I have successfully triggered acoustic drums with mesh heads and electronic triggers....two words..."Hart Dynamics"

 

Hart Dynamics makes something called ADC's or "Acoustic Drum Conversion"....it is basically a Remo foam muffler ring with a trigger inserted into the foam surface, attached by a plug and an audio cable....take off your head and rim, place the trigger on the drum, then reassemble the head and drum and you have an e-drum in an acoustic shell..

 

Later I bought the Hart "Kontrol Mesh Head" and experimented with these and and the ADC's and to my surprise they worked flawlessly...finally added some automotive black door trim to the rim and I have a very quiet e-drum in an acoustic shell...Here's how the cost broke down:

 

Pacific C-series 9x12 tom from Ebay....$35

Hart Acoustic Drum Conversion trigger...45

Kontrol Mesh head.......................13

auto door trim...........................2

 

$95 for a great acoustic/e-drum with a mesh head...

and I still have the real mylar head if I want to go

back to acoustic....

[DrummerCafe]

That's great info ... thanks for sharing that!

 

I learned something new today!

[Zorro]

I have turned my acoustics into e drums the quality as good as Roland's silent mesh. The plans are here http://members.aol.com/btnkbndt/mykit.html Mine work great, using a Alesis D-5 and DM Pro as my modules and they are great.

[Passeist]

Thanks for the info. I've been toying with the idea of an electronic practice kit for a while, but I've been put off by the expense. It's a lot of money for practice pads.

 

It's getting to the point that the electronic kit is a necessesity, though. My current practice set-up just isn't cutting it.

 

Now to find a cheap sound module.

[DrummerCafe]

Several questions:

 

1. Where can you purchase the mesh drumheads?

2. Do they make all sizes?

 

I might like to experiment with using my Trigger Perfect triggers with the mesh heads, rather than purchasing another set of triggers just for using with the mesh heads.

[MPCman]

I uses mesh heads on my acoustic drums with ddrum triggers and a ddrum4 module. On small toms it worked ok, bigger toms the triggering became worse(hot spot on the side), the snare sucked(the head couldn't handle the tension I prefered and so it stretched), the kick was allright, but a bit bouncy as well.

I bought the real ddrum pads because that works much better.

 

Bart> manufacterers of mesh heads are www.triggerhead.com, Pearl and others. The Pearl heads are quit affordable and are available in any common size from 8" to 22".

[captain54]

Hart Kontrol Mesh heads can be found at Riks Music in Knoxville, TN.....all standard sizes.....

 

the DM Pro probably has the best bang for the buck of any drum module out there....I've seen them used on Ebay in the $400 range....