Welcome!

Welcome! This blog will show my progress in constructing a DIY Electronic Drum Kit!

There are a tons of great resources to get started all over the internet, I will reference good ones as I find them. I plan to make this kit both aesthetically pleasing and as accurate as possible to a real drumming experience. My motivation for this project is to be able to have a kit to practice in my townhouse (my Yamaha Birch Custom is a little too loud for our neighbours), and learn more about electronics and general construction.

To make my kit, I'm going to go through different stages:

1. Creating an interface to physically play the drums on (drum pads)
2. Creating an electronic interface that triggers the drum pads
3. Creating a MIDI output device to interface with a computer (to play sounds)
4. Modifying Stage #3 to develop a stand-alone unit (on board memory to store samples and drive headphones or speakers)




Stage 1 (Part 1):

I have acquired a 12" PDP tom that a friend no longer wanted to use for $30, which is a steal considering the drum and the condition of it (hardly played). It took me a while to get over feeling bad for destroying a fairly decent drum that is worth probably more than $75. I sawed the drum in half with just a regular hand-operated woodsaw and sanded the edges (not the easiest method, but it works). One half will be my snare drum pad, the other my kick drum.


As you can see, each drum will use a mesh head (in this case, Pearl brand Muffle Heads, ~$7). Below the drumhead, you can see corner brackets affixed on the inside of the shell. These brackets will be used to mount a cross-member between them that will hold a sensor directly under the middle of the drum head. The sensor (transducer) converts pressure into an electrical waveform which will be used to detect when the drum is hit.


I measured the distance between the screws for the drum lugs to find the correct sized corner bracket at home depot (to avoid any extra drilling). As they say: measure twice, cut once. Longer screws were needed to account for the thickness of the bracket (they replace the screws in two opposing lug positions), and rubber washers were used on the side touching the drum.

I also purchased two bass drum spurs and drilled holes in two sides of one of the drum (~$40). It was a bit of a pain, and a little expensive, but hopefully it will prove to be worth it in terms of both aesthetics and functionality in keeping the drum from sliding. It was tricky drilling the holes, as the mounting part of a bass drum spur has a wider curvature (for bigger drums):


Now, obviously, this won't just stand on its own, and there needs to be a fixture near the floor, in the middle, where the pedal can attach. This will be my next addition to the kick drum, and will prove to be a challenge.



For the work in this post, I purchased the following:
- Pre-drilled Corner Brackets, 3/4" ($4)
- 1" Wide Aluminum L-Bar (about 48" long). This will be cut for cross members ($8)
- Various screws, washers, and rubber washers ($8)
- 2x Pearl Mesh Heads ($15)
- 2x Bass Drum Spurs ($40)
- 12" PDP Drum Shell ($30)

I expect to spend another $20 to get the sensors (piezo transducers) and get them mounted, and maybe about $10 to attach some clean-looking stereo jacks that can connect the cables easily from the MIDI electronic hardware interface. I expect to spend $10 to attach a mounting fixture for the kick drum pedal that will also stabilize the pad.