Author Topic: Alesis DM10 Mesh head Pad Upgrade Video!  (Read 174801 times)

Online Hellfire

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #100 on: October 29, 2010, 11:17:45 PM »
Just bought two 8" and one 10" roland heads to finally round out my kit with all Roland heads.  The snare head I bought some time back is still going strong.  I'll keep the 8" billy blast head on the kick, as it seems to be fine.  But my billy blast headed toms are failing miserably.  Need more duct tape.  :)
For some strange reason my BB mesh on the bass is still doing fine as well. :o Almost one whole year with it (Dec. will be one year).


Offline Guinness

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #101 on: October 29, 2010, 11:20:34 PM »
Just bought two 8" and one 10" roland heads to finally round out my kit with all Roland heads.  The snare head I bought some time back is still going strong.  I'll keep the 8" billy blast head on the kick, as it seems to be fine.  But my billy blast headed toms are failing miserably.  Need more duct tape.  :)
For some strange reason my BB mesh on the bass is still doing fine as well. :o Almost one whole year with it (Dec. will be one year).

It's gotta be a beater vs stick thing.  The strands of the head are strong, I just don't think they like the pounds per sq inch of a stick.  :)  Like I said, I'm not replacing the kick head.  Just the toms.  I keep putting the tip of my stick in tom2.  I'm surprised I haven't hit the piezo yet.   :o

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #102 on: December 17, 2010, 03:20:18 AM »
Ordered a 10" mesh head yesterday (from Pearl, hope it'll do). Hope to receive it today. Will put it on my snare then, hopefully I can get it to work. Will try without soldering..
Alesis DM10 Studio

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #103 on: December 20, 2010, 02:38:36 PM »
I upgraded my DM10 Studio about 2 weeks ago using you instructions with the Pearl heads (had a gift certificate for Gitr Cent).  Works great!!  The set is a dream to play now with almost no sound from the attack.  I have not seen any signs of were, but that could be a factor of how hard I hit/frequency of playing.  A neat thing i did with that hole in the foam and the since the Pearl heads are somewhat see through.  You can put a small colored craft foam disk at the bottom the hole in the upper thick black foam as an accent.  I did this with different color because this kit is also used for RB/GH use.

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #104 on: December 28, 2010, 08:06:42 AM »
Something to maybe note on the durability of your mesh head.  You may take notice of the tip shape of you sticks.  I have been using a round tip and have note seen any wear, gaps or stetchs on the Pearl mesh heads I have been using.

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #105 on: December 28, 2010, 05:58:00 PM »
Hi this conversion works great! THANKS LOTS from south Germany!!!

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #106 on: January 17, 2011, 02:08:17 PM »
hi there,
i just ordered one 8" MeshHead so i can try this upgrade with my one extra tom.....
Did someone here also upgrade the bassdrum? I am wondering if it will work just as fine because of the higher pressure pedal!?
I also found a tutorial for upgrading your edrum in a german Drummer Forum and they didnt use the extra foam. Instead they used something like a cone.

What do you guys think about that?

Anyways thank you very much for this great tutorial

I will post my results....

TadeMomsen

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #107 on: January 18, 2011, 01:17:45 PM »
link to that deutsch site please?


Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #109 on: January 21, 2011, 05:54:26 PM »
i have a new dm10 studio kit and tried the conv. but the thick black foam is a donut "hole in the middle" so when i did the rearanging of the guts and put the drum back together i only got the rim sound while striking the drum pad any of you guys come across this with the newer setup  ???

thank

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #110 on: January 22, 2011, 08:20:16 PM »
Hey,
same here just use the black one for the bottom!

Offline BH

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #111 on: January 22, 2011, 10:12:02 PM »
Great Video and upgrade!!

The only issue I have ran across or noticed is the issue with the 2.5 Inch hole cut in the middle of the thick black foam.  I here some say it is not an issue, others having issues.  When I purchased this kit I did the conversion and the snare sounds awesome, but I did notice alot of Volume loss on my toms and kick pad so I upped the sensitivity on the toms and kick.  A week later I ordered a second kick pad as my acoustic set had 2 floor basses and it was cheaper to buy the second kick pad rather than new pedals.  I got the new kick pad in and started doing the conversion and noticed it was the older style (No 2.5 inch hole cut in the middle of the black foam) well I went ahead and completed the conversion and hooked it up, powered up, and tested it and right away I noticed that the older version kick pad without the 2.5 inch hole had 5 times the volume as the kick pad with the hole cut in the black foam?????? I think the zero contact in the center with no foam being there seems to be causing low volume issues for me I have my triggers set at 85 right now on my toms?

So my question is does anyone know of anywhere I can purchase the black foam so that I can make new pads for my toms and other kick pad? Thanks in advance!! :)

Offline Guinness

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #112 on: January 25, 2011, 12:51:13 AM »
BH.  Couldn't you just cut a hole in the center?

Offline BH

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #113 on: January 25, 2011, 03:43:35 AM »
Hi Guinness, thanks for the reply.

Yea I could cut a hole in the kick pad I ordered but the volume loss is unreal on the one with the hole in the foam as to compared to the one without the hole? The one kick with the hole I can barely hear in my headphones, the one without the hole has tons of volume in my headphones?

That is why I was thinking since the one with no hole is so much louder than the one with the hole to just replace the black foam with a solid piece in the 4 toms and the 1 kick pad and hopefully that will solve the problem and the volume levels will return to normal like the kick pad I ordered?

Even on my toms I had to jack to trigger sensitivity way up to get any volume out of them (85) after doing the conversion, because when I first hooked them back up I could not hear 1 and 2 at all and barely 3 and 4? I did not remove the resisitors I cut a slit in the foam, I know in the Video it showed only 1 resistor but my toms have 2 resistors I am guessing because they where already dual zone and not single, I got the 2011 kit with the 4 leg rack.

Now my snare this is what is weird did the conversion and did not have to adjust a thing was just as loud as before the conversion? It just effected the 4 toms and 1 kick pad?

The feel and noise level is awesome with the conversion, now if I can just get this low volume issue sorted would be full circle!!lol

Offline Yankee

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #114 on: January 26, 2011, 11:17:59 AM »
I did the conversion HF's way but used a Pintech mesh head on a 10" Dual Zone. I too found the 2 1/2 hole in the thicker black foam when I took mine apart.

Following HF's way, I then took a step further (only because his black foam didn't need to be addressed) I took the center of the white foam that gets cut out under the resonator plate, used the black foam hole has a template, and cut the 2 1/2 circle out of it, well just slightly larger. I then pressed that white cutout into the black foam hole.

The Pintech mesh head is black, and it now has a neat looking white center. Very slight feel/sound difference when hitting the center vs off center because the foams are different densities but almost not even worth noting and it definitely helped the trigger sensitivity.

...Yankee
E-Kits: Alesis DM10 Studio, Alesis DM5, Alesis DM6 w/ DIY Mesh Conversion's
A-Kits: Gretsch Catalina Maple 6pc Cherry Red; 64 Slingerland 4pc Gold Sparkle

Offline vaikl

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #115 on: January 26, 2011, 12:59:06 PM »
Following HF's way, I then took a step further (only because his black foam didn't need to be addressed) I took the center of the white foam that gets cut out under the resonator plate, used the black foam hole has a template, and cut the 2 1/2 circle out of it, well just slightly larger. I then pressed that white cutout into the black foam hole.

I did it the same way and have no probs with sensivity or loudness ;)

Offline Guinness

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #116 on: January 26, 2011, 02:43:10 PM »
Hi Guinness, thanks for the reply.

Yea I could cut a hole in the kick pad I ordered but the volume loss is unreal on the one with the hole in the foam as to compared to the one without the hole? The one kick with the hole I can barely hear in my headphones, the one without the hole has tons of volume in my headphones?

That is why I was thinking since the one with no hole is so much louder than the one with the hole to just replace the black foam with a solid piece in the 4 toms and the 1 kick pad and hopefully that will solve the problem and the volume levels will return to normal like the kick pad I ordered?

Even on my toms I had to jack to trigger sensitivity way up to get any volume out of them (85) after doing the conversion, because when I first hooked them back up I could not hear 1 and 2 at all and barely 3 and 4? I did not remove the resisitors I cut a slit in the foam, I know in the Video it showed only 1 resistor but my toms have 2 resistors I am guessing because they where already dual zone and not single, I got the 2011 kit with the 4 leg rack.

Now my snare this is what is weird did the conversion and did not have to adjust a thing was just as loud as before the conversion? It just effected the 4 toms and 1 kick pad?

The feel and noise level is awesome with the conversion, now if I can just get this low volume issue sorted would be full circle!!lol

What does the meter display when you trigger the two kicks?  Is it peaking, or is one less than the other?   For the kicks, you are splitting the TS cable, yes?  Bad splitter?  Try running it straight and see if there's still a difference.
Now that I think about it... since (assuming) you are splitting it, the triggers need to be the same.  But they aren't  (hole in black, versus no hole).  If splitting, you'll never get them to be the same unless you're plugging into two different inputs and can adjust respectively.   Make sense?
 

Offline Yankee

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #117 on: January 26, 2011, 09:00:12 PM »
I did it the same way and have no probs with sensivity or loudness ;)

Excellent... :) Here is a pic of how mine turned out:

E-Kits: Alesis DM10 Studio, Alesis DM5, Alesis DM6 w/ DIY Mesh Conversion's
A-Kits: Gretsch Catalina Maple 6pc Cherry Red; 64 Slingerland 4pc Gold Sparkle

Offline BH

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #118 on: January 26, 2011, 09:08:00 PM »
Very Nice thanks for posting the pic!! Did either of you remove the resistors when you did the conversion or did you leave them intact? I left my resistors on the jacks.

I am using a splitter on the 2 kicks as they suggested and the one I order pegs out and the other registers low on the meter, even when striking it with a stick the one I ordered is extremely louder? I will try running them on separate channels and see the outcome if it is still noticeably louder then I will probably have to try what Yankee, and vaikl have suggested since I have lost alot of volume on my toms as well :D Thanks for the input everyone much appreciated will let you know the outcome after I put some of the suggestions to the test. Thanks again!!

Offline vaikl

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #119 on: January 26, 2011, 09:15:15 PM »
Very Nice thanks for posting the pic!! Did either of you remove the resistors when you did the conversion or did you leave them intact? I left my resistors on the jacks.

I haven't touched the resistors nor made any other soldering.

Offline vaikl

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #120 on: January 26, 2011, 09:16:17 PM »
Excellent... :) Here is a pic of how mine turned out:

Looks pretty much like my ones ;)

Offline BH

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #121 on: January 26, 2011, 09:21:49 PM »
cool that eliminates that now I was worried maybe that may have been causing it!! Thanks!!

I am gonna do the white foam technique, cut a hole in the new kick pad white foam it then run it on a separate channel then hopefully I will be set!! :D

Thanks again will post the outcome when I get completed and tested.

Offline Yankee

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #122 on: January 26, 2011, 09:33:14 PM »
Very Nice thanks for posting the pic!! Did either of you remove the resistors when you did the conversion or did you leave them intact? I left my resistors on the jacks.

Hey BH, going to assume you meant the piezo wires when you said resistors... I did unsolder mine from the jack just for ease of moving stuff around and then re-soldered them back. But yes, the trigger response was excellent after filling the hole with the white foam. Good luck and let us know how it turns out... :)

...Yankee
E-Kits: Alesis DM10 Studio, Alesis DM5, Alesis DM6 w/ DIY Mesh Conversion's
A-Kits: Gretsch Catalina Maple 6pc Cherry Red; 64 Slingerland 4pc Gold Sparkle

Offline BH

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #123 on: January 26, 2011, 10:41:10 PM »
Mine has 2 resistors as well in the jack area where the piezo wires are soldered

Offline Yankee

Re: Alesis DM10 Pad Upgrade Video!
« Reply #124 on: January 26, 2011, 11:12:21 PM »
My gut says take the resistor out and run the piezo wire right to the jack. I recently bought a 10" realhead dual zone and a realhead kick and neither had resistors in line...
« Last Edit: January 26, 2011, 11:26:56 PM by Yankee »
E-Kits: Alesis DM10 Studio, Alesis DM5, Alesis DM6 w/ DIY Mesh Conversion's
A-Kits: Gretsch Catalina Maple 6pc Cherry Red; 64 Slingerland 4pc Gold Sparkle