Author Topic: Converting Mylar to Mesh Heads - What's Required? Is it Worth It? DM10 X  (Read 935 times)

Picked up an Alesis DM10 X First Gen full kit at $200 for my 8 year old, in near perfect condition. He will not know/care about the mylar heads, and maybe I shouldn't either (bass player). One of my drummers has a nice Roland mesh kit, and the feel is really great, so wondering if it is worth the $60 in mesh heads to attempt an upgrade. Yes, I have seen a couple head conversion videos, but not sure if it is really that great, or if there are inherent problems with the upgrade (sensitivity issues).

My question: Will the pads still be sensitive enough when playing with a light touch? Both videos I watched made it seem as though the sensitivity would need to be maxed at the module to still trigger sound.

Remember, I am not a drummer, so clueless about how the triggers work.

Any help would be awesome, thanks.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2020, 11:52:12 PM by CoffeeLove »

Offline Chaser

Re: Converting Mylar to Mesh Heads - What's Required? Is it Worth It? DM10 X
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2020, 01:08:27 PM »
Picked up an Alesis DM10 X First Gen full kit at $200 for my 8 year old, in near perfect condition. He will not know/care about the mylar heads, and maybe I shouldn't either (bass player). One of my drummers has a nice Roland mesh kit, and the feel is really great, so wondering if it is worth the $60 in mesh heads to attempt an upgrade. Yes, I have seen a couple head conversion videos, but not sure if it is really that great, or if there are inherent problems with the upgrade (sensitivity issues).

My question: Will the pads still be sensitive enough when playing with a light touch? Both videos I watched made it seem as though the sensitivity would need to be maxed at the module to still trigger sound.

Remember, I am not a drummer, so clueless about how the triggers work.

Any help would be awesome, thanks.

It would depend on a number of things...
Which Videos...actual mesh conversions or swapping out to a Mesh head?..Cone?.. the how old are the videos?
The Hellfire conversion was started here.
If you just change out the Mylar heads to Mesh it will be like banging on a piece of cloth directly on the reflection plate.
You'll end up with a hotspot and breaking the Piezo/wires,especially if you are a heavy hitter going from Acoustic to E-drums.

At the time the Kits were Mylar and the Mesh conversion involved rearranging the foam layers of the drum.
When you put the Reflection plate lower into the drum (which moves the Piezo away from the head) you need to increase the sensitivity.
At the time there were no updates for the Trigger OS for the Mesh option.
You would increase the Trig Sens(under utility) to High  and also raise the sensitivity per Instrument if needed
You could also remove the resistors on the jack if you still couldn't get enough sensitivity.

When the Mesh Kits came out there were OS updates..You can check your module and see if it was updated.It will show 4 kits in the options
"Initializing the Default Trigger Settings(for DM10 Studio Kit, DM10 Studio Kit Mesh, DM10 X Kit, and DM10 X Kit Mesh only"
1.Power on your DM10 module.
2.Press the Utility button.
3.In the screen that appears, choose F4 (Sys).
4.On the next screen, choose F2 (Init).
5.Use the Cursor Down button to highlight the Trigger Settings option and then press the F4 (Exec) button.
6.On the next screen, use the Cursor Down button to highlight your drum kit and then press F1 (Exec) or EXIT to return back to the Main screen

If you don't see the 4 kits then the module needs to be updated or you can try as above..settings..remove resistors etc.

NOTE..
Factory settings for the DM10 Studio/ DM10X kit will NOT work with the STRIKE drums.(Mesh..Piezo is much deeper in the 3-1/2" shells)
Even  Maxed out with Trig Sens set to High(under Utility) and the Individual Instrument sensitivity settings set to 99,you still have to "wack" the drum to get any response.
Factory settings for the DM10 Studio Mesh/DM10 X Mesh kits work well.The Trig Sens is Medium(under Utility) and the Individual Instrument settings are mid 70's...You can pickup the lightest hits and you still have all the options for increasing sensitivity if you want more dynamics

Re: Converting Mylar to Mesh Heads - What's Required? Is it Worth It? DM10 X
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2020, 06:02:03 PM »
Hey, thanks for the response. Have done a little more research since yesterday and thinking of doing this conversion https://youtu.be/5L2lSUuQ8xA but with my own heads and foam, which seems to be the least invasive, and can be reversed if wanted. The cost for that official conversion foam/heads kit from Drum-Tec is almost $200 with tax and shipping, and doing it myself with foam and heads is $60, so worth a try to breathe life back into this kit. I found thin-yet-dense 6mm foam that can be layered/stacked to the desired thickness, and then tested for sensitivity etc... So doing exactly what is done in the video but at a much cheaper price. We will see.

Offline Chaser

Re: Converting Mylar to Mesh Heads - What's Required? Is it Worth It? DM10 X
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2020, 07:00:47 PM »
Hey, thanks for the response. Have done a little more research since yesterday and thinking of doing this conversion https://youtu.be/5L2lSUuQ8xA but with my own heads and foam, which seems to be the least invasive, and can be reversed if wanted. The cost for that official conversion foam/heads kit from Drum-Tec is almost $200 with tax and shipping, and doing it myself with foam and heads is $60, so worth a try to breathe life back into this kit. I found thin-yet-dense 6mm foam that can be layered/stacked to the desired thickness, and then tested for sensitivity etc... So doing exactly what is done in the video but at a much cheaper price. We will see.

Use the search (upper left)..type in ....mesh conversion
You'll see information and comparisons on every conversion type,branddifferent types of foam,mesh head ply(1..2..3ply) including the differences between early and later toms (like the 12").

The main reason for a number of users to do the conversion was mainly for acoustics than it was for feel..which is also the reason many wanted E-Drums as they live in apartments etc and those settings don't allow acoustic sets and how loud they are. mylar head "acoustically" are very loud.Eventually more and more converted for the feel as the Mylar heads were like hitting rocks..
Roland had a 20 year patent on mesh heads and it wasn't until it expired just a few years ago (2016) that the E--Drum market exploded with mesh kits.

EDIT:
Added Trondsters illustrated Hellfire mesh head conversion
This will give you a large amount of info on the more "indepth" conversion how rearranging the foam layers compared to just adding a piece of foam to the top.One thing to note when doing the conversion is single ply mesh are probably the quietest but less durable and don't last nearly as long as 3 ply.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2020, 07:49:44 PM by Chaser »