Author Topic: Electronic Timbales/Percussion station  (Read 2955 times)

Electronic Timbales/Percussion station
« on: February 19, 2019, 01:47:09 AM »
Hi All, I am working on a new live music project and wanted a Standing Drum set.

After a quick search I found the Tama Cocktail set and ...Timbales? Yea, I can do Timbales!

No electrictronic Timbales or Cocktail Kits out there on the market

I will build my own

I decided to spend 0 dollars and do the shop at home thing (I have way too much stuff!)

The "Rack" is the bottom half of a speaker stand that top half got left behind at a club never to be seen again!

The cross bar is left over bar from a Yamaha rack as well as some clamps and the cymbal arm. The rest of the clamps are from my pot luck drum bin.

The DM Dock Is a thing that sat in the closet since my old drummer tested it and said "NO WAY!" Luckily I still have DM Touch on my old iPad and it all still works.

The Drums are a 10" and an 8" tom cut in half, wrapped with contact paper and Billy Blast mesh heads.

I soldered up the triggers myself they are 30mm piezo's on Garage door track brackets- they are basically slotted "L" brackets and foam golf balls cut in half. Wired up to 1/4" jacks

The Cymbal is a pintec plastic practice 8" with a project box mounted underneath with 27mm piezo and 1/4' jack

The "Pipe Bomb" triggers are built from Beatniks illustration. I just painted them black before I glued the rubber on.

This set up has 5 triggers so it could be traditional timbales with cowbell, block, cymbal ect.

I set it up for a stand up, no pedal, industrial kit with a kick, snare, tom, Hi Hat, and crash. I also have a kit called War Drums with big toms and some ethnic percussion


« Last Edit: February 19, 2019, 02:01:42 AM by ralis »

Offline AlanK

Re: Electronic Timbales/Percussion station
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2019, 09:26:00 AM »
Looks bloody awesome, dude! I'd be proud to bang away at that station and it looks completely pro unless you get in microscopic close :) Wow, what an incredible project and barring hearing how it sounds, it does appear to be a hit (punn intended!). Way to go, jeez, I wish we had that in our motley crew for our halloween jams.. everyone drunk or otherwise wants to get up and join us on whatever bits are sitting around, including people's kids.. this would have the biggest lineup waiting for a turn.. love me some timbales for sure
DM10X with Addictive Drums 2, Pro X hi-hat, 4 crashes, foam cone conversion w Roland mesh heads, Laurin Drums snare and kick, Mapex P710W double kick pedal, Mapex 2 legged hi-hat, Behringer 8 channel USB mixer, Tascam 144MK AI, Samson Expedition Escape powered speakers

Offline Chaser

Re: Electronic Timbales/Percussion station
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2019, 02:16:37 PM »
Turned out great !..
I still have a number of the DM Docks..they make a great TMI
The DM Dock only requires the DM Touch app for setting up the triggers and midi.
After you have the trigger settings where you like you can use other apps.
Drums XD and Drum Perfect Pro allow you to add your own wave samples.The 64 bit versions are paid.Drum Perfect pro is a bit more complicated.
If you are using an earlier iPad (32 bit) There were free versions of each but they may no longer be available as I think they were 32 bit only and Apple removed all 32 bit apps from the apps store.
Drums XD has a number of expansions,Instruments,dual zones,reassign everything including midi etc etc and you can configure/size your own kit/setups.
There is also a full lighting setup..strobes , disco ball , spots etc.
I was working with the developer until he abandoned it and shut the site down but the app is till up.

for example..here is your configuration

Re: Electronic Timbales/Percussion station
« Reply #3 on: February 19, 2019, 03:20:11 PM »
Wow I had no idea! Options!

The DM touch seems a bit clunky to me. The Velocity Sensitivity and Threshold did not seem to do very much.

I tried to use garage band but the DM Dock freaked out and the triggers were just clipping and not triggering at times. I had to shut everything down and restart.

I do not know if my iPad is 32 bit or 64? I think it was the first model with a lightning port

I would love to use DM Dock with Cubasis2 or NanoStudio2 as well if possible?

I an going to get DrumXD right now, thank you for the suggestions.

Offline Chaser

Re: Electronic Timbales/Percussion station
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2019, 04:07:09 PM »
Wow I had no idea! Options!

The DM touch seems a bit clunky to me. The Velocity Sensitivity and Threshold did not seem to do very much.

I tried to use garage band but the DM Dock freaked out and the triggers were just clipping and not triggering at times. I had to shut everything down and restart.

I do not know if my iPad is 32 bit or 64? I think it was the first model with a lightning port

I would love to use DM Dock with Cubasis2 or NanoStudio2 as well if possible?

I an going to get DrumXD right now, thank you for the suggestions.

iPad 4 was the 1st with the lightning..Any iPad Air or later or iPad mini 2 or later has 64 bit processors. Here is a link for everything about iPads.
EveryiPad

Usually when you purchase in the app store now if the current version is for a newer version of iOS and you have an older iPad/iOS you'll get a message/notification/pop up asking if you want to download a previous/older version that supports it.

Use the Dm Touch to dial in the triggers as best as you can...I found it best to make a note of the default midi notes instead of changing them in DM Touch  that way later on it was easier to reset the master settings in the DM Touch if you had any problems..You don't even need the iPad in the dock after that if you were to use it as just a TMI.
The Drums XD app has a number additional settings and you can remap the triggers and zones to match the DM Dock/Touch midi note list.Between the 2 apps you can get the triggers dialed in pretty well.
There is a lot of expansions for  Drums XD, including a large amount of percussion. Once you get it dialed in and figure out how to make custom kits and configurations you'll have fun.It has a built in tutorial/manual.
The developer abandoned it as time consumption and cost to keep up with Apple's constant changes to where it wasn't profitable.
A number of developers started off when the iPad came out and dumped time/expense into product development only to have Apple go with the lightning connector and most I know said they would never do it again.
Drum Perfect Pro is more complicated and more expensive but you can have up to 16 samples per instrument and it also runs directly into the iPad's memory so kit/sample size depends on the iPad.A kit size in iPad 1 can only be  256mb ram..iPad 2-512mb..AIR 1GB etc.I haven't tried an iPad Pro 10.5 with 4GB ram.They are too expensive.
I did put a friends in the dock and it fit length wise but narrow width.These days you could probably have someone 3D print another tray/adapter.I have built a number of expansions for it,but he needs to work on the Hi Hat support.
 
An app to watch is Positive Grids X Drummer..If/when midi is incorporated/implemented (currently it's not,they say they are still working on it) for me it's kind of worthless without the midi...the DM Dock will make a great host... 
Postitive Grid X-Drummer

There has also been major changes in regards to linking apps using midi in iOS..check out
Audiobus 3
« Last Edit: February 19, 2019, 05:13:53 PM by Chaser »

Re: Electronic Timbales/Percussion station
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2019, 09:19:18 PM »
So much information! Thank you very much!

Re: Electronic Timbales/Percussion station
« Reply #6 on: March 09, 2019, 01:15:12 PM »
Hi Chaser,

Yes, I do have the iPad 4. Oh well. I was still able to get Drums XD even though my iPad is 32 bit. I have made the visual set up like you did here and now I need to figure out how to assign the correct sounds to the pads. Than you again

Offline Chaser

Re: Electronic Timbales/Percussion station
« Reply #7 on: March 09, 2019, 04:21:37 PM »
Hi Chaser,

Yes, I do have the iPad 4. Oh well. I was still able to get Drums XD even though my iPad is 32 bit. I have made the visual set up like you did here and now I need to figure out how to assign the correct sounds to the pads. Than you again

iPad 4 works well.It is the 1st with the lightning , but the last to fit the DM Dock.
iPad 3 max iOS was 9.35...iPad 4 max iOS is 10..which is good because you need iOS10 as minimum for X-Drummer and a few others.

The iPad AIR have similar specs but partially support iOS 11/ 12 , a lot of features aren't supported/don't work

It gets confusing after iPad 4 as iPad 5 replaced the discontinued AIR's (AIR/AIR 2)
iPad 5 is different.

Drums XD has features that I wish other apps had and the newer modules/multipad.
You can organize your sounds/setup folders and character limits don't apply unlike most apps and the newer Alesis modules,including the rebranded DD650's and have the "all in the pool" disadvantage..including the Strike Multipad..
You must have all the sounds in the "root" drive if you put into folders the OS can't see them
It does no good to use large USB drives as you will be searching and spinning the knob forever...reducing it life.
I found it best/faster to use smaller organized USB drives.
Drums XD has audio paste,midi learn..and you can reset the sample back to factory per instrument , you don't need to delete all the files and start over.

Let me know how it goes.
Once you figure out the work flow , building folders and audiopaste , you'll be able to get full potential out of it..
Don't forget to turn on "Velocity"..it'll even help on a one shot sample.