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