I'll rest my above questions and ask some new
I've seen that an aluminum plate seems to be the choice for most reflection plates. Is there any other good material that might be equally good to use? I think I read somewhere that a a thin plate of wood was used. How about a plastic one? How thick can a reflection plate be before it starts to interfere with the performance? The thinner the better? All advices for good materials and where I can find it is much appreciated.
Come on Hellfire. You're the master of reflection plates!
I'll chime in even though I wasn't asked.
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Using steel sheet metal will work just fine. You will have to use the sandwich method. I have so used hardboard (same stuff used for peg board, but without the holes) and 1/8" Plexiglas. One of my most interesting ones was using a mylar disk. Yep, you read that right, mylar disk.
Here it is, copied from Vdrums, where I originally posted it.
A different way? You mean you got the laser to work?
I wish I got the laser to work, but no it is not the laser. I don't want people to get too excited about my triggering, because it is more of a "I could've had a V-8" type idea. It was a very simple idea that I had about 11-12 years ago and never did anything with it. What got me thinking about it was a post I saw from one of the other members here. Here is his post:
The rigid crossbar gives excellent and predictable results and is quite simple IMO. Can't understand why so many want to revamp this design...I have yet to see any evidence of a better one. Watch any of Jman's demo tapes...all the drums perform as good or better than Roland's.
The Poron foam in three layers-two 1/2" and one 3/8" gives a better reproduction of Rollie's cones as anything else I've seen on these boards...now that I think of it, I have seen no demos of any other designs.
I really don't know why so many want to mess with a proven design...but my drums are done (for now) and have performed flawlessly for about three years so I'm content to watching the new guys blaze the new trails...sadly many don't know where they want end up.
Stimulating a piezo is no big feat...:rolleyes:
So I say thanks bogiesbad for reminding us it is not difficult to stimulate a piezo. I think in a way Roland tried to revamp a proven design as well and made it happen. However, my idea goes back even further than the Roland cross bar/cone foam thing. I guess is was 1996 BC (Before Cones).
Most people when they get into DIY edrumming for the first time, they tend to use the Remo practice pad conversion. Split the foam in half, attach a piezo to a metal plate of some kind, and sandwich it between the foam halves. That works OK, (rolls and flams suffer a bit) but for my way to work I need a little more shell depth. Well, my X4L has that depth. The system has four layers.
Layers #1 & #2 - 1" thick Poly-fil batting
Layer #3 - mylar disk (yes the same as a drum head) with one 27-mm piezo attached to the bottom with 3M chemical resistant double stick tape.
Layer #4 - 1" thick Poly-fil batting
This is placed under a mesh head.
I know what you are thinking, you're thinking "The piezo wouldn't last 1 hour", but you would be surprised at just how well it works. I've even road tested already. (yes, I gig out). This system is much more sensitive than the old foam-metal-foam style, and it seems it trigger just as good as my Roland cone drums. I most also say that it doesn't feel like you are hitting a foamed back drum trigger. I think most of us here know that hitting a edrum that has foam behind the head just "feels" bad. It looses the bounce and has a bad thud. My new sensing system does not feel like you are hitting foam, because you aren't. Poly-fil is a lot less dense than foam, this is why I use a mylar disk instead of metal. The Poly-fil also, does not dampen the bounce as severally as foam. The end result of using a mesh head with my new system really does give you the feeling you are playing on an acoustic drum. You still have bounce, but it is not like a trampoline, it is more like a mylar head.
In the pictures you will notice that I had to retro-fit my X4L. I couldn't have anything in the cake pan because of how close the mylar sensing plate sits to the bottom of the pan, so I ran the wire out the bottom into a project box. Here's some pictures:
Well, there it is. I hope people try there own experiments with this system so I am not the only one who knows how good it is. eDrumming for me is one big experiment, so I am always changing, tweeking, and messing with my designs.