Author Topic: Triggering problems  (Read 1037 times)

Triggering problems
« on: October 15, 2021, 05:52:11 PM »
I've got a bit of a hybrid/DIY kit and I could use some help troubleshooting some triggering problems.

The kit started life as a DM8 Pro. I upgraded the pads with mesh heads including adding a thin layer of soft foam between the head and the trigger plate. I did not change the order of the foam stack as I've seen some other folks do. It worked really well with the DM8 Pro module.

I've just upgraded to a DM10 mkii Pro module. It's missing hits, especially on the 12" pads (snare and floor tom).

The easiest problem to reproduce is if I start with soft alternating single strokes they're fine at low intensity. As I hit harder, they reach a point where suddenly the hits don't register. Looking at the module, they're barely triggering at all. Single hard hits are fine though. I'm not playing particularly fast, I'm a pretty inexperienced drummer and couldn't play very fast if I wanted to. I might be hearing some soft rim shots when this happens (even though I'm definitely not hitting the rim).

One symptom that's a little harder to explain is that in moderately fast fills where I'm moving back and forth from snare to toms, sometimes the snare will miss a trigger entirely. When this happens it doesn't seem to matter whether it was a hard or soft hit.

The DM8 had a lot more options on trigger configuration. I could set cross talk send and receive for every pad. And the snare had a separate "zone cross talk" setting.

The trigger settings in the DM10 mkii Pro aren't nearly as sophisticated. They each just have a single cross talk setting. I've experimented with various cross talk, threshold, and sensitivity settings. I can't find anything that seems to make a difference. Which has me suspecting my modified pads.

Thoughts? Should I change the layer order of the foam stack? Is there something specific I should try in the module's trigger settings?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Online Sharkuel

Re: Triggering problems
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2021, 07:06:46 AM »
Hello.

I experienced this with my 2box build, and the fix that I came up with was to have a quad-piezo setup on the larger pieces (14 inch snare and floortom). I have an old Alesis DM10 that i use as a test-module and this setup actually works well. No hotspots, the signal is pretty much well distributed along the head.

I have attached to this response a rough scketch of the way I wired my piezos on the snare. I hope that helps.
Megadrum 32 inputs with positional sensing add-on.

Cone centered DIY triggers in snare and toms.

8" racktom
10" racktom
12" racktom
14" floortom

Roland VH13
Lemon Cymbals

"Life is short, death is near, but one's word lives forever

Re: Triggering problems
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2021, 07:43:26 AM »
Thanks @Sharkuel. Are your pads single or dual zone?

Online Sharkuel

Re: Triggering problems
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2021, 07:45:11 AM »
Hey.

They are dualzone. My pad has a total of 8 piezos, 4 for the head, and 4 for the rim.

Megadrum 32 inputs with positional sensing add-on.

Cone centered DIY triggers in snare and toms.

8" racktom
10" racktom
12" racktom
14" floortom

Roland VH13
Lemon Cymbals

"Life is short, death is near, but one's word lives forever