Author Topic: DM6 DB-25 Cable Pin-Out  (Read 16894 times)

DM6 DB-25 Cable Pin-Out
« on: April 26, 2010, 08:54:38 PM »
Ok, so I'm on the low end of drumming.  I'm using an Alesis DM6 with a DrumRocker kit.  The nemesis of my DM6 is my ION drum brain for Rockband PS3.  ION uses 1/4in connectors on both ends while DM6 uses that Octopus cable with 1/4in on one end and DB-25 (Ye Olde Serial) connector on the other.  This means having to switch cables every time you want to go from DM6 to Rockband and vice versa.  A pain in the wazoo along with a mess of cables.

I got me one of these old A/B DB-25 switch boxes ($5 on ebay) and made my own Octo cable for the ION.  Basically, I now have a straight DB25-DB25 cable between the DM6 and the switch box, the original DM6 octo cable from the switch box to the triggers, and my home made octo from the ION to the switchbox.  That way, I can use the switch box to flip between DM6 and ION.

For those of you who might be interested in doing something similar, I mapped the pinout of the Alesis DB-25 Octo cable.  Following pin layout in the image below, here is the mapping to the TRS (Tip, Ring, Sleeve) 1/4" connectors.  Most are Tip/Ring only, but some (like the snare) are TRS.

1.   Hi-Hat Controller Tip
2.   Hi-Hat Controller Sleeve
3.   Hi-Hat Tip
4.   Open (No connection)
5.   Crash Tip
6.   Snare Sleeve
7    Snare Tip
8.   Tom 1 Tip
9.   Tom 2 Tip
10.  Tom 3 Tip
11.  Kick Tip
12.  Open (No connection)
13.  Ride Tip
14.  Hi-Hat Controller Ring
15.  Open (No connection)
16.  Hi-Hat Ring
17.  Crash Ring
18.  Open (No connection)
19.  Snare Ring
20.  Open (No connection)
21.  Tom 1 Ring
22.  Tom 2 Ring
23.  Tom 3 Ring
24.  Kick Ring
25.  Ride Ring

Hope this is useful to someone out there :)

- Ben

Online Hellfire

Re: DM6 DB-25 Cable Pin-Out
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2010, 09:03:17 PM »
Good info. Thanks for sharing this information. I will link to your post form the "Manual links for D4, DM5, DM6, DMpro, DM10, & Trigger I/O" topic. I believe many people will find this helpful information.

I may just turn this into a PDF document in the future.
« Last Edit: April 26, 2010, 09:09:13 PM by Hellfire »

Re: DM6 DB-25 Cable Pin-Out
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2010, 04:06:42 AM »
Hello Ben,

Today you are my hero. I was about to start doing the mapping tonight when I googled DB25 and Alesis DM6 and your post came in.

You saved me lot of troubles :)

The idea of the switch is brilliant, I was about to solder the cables to a DB25 female and switch the cables manually between the dm6 module and the rocker module, but this is a way more clean solution, and the connector in the back of the DM6 wont suffer that much, althought it is indeed bulkier :)

Thanks again!

Re: DM6 DB-25 Cable Pin-Out
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2011, 09:29:12 AM »
That sounds far more complicated than necessary. I am not familiar with the DM6, but the DM7 works flawlessly with Rock Band 3 on the PS3. All you need is a Midi-Pro Adapter ($40), Midi-to-USB cable ($5), a PC, and Midiox (free). As with most drum kits, the ride and crash are backwards from the game. Therefore I had to swap the cymbal locations to match the game. With this setup, I don't have to swap any hardware to switch between game play and recording. This also allows me to play the game while also outputting the sound thru EZdrummer (or your favorite VST plugin).

Re: DM6 DB-25 Cable Pin-Out
« Reply #4 on: November 14, 2011, 04:34:45 PM »
I don't want to be picky, but I was initially confused by your DM6 pin-out. You've got your Rings and Sleeves the wrong way round. It's a minor point. but hey! good work.
Also, for what it's worth, all the pins connected to "sleeve" (Ring on Ben's posting) and all the "No connection" pins are connected to ground inside the DM6.

Lou
« Last Edit: August 24, 2012, 03:05:22 PM by Cpl Crapper »

Re: DM6 DB-25 Cable Pin-Out
« Reply #5 on: August 27, 2012, 01:22:51 PM »
Ok, so I'm on the low end of drumming.  I'm using an Alesis DM6 with a DrumRocker kit.  The nemesis of my DM6 is my ION drum brain for Rockband PS3.  ION uses 1/4in connectors on both ends while DM6 uses that Octopus cable with 1/4in on one end and DB-25 (Ye Olde Serial) connector on the other.  This means having to switch cables every time you want to go from DM6 to Rockband and vice versa.  A pain in the wazoo along with a mess of cables.

I got me one of these old A/B DB-25 switch boxes ($5 on ebay) and made my own Octo cable for the ION.  Basically, I now have a straight DB25-DB25 cable between the DM6 and the switch box, the original DM6 octo cable from the switch box to the triggers, and my home made octo from the ION to the switchbox.  That way, I can use the switch box to flip between DM6 and ION.

For those of you who might be interested in doing something similar, I mapped the pinout of the Alesis DB-25 Octo cable.  Following pin layout in the image below, here is the mapping to the TRS (Tip, Ring, Sleeve) 1/4" connectors.  Most are Tip/Ring only, but some (like the snare) are TRS.

1.   Hi-Hat Controller Tip
2.   Hi-Hat Controller Sleeve
3.   Hi-Hat Tip
4.   Open (No connection)
5.   Crash Tip
6.   Snare Sleeve
7    Snare Tip
8.   Tom 1 Tip
9.   Tom 2 Tip
10.  Tom 3 Tip
11.  Kick Tip
12.  Open (No connection)
13.  Ride Tip
14.  Hi-Hat Controller Ring
15.  Open (No connection)
16.  Hi-Hat Ring
17.  Crash Ring
18.  Open (No connection)
19.  Snare Ring
20.  Open (No connection)
21.  Tom 1 Ring
22.  Tom 2 Ring
23.  Tom 3 Ring
24.  Kick Ring
25.  Ride Ring

Hope this is useful to someone out there :)

- Ben

This is the pin layout for the DB7

1   Hi-Hat Tip
2   Kick Tip
3   Hi-Hat Controller Tip
4   Hi-Hat Controller Sleeve
5   Ride Ring
6   Crash Tip
7   Crash Sleeve
8   Snare Ring
9   Tom 3 Tip
10   Tom 3 Sleeve
11   Tom 2 Ring
12   Tom 1 Tip
13   Tom 1 Sleeve
14   Hi-Hat Sleeve
15   Kick Sleeve
16   Hi-Hat Controller Ring
17   Ride Tip
18   Ride Sleeve
19   Crash Ring
20   Snare Tip
21   Snare Sleeve
22   Tom 3 Ring
23   Tom 2 Tip
24   Tom 2 Sleeve
25   Tom 1 Ring
   Kick Ring (no connection)
   Hi-Hat Ring (no connection)


1   Hi-Hat Tip
xx   Hi-Hat Ring (no connection)
14   Hi-Hat Sleeve
3   Hi-Hat Controller Tip
16   Hi-Hat Controller Ring
4   Hi-Hat Controller Sleeve
17   Ride Tip
5   Ride Ring
18   Ride Sleeve
6   Crash Tip
19   Crash Ring
7   Crash Sleeve
20   Snare Tip
8   Snare Ring
21   Snare Sleeve
9   Tom 3 Tip
22   Tom 3 Ring
10   Tom 3 Sleeve
23   Tom 2 Tip
11   Tom 2 Ring
24   Tom 2 Sleeve
12   Tom 1 Tip
25   Tom 1 Ring
13   Tom 1 Sleeve
2   Kick Tip
xx   Kick Ring (no connection)
15   Kick Sleeve

Re: DM6 DB-25 Cable Pin-Out
« Reply #6 on: June 24, 2013, 03:45:39 PM »
Quick Question all..  The breakout snake for the DM6 that I have seen in a photo only has Mono 1/4" connectors -  which are just a tip and a sleeve..  I have older piezo triggers that also have only 2 wires What goes to where to make this work.  Tip - Sleeve... Tip - Ring.. Ring - Sleeve..   I've been out of this for a while I had D4 when it was new...  Looking at picking up a DM6 used with out the snake cable and making my own


Re: DM6 DB-25 Cable Pin-Out
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2014, 02:34:16 PM »
Thanks for the great work on this thread--very helpful. I started with a DM6 Session kit from ebay. But the Ride doing the random/uncontrolled bell was driving me crazy (mapped an open HH voic to the Ride to get by). I found a good deal on a DM7x controller (only, no cable snake). Used the info here to solder up a DB25 set to map from DM6 pads/snake to the DM7x controller. I now realize the DM7 pinout above is different that the DM7x pinout. Found a DM7x cable snake and am using that (with 1/4" to 1/8" adapters for the toms). Working great! (and the DM7x controller is much better than the DM6 IMHO).

With the DM7x snake, I mapped the pinouts. Here they are, in case anyone might be interested.

1   HH /tip
nc   HH /ring
14   HH /sleeve
3   HH Ped /tip
16   HH Ped /ring
4   HH Ped /sleeve
6   CR /tip
19   CR /ring
7   CR /sleeve
17   RD /tip
5   RD /ring
18   RD /sleeve
20   SN /tip
8   SN /ring
21   SN /sleeve
2   BD /tip
nc   BD /ring
15   BD /sleeve
12   T1 /tip
25   T1 /ring
13   T1 /sleeve
23   T2 /tip
11   T2 /ring
24   T2 /sleeve
9   T3 /tip
22   T3 /ring
10   T3 /sleeve


Cheers.