Alesis DM10 Mesh head Pad Upgrade Video!

[Guinness]

Very Nice thanks for posting the pic!! Did either of you remove the resistors when you did the conversion or did you leave them intact? I left my resistors on the jacks.

I am using a splitter on the 2 kicks as they suggested and the one I order pegs out and the other registers low on the meter, even when striking it with a stick the one I ordered is extremely louder? I will try running them on separate channels and see the outcome if it is still noticeably louder then I will probably have to try what Yankee, and vaikl have suggested since I have lost alot of volume on my toms as well Thanks for the input everyone much appreciated will let you know the outcome after I put some of the suggestions to the test. Thanks again!!

Ok, that's the issue.   It may appear you have the same triggers (same kicks) but you don't.  The need to be configured equally.  In other words, the foam needs to be arranged the same in both.  The density of the foam needs to be the same as well.  And, if one layer of foam has a hole in it, the other needs it too.   If you ran them independently to the module, you could adjust them (via threshold and sensitivity and level) to match perfectly.   But since you're splitting them into one jack, you need have the triggers equal, so that the input they send are equal.   

I don't remember.  Is the kick input jack TRS?   If so, you could have one kick on R and one on T.  Then you could independently adjust the settings to get them to match.   But I think the input jack for the kick is TS only.  (I think it's in the manual.  Or someone here has it mapped out.)

Does this make sense?

[BH]

Okay now I am in the groove finally!! I took tom 1 back apart, pulled out the jack it had a 2 resistor setup formed into a "Y" shape (lay the two next to one another and the bottom 2 leads are twisted together basically and the top forms the Y shape) the 2 ends that where twisted together connected to the wires going to the brass on the piezo's at the jack, then the 1 the other end of the resistor connected to the red or the head piezo wire, then the other end of the other resistor connected to the head lead on the jack.

I removed the 2 resistor setup completely soldered the wires back onto the jack reassembled the tom plugged it in powered up put the headphones on struck the tom with a stick and about busted my eardrum's!!LOL and that is with the 2.5 inch hole in the foam still as well.

The Kicks I just put on separate channels and adjusted but will take them both apart and see if the one I just purchased has a resistor or not I am thinking it may not have a resistor and the one that came with the kit does will update on that tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions will keep you posted when I complete the rest.

[vtdrummer]

Okay now I am in the groove finally!! I took tom 1 back apart, pulled out the jack it had a 2 resistor setup formed into a "Y" shape (lay the two next to one another and the bottom 2 leads are twisted together basically and the top forms the Y shape) the 2 ends that where twisted together connected to the wires going to the brass on the piezo's at the jack, then the 1 the other end of the resistor connected to the red or the head piezo wire, then the other end of the other resistor connected to the head lead on the jack.

I removed the 2 resistor setup completely soldered the wires back onto the jack reassembled the tom plugged it in powered up put the headphones on struck the tom with a stick and about busted my eardrum's!!LOL and that is with the 2.5 inch hole in the foam still as well.

The Kicks I just put on separate channels and adjusted but will take them both apart and see if the one I just purchased has a resistor or not I am thinking it may not have a resistor and the one that came with the kit does will update on that tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions will keep you posted when I complete the rest.

I'd be very careful removing resistors... you might overload something.  I'd think that they were put there for a specific reason, and removing the resistance might blow something in the module.  Just my .02...

[Yankee]

Great to hear BH ! Yea, probably should of gave you the heads up to turn down that triggers Gain/Sensitivity before you put your cans on.
 
VTdrummer does have a good point, piezos are not switches in the sense most think, it's not an on/off thing. The crystal or ceramics used to make them actually generate a voltage when mechanically disturbed, ie get wacked with a big wood stick near by!    Probably a good rule of thumb to set the Gain/Sensitivity in the basement  and working ur way back up after doing pad mod's.

[Hellfire]

Something you guys need to keep in mind about those resistors, if you do the conversion base on my video, the resistors are not really all that necessary.

When you get a stock pad, the sensor plate is way at the top and thus the piezo element produces a much hotter signal, but once you do the conversion, it is no long at the top of the stack. It is below a much more adsorbent piece of foam and further down the stack. The result is a sensor with a much diminished signal output. That is why the resistors are removed.

Yes the resistors are important if you are using the stock configuration, but it is a different story if you do the conversion. I hope that helps.

[Guinness]

HF.   Did you remove the resistors in your conversion?  I don't remember that from the video.  I don't think I did it.  (My pads work fine, imo.   So, I'm not going to be removing any resistors.)

[Hellfire]

HF.   Did you remove the resistors in your conversion?  I don't remember that from the video.  I don't think I did it.  (My pads work fine, imo.   So, I'm not going to be removing any resistors.)

Yes I did remove them on my conversion and in the video. If your pads work fine then leave them as is. Without resistors you will just have greater sensitivity.

[ungoliant]

oups, i missed that one too  . More sensitivity is a advantage but i don't want to mess again with my trigger settings. Damn, now i have it into my head 

[BH]

All is good now!! Removed all resistors excellent sound now, put white foam in the 2.5 inch holes and got even better sensitivity Hooked kick pads back up with a Y splitter and tried again sound identical now!! No crosstalk issues either!! Thank you all for your help I greatly appreciate it!! Time to Jam

[Yankee]

All is good now!! Removed all resistors excellent sound now, put white foam in the 2.5 inch holes and got even better sensitivity Hooked kick pads back up with a Y splitter and tried again sound identical now!! No crosstalk issues either!! Thank you all for your help I greatly appreciate it!! Time to Jam

Great to Hear BH... 

[BH]

Thanks Yankee  Is nice to have it all sorted finally and can just power up and play!! I love this kit!!

[stongej2002]

I was watching HellFires conversion video and I have a question. Would it not be a good idea to put the extra piece of foam on top of the thick black foam instead of at the bottom? Wouldnt putting it at the top give it more rebound or does it impead contact with the plate to much?

[Hellfire]

I was watching HellFires conversion video and I have a question. Would it not be a good idea to put the extra piece of foam on top of the thick black foam instead of at the bottom? Wouldnt putting it at the top give it more rebound or does it impead contact with the plate to much?

Putting the thin piece of foam under the cheap foam keeps the cheap foam from getting pushed in to the ribs of the plastic casting and lifts whole assembly up just enough. With the cheap foam on the ribs the foam will slowly sink downward. Then you will not have proper contact with the head. I hope that helps.

[Jacko]

Oof.  Just read through the whole thread and watched the video.  I'll likely be doing the conversion when I order my 2011 DM10.  Thanks for all the info. guys.

I'm a hopeless DYI mod addict. 

[barcsdad]

Just did my first mod on my DM10 Studio snare. Didn't realize the "hole in the black foam" bit until halfway through. As per Hellfire's suggestion, left it alone instead of filling it. So far so good. Seems like the rim's sensitivity might be off a bit though. More noodling. The head/surface feels SO MUCH BETTER! I'm using the Pearl MFH Mesh Heads.

[stongej2002]

While I think Hellfires upgrade method is excellent, I think for the newer models of the dm10  studio alxmonkeys mod is the way to go, due to there being a hole in the black foam. I too am using the pearl mesh heads and I think they are working out great.

[Jacko]

Thanks for your video Phil/Hellfire.  I really appreciate it.   I ordered my DM10 and some Mesh Head II's from Billy Blast.

I'll be running a DM10 and a Trigger I/O and use the 3 extra cymbals from my DM 7.

[Jacko]

Another successful mesh head conversion here.  Thanks Phil for your video.

I ordered 5 x 8" and 1 x 10" Billy Blast Ballisteck II heads; $95 + shipping.  Great deal.

The mesh heads appear indestructible.  Time will tell.

All black foam inserts had a circle in the middle of them (toms and snare).  I simply cut a slit in the black foam, cut a circle in the white foam using a CD as a template, and inserted a 6mm Funky Foam circle in the same order as Hellfire's video.  I did not add extra foam in the empty hole cut-outs in the black foam.  Each pad took me about 10 minutes to do.

I'm so happy I did this mod.  Firstly, the bass pedal is soooo quiet compared to the stock head. No more TAC TAC TAC TAC TAC.   It has a lot more bounce to it, too.  I can now do heel-toe double hits easily.  Secondly, the toms and the snare have some good bounce to them compared to the original heads.  Finally, all the pads have a much softer feel to them.  They don't feel like I'm playing on pieces of wood.

I did try to just add a mesh head and not moving anything around, but they still felt stiff and were too loud.

All that I have to do is remove the resistors to increase their output.  The output is still usable by increasing the sensitivity. 

Happy camper.

[DrumBumWoody]

I successfully did a mesh head conversion last night using the BB 3-ply head.
Thanks for the video Hellfire.
Sounds great, feels great. Much better responce across the head.
I'll now move-on and do the rest.
One word of caution - when replacing the mount cover be very very careful with the wires - I sliced one in half. No big deal, but it mean't I had to take things apart and reattach/solder the wires.
I'm real happy with the result and would recommend it.

[brandx]

Another successful mesh head conversion here.  Thanks Phil for your video.

I ordered 5 x 8" and 1 x 10" Billy Blast Ballisteck II heads; $95 + shipping.  Great deal.

The mesh heads appear indestructible.  Time will tell.

All black foam inserts had a circle in the middle of them (toms and snare).  I simply cut a slit in the black foam, cut a circle in the white foam using a CD as a template, and inserted a 6mm Funky Foam circle in the same order as Hellfire's video.  I did not add extra foam in the empty hole cut-outs in the black foam.  Each pad took me about 10 minutes to do.

I'm so happy I did this mod.  Firstly, the bass pedal is soooo quiet compared to the stock head. No more TAC TAC TAC TAC TAC.   It has a lot more bounce to it, too.  I can now do heel-toe double hits easily.  Secondly, the toms and the snare have some good bounce to them compared to the original heads.  Finally, all the pads have a much softer feel to them.  They don't feel like I'm playing on pieces of wood.

I did try to just add a mesh head and not moving anything around, but they still felt stiff and were too loud.

All that I have to do is remove the resistors to increase their output.  The output is still usable by increasing the sensitivity. 

Happy camper.

I Jacko, i'm from canada too(Gatineau, Québec). Is removing the resistor is mandatory ? I guess that because the plate is now deeper in the shell that removing the resistor will compensate for the plate being at the bottom ? Is not removing the resistor will affect the sensibility ?

Thanks!

P.S. Sorry for my english.

[DrumBumWoody]

I removed it as per the video.
Not sure why it's there or what would happen if you didn't remove it.
Maybe Hellfire has done so experiementation with it.
Anyway, it works great without it, after the conversion.

[Hellfire]

I removed it as per the video.
Not sure why it's there or what would happen if you didn't remove it.
Maybe Hellfire has done so experiementation with it.
Anyway, it works great without it, after the conversion.

The resistors are removed to increase the output of the piezo. Since the Piezo is being moved farther away from the head the extra output is a plus. It just makes it easier to dial the trigger in. I do know that there are many here who have done the conversion without removing the resistors. It can be done this way but, you will be increasing the sensitivity to compensate. I hope that helps.

[DrumBumWoody]

Thanks for the explaination Hellfire.

[brandx]

I removed it as per the video.
Not sure why it's there or what would happen if you didn't remove it.
Maybe Hellfire has done so experiementation with it.
Anyway, it works great without it, after the conversion.

The resistors are removed to increase the output of the piezo. Since the Piezo is being moved farther away from the head the extra output is a plus. It just makes it easier to dial the trigger in. I do know that there are many here who have done the conversion without removing the resistors. It can be done this way but, you will be increasing the sensitivity to compensate. I hope that helps.

That's what i thought.

Thanks a lot.

[BobZilla]

I did the conversion yesterday. Huge thanks to HF for taking the time to create and share such a great tutorial!

I used the Billy Blast 3-ply mesh heads. I had a great experience purchasing from Billy, I ordered online and he emailed me the next day to let me know the order was shipped. Three days later I had them.

Here are a few observations from my experience doing the upgrade.

I had two slightly different types of pads to work on. Some came from my "USB" kit and some from my recently purchased DM10 studio.

The "USB" kit pads did not have the hole in the black foam but the DM10 pads did. I tried filling the whole with scrap white foam and watched very closely the indicator bar under ext trigger adjustments and it was very responsive. I then removed the filler and tested with exact same settings and it truly did not matter so I elected not to fill the holes.

I DID remove the resistors and I couldn't be happier. The pads have a lot of wiggle room in the adjustments and are very sensitive. As HF clearly says you will have to re-adjust all of your parameters. I believe if I kept them in it may work well that way too but by removing them you increase your adjustable range, in other words with them in you would have to raise sensitivity up like 20 just to push through the resistance. I guess it boils down to preference and how comfortable you are with soldering. Many people are doing the conversion without de-soldering and are perfectly happy.

One bit of advise concerning the foam that you add to the bottom. In the first pad i noticed that when I was putting the mounting bracket back in I was jamming up against the foam. I adjusted for this by cutting out a small rectangle to allow clearance for the bracket. I also had to make a double stack of the added foam in order to get the proper pressure against the head. I'm sure it just depends on the thickness and density of the foam you purchase. In my observation it works best if the top foam sits about 1/8th inch or so above the shells rim.

When you are reassembling the pads do not try to hold them upright in your hands to get the nuts started. You will wind up messing up the alignment and possibly getting the bottom foam slid up under the shell which will kill your rim sensors ability to sense hits. Instead keep the pad flat on your table and slide the bolt over the edge. Put the nut on your pinkie and hold it up in there to get it started. Rotate the pad around for each bolt keeping it flat on the table and then tighten them up a little at a time in a cross pattern to apply even pressure. This may be obvious to some but I state it anyway to help others with a smoother result.

One other thing to be careful about is the wires when your putting the mount bracket back in. HF does warn to be careful and he is right so pay attention. I actually pinched the wires on my second pad and when I hooked everything up it worked but I had to crank the sensitivity way up. I did not understand the problem, I thought maybe the Pizo was  bad or something. Only when I broke it all back down did I discover that the wires were pinched and I think maybe shorting out across the bracket. You would think that it wouldn't work at all shorted like that but it was working it just had a very weak signal. Once I repaired the wired and hooked it all back up the pad worked great just like the first one I had already done.

I am very happy with the conversion. I have never played on the high end pads that this is supposed to emulate but I can say that it made what I already had MUCH better. ------BZ