Hi,
I wondered, if the piezzo pickup of a standard electric drum pad, is the same as the piezzo speaker found in birthdaycards?
I mean, could I purchase a birthday card (the ones that open up and play a melody), get the speaker out, and use it as a sensor for my rim shot (like shown on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhhRQ2Zv4mo )?
Welcome to the forum ProDigit.
Something you need to keep in mind when talking about dual zone triggers. There are two flavors of them. The first is piezo/piezo. Meaning a piezo sensor for the head and piezo sensor for the rim. These type of dual zone triggers are typically used as drum triggers on Roland (mesh type) and Alesis modules. The other type is peizo/switch. Meaning a piezo sensor for the head and a simple switch for the rim. This type of dual zone trigger is used on Yamaha drum/cymbal triggers and on Roland cymbal (and rubber drum) triggers.
If you are going with a Yamaha module, a piezo/piezo drum trigger will do you no good. It will act like a single zone (head only) trigger. I hope that helps. Again, welcome to the forum.