Using Drum Triggers with Rock Band (My Experience so far)

[RobHalford]

Hi everybody,

I purchased Rock Band for the PS3 last Tuesday and have been reading all of the posts like an addict ever since. I decided to finally make an account and post.

I have been experimenting with the possiblity of using a kick drum trigger (Roland KD-7) with the Rock Band kit so that I could hook up my DW5000 pedal. I know people have been curious and I just wanted to update this forum with my experience. I purchased a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter at radio shack for $3 and attempted to plug my KD-7 trigger into the drums. Unfortunately, I have not been successful in making the trigger work. I thought that the trigger would just send a signal to the kit and then the game would interpret that signal as the bass drum (just like my roland brain), but unfortunately there is some issue with the communication between the two devices.

Not satisfied with this result, I have tried some other triggers and pads as well. So far the only thing that I have gotten to work is my Roland FD-6 Hi-Hat Controller. I simply plugged it in with the adapter and it works perfectly. The one downside to this is that it was obviously not designed to be used as a kick pedal, so the response and feel are not ideal, but it is definitely playable (and sturdy...yay for metal)

So to recap, KD-7 not working, FD-6 Hi-Hat Controller WORKS!

If anyone finds a way to make the KD-7 trigger work, I would love to know how. Hopefully, this information is useful for some of you. GOOD LUCK! ROCK ON!

-Mike

[Odwill]

I was thinking of just buying a trigger and strapping it on to a practice pad for use with my Iron Cobras but I figured there would be some issues with it. The impedance or voltage probably is wrong for the input on the RB drums. The closest thing I have seen so far is someone took a cheap switch from Radio Shack and mounted it under the foot pedal, seemed to work pretty good.

[Bakkster]

I will have access to an oscilloscope and multimeter this weekend, I will try to get a reading for the important characteristics of the drum pedal and post them here.

[SinistarX]

The Rock Band pedal? I don't think an oscilloscope and multimeter are really necessary. It is simply a magnetically triggered normally open switch. When the pedal is pressed down to its base, it comes in close enough contact that a magnet closes the switch and triggers the control mapped to "Orange".

Disconnect the pedal some time and hold it up to your ear, depressing the pedal. You'll hear a slight click when the rubber feet of the pedal come in contact with the base.

Any normally open switch hooked up to the pedal jack will work. If a pedal contains its own electronics for a MIDI drum kit in order to allow for variable pressure hits, it likely won't work as it will be measuring degrees of pressure/impact and sending that information to be processed by the controller rather than just closing a circuit.

[Bakkster]

The Rock Band pedal? I don't think an oscilloscope and multimeter are really necessary. It is simply a magnetically triggered normally open switch. When the pedal is pressed down to its base, it comes in close enough contact that a magnet closes the switch and triggers the control mapped to "Orange".

That's what I figured, but I wasn't sure. Hence the somewhat robust testing ;)