electronic drum-pads work for rockband drumset

[joeyclassic]

at least the bass pedal,

my bass pedal snapped the first day i bought it, but there was an electronic drum-set laying around and i plugged it in and it worked

any kind of triggered drum-pad will work

fyi

[Apples]

Interesting... possible solution for the disabled members of the community who cannot use their feet for the pedal ?

[skebaka]

Just a thought, but it might be kinda hard to have a drum pad for the kick pedal when you have to hit 2 pads + the pedal..unless of course you happen to be that "spider girl" from India.

[logicalnoise]

Just a thought, but it might be kinda hard to have a drum pad for the kick pedal when you have to hit 2 pads + the pedal..unless of course you happen to be that "spider girl" from India.

there's kits out there for rigging up a electric drumpad with an normal kick pedal. hell roland uses mesh bass drum pads on most of their v-drums sets so people can use what ever real kick pedal they want. all electric kickpedals should work as well.

[vtjustinb]

People have reported that the Roland mesh kick pads don't work with RB without some circuitry to manipulate the signal.

[FallenAce]

look at the connector for the kickpedal... it's 2 leads... the switch is either a normally open or normally closed momentary switch. If it did anything more complex than that it'd need another lead or a power supply.

My point is once you figure out whether the circuit is N/C or N/O you could replace it with ANYTHING that you can manipulate as a N/C or N/O switch.

[Bakkster]

look at the connector for the kickpedal... it's 2 leads... the switch is either a normally open or normally closed momentary switch. If it did anything more complex than that it'd need another lead or a power supply.

My point is once you figure out whether the circuit is N/C or N/O you could replace it with ANYTHING that you can manipulate as a N/C or N/O switch.

I plan to figure that out this weekend, but someone else can feel free to beat me to the punch ;)

[FlyinWhee]

No rocket science involved here guys: it's a freaking controller button. most standard thing in the world. if you wanted you could use any button even, put the two lires on the poles and activate it.

In case my bass drum breaks my emergency plan is using a pedal from another cheapo electronic drum kit I have here, the Pacific Digital drumkit. I have like 3 pedals for those lying around, I used to use these with my modded Guitar Hero controller to activate star power. works like a charm.

[Stevenam81]

at least the bass pedal,

my bass pedal snapped the first day i bought it, but there was an electronic drum-set laying around and i plugged it in and it worked

any kind of triggered drum-pad will work

fyi

what brand and model? I'm hoping we can create a list of all electronic bass drum pedals that work. I plan on upgrading mine when I find one I like.

[FallenAce]

Here's how you figure it out: go to RadioShack and buy a single earbud or a pillow speaker. Those are usually mono connections. Have the manager of RadioShack (as the rest are just too dumb to understand why you don't want a cell phone) confirm it's a mono if you don't know how to check (it'll have just one ring on the jack).

Cut the earbud/speaker off and expose just the two wires. Plug it into your drumkit. touch the bare wires together and see if it responds as a kickpedal. If it does, it's N/O circuit.

If it doesn't, just do the opposite: hold the two wires together and suddenly separate them. If it responds like a kickpedal from this, it's a N/C circuit.

I'd bet it's a N/O circuit, as that's the easiest thing to build.

Then you can use anything that functions that same way. And, as you can see, it's quite easy to fashion something to do this work.

[Stevenam81]

Anyone have any luck yet?

[Darkhorse4life]

Ok, here is why I don't think this will work. I don't know the logic behind how these drum triggers work but heres the best explanation I can offer. I'm using my own Yamaha DTXpress III as my source material.

Generally speaking I connect my drum pedal to my electronic bass drum pad. This in turn runs a wire which plugs into my drum machine.

Drum triggers aren't generally an open/closed switch. Generally speaking, most electronic drum pads can read and send signals for different hit "velocity". For example I could hit my bass pedal really hard and the mallet head would hit really hard on the trigger pad and produce a signal from the bass drum that went to my drum machine that told the drum machine, "HEY, this is loud". If I hit my pedal really softly and the mallet head hit the trigger pad softly, it would send a "soft" signal to the drum machine.

That was a really crappy explanation, but the point I'm trying to make is that most drum triggers are variable.

We need to find some way to take this variable signal and set a specfic threshold to say... from velocity 0-X count that as "off", or "not hit", or "circuit not complete". For velocity X-Maximum velocity we need it to count as "on", or "hit", or "circuit complete".

Why do we need to do this? Because the Rock Band controller only knows on and off. It only knows hit or not hit, complete or not complete circuit. It doesn't understand the variable signal that a drum pad will send.

If anyone has any fancy idea of how to accomplish the above, lets hear it! If someone knows offhand how drum triggers with variable signal levels work on the electronic signal level, even better! :)

[JarethLegend]

Ok, here is why I don't think this will work. I don't know the logic behind how these drum triggers work but heres the best explanation I can offer. I'm using my own Yamaha DTXpress III as my source material.

Generally speaking I connect my drum pedal to my electronic bass drum pad. This in turn runs a wire which plugs into my drum machine.

Drum triggers aren't generally an open/closed switch. Generally speaking, most electronic drum pads can read and send signals for different hit "velocity". For example I could hit my bass pedal really hard and the mallet head would hit really hard on the trigger pad and produce a signal from the bass drum that went to my drum machine that told the drum machine, "HEY, this is loud". If I hit my pedal really softly and the mallet head hit the trigger pad softly, it would send a "soft" signal to the drum machine.

That was a really crappy explanation, but the point I'm trying to make is that most drum triggers are variable.

We need to find some way to take this variable signal and set a specfic threshold to say... from velocity 0-X count that as "off", or "not hit", or "circuit not complete". For velocity X-Maximum velocity we need it to count as "on", or "hit", or "circuit complete".

Why do we need to do this? Because the Rock Band controller only knows on and off. It only knows hit or not hit, complete or not complete circuit. It doesn't understand the variable signal that a drum pad will send.

If anyone has any fancy idea of how to accomplish the above, lets hear it! If someone knows offhand how drum triggers with variable signal levels work on the electronic signal level, even better! :)

Darkhorse4life is right. You can't just hook a lot of electronic pads to the RB kit. I own a Yamaha DTXpress kit and have tried every possible combinations of cables and adapters. The only thing that works is a stereo cable, with a stereo to mono adapter on the hi-hat control pedal and it's way too sensitive to use.

If anyone can figure out how to do what Darkhorse4life is suggesting then they will be a hero.

[crunchyoverseas]

We get one of these HMX folks to uncloud this mystery and just ****ing tell us what the deal is. They want an open standard? Then ****ing prove it. Release a standard so we can build our own drum kits.

I would definitely be down for completely reworking each pad using mesh heads. No sound. It would kick ass.

So what do you say HMX? Are you really down for open source peripherals or is that just what PR is telling you to say? Give us schematics and we, as a community, will build better peripherals...it's that easy.

[Bluvox]

Sounds to me like all you need is a kick pedal and a little bit of work to create the part of the design that closes the circuit when you push down on the pedal. Hrm.. the total amount of electronics required wouldn't be much, depending on the amount of effort put into it, even if making it from scratch.

Might be interesting!

[ZenZen]

Geezus guys.

The pedal: ANY SWITCH WILL WORK. All the pedal is, is a switch. hell you could use a lightswitch in place of the pedal and that would work. Same with the drums themselves in rockband. They are switches. On/Off. Wax on/Wax off. Just need a normally open switch and rig it to any pedal.

Electronic drum kits sense VELOCITY. The pads are not just a switch. Their resistance varies depending on the force of the hit.

To use your electronic kit with RockBand- IE: use your Yamaha, Roland, Alesis, Hart Dynamics, etc etc DRUM PADS you would need to do it one of two ways.

1) Build a circuit that senses the resistance change in the drum pads electronics. This circuit trips a relay that, say your Green RockBand drum, is wired through. You are simply bypassing the switch in the green drum head and using the electronic switch you BUILT that in turn is activated by your drum kits pad.

2) Take the MIDI output of your drum kits controller into your computer. Assign a particular MIDI note (your snare for example) to trigger a USB output that is eqivalent to pressing the RED drum on the RB controller. This USB output plugs into the game console and "mimics" the button press. All of this has been done already using a midi drum kit to control Guitar Hero 2. Go and google MIDIHERO.


Seriously, Harmonix is NOT going to tell you guys how to do this. Wanna know why?
Because console manufacturers LICENSE SPECIFIC CONTROLLERS FOR THEIR SYSTEMS!
This means $$$$$$$$$. This means TESTING controllers. Blah blah blah.

Can you imagine the tech support nightmare for Sony/Microsoft if they had people making their own controllers then calling in when it didnt work? Be serious. Not gonna happen.

[tbradshaw]

We get one of these HMX folks to uncloud this mystery and just ****ing tell us what the deal is. They want an open standard? Then ****ing prove it. Release a standard so we can build our own drum kits.

I would definitely be down for completely reworking each pad using mesh heads. No sound. It would kick ass.

So what do you say HMX? Are you really down for open source peripherals or is that just what PR is telling you to say? Give us schematics and we, as a community, will build better peripherals...it's that easy.

Stop flaming.

It is already an open standard. You'll find all the information you could possibly want in the XBox 360 and/or PS3 developer kit. You can also look online for information about the controller standard that you want to implement (360 or PS3).

[MrFreshness007]

Actually...its so much easier than all of that.

Follow the link for details on how I got my Yamaha PCY60 cymbal to act as the bass drum pad AND while using a real bass pedal.

http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1888

[JarethLegend]

Geezus guys.

The pedal: ANY SWITCH WILL WORK. All the pedal is, is a switch. hell you could use a lightswitch in place of the pedal and that would work. Same with the drums themselves in rockband. They are switches. On/Off. Wax on/Wax off. Just need a normally open switch and rig it to any pedal.

Electronic drum kits sense VELOCITY. The pads are not just a switch. Their resistance varies depending on the force of the hit.

To use your electronic kit with RockBand- IE: use your Yamaha, Roland, Alesis, Hart Dynamics, etc etc DRUM PADS you would need to do it one of two ways.

1) Build a circuit that senses the resistance change in the drum pads electronics. This circuit trips a relay that, say your Green RockBand drum, is wired through. You are simply bypassing the switch in the green drum head and using the electronic switch you BUILT that in turn is activated by your drum kits pad.

2) Take the MIDI output of your drum kits controller into your computer. Assign a particular MIDI note (your snare for example) to trigger a USB output that is eqivalent to pressing the RED drum on the RB controller. This USB output plugs into the game console and "mimics" the button press. All of this has been done already using a midi drum kit to control Guitar Hero 2. Go and google MIDIHERO.


Seriously, Harmonix is NOT going to tell you guys how to do this. Wanna know why?
Because console manufacturers LICENSE SPECIFIC CONTROLLERS FOR THEIR SYSTEMS!
This means $$$$$$$$$. This means TESTING controllers. Blah blah blah.

Can you imagine the tech support nightmare for Sony/Microsoft if they had people making their own controllers then calling in when it didnt work? Be serious. Not gonna happen.


Wow, I actually hadn't heard about MIDI Hero. Looks like this is a genius way to get an entire electronic kit to work with Rock Band. Thank you for the information. Looks like I should be playing Rock Band with my Yamaha electronic kit in no time.

Edit: Ok, so actually it may be a lot harder than I thought. Crap.

[MegaGoo]

Actually...its so much easier than all of that.

Follow the link for details on how I got my Yamaha PCY60 cymbal to act as the bass drum pad AND while using a real bass pedal.

http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1888

any chance of getting some pictures? and does it work well still for you?

[ZenZen]

Yep MIDIHERO will take some work. I posted the easiest way to go for actual MIDI connectivity without using a PC and getting the lag over on the ScoreHero forum.

Involves buying a midi-relay controller to the tune of about $350. The upside is that you should be able to use any midi instrument to do it. drums, keyboard, computer.....

No hacking apart your e-kit, but your RB drums do get a small workover :)

[MrFreshness007]

any chance of getting some pictures? and does it work well still for you?

Really don't need the pictures. Concept is easy. Mount a single zone pad/trigger to something that a bass pedal can register a hit to. (obviously using a real ekit bass pad would be the best).

Right off the bat, this worked flawlessly. But as I continued to play, I began getting double triggers...due to my crappy approach to mounting the dang pad. But that should be remedied by mounting the pad better.

Bottom line is this approach will work with little investment IF you already have the electronic pads available.

Tonight I'm going to try some more experimenting with my Pintech bass edrum (dual zone pad) I know that it won't trigger bass hits, but will provide a good solid bass to mount the cymbol to, and once I have that, I'll hook up my double bass pedal.