19 November 2009

Electronic Snare Drum Project (Part 1)

I was so enthusiastic after reading the Eletronic Drums Cookbook that I decided I just had to try some of the stuff out. So I went to my local electronics shop and bought a whole bunch of components. Normally I only order what I need for a specific project, but then you keep waiting long time before everything arrives. And I'm in such a period now, waiting for stuff. So in the mean time I can do some experiments on the stuff I learned from the cookbook. In the end there is an example of a Snare Dum Module so I decided to go and give it a try and build it from scratch without a PCB. I never did that.

I got also a breadboard for these kind of experiments. You can see it in the picture on the right. It is full of holes as you can see where you can put your components in. Every little line is interconnected so you can use those to hook stuff to each other. It is very easy to experiment and change values while you are going. On the board I got a trigger optimizer now that takes a 5V gate on the input and outputs a conditioned 12V pulse that the drum modules can use. There is also a led on there that lights up when it gets a gate.

In the picture on the left I'm a bit further. The snare drum sound will be build up from three sound sources: an impact generator, a snare generator and a shell generator. The impact generator is below the trigger conditioner. Below that in the middle is a little audio mixer that mixes the three sound sources together. In the right top is a noise generator with a low pass filter that I'm building now and that will form the snare generator. Below that is a VCA for that module. On the left you see the same VCA for the shell generator that will be in the upper left corner. It is already generating some sound. The noise generator, the mixer and the impact generator are operational already.

3 comments:

BCElginTex said...

Neat Michel. Are you going to post a video with sound showing the finished product? Brian

Synth.nl said...

Good idea. I hope I don't forget :)

Joye 510 said...

It is full of holes as you can see where you can put your components in. Every little line is interconnected so you can use those to hook stuff to each other.