Annika built an electronic drum set as a personal project. Remo practice pads were used as the drum triggers, and frisbees were used for the cymbals. These were mounted onto a PVC piping frame.

Piezo transducers were the receptors for the vibrations. The Piezo element was removed by taking off the outer plastic shell to make it possible to attach them to the drums.

For the drums (the Remo practice pads), the outer ring of the pad was unscrewed and the foam and plastic sheeting inside were temporarily removed. We cut the foam piece into two, and then used one side to trace a perfect circle on a metal sheet. After cutting the metal plate out, Annika used epoxy glue to attach the piezo element onto the center of the metal sheet. We drilled a 1/4” hole in the hard plastic bottom half of the practice pad and put a 1/8” jack onto it. We then made a hole in the center of the foam to allow for the Piezo wires (one carrying a positive charge, the other a negative) through it, and soldered them to their appropriate parts on the jack.

Put the pad back together, and voila, a drum trigger. Repeated that three times, to get 2 toms, a snare, and a kick.

For the cymbals (frisbees), it was a similar but more delicate process. Annika cut small circles of metal out that would fit underneath the frisbee (away from the very center where she would mount them from), and epoxied the piezo element onto there. She then epoxied the metal with piezo onto the plastic bottom of the frisbee. After this, a 1/4” hole was drilled into the top of the frisbee to make room for a 1/8” jack to be placed in. Then, we soldered the positive and negative wires of the Piezo to the jack, and a cymbal trigger was formed. Repeated that twice to get one ride, one crash, one pair of hi-hats (for the hi-hat, two frisbees were placed facing each other for aesthetic reasons, but they were treated like one trigger.)

After making these triggers, Annika purchased an Alesis IO, a device that converts vibrations (picked up from hitting the drum triggers) into MIDI notes. These notes were sent to a computer through the Alesis IO, into a step sequencing program. Configuring this properly and getting each sound to play with the right drum was very time consuming. Latency was in issue in particular.