Roland PD-120 snare - rim hits also triggering main sound. Any suggestions?

Started by peanutismint, October 31, 2014, 11:12:10 AM

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Drumaster

Hi guyz.

Like peanutismint, I have the same issue and no way to get rid of this head sound when hitting the rim of my PD-105/125 Roland pads.... even by tweaking the Threshold, the xTalk and Curve.......

I really don't think we can get very good results with a 2Box brain and Roland pads (at least PD-125 and PD-105)...... If someone can help, that would be great.....

Otherwise, I so love 2Box module and sounds... and yet I come from a Roland TD-30 (but was bored of the synthetic sounds...). So maybe I would need the original 2Box hardware (not the most sexy IMO but at least is compact and working well with the brain)...

Jman

To address the original post concerning the PD-120: If you want to do a simple mod on the PD-120 I would suggest simply moving the piezo from the frame of the Crossbar to the shell of the drum. Here is a picture of a mod I did to a Custom made acrylic style pad I built. It had a Roland PD-100 crossbar system installed ..... This was years ago. I changed this pad from a single zone to dual zone. Simply moving the piezo to the shell should give much better isolation from the head zone for the 2Box module.
PD-100 add-on piezo left  side by dajmando, on Flickr

The Crosstalk setting in the 2Box module is very useful to help with the type of problem described. Unlike the Roland module though that needs quite a bit of crosstalk between the head and rim section of the drums .... a little more isolation between the 2 zones is better with the 2Box module.

As far as settings for the PD-125 I know Allan (Digitaldrummer) has tested that with the 2Box module and may be able to suggest settings ....... Again though more isolation between zones is better for the 2Box module. IMO the basket that makes the PD-125 ideal for the high end Roland modules is not the best design for the 2Box module. Whenever you hit the rim on the PD-125 you are causing quite a bit of vibration to the head piezo/cone because the basket hangs over the drum edge and the head piezo platform is in the same basket. Possibly adding more isolation via rubber washers to the platform stand might be one idea to test if you cannot find the solution via trigger paraemeter settings.
I could tell you where to stick that piezo! :D ;)
http://stealthdrums.com/

peanutismint

Hey Jman, thanks for posting. This looks like an interesting mod, and reasonably simple to achieve.

Can I ask, though, in the image you've provided it looks like there's a piezo trigger on the shell but also the original 'crossbar' one still installed... Are you saying you installed the piezo in addition to the crossbar? And then did you just swap the wiring from the crossbar trigger to the rim one?

Jman

Quote from: peanutismint on January 03, 2015, 10:14:25 PM
Hey Jman, thanks for posting. This looks like an interesting mod, and reasonably simple to achieve.

Can I ask, though, in the image you've provided it looks like there's a piezo trigger on the shell but also the original 'crossbar' one still installed... Are you saying you installed the piezo in addition to the crossbar? And then did you just swap the wiring from the crossbar trigger to the rim one?
That is the top view, so the piezo on the crossbar is the head piezo that has a cone on top. That was a PD-100 trigger/crossbar and the PD-100 has no rim piezo, so I added a rim piezo, (actually I added 2, 1 on the shell at each end of the crossbar). 1 Rim piezo should work fine though with the 2Box module. For the PD-120 it should be simple as gently removing the piezo from the crossbar and sticking it on the shell.
I could tell you where to stick that piezo! :D ;)
http://stealthdrums.com/

peanutismint

Ah I see, thanks. So I can just remove the head piezo, cone and all, and stick it to the rim with tape or something?

Jman

Quote from: peanutismint on January 03, 2015, 10:22:08 PM
Ah I see, thanks. So I can just remove the head piezo, cone and all, and stick it to the rim with tape or something?

No, you don't want to remove the head piezo, leave that one alone. Just move the rim piezo that is stuck to the crossbar near the circuit board in this pic:
What's%20Inside%20Roland%20PD120 by dajmando, on Flickr
I could tell you where to stick that piezo! :D ;)
http://stealthdrums.com/

peanutismint

AH yes of course, sorry, it's all coming back to me now. I will give that a go! :-)

Jman

Quote from: peanutismint on January 03, 2015, 10:37:30 PM
AH yes of course, sorry, it's all coming back to me now. I will give that a go! :-)
You might have to clip the zip tie if it has one that holds the wire to the crossbar, can't remember if it has one. The main thing is to be very careful taking the piezo off the crossbar as it is very easy to crack the ceramic. My suggestion would be to heat the crossbar. Heat the crossbar on the underside of the piezo, not the top side the piezos are on, just the bottom underneath where the piezo is stuck. If you heat that with a heat gun or hair dryer and then use a razor blade slowly going around the piezo separating it from the crossbar .... you can lift it easily without damage. Then use some double sided tape to stick it to the inside of the drum shell ...... you should see an improvement in rim response.
I could tell you where to stick that piezo! :D ;)
http://stealthdrums.com/

peanutismint

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

I actually have a spare piezo, so I wonder whether it'd make more sense for me to just mount a second piezo on the rim and then snip the wires going to the 'stock' trigger and cable it into this new one using some sort of terminal block...? That way if it doesn't work or I ever want to go back to the 'stock' trigger I could just swap the old cables back into the terminal block... Does that sound like a good plan?? Or does the piezo used need to be of a specific kind or specification...??

edtc