Triggering acoustic drums

[welshsteve]

Does anyone know of an effective and reliable set of acoustic triggers?

I've had every single range of ddrum. Including the new nor so super duper chrome elite. The same story on all. Give it a few weeks of nightly gigging (I'm touring uk extensively and have been since October) and you find a complete failure of a trigger or the intermittent kind. In the latter case the triggering will come and go and upon inspection and pressing the transducer into the sponge, you'll hear machine gun triggering meaning the connection had broken and as it's being pressed it's connecting and disconnecting really fast, hence machine gun effect.

I took a gamble on the recommendation of the chap in the chat screen for Pintech with a set of their perfect triggers. There's a lot I admire, fast transducer replacement and a generally better build being the main ones. The down side, they just don't trigger half as well. Lots of double triggers and I've messed with the settings a lot. I had to dampen the drums a lot to combat this, which I didn't have to do with ddrum.

I've spent a lot of money and a lot of time trying things out and I'm still lost for an answer.

I'm thinking to just have to constantly buy the replacement ddrum transducers periodically and make my own mount with sprung connectors for fast replacement on the gig. As they do work the best but just don't last.

I've emailed 2box for advise with no reply. I've also emailed pintech for advise of setup for their triggers as he claimed he'd sold lots to disgruntled ddrum customer. So he must have some idea of set up tips. As it stands, most of them are still in the packets not having been opened.

[StudioG4]

I've had great success with these: http://www.wronka-drums.de/shop/easytrigger/easytrigger/index.php
They are internally mounted and trigger extremely well.
Check out this dicussion as well:
http://www.vdrums.com/forum/forum/general/products/66638-wronka-internal-lug-mounted-triggers-digital-drummer/page3?71802-Wronka-internal-lug-mounted-triggers-Digital-Drummer/page3=
I don't think you'll be sorry.

Good Luck!
Tony G

[welshsteve]

Thanks for the reply. But how well do they track? As good as ddrum? I was told the pintech ones do, but they do not! Not even close.

[StudioG4]

I used to use the ddrum redshots and found the wronka's to be just as good, if not better and much more convenient for me because they never get touched when I bag my toms. They need to be installed in a location that you will not have a chance of hitting them but I'm extremely satisfied with the tracking and overall quality of build.
Tony G

[Greg the groove]

Steve interesting to read this today as I too use the ddrum Chrome elite triggers and I was very happy with them so far. I use them on my acoustic kit with regular Evans coated heads and while I have not had them for long and don't play out live as much as you do, I didn't have one problem until yesterday I noticed my snare dual trigger was not triggering the head. Sure enough, upon taking it off and looking at it, the blue wire had come off and it was only triggering the rim shot. So that's my first chrome elite failure.

I have to order some backups now just in case. Ive been very happy so far with the triggering and tracking of these triggers with the 2Box module with some setting adjustments on the module side. I can tell you that I think these triggers are way better than the small red shot triggers. Im just wondering how durable they are because the snare gets used so often. Im worried about the kick trigger as well now.
Im not sure how that wire came loose, I don't remember wacking the trigger by mistake or anything funky like that.

Below is a video from my you tube drum cover channel where Im testing out the triggers with my acoustic kit and 2Box module:
http://youtu.be/R3WjoEfA3MY

[fulrmr]

Maybe you should look into Aquarian inHead FSR acoustic heads. The trigger is built into the head itself.

[welshsteve]

The aquarian ones do seen like the best by far. But they're expensive and I've also read that they have a life. They'll work for a while and then they just won't. How long that is with a heavy touring schedule like the one I'm on, remains my reservation along with the high cost. That said, if I'd known how much I would be spending at the top of the tour I would have just spent on the aquarian ones.

[welshsteve]

As for the chrome elite. Ddrum have in fairness have tried to make the build better. But having a snare and a kick all fail in two weeks, my guess is the transducer is just not built to that the vibrations over time. No matter how well you build around it, the transducer is just weak.

[Dänoh]

There's yet another (new) offering by DDrum (apart from the Redshot's, Pro's and Elite's):

It's called the DDrum DRT trigger.
http://www.ddrum.com/drt_triggers.php


What you basically have is two transducers inside the same trigger-housing that can be selected with a switch ....an additional 'spare transducer', that can be brought into play when the main one fails on you.

Might worth exploring...!



HTH

[welshsteve]

Did I not mention I had the drt series before the chrome elite. And yes, they broke too. One time one broke and I switched to the secondary transducer and found that it had broken before the primary one.

[ElectronicDrumCenter]

Check out the Pintech acoustic conversions internal triggers and the Aquarian inHead and onHeads.

[fulrmr]

The aquarian ones do seen like the best by far. But they're expensive and I've also read that they have a life. They'll work for a while and then they just won't. How long that is with a heavy touring schedule like the one I'm on, remains my reservation along with the high cost. That said, if I'd known how much I would be spending at the top of the tour I would have just spent on the aquarian ones.

I have heard different tales of their longevity....however one was 200hrs from a working musician. Now I'm sure that will vary depending on how abusive one is on their heads. They are acoustic heads and subject to the known failures of them.  Spares in the wings are always a must. IMO it's worth the cash to try as you seem to have broken almost every other fairly reliable option out there. I would buy a set....beat the crap out of them until they fail...if they fail....and keep a "tried" backup in my tool kit for emergencies. You may find that they are just what you ordered and then you can stock up for the rest of the tour.