Introduction



MegaDrum is a simple and easy to build yet very powerful MIDI drum trigger. It can be used with many varieties of Edrum kits/pads/cymbals to produce MIDI signals which can be fed to a computer with drum sampling software,e.g. BFD, Toontrack, Addictive Drums, to produce wide variety of drum sounds or it can be connected to a drum machine. It can be compared with Roland TMC-6 but with more inputs and more capabilities.  This is a DIY project and uses widely available and very inexpensive components. MegaDrum gives you flexibility in what modules you want to build and what components to use. (New!) And thanks to a contribution from Synthex, MegaDrum is now fully plug-n-play with an optional PIC18F2550 USB MIDI Board! See Forums for latest news/develpment/discussion.

Don't have much DIY skills? Want to own a MegaDrum module as soon as possible? Look at Synthex's kits!
Купить MegaDrum в России.

A video demo of a DIY drum kit in action with MegaDrum as edrum MIDI trigger. Thanks to Roman from megadrum.ucoz.ru for recording and posting this video

A better quality sound record showing MegaDrum capabilities (thanks to slingerland):

 

(More of MegaDrum in flesh and in action. (thanks to jodev, slayer666 and others!) See pictures, pictures, pictures and a video)

Here are the main features of the MegaDrum drum trigger that make it different from other drum triggers:

  • Atmega based. You can choose Atmega8 (obsolete), Atmega32, Atmega324P or even Atmega644. Several versions of firmware are provided for 12MHz, 16MHz or 20MHz versions of these chips.
  • No need for an expensive programmer. Programming is done via a simple cable.
  • MegaDrum firmware can be upgrade over Sysex so you won't need a programmer after an initial bootloader firmware has been programmed.
  • USB powered. No need for a separate power supply.
  • Different MIDI I/O options: standard MIDI or one of optional USB Boards: PIC18F2550 true USB MIDI, USB over FTDI232(obsolete), USB over AVR-CDC (obsolete,Atmega8 based)
  • Potentiometers free design. You don't need pots at all and this saves quite some money.
  • 9 levels input gain set individually for each channel.
  • Supports Dual Zone Piezo-Switch pads.
  • Supports 3 zone Roland style cymbals (e.g. CY-12/CY-15).
  • Sopports 3 zone Yamaha style cymbals (e.g. PCY150S).
  • SysEx support. MegaDrum can be controlled from a computer.
  • 4 Crosstalk suppression groups with individual crosstalk suppression levels in each group.
  • Can save 2 or 4 configs and 7 or 13 Drum Maps (depending on the MCU type).
  • Individual midi channel, dual/single pad, auto/manual sensitivity and curve settings for every channel.
  • Velocity curves for each individual channel can be compressed and shifted.
  • CC Choke support on every Dual Zone piezo/switch pad or 3 zone cymbals.


Also, of course, it shares many features common among other drum triggers:

  • 19/21/31 velocity sensitive trigger plus HiHat Controller inputs giving in total 20/22/32 channels. HiHat controller is auto/manually level adjustable. Each inputs (HiHat controller and Kick are excluded) can either be configured as Single inputs or joined into Dual Zone inputs (both piezo/piezo and piezo/switch pads are supported) or 3way/3 zones inputs.
  • Multilevel Crosstalk suppression support.
  • 10 Different types of velocity curves. Each channel can be assigned an individual curve.
  • Retrigger, Threshold settings.
  • 16x2 LCD with VU meters.
  • 4 button user control buttons with quick jumps: when in the menu you can jump to another pad channel settings by hitting this pad while holding HiHat controller pressed down.