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 and outputs 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 module you can build and what components to use. MegaDrum is fully plug-n-play with an optional PIC18F2550 and is USB MIDI class compliant, i.e. will work with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux without additional drivers! 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 MegaDrum kit!


Don't have time to build it yourself? I can build it for you. See 32 inputs and 56 inputs versions. You'll need to register on the forum to see pictures.

A video demo of a custom drum kit in action with MegaDrum as edrum MIDI trigger. Thanks to Anders (aka ZourMan) for making the video!



 

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

 

See more of MegaDrum in action in this Video Collection

 

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

  • Atmega based. Atmega644, Atmega644P, Atmega1284 or Atmega1284. It can use 12MHz, 16MHz or 20MHz crystals. It used to be Atmega32/324 based but now MegaDrum firmware has outgrown these two.
  • 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 a protected bootloader has been programmed.
  • USB powered. No need for a separate power supply.
  • Different MIDI I/O options: standard MIDI or/and MIDI over USB MIDI using one of these MCU: PIC18F2550/PIC18F2450/PIC18F14K50/PIC18F13K50 (last 3 require a proper PIC programmer)
  • 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.
  • Positional sensing (experimental)
  • Most types of switch or variable HiHat controllers with CC position support and dedicated notes on all zones for 5 levels of intermediate levels of the pedal positions.


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

  • 21/31/39/47/55 velocity sensitive trigger plus HiHat Controller inputs giving in total 22/32/40/48/56 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 plus 4 custom 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.
  • Optional rotary controls.

 

Copyright © 2007-2013  Dmitri Skachkov