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.
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
(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, 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, USB over AVR-CDC (Atmega8 based)
- Potentiometers free design. You don't need pots at all and this saves quite some money.
- 9 (3 for Atmega8 board) 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 suppresion groups with induvidual crosstalk suppresion levels in each group.
- Can save 2 or 4 configs and 7 or 13 Drum Maps (Atmega8/Atmega32)
- 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).
- 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.
