I have built MegaDrum and...

Discussions related to MegaDrum Hardware

I have built MegaDrum and...

It lived up to my expectations but I cannot compare it with other Drum triggers
51
48%
It lived up to my expectations and it is better than other Drum triggers
45
42%
It lived up to my expectations but it is worse than other Drum triggers
0
No votes
It is worse than I expected but it is ok.
0
No votes
I should have not built it, total loss of time/money.
4
4%
I built it but don't know what to do with it now.
7
7%
 
Total votes : 107

I have built MegaDrum and...

Postby dmitri » Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:24 pm

And a poll for those who built Megadrum:) Suggest other options.
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Re: I have built MegaDrum and...

Postby Synthex » Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:27 pm

Hi hi hi ... an other option : "I built it and it's the most fabulous achievement of my life. I love it" ;)
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Re: I have built MegaDrum and...

Postby EricSinger » Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:29 pm

the only thing I know is megadrum ROCKS the other drum triggers
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Re: I have built MegaDrum and...

Postby dmitri » Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:30 pm

Synthex wrote:Hi hi hi ... an other option : "I built it and it's the most fabulous achievement of my life. I love it" ;)

My extreme, highly regarded, best of the best MODESTY doesn't allow me to add this option:)
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Re: I have built MegaDrum and...

Postby Bluebass » Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:30 pm

Great work to Dmitri, et al.!
I have built megadrum 22 input with Atmega 32 and embedded it into a "zendrum" like housing with 27 triggers (a few paralleled) Works great, looks great - cost under $70 usd for everything.
Way better than a zendrum. A real zendrum has a 3 character display, terrible UI, 24 triggers and starts at $1300...AND THAT'S WITHOUT A SOUND MODULE/BRAIN. Also, I've built the MIDI/power splitter so the Megadrum electronics can be powered via the 2 unused pins of the MIDI cable.

I have 2 more "MegaZen's" to assemble. It was a bit frustrating soldering all of those diodes and 100 ohm resistors etc, but with the newer design utilizing the 74HC4851's it definitely the best way to go.

My first gig with it is in Boston March 28.

Thanks again everyone for the expert assistance.
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Re: I have built MegaDrum and...

Postby astachurski » Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:48 pm

I'm happy with what I built.
I've built 21 inputs (or so) version with LCD and no USB feature (so far).

Although firmware restarts from time to time when I intensely browse the menu it's quite stable. Responsiveness is very good. BTW - how to quickly jump to kick (for example) when you display let's say channel 15? It's quite tedious to hold 'left' button for 10 seconds :-)

I built the device for my percussion pad which consists of 18 small triggers driven by fingers plus pedals (hihat and kick). I use the stuff along with Addictive Drums (via Ableton).

To sum up - it's a good project, trivial to assemble (these schottkys are pain in.. though :-)

brgds,
Adrian
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Re: I have built MegaDrum and...

Postby dmitri » Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:02 pm

astachurski wrote:I'm happy with what I built.
I've built 21 inputs (or so) version with LCD and no USB feature (so far).

Although firmware restarts from time to time when I intensely browse the menu it's quite stable.

It should not be happening. Try adding a 10k-47k pull-up resistor from pin 9 on Atmega32 to +5.

Responsiveness is very good. BTW - how to quickly jump to kick (for example) when you display let's say channel 15? It's quite tedious to hold 'left' button for 10 seconds :-)

When in the menu you can quickly jump to any pad by hitting that pad while holding HiHat pedal pressed down.

I built the device for my percussion pad which consists of 18 small triggers driven by fingers plus pedals (hihat and kick). I use the stuff along with Addictive Drums (via Ableton).

To sum up - it's a good project, trivial to assemble (these schottkys are pain in.. though :-)

brgds,
Adrian

Glad you liked it!
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Re: I have built MegaDrum and...

Postby Cladinshadows » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:24 am

...it's the bomb. I built the 32 input version.
I had a little problem with the LCD. Only the back light came on but no characters.
Checked all the soldering points on the LCD and PCB to see if there were any flaws or shorts .
Finally figured out I had to turn the trimpot screw about 30 turns clockwise and my characters were getting visible. Wasted a half a day trying to figure out what happened.
Now everything's working great except for the HH control pedal input. Still need to tweak the input.
Besides this , it's a great project and it's very easy to build , especially when you buy the kit with the pre-programmed chip included. Thanks Synthex and also Dmitri.

I will use my Megadrums primarly for a percussion setup which will be used with Addictive drums .
Tried it out with Toontrack's ezDrummer Latin percussion pack and I'm very satisfied with it.
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Re: I have built MegaDrum and...

Postby astachurski » Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:32 pm

dmitri wrote:
astachurski wrote:I'm happy with what I built.
I've built 21 inputs (or so) version with LCD and no USB feature (so far).

Although firmware restarts from time to time when I intensely browse the menu it's quite stable.

It should not be happening. Try adding a 10k-47k pull-up resistor from pin 9 on Atmega32 to +5.
Indeed it's a very rare phenomenon. But I'll try adding pull-up resistor anyway

Responsiveness is very good. BTW - how to quickly jump to kick (for example) when you display let's say channel 15? It's quite tedious to hold 'left' button for 10 seconds :-)

When in the menu you can quickly jump to any pad by hitting that pad while holding HiHat pedal pressed down.
You're right - it's not an issue at all. I just didn't have hi-hat pedal :-) Now when I've built one it's quite comfortable.

I built the device for my percussion pad which consists of 18 small triggers driven by fingers plus pedals (hihat and kick). I use the stuff along with Addictive Drums (via Ableton).

To sum up - it's a good project, trivial to assemble (these schottkys are pain in.. though :-)

brgds,
Adrian

Glad you liked it!
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Posts: 8
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Location: Poland, Kraków

Re: I have built MegaDrum and...

Postby astachurski » Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:40 pm

Cladinshadows wrote:...it's the bomb. I built the 32 input version.
I had a little problem with the LCD. Only the back light came on but no characters.
Checked all the soldering points on the LCD and PCB to see if there were any flaws or shorts .
Finally figured out I had to turn the trimpot screw about 30 turns clockwise and my characters were getting visible. Wasted a half a day trying to figure out what happened.
Now everything's working great except for the HH control pedal input. Still need to tweak the input.
Besides this , it's a great project and it's very easy to build , especially when you buy the kit with the pre-programmed chip included. Thanks Synthex and also Dmitri.

I will use my Megadrums primarly for a percussion setup which will be used with Addictive drums .
Tried it out with Toontrack's ezDrummer Latin percussion pack and I'm very satisfied with it.


Current for backlighting and contrast may differ depending on your LCD manufacturer. I always have to calculate custom values for resistors...
Regarding HH input - you meant potentiometric variant? So far I have switch version (switch between pin 1 & 2 ) and didn't have any problems. If you know of some issues with connecting potentiometer - let me (us) now. I did only one test and looked like it was ok.

I'm using ONLY AD (+Live7).
ezDrummer is loading its samples more than 2 mins on my machine while AD < 10 sec.

brgds!
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