Drum Triggers!

[Tng]

Hej, people, i hear that a lot of drummers nowadays use triggers. And I would like to find out how this works on acoustic drums, what do I need to buy (if I wanted to). Are just the triggers enough, and then you connect them to a mixer, or do you need some plus equipment?
I would appreciate some info, or a link... or whatever to get me started!

Thank you so much in forward!

Cheers!
TnG

[Chippy569]

you're close. a trigger, in and of itself, is just a pressure-sensitive button, like a mouse button. The button is useless unless there's something to interpret, such as the computer of the mouse. For drum triggers, what you need is a module (sometimes called brain) -- if you look at an e-kit, it's the little box thing that's usually on the left side that all the cables plug into. The module is responsible for taking the incoming signal from the trigger and playing the soundfile that corresponds to which trigger and what volume it was played at.

There are cheaper ones out there, like the Alesis DM5 and the Roland TD-3, but these don't exactly sound amazing, because they have fewer, lower-quality samples (the sounds you hear). There is an option, though -- using MIDI, you can hook up the module to your computer and run software like Drumkit From Hell to play other samples.

Either way, the sound goes from the module to the mixer (or from the computer to the mixer) and out to front of house.

hope that helps!

[Tng]

aha, so I need trigs, then I connect them to a module, and then that goes into a mixer... and walaaaa :) thanks very much Chippy569

Question: from the module to the mixer, is there only 1 cable, or more (if i have - let's say - 3 trigger, then 3 cables???)
Maybe this is a stupid question, but it has been bothering me :P

thanks again!

TnG

[Electric Requiem]

1 or 2 depending on whether depending on whether or not the module has separate left and right outputs (I'm guessing most if not all do).

[abandonthetruth]

Actually, i'm pretty sure the output from most of the modules arent left and right, but stereo out. I don't know 100%, i use a trigger i/o and my computer so my computers digital out is what works for me, i can find out tonight though.

[Damo]

http://www.damienpetrilli.com/lessons/jan06.pdf
.

[dairyairman]

my yamaha module has separate left and right outputs. when i connect to a mixer i just connect one of them, but you could run both them in.

[\m/-CHeV-\m/]

http://www.damienpetrilli.com/lessons/jan06.pdf
.

/thread

[Damo]

Actually, i'm pretty sure the output from most of the modules arent left and right, but stereo out. I don't know 100%
Most modules are Left-Right individual outputs, even the cheaper ones.

[Chippy569]

most have left/right 1/4" TS outputs at line level. If you look on a mixer, there are channels like 1- some # that have an XLR for a mic. then there's those useless combination channels like 8/9 10/11 that don't have XLRs, but a pair of 1/4" TS. those combination channels are a great place to plug your module to.