![]() Using the steel plate protects the sensor from direct strikes (they can be fragile) and the additional ‘echo’ vibrations of the plate should extend the signal generated.Ī bare steel plate would produce a pinging noise of its own when struck, so it is layered between a dense foam top surface and a foam cushion below. The central position is used as this is the place where there is a maximum deflection in the plate. In this setup, I epoxied the sensor disc to the center of a steel plate 2-3mm thick cut from an old computer case. To turn the piezo into a drum type instrument, the sensor element needs to be incorporated into something that provides a bigger and bulkier striking surface that allows the musician to play using sticks or their fingers.Īs a start, the piezo sensor should be bonded to a larger mass. But what if we want some force feedback from the sensor so that the ‘hit’ can incorporate some level of musical expression (eg, MIDI otuput volume)?ĥV Arduino input interface circuit Making a ‘drum’ style device Prior to starting the project, the first design decision decision is which sensor(s) should be used to detect ‘hits’ to the percussion instruments.Ī switch is good to detect the digital on/off signals for a simple hit, and this will suit many, if not all, percussion instruments. Percussion instruments also do not strictly need a explicit note off event to follow as for a normal note being played. This means that playing a MIDI percussion instrument is the same as initiating a MIDI note on event appropriate for the instrument on MIDI channel 10. The GM percussive instruments are shown below, mapped to a the notes normally generated by a keyboard. Each of the different possible notes correlate to a unique percussive instrument – the note number no longer relates to the sound’s pitch but specifies the instrument type. The way this works is that events recorded on channel 10 always produce percussion sounds when transmitted to a keyboard or synth module. Importantly for this project, in GM compatible files, MIDI channel 10 is reserved for percussion instruments only. To be GM compatible, synthesizers must obey the conventions for program and controller events. GM is a standardized specification for electronic musical instruments that respond to MIDI messages. MIDI percussion instruments are defined in the General MIDI (GM) specification. ![]() In this project I build a flexible software kernel for a DIY MIDI percussion kit that can initially be used with switches and piezo sensors but is easily extensible. Some small projects are interesting because they can enable more than their initial proposition, and the simplicity of producing synthesized sounds using a MIDI interface allows us to experiment with different types of instrument ‘user interfaces’.
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