Light attack drum kit

This ams the breadboarded circuit... because... why not?

On the first day, I gave my drums light.

So... have you ever seen a drum kit light up when it's played?

Because seriously... if you have, I want to know about it.

Okay I just googled it and found this.  Those sons of....  oh wait... that drum set in the video costs thousands of dollars.  It was expensive enough that they don't even post the price online... which I've learned over the years means that it's usually so freaking expensive that they don't want you to konw price.
You actuall need to download a PDF of their prices.  I'm not sure about the sizes of those drums in the video, but the drum shells alone cost over $5,000.  As far as I can tell, that doesn't include the lights or the controller, which I would probably guess are another few thousand.

That being said...  I want something unassuming... You see some dude setting up drums... looks like a normal set... then BAAMMMM.  Beams of light are shooting out of it... I imagine it something like the final scene from that Indiana Jones movie... you know the one I mean.   Yup, that one.  Also, I think with a few hundred bucks, at least that much is in my reach.

I got some ideas up my sleeve, and the first one involved an electret microphone into the + input of  comparator.  I use a pot connected to the - input to set a trigger threshold.  Then I connect the output of the comparator to the gate of a mosfet to turn on the LEDs,  I put an RC circuit on the gate of the mosfet to control how the LED decays.   Piece of cake, right?  Not exactly... it took a few hours and some other parts, but I got one built on a breadboard and threw it in the bass drum as a test.

I asked Battle Toys guitarist to play a simple beat while I messed with the threshold and decay rate and was able to find a setting that decayed fast enough to catch all of the bass drum hits.  I also had to raise the sensitivity quite high in order to only trigger once on each hit.  Evidently a bass drum contains some serious pressure waves.... who knew?

Gary Gnu knew, and John Sununu knew...  (Thanks, P.C.)

Anyway... a proof of concept design for the light attack drum kit.

More to follow!

What is this about?  Why are we here?  Who is this "the google" and what does she do?

I'm not sure yet...

Here's the plan.  I'm always futzing with things... I'm going to post them online because my awesomeness cannot be contained.

What you can expect...

Computers, guitars, effects pedals, amplifiers, electronics, drums, music, and... umm... stuff... maybe even some art thrown around for good measure.  Anything DIY I guess.

So... sit back... relax... pop a nice cold one...



That's all...








Did you open that beer?











Good... because it's 9 in the morning, and you're not a drunk.

Ibanez Tube Screamer replica

So... I was at a friends house and he had an old Ibanez tube screamer pedal.  I sinned and coveted my neighbors belongings... sorry Jesus.

I went onto the ole interwebs and found myself a kit from General Guitar Gadgets.

Boom!  Parts ship... arrive at my house... a little solder job later and it works.  I decided to make this pedal pretty and pay somewhat of an homage to the original.

Bring on the green paint!  I gave it a round of grey automotive primer and then a whole slew of green enamel .  I popped it in the toaster oven for an hour or so to at about 350F to hasten the curing time.

Since it IS a tubescreamer... why not decorate with some tubes?  The lady helped me photoshop a vacuum tube photo into a whole page of decals.  I included some text in the decal page too...

Apply the decals, about a half a spray can of clear enamel.  Another trip to the toaster oven... and Voila!

Awwwwww yeeeeahhh!  Ain't she pretty?

The Minneapolis band Battle Toys used this pedal to record their song "Idols".  Okay, it's not because I'm some sort of pedal god, it's because that's my band... heh

Here it is inside the Terrarium with a POG pedal and the Battle Toys.