Pots or no Pots?

[slayer666]

Hi, I'm new to the MegaDrum, and I have some questions I want answers to.
I've built Admirs Edrum and I'm familiar with the whole concept.

But should I build with or without pots?
If I choose no pots, How do I set the gain on each piezo?

Are there any pros and cons I should know about before making my decision wether to include Pots in the build.

/Thanx in advance

slayer666 \m/

[dmitri]

Hi,

Getting rid of pots was one of the reason to start developing MegaDrum. As a result you don't need any pots in MegaDrum, except the one to adjust LCD contrast. To adjust input signal from different pad types producing different output levels MegaDrum32 uses 9 levels of input gain (MegaDrum8 has 3 levels of input gain). You can set individual gain levels per each input. The advantages are obvious: much lower cost of building, less wires, simpler soldering and less chance of changing input gain accidentally. There are disadvantages. First, it requires a bit more of programming but it should not bother you as I've already done this:) There might be some pads (I haven't encountered such) which are too hot and the lowest gain level is not low enough for them. Even in this case I'd recommend a preset potentiometer built-in into a pad, just as I think Roland and Yamaha do this.

Overall I think potless design is the way to go on drum triggers.

[slayer666]

Nice, I'm gonna go ahead and make the pcb's then.
Thanx.