drum Trigger connections

[rocksld]

We recently have moved from a DM5 to the Roland TD8 to trigger acoustic drums for live sound. The Drum module is ran at the mixing board by the soundman. Kick, snare, & toms assigned to their own outputs (toms all assigned to one output) so that the mixing of the kit can be done as if it was a mic'ed kit. No internal mixing of the drums occur within the module except for the toms which are only set up internally so that all of the toms are at least the same volume. The triggers are DDrum acoustical XLR triggers. Drums triggered: Kick, snare, tom 1, tom 2, tom 3, floor tom. The triggers are connected into our 100' snake to make it back to the board. When we used the DM5, we would use High Z transformers to interface the XLR connectors of the snake into the 1/4" trigger inputs--we had much success with this approach.

 

NEW dilemma:

 

Since we've switched to the TD8 (mostly for the better sounding drum sounds) we found that our previous method of using the High Z transformers is not as easy. The TD8's trigger inputs are too close together and two transformers cannot plug directly next to each other. The temporary fix was to plug the transformers into every other input. This works fine but now we lose the use of 1/2 of the trigger inputs. Currently we are only using 6 inputs but with this approach there's no room for larger kits that require an extra trigger or two. We could throw a few mic's on the drums without triggers, but this defeats the purpose of why we decided to go with a drum module in the first place.

 

This is the question:

 

If we eliminate the transformers and replace it with a standard mic cord that is XLR to 1/4" and plug this into the snake at the board into our module. Will this work? By adjusting the trigger parameters, will we get acceptable results without the length of the snake causing triggering problems? Does anyone already do this?

 

Any brainstorming on this would be greatly appreciated.

[towndog]

I use the Roland TD6 to trigger my acoustic set. Depending on how big the stage is and how much time I have I connect via one of the following methods.

 

1. I have a few short 1/4" to Male XLR connectors. I connect the 1/4" to the TD6 and just connect the male XLR to a mic cable and run to the board. This method should be fine for shorter runs to the board/snake, etc. There should not be much problem with noise, etc. if you keep it 25 feet or less.

 

2. I picked up a couple Behringer direct boxes (got them on sale for $25 each. I just use 1/4" cable from the TD6 into the direct boxes and then a mic cable from the output of the DI to the board.

 

3. I also have a 30 foot SUB-SNAKE. This is just a small drummers snake with 8 inputs. I use the short 1/4" to XLR cables and connect to the sub-snake. I also connect my vocal mic and two overhead mics to the sub snake and then run the sub-snake to the main snake or board. This is the method that works best for me because it takes less time at the end of the gig because I am using all short cables (no cable spagetti to untangle at the end of the night). I picked up the sub-snake new for $119.

 

So there are a couple of options - just depends on how much you want to spend...

[curseicon_mark]

if you had a DMPro you can lod whatever trigger sounds you wanted in the card slot.

[Stinky Drummer]

Hey, this brings up a question of my own about the TD-8. How many individual outputs does it have? I want my snare, hi-hat and kick all output individually, then the rest of the kit can be mixed into a 4th/5th channel out. Will the TD-8 do this?

 

I have a TD-6 and all it has is stereo outs, which really stinks when it comes to recording.

[Fafnir777]

Yes, that should work without any real problems. You may have to raise your sensitivity on the triggers to make up for the length of the snake, but it should work just fine.

 

 

 

Tim