I purchased a used Roland HD-1 drum kit after reading some of the reviews. They pointed out that the HD-1 has three weaknesses: 1) there are only 10 drum kits defined, with only 2 kits that are really useful, and with no ability to redefine the existing kits or define new ones; 2) the kick drum pedal does not feel realistic; and 3) the drum and cymbal pads have only one sensor zone.
There is an article here in which greydog describes how to use a Roland TD-3 to extend the voices for the HD-1. You run a MIDI cable from the output of the HD-1 to the input of the TD-3, after which you have access to all of the voices and kits in the TD-3, including reassignment of voices, changing relative loudness of each voice, and stereo voice panning. This works well, but you are still stuck with the HD-1 kick pedal.
The video here, towards the end, shows how to modify the springs in the HD-1 kick pedal to stiffen it up, but that did not seem like it would be enough. I build a wooden contraption to simulate the kick drum, and attached a regular kick pedal to the “drum”:
The kick input to the HD-1 does not accept a piezo signal: it will not trigger with that kind of input. I discovered, by accident, that it will trigger if you just short the two signal lines together. So, my original plan was to put a momentary contact push button switch where the beater hits the wooden panel, countersunk so that the beater just barely “clicked” the switch, and trigger the HD-1′s kick input that way. I came across a free practice pad that had been converted into a DIY drum pad, and mounted that pad where I had intended to mount the switch. The only problem was how to get that piezo signal to trigger the kick drum. By connecting the new DIY kick drum sensor directly into the kick input of the TD-3, I was able to get the best of both worlds. I now have all of the HD-1 drums triggering the TD-3 sounds, and also have the new kick pedal triggering the TD-3 kick sound. As a side benefit, I actually have two kick drums now, one on the HD-1 and one on the TD-3.
February 18, 2012 at 10:27 am |
So do you mean that if I get a piezo (like kd8) kick I can get it to replace my hd1 kick?
what do you mean by ‘short the two signal lines’?
do you mean sold them together?
February 18, 2012 at 5:20 pm |
Phil:
No, unfortunately you cannot use a piezo to replace the HD-1 kick, because the HD-1 uses resistive sensors for the HD-1 kick, and the piezo is not resistive. I am using a piezo kick, but only by plugging it into the TD-3, which can accept a piezo kick sensor, and not the HD-1.
The HD-1 kick is triggered when the resistance between the two HD-1 signal lines drops to zero. If you unplug the cable from the HD-1 kick and use a screw driver to connect the two bits of metal at the end of the 1/4″ plug, you will hear the kick drum sound. That is what I meant by “short the two signal lines”.
If you could replace that screw driver with a [momentary, single pole, single throw, normally open] push button switch, every time you pushed the switch, it would trigger the kick, by momentarily shorting the two lines together. You would lose the ability to modulate the intensity of the sound with this approach (it would always sound maximally loud). What I intended to do was mount that switch on the wooden contraption that I built, recessed so that the kick beater just barely pushed the switch button in, so as to prevent the kick beater from destroying the push button switch.
Make more sense?