eDrumin newbie questions + Magnatrack triggers

[Tarrasque]

Hi everybody.

I'm considering turning an acoustic drunset to electronic with minimum destruction/drilling and electronics fiddling. The main use case scenario would be connecting to a PC to use with VST. Given these constraints I think that an eDrumin module would be the best choice, and with some research it seems to me that Magnatrack triggers could be the best choice, expeciially for cymbals where mounting and setup seems easy and almost drill free.

Given that, though, I have some absolute newbie in e-drums questions that I hope someone here is kind enough to answer.

I have a classic kick/snare/rack tom/floor tom + hi hat/ride/2 crash set for a total of 8 pieces. From what I read snare should use 2 inputs for head/rim, and hi hat, ride and maybe other cymbals 2 inputs each for bell/edge. This makes 5 drums + 6 cymbals = (at least) 11 inputs. Which eDrum device would be the best for me?

I begun reading the manual. I read that all eDrumin inputs are TRS stereo, and that they could be set as "dual mono" so accepting two different triggers. Does this mean that I could possibly get a eDrumin 4 inputs and use it to connect 8 total triggers and so "electronicize" all my set, if I make do without dual zone snares and cymbals (I don't want to wait a year until eDrumin 10 is available again)?

Second question: according to by research, Magnatrack triggers seem the easiest solution for my almost non existing skills. They are not fficially supported in the manual. Do anyone use them? Are they working? In case they do, do they require a lot of fine adjusting or are they hassle free? Do anybody have an easier solution?

Thank you very much.

[Rob]

I would go with 2 eDRUMin 4's. However if you used splitter cables and were content with single zone for each instrument, you could get away with just 1 eDRUMin.

I have no personal experience with Magnatrack triggers, but if you do a search for 'magnatrack' you'll find some posts about others who do.

[Mr_Bluesguy]

I have experimented extensively with DIY triggers and in that vein, I obtained a set of Cymbalic sensors from Magnatrack for my LV cymbals to evaluate them. All I can state about them is from personal experience only, so your mileage may vary. They're a little on the pricey side, but they are legit. The build and strain relief is robust. I took one apart and discovered they use a 12mm piezo with a small thin disc of high density foam between the piezo and case. Even with their small diameter, there is plenty of output (sensitivity). Their mounting hole geometry makes it easy to place them anywhere on a cymbal, even as the hole diameters change as you move across. So with patience it is quite simple to move them around to find the optimum placement. They work very well on single zone crashes, although I don't use them in that application. I use a custom trigger- basically a 12mm piezo mounted to a 2" fender washer with a disc of high density foam covering the washer. This fits over either the curved washer or plastic hat that the cymbal normally sits on. So, no trigger mounted to the cymbal. There are nuances to getting this to work nicely, but thats beyond the scope of this thread.
Where I find the magnatracks really shine is in a dual zone bell/bow configuration. I use this on my 20" LV ride. One trigger under the bow, one at about mid cymbal diameter. You have to use the dual piezo mesh head setting in stereo mode for this to work correctly. I have amazing bell/bow separation that is consistent. Again there are some nuances to get this working well. Of course there is no switch edge detection, so this is ok for guys that don't care about using their ride as a crash.
Dual placement on a hi-hat is trickier because of separation issues on a smaller diameter cymbal.
I got around this by placing one magnatrack trigger about mid diameter on the inside of the top cymbal, and adhering a length of piezo cable (NOT the kind used for guitar bridge pick ups) adhered to the bottom side of the top cymbal approximately 1/4" from the edge using silicone RTV. The magic here is that piezo cable is way more sensitive to impact than vibration, making zone separation much easier. Again, you have to set edrumin up in dual mesh piezo stereo mode. So you get quite consistent bow/edge separation.
So the short answer to your question (in my humble opinion) about Magnatrack triggers is yes, they are a great tool in the trigger arsenal (although pricey) if you love DIY and are patient with locating positions. They work great with edrumin.

[Tarrasque]

Thank you all for answering and sharing experiences.

What I find interesting the most on magnatrack is the (at least apparent) easiness of positioning and expecially repositioning the triggers on cymbals. Most other solutions I found on the web seem a lot more permanent or destructive for the cymbal. Since I'm a complete newbie, the possibility of experiment a lot of time is very appealing to me and justifies a higher cost.

BTW I see that Magnatrack also offers triggers which mount with neodymium magnets, so they seem the top for repositioning. I don't know if anybody tried them.

The second factor that interests me is the scalability factor. Since every trigger seems to be a single trigger, I could start small, buy only 3/4 triggers and an eDrumin 4 and start toying around. Then with time buy more and add to the set or convert a single zone to a double zone (if I'm not mistaken) and if needed get a second eDrumin 4.

[beelzebozo]

I am using Magnatrack triggers on Zildjian L80 cymbals thru Superior Drummer 3.

I am using 1 LVCT on each crash (2) with their chokes. That connection is made to their dual zone split adapter, that way it uses only one insert in the eDRUM instead of 2.

For the ride, I have one LVCT on the bell. It picks up any bell triggering and bow hits. I have not setup edge hits using a 2nd LVCT.

For the hi-hat, I only have LVCT on the bow.

The main issue I ran into at first was artifacts on the hi-hat and double triggering from the bell trigger and bow trigger I connected to the ride - I was using 2 but decided to just use the bell trigger. You should also adjust the hi-hat pedal control in Superior Drummer for open/close positions. The only kind of annoying thing is that my Ludwig hi-hat pedal doesn't have a back plate to better secure the HC2 but otherwise it works if the hi-hat doesn't get moved around much.

That was alleviated by choosing a Roland-T30 preset in Superior Drummer. It cleared that up almost entirely, then I had to make some additional minor adjustments in eDRUM.

Did take some work to get it workable - just a few things to keep in mind. I am also a noob in the world of triggers.

My orig post where Rob's input was helpful - viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1607

[Tarrasque]

Thank you again.

Pardon my question, but English is not my native language and I think maybe I missed something.

You said you initially tried using 2 triggers on the ride, but because of double triggering you are now using only one?

[beelzebozo]

Thank you again.

Pardon my question, but English is not my native language and I think maybe I missed something.

You said you initially tried using 2 triggers on the ride, but because of double triggering you are now using only one?

Yes - I tried to set up a 3-zone ride configuration with the splitter and also tried connecting one trigger into an input and the other opposite of it so that it would be set as Bell but in the end couldn't get 3 sounds to trigger. I may still lack some understanding on how to do this best....

I think the splitter that Magnatrack provides is solely to be used with their cymbal choke. The other way I tried didn't work exactly how I wanted either.

I'll try doing the dual mono split option and see if that works better. I'm going to work on a little more but may just opt for the one LVCT on the ride Bell.

[Tarrasque]

Interesting.

Were all the repositioning experiments diffcult or destructive for the cymbals (scratches, drilled holes...)?

I am also considering the magnetic DST-1 model. It's more expensive, but seems to make repositioning a breeze. And since it's suitable for drumheads too, you technically need one of them to test and calibrate all your pieces before buying more.

Did aybody try them?