Bought LED for Drum Kit-- Can They Be Programmed to React to Impact?

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RenderthyVillain
 
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Bought LED for Drum Kit-- Can They Be Programmed to React to Impact?

Post by RenderthyVillain »

Hi! I just ordered 7 meters of LED light strips (these guys: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1138?length=1) to put in an electric drum kit (this guy: https://www.guitarcenter.com/Alesis/Sur ... 0369742.gc). The goal is to cut lengths of strip that wrap around the perimeters of each drum head, then program the lights to react to an increase in kinetic energy (i.e. they'll light up when and only when I hit the drum head the lights are connected to). I want to program the lights to quickly fade out after the initial impact, and ideally, their brightness would scale in relation to the force of the impact-- that is, the harder I hit the drum head, the brighter the strip lights up. Will I be able to program these lights to do that? And if so, will I need any other hardware to accomplish it? Would I be able to connect the lights to the pathway between the drum and the computer so the "hit" signal is directed toward both the computer AND the light strips simultaneously? Fairly new to programming, and even though the kit is under warranty, I'd really rather not roll the dice on this one!

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dastels
 
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Re: Bought LED for Drum Kit-- Can They Be Programmed to React to Impact?

Post by dastels »

That drum kit makes no mention of supporting NeoPixel style lighting directly, so you'll have to do your own.

One approach I would look at using a Feather M4 Express and a PropMaker Wing (which has an accelerometer and NeoPixel driver. Those would be attached to the drum body near the head. You would program it to monitor vibration and do whatever you want with the NeoPixels when excessive vibration is detected. That might be a little overengineered, especially since you'll need a separate unit for each drumhead. This is a less technical approach: https://learn.adafruit.com/led-trampoline.

There is a project for sound reactive NeoPixel drums, but I expect that would require a real drumkit. https://learn.adafruit.com/gemma-powere ... tive-drums.

Dave

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Bought LED for Drum Kit-- Can They Be Programmed to React to Impact?

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The sound-reactive drum project uses a microphone, so it does not reliably detect which drum the sound is coming from. https://learn.adafruit.com/gemma-powere ... tive-drums

Looks like that kit has MIDI output. And since all the drum heads already have sensors reporting the force of each hit, I'd have a look at monitoring the MIDI output and driving the Neopixels from that. There are several examples of MIDI driving Neopixels on the web:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VdeOb7PoQc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuRIPYUP1y4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzqw_2lEPTM

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RenderthyVillain
 
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Re: Bought LED for Drum Kit-- Can They Be Programmed to React to Impact?

Post by RenderthyVillain »

dastels wrote: Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:54 pm There is a project for sound reactive NeoPixel drums, but I expect that would require a real drumkit.
I'm quickly learning there's a lot of stuff you can't do with an electric kit that you can do with an acoustic kit. Nearly knocked the poor thing to the ground, I was hitting the heads so hard. Thanks man! I'll take a look at this in greater depth.

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RenderthyVillain
 
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Re: Bought LED for Drum Kit-- Can They Be Programmed to React to Impact?

Post by RenderthyVillain »

adafruit_support_bill wrote: Wed Jan 25, 2023 9:10 pm I'd have a look at monitoring the MIDI
I was hoping that would be achievable! Seems like the most logical option, considering the signal's already traveling through the wires.

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Re: Bought LED for Drum Kit-- Can They Be Programmed to React to Impact?

Post by dastels »

Yeah, not having done much with MIDI I didn't even think about it. Seems like the logical approach.

Dave

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