8-Way MIDI Drum Pads


Posted on Feb 7, 2014

Have you got rhythm Do you want to transfer that rhythm to your computer or hardware sequencer Probably the easiest way of achieving this is to use MIDI drum pads that can be hit with drumsticks, and the data can be stored in real time with any errors corrected afterwards. I previously designed a MIDI drum pad system with the velocity byte fixed at maximum.


8-Way MIDI Drum Pads
Click here to download the full size of the above Circuit.

Now I have designed an 8-way velocity sensitive circuit and built this unit based around the PIC 16F877 microcontroller. It provides MIDI data which has to be sent to a drum/synthesiser or sound module. The velocity byte is dependent on how hard the piezo transducer is hit. The drum selection is completely programmable, and the MIDI transmit channel is programmable. However, normally the drum sounds are assigned to MIDI channel 10. At power-on, if the Menu switch is simultaneously held ON, then the unit will enter programme mode. Then each push of the menu switch moves through the menu. The menu consists of the following: Programme Mode is entered by pressing the Menu switchON. Normal Mode is entered by having the Menu switch OFF at power-on. Each time the menu switch is pressed the next menu is selected from 1 to 14. The value for each selected menu item can be increased or decreased using the increment and decrement switches, respectively. The available menus are shown on the LCD displays. Programming the Drum to MIDI Unit only has to be done once and the drum values are stored internally in the EEPROM and the unit will continue to operate in this mode, even when power is removed, until reprogrammed. The adjustable Threshold value (0-127) is used to prevent false triggering from adjacent drum triggers or external noise. It is initially pre-set to a value of 11. The adjustable Sensitivity value (0-127) is used to increase...




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