How does drums work

The compressed air presses on the bottom head and changes its shape. Then, these changes are transmitted to the drum shell and reflected back, and this action is repeated, creating a vibration. These vibrations of the top and bottom heads create vibrations in the air, which become sound, and eventually, as the head vibrations are dampened, the sound diminishes.

If the tightness of the head is not uniform, the tone of the drum will change depending on where the drum is struck, and it will be a muddy tone at that. Thus, the drum head must be tightened so as to produce the same tone when struck in different places. The top head and bottom heads are also tuned to different tensions. If both the top and bottom heads are given the same tension, the sustain of the tone is long, but the volume is low. If this condition is changed, however, the drum becomes louder.

In addition, if the bottom head is tighter than the top head, it becomes louder, and the tone rings longer. However, if the bottom head is looser, the tone does not ring so long, and the tone is flatter. The greater the difference in tension between the two heads, the greater the change in tone. It is also important to tune the drums to one another. Most drums have adjustable heads. When they are pulled tighter, they make a higher pitch, much like a guitar string.

The material the drum skin is made out of also affects the pitch. Thinner skins carry high frequency sounds better than thicker ones, while thinner skins are used for warmer, lower tones. The way the drum is played also affects the tone. If you hit a drum with your open hand or a wooden stick, you will get a sharp attack, like the sound you get clapping your hands. This attack will be followed by the sound of the drum vibrating.

If, on the other hand, you play the drum with a padded mallet, you will start it vibrating without the attack. Orchestral drums use this effect sometimes to create a sound like building thunder in the distance. In addition, well-equipped kits will offer the ability to set up your own kits from the individual onboard drum sounds or edit the sounds further.

At its most basic, this will include the ability to tune individual drums, adjust individual drum volumes, dampen or EQ them. The vast majority of drum modules operate using PCM sample sound technology. This means that to generate sound, it replays high quality digital recordings of drum sounds when trigger pads the bits you hit with sticks are struck.

If you are playing, say, a birch kit preset, then the sounds will have been recorded from a real birch kit. Roland V-Drum kits are slightly different in this regard. Though in many respects, the brain is much like a synthesizer sound module, the connections to the rear set it apart. The brain has inputs for each of the individual drum triggers Roland V-Drum kits tend to do this via a loom these days- this is a cable that connects to the module with one large connection, but has many individual connections for triggers on the other.

This brings me neatly on to…. Trigger pads are the bits of an electronic drum kit that you play. Most digital drums are a standard, 5-piece configuration, much like the sort of acoustic drum kit that you would commonly learn to play on. This comprises an input for kick drum, snare, three toms, crash cymbal, ride cymbal and two for hi-hat one for the trigger, and another for the pedal to open and close it. Higher spec drum modules may offer additional trigger inputs, should you wish to add more at a later date see image above of trigger inputs from a TD At their simplest, drum triggers have a type of pickup that senses vibrations a bit like piezo pickups found in guitar bridges.

When the trigger is struck, the pickup senses not only that it has been hit, but how hard, according to the level of vibration. Of course, modern triggers are more sophisticated than this simple explanation.