Really sounds great, your sound has a really strong hook to it too - would love to see an updated performance of this setup with the guitar in the shot as well to see your technique for triggering the samples using the pizeo pickups - sounds very effective indeed - all the best
This whole setup is ingenious. I've been looking at solo setups for a while, and I've seen a few creative ideas for percussion, but I've never seen piezo pickups directly triggering a TM-2 like that. Or an audio signal, for that matter! Keep thinking outside the box!
Hi, David! Must confess - you’ve inspired me! I’ve been playing fingerstyle acoustic guitar for a couple of years now and finally about a month ago I installed 2 triggers into my Taylor. I got a question for you about the cymbals sounds though. I got a Yamaha drum module, which I borrowed from my friend, but I can’t get reliable triggering for ride or hi-hat. As far as I understand, you plug your magnetic pickup straight into your module. Could you please specify the trigger settings (crosstalk, trigger reject time or maybe compressor/gate settings)? Cause when I plug in my magnetic pickup output into the module to trigger hi hat sounds, it gives me too much false triggering, especially when when I play legato notes - it keeps on triggering sounds randomly while the string is still ringing
Hello there, Alex! My apologies for not replying until now! Fatherhood got the best of me 😁 I'm so glad you were inspired. Very kind of you to say so. Before I explain everything, the answer is to look for the "threshold", "retrigger cancel" and "noise cancel" settings on your drum module. For my drum trigger setup, the TM2 has 2 dual "stereo" inputs, so that's 4 inputs. The best idea is to run the kick and snare through one of those dual inputs. Hopefully the Yamaha has/had duo inputs? That's because, as you probably know, a "snare and rim" drum trigger pad uses the information from 2 piezos to cancel crosstalk from the "snare" and "rim" portion of the pads. Since the kick and snare are both wired to my rumbling guitar, they need crosstalk cancel, whereas the mono guitar signal, which feeds the other input on the TM2 for hihats, does not need crosstalk cancel as it is a magnetic pickup signal, and is not confused by any vibration other than the vibrating strings themselves. The kick has 20% crosstalk cancel and the snare has 80% crosstalk cancel as I never want the snare piezo to false trigger the kick sample. And sometimes I use a kick and snare together for dance music, so i wouldn't want it set to 80% for both kick and snare otherwise they could never fire together! Anyway, back to the hihats: You will need to set the "Threshold" of the trigger module high enough so that a purposeful pluck or strum will set off a hihat sample, but that same string gently ringing out will not set it off. You may also see a "noise cancel" feature, which would do the same thing, but I don't know what the Yamaha has specifically. Also, I suggest you consider using a ride sample as a ride is more... forgivable, especially when it is slightly off beat. If you don't set the threshold high and use a little retrigger-cancel you end up with hihats out a hip-hop/Trap beat song 🤣 I hope that all makes sense? Glad to share this info 😊
Hi there! Thanks! I just got a Cherub WCP-55 clip-on pickup, which clips on the head, and is wired through the guitar neck. Then of course hitting the guitar neck with my thumb ring sets it off and triggers a snare sample in the Roland TM2 module. There is also a ordinary ceramic piezo disc, which I got off ebay in a bulk pack, that is glued and wired under the scratch plate. That sets off the kick sample. Both these pickups are wired into a stereo jack built into the guitar. No pickups for the cymbals, that's just my normal mono guitar signal doubled (by the POG) and sent into the TM2 as well. I have also done some thing similar by stomping on the piezo pickups for acoustic shows... you can "install" the piezo pickup in your shoe 🤣 Nobody even knows my drums are triggered live at gigs!
@@GreenhamGuitar Very interesting. You’ve done an amazing job. Could you please let me know two things: which simple ceramic discs are you using? Are they going directly to TM2? Also I would like to understand better the use of POG. Thanks
@@marcorizzi2864 Hi there, and thank you! For the ceramic piezos under the pickguard, they are from one of those wholseale "35mm piezo elements" packs of 10 - nothing special, just a pack of pre-wired ceramic discs. They are then soldered to one side of a stereo 1/4 inch jack, which I plug directly into the TM2 via a stereo guitar cable. Drum pads are just piezo pads so you can go direct. The piezo on the guitar head, which is soldered to the other side of the same stereo jack, is a clip on pickup for acoustic guitars. I did chip away a groove down the neck so that the wire could run to the stereo jack without being seen. The normal mono guitar jack is still intact, and that's just for the guitar signal, but before I run the guitar signal into my pedal board, I split it (double it) using the POG. So the duplicate guitar signal from the POG is sent to the TM2 as well, and that signal triggers hihats relatively well as long as you set the TM2's sensitivity and threshold correctly. Obviously, it is important to keep the scratchplate piezo signal, guitar head piezo signal and guitar mono signal separate so the TM2 receives 3 separate signals for kick, snare and hihats respectively. Does that sound like it all makes sense? It's the only way I can enjoy playing guitar now, as I am addicted to having such control over an imaginary 2-piece band 😁
@@edisoncheung6007 Thank you so much for saying so! That means a lot. I hope to find time to make more videos. Few people search "drum triggers in a guitar" so usually I gather an audience by recreating other music genres or demoing pedals in weird ways 🤔...😄
Really sounds great, your sound has a really strong hook to it too - would love to see an updated performance of this setup with the guitar in the shot as well to see your technique for triggering the samples using the pizeo pickups - sounds very effective indeed - all the best
This is really clever and inspiring
Nice, was looking for a demo on how to achieve that and finally got around the proper search words for it.
This whole setup is ingenious. I've been looking at solo setups for a while, and I've seen a few creative ideas for percussion, but I've never seen piezo pickups directly triggering a TM-2 like that. Or an audio signal, for that matter! Keep thinking outside the box!
Only Dave Greenham would turn a guitar into a fucking drum kit! Haha. Fucking brilliant man.
Hi, David! Must confess - you’ve inspired me! I’ve been playing fingerstyle acoustic guitar for a couple of years now and finally about a month ago I installed 2 triggers into my Taylor. I got a question for you about the cymbals sounds though. I got a Yamaha drum module, which I borrowed from my friend, but I can’t get reliable triggering for ride or hi-hat. As far as I understand, you plug your magnetic pickup straight into your module. Could you please specify the trigger settings (crosstalk, trigger reject time or maybe compressor/gate settings)? Cause when I plug in my magnetic pickup output into the module to trigger hi hat sounds, it gives me too much false triggering, especially when when I play legato notes - it keeps on triggering sounds randomly while the string is still ringing
Hello there, Alex! My apologies for not replying until now! Fatherhood got the best of me 😁 I'm so glad you were inspired. Very kind of you to say so. Before I explain everything, the answer is to look for the "threshold", "retrigger cancel" and "noise cancel" settings on your drum module. For my drum trigger setup, the TM2 has 2 dual "stereo" inputs, so that's 4 inputs. The best idea is to run the kick and snare through one of those dual inputs. Hopefully the Yamaha has/had duo inputs? That's because, as you probably know, a "snare and rim" drum trigger pad uses the information from 2 piezos to cancel crosstalk from the "snare" and "rim" portion of the pads. Since the kick and snare are both wired to my rumbling guitar, they need crosstalk cancel, whereas the mono guitar signal, which feeds the other input on the TM2 for hihats, does not need crosstalk cancel as it is a magnetic pickup signal, and is not confused by any vibration other than the vibrating strings themselves. The kick has 20% crosstalk cancel and the snare has 80% crosstalk cancel as I never want the snare piezo to false trigger the kick sample. And sometimes I use a kick and snare together for dance music, so i wouldn't want it set to 80% for both kick and snare otherwise they could never fire together! Anyway, back to the hihats: You will need to set the "Threshold" of the trigger module high enough so that a purposeful pluck or strum will set off a hihat sample, but that same string gently ringing out will not set it off. You may also see a "noise cancel" feature, which would do the same thing, but I don't know what the Yamaha has specifically. Also, I suggest you consider using a ride sample as a ride is more... forgivable, especially when it is slightly off beat. If you don't set the threshold high and use a little retrigger-cancel you end up with hihats out a hip-hop/Trap beat song 🤣 I hope that all makes sense? Glad to share this info 😊
What are the piezo pickups that you are using? This is amazing!!!
Thank you
Hi there! Thanks! I just got a Cherub WCP-55 clip-on pickup, which clips on the head, and is wired through the guitar neck. Then of course hitting the guitar neck with my thumb ring sets it off and triggers a snare sample in the Roland TM2 module. There is also a ordinary ceramic piezo disc, which I got off ebay in a bulk pack, that is glued and wired under the scratch plate. That sets off the kick sample. Both these pickups are wired into a stereo jack built into the guitar. No pickups for the cymbals, that's just my normal mono guitar signal doubled (by the POG) and sent into the TM2 as well. I have also done some thing similar by stomping on the piezo pickups for acoustic shows... you can "install" the piezo pickup in your shoe 🤣 Nobody even knows my drums are triggered live at gigs!
@@GreenhamGuitar this is genius, you should get more followers so more people will be inspired by you!!!!
@@GreenhamGuitar Very interesting. You’ve done an amazing job. Could you please let me know two things: which simple ceramic discs are you using? Are they going directly to TM2?
Also I would like to understand better the use of POG. Thanks
@@marcorizzi2864 Hi there, and thank you! For the ceramic piezos under the pickguard, they are from one of those wholseale "35mm piezo elements" packs of 10 - nothing special, just a pack of pre-wired ceramic discs. They are then soldered to one side of a stereo 1/4 inch jack, which I plug directly into the TM2 via a stereo guitar cable. Drum pads are just piezo pads so you can go direct. The piezo on the guitar head, which is soldered to the other side of the same stereo jack, is a clip on pickup for acoustic guitars. I did chip away a groove down the neck so that the wire could run to the stereo jack without being seen. The normal mono guitar jack is still intact, and that's just for the guitar signal, but before I run the guitar signal into my pedal board, I split it (double it) using the POG. So the duplicate guitar signal from the POG is sent to the TM2 as well, and that signal triggers hihats relatively well as long as you set the TM2's sensitivity and threshold correctly. Obviously, it is important to keep the scratchplate piezo signal, guitar head piezo signal and guitar mono signal separate so the TM2 receives 3 separate signals for kick, snare and hihats respectively. Does that sound like it all makes sense? It's the only way I can enjoy playing guitar now, as I am addicted to having such control over an imaginary 2-piece band 😁
@@edisoncheung6007 Thank you so much for saying so! That means a lot. I hope to find time to make more videos. Few people search "drum triggers in a guitar" so usually I gather an audience by recreating other music genres or demoing pedals in weird ways 🤔...😄