Just a quick update. I recently changed up my drum set a bit. I got myself a used Roland PD-120 to be my snare and a PD-80 for the high hat. I though the mesh pads would be even quieter and enhance my Rock Band experience. They really are not much quieter but the sound is different then the rubber thud. They actually kind of sound like a real drum that is just very muted. Another reason for getting the PD-120 was because it is bigger and I can use a snare stand with it. Since adding the double bass pedal my left knee would hit on the bar the Yamaha had for holding the snare. Now with snare on the stand that problem is gone.

I tried to make a video since that seems to be thing to do. It turned out pretty boring but if you are interested be my guest:

One neat thing I discovered was using practice mode to play the full song but play the sound of the drums out the actual drum brain. It really surprised me how forgiving Rock Band is with your timing. Once you actually listen to yourself playing you can hear how off you can be and still have Rock Band trigger a hit. I really recommend if you have speakers hooked up to your drum brain trying practice mode. It is a cool way to get drumless tracks to play along with and improve your drum skills.

Instead of soldering to the almost invisible points on the back of the RB circuit board I soldered directly to the button pads. Being careful to keep the wires as far to the outside and a flat as possible kept the buttons working like usual. I also used the USB power to run the MSA to avoid having another power brick.

I think the controller box turned out pretty well. Playing on the real drum pads made a huge difference in response. The base pedal being piezo instead of a reed relay makes it require much less movement to trigger. I have been trying to play the songs using the proper cymbals and toms with required me to go back to medium difficulty for a couple of days. I am back to doing mostly hard now with a couple of songs completed on expert. Overall it has been a very cool experience. It is my first major hack and now that it is done I have to find something else to hack!

UPDATE - 5/22/05

Now that it has been a few week my skills are to back to where they were from before the hack. Playing on a real set is so much better. I really like that I have the ability to use the right pad for the right sound. I saw that Guitar Hero is going to have cymbals and I think Rock Band should have done that to start with. I wish I could say I was rocking on expert all the time but I just cant get my kick speed up. I might just have to add a double bass pedal.

I finally decided to open the box and post pictures.

I bought the MSA disassembled. That was a lot of soldering!

I could not get the wire to stick to the points that Flash listed on his site so I decided to use the buttons. The buttons still work and I can use the drum pads for navigation.

I used the usb power to run the MSA. The red is positive and the black is ground.

I dremeled the original Rock Band drum controller down and then epoxied into the project box.

I am still in the process of building a switch that will allow me to use both the new pedal and the original at the same time. The schematic here is what I am using. I just need to get it off the breadboard and permanently soldered.

]

This is Buckeye Burl. A stabilized pen blank. I was afraid it would be difficult to work with but it really did not seem any different then regular wood. Of course with all the worm holes it had a greater chance of breaking. I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

This is Olivewood. The blank came with a little certificate stating it was from the “Holy land” and they take special care when trimming the trees to promote growth and maintain health. I had never seen Olivewood before and was pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful grain. I also really like this particular pen kit. It is platinum plated and rollerball writes nicely. It will also take the Monteblanc refills if they are trimmed a bit.

If you are bored and have nothing better to do feel free to check out the little I have done.

Pject

UPDATE 2014-10-21

The above project link is no longer valid as the project is dead. In fact the domain name I owned pject.com I gave to a student to use for a product so it is not even associated with me anymore.

We should have our new business card soon. With the new logo. Now we just need to make the [website](<http://www.televolve.com) more useful.

UPDATE 2013-07-01

Lots of changes have happened since this was originally posted. As of today the assets of TelEvolve have been offically sold off and we will no long be doing business under that name. The last 6 years we had a good run and did very well, it was just time to move on. We were approached out of the blue by three different companies at the end of 2012 with interests in acquiring us and we decided to take advantage of the situation. It took a long time and a lot of effort to get all the paperwork completed but it is finally official. Who knows what the future will bring but I’m ready to move on.

Read the post
Original Digg Story

[Read the post](Original Digg Story