Transcript for the video "How I Made My Drumkit, Part10"

Note: this page includes very few pictures, watch the video for the complete story!

Hi my name is Marcel and I would like to share with you how I made my electronic drumkit and how you could be making your own electronic drum kit. This is the last part of a 10 part series and in this video I would like to show you my podium, which is also my flightcase. I do not plan to show you how to make a ‘normal’ flightcase, you should be able to find out how to do that elsewhere. In this video I will show you the conversion from flightcase to podium, I will explain how I designed the details and at the end I will show you the conversion from podium back to flightcase. Start the clock!

I do not think I need to explain why I use flightcases. You might ask me why I use a podium? For 2 reasons. First, it locks everything together, everything is in the exact position that I want it to be, at all times. Second, the podium brings my head to the save level as my other band members. I think the band looks better when the drummer is on a podium.

The drumkit flightcase measures 147 x 61 x 82 centimeters, which is 58 x 24 x 32 inches. As you have seen, in order to get the flightcase in my station wagon I need take the wheels off and I need to lay the flightcase on the side. My equipment flightcase is 54 x 54 x 22 centimeters, which is 21 x 21 x 9 inches. That flightcase fits at one side as you have seen in the intro. Looking at these flightcase, I need to give thanks to Dennis, for helping me with building these flightcases. Thanks!

As I am taking the top of the flightcase off, you see is actually the back half of the podium. Because I have used 9mm plywood, it is not rock solid. Therefore I have made a separate wooden support for the back part of the podium, so it can hold a heavy person standing on it.

I don't use a normal drumchair, I use an old office chair with a gas seat height adjustment. It is an extra high model, so it goes further inside than you would think. To make sure I don't fall on my back, there is extra support inside the podium. Here in the picture in picture, you can see it. Thanks Johan, for your help on that!

In a few minutes, you will see that my equipment flightcase is actually hovering over the edge of my podium. To make sure it will not fall backwards I made this simple riser. On the bottom it has hooks that keep it locked in the podium. On top, is has hooks that lock the lid of the equipment flightcase that I will put on top in a minute.

The middle part of the flightcase, is the front half of the podium. There a small detail here that you may overlook. The flightcase actually has six wheels. Besides the obvious four wheels, it has two more to help me get the flightcase in and out my car. In the Picture in picture, you can see how these two wheels enable me to get the flightcase out by myself. These wheels are now in the middle of the podium.

To place the floor part on the front half of the podium, I usually ask my partner or a band member to give me a hand.

When the floor is raised, I can lock the two parts of the podium together with these locks. Because I could not find a lock that was long enough, I bought these medium sized locks and I made them longer myself. It works fine, even when I play high speed rock music.

As I explained a minute ago the lid of my equipment flightcase hooks in the riser. The bottom part of the equipment flightcase goes on top of the lid. That way, my equipment is at the exact height I like it to be. Then I need to connect the multi connector of the drumkit to the multi connector in the flightcase and I need to plug the power cord in a wall socket. Then I switch the power on and start my netbook.

The only thing that needs to be done now to make the drumkit up and running, is that each the crash cymbals needs to be raised. Each of the six arms are now facing down and they need to face up. So I loosen the screws, I raise the arms and tighten the screws again to fix them so the cymbals are in a horizontal position.

As you can see now, only three of the uprights in my rack are actually fixed on the floor. The other four can be lifted temporarily so the cymbals can be raised. The curved uprights are just for decoration, the two diagonal uprights in the corners are not fixed but they do make the rack stand more robust.

Now we're getting to the last few things. I need to insert the pole of the chair in the podium and I need to lift it, with the gas handle. Then I need to put in and fix the back of the chair. The last thing I need to do is to reset the drumpad in the middle. Because of the chair support that I will show in a minute, this pad needs to be moved to the side and back again each time my drumkit is transported.

Well I'm done. All that is left is to fit my in-ears. In the meantime you have learned some details. I know there are other drummers out there that have a podium that is also a flightcase, but I think there a a few details that make mine a bit different. For example the chair support, the fifth and sixth wheel that help loading and unloading the flightcase and also the riser below my equipment. I have a small case with spare parts and cables and tools and that fits nicely inside. If you've seen these details, you will understand that I didn't make this flightcase in a day.

In fact, I first made a model to see whether this design would work. For instance, I found out that the extra chair support inside, meant that the top half needed to be turned 180 degrees, before it could be placed on top of the other half. Even without making a model of my drumrack, it became clear that without turning, the chair support would collide with the drumrack. Also this model helped me a lot, determining where I needed handles, locks and wheels on my flightcase.

What I will remember most about making this flightcase, is how much time it took to make the flightcase fit in my station wagon. You may not believe it, when it is in my car there is literally one centimeter space in all three directions. Not only the big flightcase, also the small flightcase fits exactly in my car and it couldn't have been an inch bigger. Before I made the big flightcase I must have measured my car at least three times. Before I made my equipment flightcase, I made a live size model to check whether I could close the side door with both flightcases in. Looking at this picture, I guess you could say I am crazy for spending so much time designing two flightcases to fit my car. But I have to say, it is great to own a drumkit that you've made yourself and two flightcases that fit perfectly. Now let's hope my car keeps running for at least 10 years!

So that’s it. I’ve really come to the end of the last video in this series. If you have questions, feel free to send an email to the email address below. I hope you have found this series interesting. If you did, please spread the link to part 1 of this series. If you have built your own electronic drumkit, I would love to see pictures or a YouTube video of your customized electronic drumkit.

Well it seems only logical to end this series with the conversion from drumkit back to flightcase. Since is pretty much the exact reverse as setting up the drumkit, that is exactly what I am about to do. Here is the reserve intro at double speed. Enjoy and thank you very much for watching this video series. Stay tuned for new videos!

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