Transcript for the video "How I Made My Drumkit, Part7"

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. In the previous videos I have shown you how to make different types of pads, each of them need to be connected to a drummodule or interface through a cable. This is part 7 of a 10 part series and in this video I would like to show you more about cables and the multi-connector I use.

Basically you need to connect each pad to your equipment using a mono signal cable. If you have only a few pads, you can just use regular jack-jack cables. To keep it tidy, you could use cable ties or velcro. If you do not plan to change pads around, you could use plastic cable ties. If you want to be flexible, velcro wraps are the best choice.

First wrap the velcro around the pipe, put the cable through and then wrap the velcro around the cables like this. That way you can remove the cables whenever you like, but you will not lose the velco wraps during transport.

Obviously, the distance between the pads and the drum module is different per pad. That means if you use a set of cables of the same length, you will have a bunch of cables lying around near your drum module.

If you like things to be tidy, you need to shorten the cables, so that each cable is just long enough to reach the input at the back of your drummodule.

I think I can show you this better on the workbench. So let’s go!

This is basically a set of cables, each in the exact length required to connect one single pad. In Dutch we call this is a “kabelboom” I believe in English it is called a “cable harness”. I hope you are not expecting me to take this apart or to make a new one just for this video, because making the entire thing can take a few hours. But really it is pretty straightforward. I will give you some tips on how to make it.

If you have a lot of pads and you play in a band that does a lot of gigs, you can take it one step further. When I come to a gig, I like to be ready in only a few minutes. In case you are wondering how long it takes me to set up my entire kit: watch part 10 of this series. I believe I can setup my kit pretty fast. One of the reasons is because I use a multi connector to connect all my pads at once. In case you were wondering why I put this over the harness, let me remove it now. As you can see, this is a harness with two multi connectors.

This is the multi connector I have used in the 90’s: these D connectors. They are commonly used for computer printers and other computer equipment. The type with 25 pins is enough for 12 pads, you could even transport a signal from a footswitch if you use the metal edge of the connector as well. About 10 years ago I added pads and I played on 17 pads. So I made a new harness and these connectors have 37 pins, enough for 18 pads and possibly a footswitch.

Just recently I extended my kit to 24 pads, yeah I know it is a lot. But I have promised myself this is it! So now I need 48 pins. Although I believe there is a D connector that has 50 pins, I chose to use another type of connector. The simply reason is that the casing of D connectors are very small. They are really designed for multi cables, like these.

If you want to use individual jack-jack cables, the casing is just not big enough.

So now I use this multiconnector, I believe it is called ILME. Compared to the D connectors these are much more expensive. A typical D-connector could costs about 4 dollars or euros. Depending on how many poles you use, these cost about 10 times as much! However, they are tour tough and the casing and entry is big enough to get a lot of cables in. I chose the connectors that have 72 pins, so I have room for expansion. The conenctor comes without pins, so you need to buy 1 insert, 1 casing and 2 pins per pad. Order a few extra, in case you mess up while soldering the pins. Here are a few pictures on how this looks inside...

How do you make a cable harness? Well it’s not that difficult. Try to visualize this, assume this is the rack and this is the module. Start by building your rack and mounting all your pads. Do not start cutting cables unless you are 100% happy with all the positions. There are two ways to go about this.

The first option is to use readymade jack-jack cables. If you have a bundle of jack-jack cables, plug them into your pads and lead all the cables alongside the rack pipes, towards the side where you want your drum module.

The second option is to make all cables from scratch. If you want to do that, measure how long each cable should be and cut one cable for each pad with a few inches to spare. Then solder jacks to one end of each cable. In case you don’t know how to solder a jack connector to a cable, watch part 2 of this series. There I show you how to solder a jack to a cable, as part of making a trigger. Then, like with the ready made cables, lead all cables alongside the rack pipes, towards the side where you want your drum module.

Before cutting the cables, tighten all cables to your rack using cable ties or velcro wraps, as I explained in the beginning of this video. I prefer to lead the cables on the inside of my rack, because I do not want to show that many cables to my audience. After aligning all cables, you can cut the cables at the side of the drum module. If you want things to be really tidy, take into account where the inputs are on your drum module. When you are using an Alesis module and you want it on your left side, the cable for input 12 needs to be quite a bit longer than the cable for input 1!

Now this is important: before cutting any cable, I recommend you add at least 10 cm (which is about 4 inches) to the length you need. If you don’t, you might regret that later on. After cutting, solder jacks to the cable ends. Again, if you don’t know how to solder a jack connector, watch part 2. When you’re done, connect all cables to your drum module and test them all. If you don’t want multi connectors, you’re done now. Just plug everything in and test it. If something does not work, switch pads or cables to find out how to fix it.

If you do want to add multi-connectors, I still recommend to test all cables at this point. If one of your cables does not work, it is easy to find the source of the problem. Each cable has only two jacks soldered to it. After you add two multi connectors you have twice as much pins so it is twice as much work to find out which connector is at fault! It is pointless to proceed with multi connectors if one of your cables does not work!

If all is well and you want to use multi-connectors, decide exactly where you want your multi connectors to go. Before you cut all cables there, I recommend you attach two labels to every cable, with numbers 1 to 12 (or whatever amount of pads you use). If you don’t, you will have a gigantic puzzle on your hands when soldering your multi connectors.

After labeling all cables twice, cut the cables between those labels. The rest should be self-evident. You need to strip all cable ends, solder all the contacts to all pins, and so on. Here are a few pictures of when I soldered the ILME connector that I use in my current drumkit.

In part 2 I explained how to solder a single connector. Soldering a multi connector is not that different. The main difference is that multi connectors means you need to work in a smaller space so you need to work really tidy. Soldering a multi connector will take several hours of hard work and focus. You need to measure, cut, strip, solder and connect a large amount of pins (in my case over 100 pins in total). So only start something like this if you are confident you can do it.

So to summarize, the D connector is a very good choice if you have a small number of pads, like 8 pads or so.

If you have like 12 pads, a 25 pin D connector is a good way to go in theory, but you may find it difficult to get 12 jack-jack cables into the casing. You may need to cut the opening and make it wider.

If you have a larger setup, like me, you might want to use a professional multiconnector.

So in this video I showed you how I manage the cables going from my pads to my equipment. In the next video I will show you what equipment I use. I will also show you how everything is connected. I hope you stay tuned!

Click here for the transcript of the next video in this series