piezo transducer to adc ?

[Giulio]

Haha! Thanks for the reply. There goes my evil plan to appropriate wheelbarrows full of Peruvian banknotes...

Ok, I intend to mount this sensor in (or under) a silicon rubber membrane (think syn-drum) and, hopefully, send the resultant data via USB to a PC, which will then play a sound sample corresponding to the number received.

I simple look-up table at the PC end should suffice, e.g. receive values 0-20 = play little sound, receive values 21-50 = play LoUdEr SoUnD, receive values 51 - 100 = PLAY VERY BIG SOUND, etc...

These values are arbitrary, of course. I don't suppose it's realistic to expect to be able to discern 255 discreet values from this type of sensor, but you get the idea.

As far as the raindrop/freight train analogy goes, there's the rub (and quite prescient of you...). Some drummers I know play exactly like Hinakuluiau, others as though a freight train had passed over one's skull...

I did have a look at these entirely nifty QTC pills, but there seem to be few resources on the Internet regarding them.

That's the (half-baked) plan!

[rossfree]

My son has taken Radio Shack piezos and made his own drum pads which he has wired into a sound module/amp. Fairly impressive... I suspect you could get a minimum ten sound levels with these things. Not too bad. Love to hear how things turn out for you.

Ross

[mister_e]

Usually drum pads use Piezo or more than often cheap(and ooh the most cheapest and nifty) unidirectional microphone.

Run the signal of the the microphone to a high-pass filter avoid to have 'false trigger' comming from the rumble or low frequency sound generated by the FOH or musician monitor amplifier system.

Most drum-pad system have the ability to adjust the trigger level for the same reason as above.

HTH