If you want to make electronic pads as an addition to an acoustic drumkit or if you want a lot of pads, you could make a Multipad. The basic design, two layers wood with foam-rubber in between, is suitable to make an instrument with 8, 12, 16 or more pads.
The next pictures shows a small and a large Multipad (take a look at the connectors to get the idea of the dimensions of the Multipad)
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On the third picture you can see a piezo is mounted underneath every hit-zone. In this design a cable is directly mounted to every single piezo. It is also possible to use a multi-connector (see page Cables for an example of a multi-connector).
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On the next pictures you can see a Multipad which I fully adjusted to place it on top of a Alesis drummodule (D4 or DM5). This design has no bottom layer, with two rubber bands it can be attached to the drum module. You can play it with your fingers or, if you want more attack, with thimbles.
Just plug in the connectors to the drummodule and you have the most mobile drumkit ever. Even better when combining it with the simple Footpad, made out of to pieces of PVC (see page Footpads for an example of such a Footpad).
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A selfbuild project that could have been added to the Footpads page, is a Multipad with four zones to play using your feet (of course we don\'t have four feet but we don't have 12 hands or fingers either). If you can play this with your feet you can combine it with playing bass gitar and you will be able to play two instruments at the same time!
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Conclusion:
Just like pads, you can design and build Multipads in any shape and out of amny material. Just make sure you use the right kind of foam and that you have enough space between the playing surfaces, to prevent crosstalk!
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