Pads

Pads can be made in many shapes and out of many materials. If you haven't got much experience, start by making some pads out of wood. Wood can be shaped rather easily and isn't very expensive. Once knowing what kind of pads you want, you could experiment with plastics. In principle you can use any material you want!

The three pictures below are showing the very first pad I made, in the late 80's. It is made out of two white-painted 8mm plywood discs. Between those to discs is a 10mm foam-rubber layer. On top of it there is a placemat, which I got from 'Blokker' (a wellknown dutch household goods shop)!

The reduction of vibration by the foam-rubber turned out to be insufficient and that's why I wanted use a 'silent block' in the mounting of the pad, to prevent crosstalk between the pads. I also wanted to change the shape of the pad, to make it as thin as possible. I got the idea to put some white fabrics around the electronic parts and silent block, which I secured with a stapler. This was the result:

After that I wanted to try if I could make better pads out of plastics and I experimented with different types of plastics and different types of rubber for the playing surface.

Finally I found out that PVC is a very suitable type of plastic for making pads. This type of plastic is pretty soft and therefore easy to shape. The material is massive enough to let the vibrations of a drum hit go throuhout the whole top layer of the pad. Also important: PVC is a relatively cheap material. More expensive plastics didn't gave better results.

I made a design with two discs of PVC and in between a foam-rubber layer. Almost the same as my very first pad but now with PVC instead of plywood. At the bottom I glued a PVC cylinder with screw-thread for the silent block.

The first series of pads wich I made out of PVC, where completely closed, with an edge made out of a big PVC tube (sewer). The space in the pad was hollow. It turned out to be not the best solution, when hitting the pads hard, the parts came loose. Therfore I came even closer to my first design: by placing foam-rubber between the PVC discs (a different kind of foam-rubber though).

After making some small 5” and 6” pads, I decided just to make 10” pads. My point of view: smaller pads are less playable (it's hard to play drumrolls on a small pad) and bigger pads are a waste of space. Your complete drumkit is getting unnecessary big and you have to spread your arms more to reach every piece of it.

After I found my defenitive design, I decided in 1993 to start selling those pads. To generate some extra publicity, the first 100 pads were painted by the dutch art and music legend Herman Brood. Such a pad is a real eye-catcher and a collectors item.

In 1997 I wanted to improve some things in the design. I wanted two improvements after a few users did have some problems (two or three users in 4 years). The first thing I wanted to change was the glued PVC cylinder at the bottom, it seemed the 'weakest link' for the 'hard-hitters'. Also I wanted to replace the cinch socket with a jack socket.

These two wishes I could fulfill at the same time with a cosmetic wish: I would like to have a nicer shaped drumpad. I found out the best solution was to stop to shape the PVC myself and I could get three improvements at once by letting the two PVC parts made by using injection moulding.

Because this is an expensive process, I decided to experiment first to get a good shape. I used a type of plastic you can melt and shape by using a lathe. You don't like the design? Melt it and start over again. I archived the defenitive shape, though it is slightly different with the final plastic product. This is the plastic test:

These are the first casts (when starting the machine the master disc isn't yet completely filled and as a result, these are the first copies):

This is the plastic cast product, which I sold from 1997 to the end of 2008 through my company, Marcel Electronic Percussion. The first years I only did sell assembled pads but later on the customers could choose between an assembled pad or parts to assemble the pads themselves.

There was a special edition of the pad that was designed in 1993. The first 100 pads were painted by the dutch art and music legend Herman Brood. From the new pad there was also a 'special edition' but it was caused by the technical process which was used in the factory. With injection moulding white granules are put in the master disc, heated and then cooled down, the result is a plastic part.

To make a part in a specific color, dyestuff is added. When making parts with different colors you would expect the factory would stop the machine and change the dyestuff. But I learned that they just keep the machine running and throw in different dyestuff. That's how parts came out with two different colors. The factory would normally throw those parts away but I saved them from the waste bin. I named those special pads “marble” pads.

Of course you can paint these pads, to give your drumkit a personal touch. On the next pictures you see pads, painted by me, with the logo of the well known dutch percussion group 'Slagerij van Kampen'.

Of course I experimented to find the perfect playing surface. I did found several materials which played comfortable. I calculated to produce hundreds of pads, so the cost price was a major factor. With the cost price in mind I chose to use 'neoprene'. More expensive playing surfaces that also were suitable were: EPDM, para rubber, silicone rubber.

When building pads yourself it's worth the trouble to do research with existing pads. The remains of this page shows some pictures of existing pads, to show how they were made. First of all, one of the 'icons' of electronic drumming in the 80's: the triangle pads from Roland (I don't have a pad from Simmons, pictures are appreciated!)

When opening the triangle pad you´ll be surprised with... a very thick layer of plywood. Too thick actually, the pad feels therefore unnecessary hard. But, it is solid. You can remove the capacitor between the piezo and jacksocket, it lowers the signal a lot and modern trigger interfaces or drum modules prefer a strong signal!

Ron Schalkwijk did send me a picture of a PD-31 pad, the version with 4 piezo's. The next picture shows a (little) piezo glued underneath the edge (it is underneath every edge). You can see it is very simple to transform a PD-21 pad into a PD-31 pad. Thanks for the suggestion and the picture Ron!

A design which was very cheap to produce was the Cheetah pad, a dutch version is the Vhemp pad (Van het Meer Import, a dutch company). In these pads you also will find a plywood layer but the playing surface is very hard and the hollow space does act as a sound-box, so the pad makes a lot of acoustic noise. Not comfortable for your wrists and not good for your relationship with your neighbours.

Every once in a while a customer, who wanted to change to my pads, offered me one or more of his current pads. Normally I didn't want other pads but for the Yamaha pads in the next picture I made an exception. Not for the plywood layer (again) but for the special mounting of the pad.

First of all it's nice to see the ball-attachment that was used, which means you can position the pad any way you like. Even more fun it is to see the electronic contacts, that are running through the mounting! (the pictures showing two different type of pads)

Another pad from Roland what also has an interesting design is the PD5. This pad has a very hard playing surface (again not comfortable for your wrists and for your neigbours). When you open up the pad you'll see that however the piezo is mounted in the middle, the vibrations don't come directly to the piezo. The vibrations go through a circular wall. The result of that design is that the trigger signal in the middle of the pad has a lower level, and the signal is more spreaded around the playing surface.

You can make pads in any shape and from different materials. Just find out in what shape the pad gives a strong trigger signal and what playing surfaces play comfortable. If you find out how other pads are being made you can try to design the perfect pad!