[sdiy] learning from early drum machines?

[Tom Wiltshire]

On 11 Jan 2009, at 15:58, Dave Manley wrote:

> Dan Snazelle wrote:
>> ingo
>>
>> what if i used a grid of 8 (columns) by 3 or 4 rows
>>
>> so that would be 24 switches. at the end of the row, the total  
>> amount of switches set to ON would be the amount of triggers that  
>> get through to the specific drum.
>>
>> (kick, hat, snare would be the three)
>>
>> this i get with ONE 4016
>>
>> but with the jacks, i dont know how they all connect (unless each  
>> indiidual drum hit has its own cord which would get MESSY! lets  
>> say i wanted a four on the florr kick...well that would be 4  
>> cables multed to the kick..
>>
> I think he intended the jacks to be used as 'shorting' plugs with a  
> diode built into the body of the jack - sort of like the shorting  
> pins used on a VCS3 - no cables are attached to the jacks.

I don't see any advantage to using jacks and plugs over using a grid  
of latching switches. Ideally, you'd want to find a big bag of  
surplus switches for not much money. Then you could arrange a row of  
switches for each sound, and just press down the ones where you want  
a beat. I think Dan has definitely got the right idea.

T.