[sdiy] Audio playback chips as sample players for drums

[Ben Bradley]

Do these things have a spec for how long it takes for the sound to
start after the trigger. I've had a couple of these "electronic
digital drum set" all-in-one things that I got at thrift stores and
such, I think one was Yamaha DD-7, and noticed the delay between the
stick hitting the pad and the sound coming out. It was annoying enough
that I found it intolerable. I recorded it on a DAW and counted, it
was 17mS. This is frustrating because I've always wanted to play
drums, and I didn't think my standards were that high ...

On Wed, 23 Jul 2025 at 15:27, Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com> wrote:
>
> 10mS is usually quoted as the absolute maximum latency you can accept, but whereas I'm almost tone deaf on pitch I can perceive timing errors far less than 10mS, the 'drummer' in the farm next door driving me mad with his poor timing when I walk by his practice studio.
> ________________________________
> From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> on behalf of Scott Bernardi via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> Sent: 23 July 2025 19:58
> To: SDIY List <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> Subject: [sdiy] Audio playback chips as sample players for drums
>
> I've seen a number of these sample/wave/mp3 players that use either Flash memory or SD cards for storing the files. They look tempting to create a sample player module. Has anybody played with these? Is the latency acceptable enough to do drum samples?  How much latency can you have before it becomes noticeable?
> Something with a minimum of 8 triggers to kick off  different samples that can be played simultaneously.  I've seen some where you give the files a number, and a trigger can be associated with a numbered file.  With a microcontroller you could have an interface to pick and audition the samples you associate with the triggers.
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