Indeed there is no difference in the piezos. The resistor is lowering the amplitude of the trigger to another range. I hear the question: Why this, you have the sensitivity control to bring the signal down. Yes, it is possible to bring the level down like this, but to work with the resistors and a higher level setting on sensitivity is reducing the crosstalk between the pads on one stand. The playing "feel" is also more "dynamical". This resistor has not to be near the piezo, it can be in the cables jacks or in the brain itself. I made myself 10kohms pots, so I can adjust one pad for different brains.
The other aspect is, that the hard surfaces are the most responsible part for a needle-sharp click sound. As you know, the piezo is something like a microphone. Plug different pads with different surfaces directly into a mixing console and play: A rubber pad will sound different and will produce a rugged click on an SDSV. The hard surfaces produce a tight, aggressive short trigger pulse. After all drummers were complaining about their aches, simmons offered rubber overlays for the Mk1s, but they definitely changed the sound!
Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: jimstew37
To: Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 7:00 PM
Subject: Re: [Simmons Drums] Mk1 pad output levels
I've often wondered about that resistor myself, because I've been hearing on this board and elsewhere, that only MK1 pads would work properly with SDSV. I was under the impression that the output of later pads was not enough to provide a good trigger signal. But maybe this is backwards? In other words, later Simmons pads could be used with SDSV if the resistor is added to them? There can't be that much difference in the piezos themselves.
Jim Stewart
--- In Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Buchner" <buchnerelectronics@...> wrote:
>
> But you know of the internal 1kohm resistor in the MK1 Pad, do you? The pads have much more output if you remove this. It is soldered to the XLR output socket, you have to open the pad to reach it. The resistor is only recommended for SDSV and SDS7.
> Michael
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