Outputting an electronic drum

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separateness

Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2023
Messages
21
Location
South Carolina, USA
Apologies if this is an inappropriate topic for this board but I figured I would get better feedback here than anywhere.

I have come up with a kick drum synthesizer circuit which I believe will work. It is based on the basic topology employed in the Wurlitzer Sideman drum device, which for most of the sounds uses overdamped phase-shift oscillators to generate the drum sounds. I have changed the circuit to work such that how hard/fast you press the pedal (which I will be forced to make, I believe) will change the intensity of the drum sound—a rudimentary velocity sensitivity.
The circuit:
Screen Shot 2023-02-26 at 11.33.34 AM.png

I will briefly explain the circuit before proceeding to my question: The power section is based on a transformer recently posted on this forum which has 230V, a 6.3V, a 9V and an 18VCT secondaries. I used the 9 and 18 taps in series to get a negative voltage which is in turn used to nudge the phase-shift oscillator into oscillating for a brief time before decaying.
At rest, the switch on the bottom right will be connected to the negative voltage, charging the 47nF capacitor to ~-23VDC. At the beginning of a pedal press, the the switch will connect to the 500kΩ resistor and begin discharging the cap through this and the connected potentiometer. At the bottom of the pedal press the switch between the 47nF and the 68nF caps will close, and this shock of negative voltage should wiggle the phase-shift oscillator into brief action. The time difference between the changing of the first switch at the beginning fo the pedal press and the closing of the second switch at full depression will determine the 'velocity', as a smaller wiggle voltage causes a smaller wiggle. The discharge path has a pot so that velocity sensitivity can be set to taste. The pot at the cathode of the first triode is to set the gain in such a way that oscillations continue only as long as desired, this pot also exists on the Sideman. Ignore the switch at the grid of the first triode as it is only there to get the simulator to behave.

You can see that I have a DC coupled cathode follower for the output, this is mostly because I am not sure exactly how to output this thing. My question is this: What is the most useful output circuit I could put on this device? What levels and what impedance do I want. I will probably be running it through some effects and such on its way either to a multitrack recorder or a bass-amp to a multitrack recorder. Should I scrap the cathode follower? Transformer output? What would you do? Why? How are these things decided? Most of my tinkering has been strictly in the guitar-related domain so forgive my ignorance, if you can. Thank you.
 
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