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How Do Drum Triggers Work?
Practical Guide
Introduction:
Triggers are very commonly used in modern drumming. Technology and electronic drumming have always been prevalent in music, all the way back to the 70s. However, electronic drum sounds have become a lot more accessible these days, largely due to the use of triggers.
With the use of triggers, you can create a hybrid drum kit setup. You’ll get all the sounds of your acoustic drums and cymbals, but you’ll be able to play electronic sounds using your drums as well.
We’re going to take a deep dive into understanding triggers and how they work. If you’re looking to start using them, you’ve come to the right place to get a breakdown.
What are Drum Triggers?
Drum triggers are small pieces of gear that you attach to acoustic drums. When you play the drums they’re attached to, sensors are triggered and sent through to a module that produces electronic sounds.
There are a wide variety of triggers available out there, with the most common ones being clip-on triggers. You also get piezo triggers, which have an adhesive material that sticks to the surfaces of your drums.
The quality of a trigger depends on how they’re built and how much it costs. Some triggers have dual sensors, allowing you to play the drums and rims to get different sounds. Other triggers only have single sensors.
You need to buy specific triggers for kick drums. They’re designed to fit them, whereas standard triggers won’t clip on as easily, and they won’t react as well as dedicated bass drum triggers.
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How Do Drum Triggers Work?
Triggers connect to the drums either by the rim, attaching to the top or bottom, or being positioned inside the shell. When you hit the drums, the triggers sense the vibrations and send a signal through to the module or interface that they’re connected to.
The module will have particular sounds assigned to each trigger. So, when you hit the triggered drum, the specified sound will play.
This is how you can get electronic drum sounds from playing acoustic drums. However, people also use triggers instead of drum microphones occasionally. They give you more control over the drum sound than mics do, but some people don’t like the processed drum trigger sound.
Some drummers only put triggers on their snare drum or bass drum, while others put them everywhere to get a full hybrid setup.
Drum Trigger Set Up
Setting up drum triggers is one of the most frustrating parts of using them. They’re only going to trigger sounds nicely if you position them in the most optimal way, and that takes a lot of trial and error.
Clip-on triggers are much better than piezo triggers because of this. They’re easier to maneuver, making them the ideal choice.
Once you’ve positioned the triggers, you need to connect them to a drum module via cables. Having a module is the only way to achieve sounds from the triggers.
The Roland TM-1 is a great affordable trigger module to have. If you want something a lot more powerful and diverse, the Roland TM-6 Pro is a much better choice.
When you’ve connected the triggers and the module, you need to route the module to a sound source. That’s how you’ll be able to hear the triggered sounds that you’re playing. If you’re practicing at home, you can simply plug some headphones in to hear what you’re playing.
The module will need to be connected to an amp or the PA desk when playing live gigs.
FAQ:
How do you trigger drum sounds?
You need to attach drum triggers to your drums, run those through to an electronic drum or trigger module, and then plug that into a sound source. When you select sounds on the module, they’ll be triggered when you strike the corresponding drums.
All trigger modules come with preset sounds that you can use. However, many drummers opt to add their own sample sounds as well. You’ll see this happening a lot for live gigs where a band is playing songs from an album. It’ll be the drummer’s job to play those sounds. It’s all done with triggers.
One of the best triggers on the market to get is the Roland RT-30HR. It’s a dual trigger, meaning you can trigger drum sounds when playing both the drumhead and rim of the drum it’s attached to.
How does a kick trigger work?
Kick triggers work the same way normal triggers work that you attach to your drums. However, they’re positioned slightly differently, thanks to the way kick drums are structured.
Another difference is that kick triggers only have to have single trigger zones. This is because kick drums only make one sound, and having two trigger zones wouldn’t allow you to play a second sound anyway.
How do I connect drum triggers to my computer?
You need to connect the triggers to a drum or trigger module first. That’s the only easy way to do it. Once you have that, you can connect the module to a computer. This is a great way of recording your drums as opposed to using drum mics.
You can also download a drum VST to get superior drum sounds to what you have on your module. One of the best VST programs for this is called EZdrummer.
However, the power of triggers is getting to play electronic sounds with your drums, and there are thousands of great VSTs that will allow you to do that. You can also run sounds from free software such as GarageBand.
Conclusion
Triggers are amazing pieces of gear. If you want to play drums professionally in pop and hip-hop bands, you’ll need to learn how to use them. Some rock and punk drummers even use them these days.
Remember that you need to have a trigger module to go along with the triggers and that dedicated kick drum triggers need to be used for kick drums.
Now that you’re clued up, go look for some good triggers to add to your kit. Our final piece of advice is that you can never go wrong with either Roland or Yamaha when it comes to electronic drum gear.