DP-1 drum pads

[Chas]

Look what I managed to pick up from eBay the other day! I've been looking for a set of these to go with my MT-520 for ages. They're not that common and people often ask silly money for them. Plus they often only come up for sale as single units or pairs. Anyhow, these turned up on eBay and were very local to me. The seller was asking $100, which is way too much. They also accepted offers, so I sent a cheeky offer of $50 with one day to go not expecting it to amount to much, however, the seller accepted!

 

Someone has drawn the percussion instruments on the pads using permanent marker (grrrrrr!), though they've actually done a reasonable job and it doesn't look too bad. Importantly, they all work so it will be great to use my MT520 as a full electronic kit with real drum pads.

 

I also have two pairs of SS-1 "Sound Sticks", so now I can go full on Casio drummer circa 1987!

 

If anyone had any ideas how I can get the permanent marker off the pads without damaging them please let me known. They don't affect them in use of course, but it would be nice to get them looking original again.

 

[Brad Saucier]

Whoa!  Awesome!  I'm jelly.  

[Jokeyman123]

Wow, how do these soundsticks work? I had completely forgotten about these. Might want to try a little rubbing alcohol or white vinegar on the pads-but not sure if it will get the marker off completely. Maybe a tiny bit of WD-40. Test a very small area first.  If these were mine, I'd leave it-looks kind of cool in a very retro Casio way-sort of Casio "folk art!"

[Chas]

@Jokeyman123 - I did try a little rubbing alcohol on part of one ink line of the handclap pad and some did come off (see 2nd line from top of the hand drawing), but likely some of the ink has sunk in deeper and it's still visible. Not sure what else to try without risking damaging the yellow rubber pad. As you said, it has a nice "Casio Folk Art" look so I'll leave them as they are for now.

 

As for the SS-1 Sound Sticks, they're very well made and appear to use a spring loaded inertia switch. They work by hitting a hard/ semi hard surface as per a conventional drum stick, and can even work for playing air drums by drumming in the air! If you flick them relatively firmly as you would a real drum stick, except without actually hitting anything, they will trigger the drums. Not an easy way to drum and it's hard to accurately drum in time this way. Still, it's still an interesting novelty feature nonetheless.

 

Each stick also has a momentary switch that when pushed and held, will cause the stick to play a second drum sound when struck (each stick can play one of two sounds). One Sound Stick is basically the equivalent of one pad set with two yellow pads. The problem with this is that the kick and snare drum are on one pad pair, which makes sense if you only buy one drum pad with two yellow pads. You play the kick with one pad and the snare with the other. With the Sound Stick, that means that you have the kick and snare on one stick. To play a kick and snare rhythm you have to hit the stick onto a surface with the switch off to get a kick, then while the stick is rebounding you have to push and hold the switch and hit the stick down again to get a snare. Repeating this multiple times in succession to try and play a moderate or fast beat using kick and snare is nigh on impossible! I might attempt to make an adapter wiring harness that will reroute the SS1 sticks so that kick and snare will be on separate sticks. That way it will be much easier to play a kick and snare rhythm. Oh, and you can't do a fast drum roll with the Sound Sticks like you can with two conventional sticks on a single yellow DP-1 pad as each SS-1 stick has individual sounds. Again, it might be possible to make an adapter wiring harness so that two separate SS-1 sticks can trigger the same drum sound. However, as I have the full set of DP-1 pads there's no actual need for me to do that.

[Jokeyman123]

But then, you could always go this route-don't blame me-my brother sent me the link........I told him to please...make it stop!!!! Sort of like Monty Python's "Musical Mouse" performance..

 

https://vm.tiktok.com/JMRhJfb/ 

[Chas]

4 hours ago, Jokeyman123 said:

But then, you could always go this route-don't blame me-my brother sent me the link........I told him to please...make it stop!!!! Sort of like Monty Python's "Musical Mouse" performance..

 

https://vm.tiktok.com/JMRhJfb/ 

 

😂😂😂

 

That is actually genius!

 

[Chas]

4 hours ago, Jokeyman123 said:

 

 

Or I could go down the bonkers mad professor route of Look Mum No Computer!

 

 

[Jokeyman123]

Wow, i can't believe someone still has all that modular patch cord stuff.  I think that is what it is. But the aluminum foil hat-i would take that off in a thunderstorm if you were say...playing a round of golf...or sitting outside your favorite Taco Bell munching a fajita....or camping at the top of the smoky Mountains-or just about anywhere come to think of it. This guy needs a casio though, IMO!!

[Chandler Holloway]

You can open these guys up and put a piezo inside for proper velocity sensitive pads. When I tried it I ran into significant crosstalk issues between the two pads, so you'd probably need a foam spacer to absorb some of the impact.

 

Combine it with the rare DZ-1 drum trigger module and you'd be well on your way to a full Casio drum kit. I can practically hear the 80s cheese in this image.

 

 

[Jokeyman123]

Casio made a full digital kit? wow that is a surprise. I'll have to check on Youtube, see if anyone has one, I'd like to hear the cheez. Looks like it was pretty substantial setup-not bad at all compared to all the newer sets-I have a DTX kit with the DTXtreme module, but this Casio kit looks pretty advanced for it's time-I'm assuming this is old kit-1980's?

[Chas]

On 8/13/2020 at 2:42 PM, Jokeyman123 said:

Wow, i can't believe someone still has all that modular patch cord stuff.  I think that is what it is. But the aluminum foil hat-i would take that off in a thunderstorm if you were say...playing a round of golf...or sitting outside your favorite Taco Bell munching a fajita....or camping at the top of the smoky Mountains-or just about anywhere come to think of it. This guy needs a casio though, IMO!!

 

Check out his YouTube channel - "Look Mum No Computer". Sam is a really talented guy and comes up with all manner of weird/ bizarre creations. He built a Furby organ, a Gameboy Mega Machine (using Gameboys as individual oscillators for a synthesizer) and he's just finished building the 1000 oscillator Megadrone synth. Yes, you read all that right, no typos!

 

As for the patch cords, yes, those are for his home built modular synthesizer. He designed and built nearly all of the modules himself. I've been following his channel for about 18 months now and I love watching his exploits and creations!

[Newb]

On 8/13/2020 at 12:13 PM, Chandler Holloway said:

I have about 7 Casio DP-1 pads, don’t quite know how that happened

 

I have one where the cord was cut off so I need to open it up anyway. I will try to switch it over to Piezo. I already have a Casio RZ-1, I am trying to find the rest of the full size kit. I have one of the Tom pads on the way and am searching for the rest
 

You can open these guys up and put a piezo inside for proper velocity sensitive pads. When I tried it I ran into significant crosstalk issues between the two pads, so you'd probably need a foam spacer to absorb some of the impact.

 

Combine it with the rare DZ-1 drum trigger module and you'd be well on your way to a full Casio drum kit. I can practically hear the 80s cheese in this image.

 

 

 

 

[Chas]

On 7/15/2024 at 10:07 PM, Newb said:

 

 

 

One can never have enough DP-1 drum pads!

[Byrdyman26]

I wonder if you can hook up mattel sysonic drums if it would recognize the signal?

[Chas]

On 8/7/2024 at 8:54 AM, Byrdyman26 said:

I wonder if you can hook up mattel sysonic drums if it would recognize the signal?

 

The DP-1's are literally just switches, so they produce no actual sounds on their own. They need to be connected to a Casio "Super Drums" series of keyboard and then they will trigger the "Super Drums" sounds in them. They can also be connected to any device that needs a simple circuit on/ off signal to trigger, with suitable adapter of course.

 

I looked up the Owners Manual for the Mattel Synsonics drums, but it appears there is no way of triggering them externally. I did also find that some people have circuit bent them to allow external triggering. Interesting to note the the Mattel Drums are actually velocity sensitive and it is also a programmable drum machine - quite impressive features for a device that was primarily sold as a "toy"! 

[Byrdyman26]

Thanks so much. I had the synsonic drums when I was 7 and bought them again 6 years ago and considering buying another. They are so underrated on their sequencing and drum machine I never knew why. Anyone who touches them loves the analog sound immediately . You will always see Kraftwerk or New Order mentioned when they are reviewed and not wrong one bit when it comes to sound.. Circuit bending a fully functioning one is a sin in my opinion. I’m currently trying my Casio SS1 sticks and not loving the latency I’m getting on them. I’m going to try to fix it somehow. I’m using my mt 500 with 2 Dp1 pads. I can definitely see having a version of Temptation by New Order done with these drum accessories by Casio and deserves a good video demo. Maybe using Casio HT 700 to get it going? I’m looking for a HT 700 right now and a CK 500 to add to my Casio obsession.. Wish me luck.

Edited September 11, 2024 by Byrdyman26
Forgot to mention

[Byrdyman26]

On 8/7/2020 at 7:13 PM, Chas said:

Look what I managed to pick up from eBay the other day! I've been looking for a set of these to go with my MT-520 for ages. They're not that common and people often ask silly money for them. Plus they often only come up for sale as single units or pairs. Anyhow, these turned up on eBay and were very local to me. The seller was asking $100, which is way too much. They also accepted offers, so I sent a cheeky offer of $50 with one day to go not expecting it to amount to much, however, the seller accepted!

 

Someone has drawn the percussion instruments on the pads using permanent marker (grrrrrr!), though they've actually done a reasonable job and it doesn't look too bad. Importantly, they all work so it will be great to use my MT520 as a full electronic kit with real drum pads.

 

I also have two pairs of SS-1 "Sound Sticks", so now I can go full on Casio drummer circa 1987!

 

If anyone had any ideas how I can get the permanent marker off the pads without damaging them please let me known. They don't affect them in use of course, but it would be nice to get them looking original again.

 

I actually really like the iconography on these DP1 pads. I’ve never seen one DP1 pad for sale under $28, so $100 for 4 isn’t a bad deal at all. $50 is a steal. Good job on the score.Makes a lot of sense to me and don’t see any deviancy in doing it. Looks great 👍 

Edited September 11, 2024 by Byrdyman26