Turning a DDR pad into a MIDI controller

[Craig]

A friend of mine is doing his student teaching this semester, and the school he's at is planning a video-game themed indoor drumline show. What he's wanting to do is use a DDR pad(or several of them) to trigger drum sounds like from an electronic drum set.

We figure that he could hook the pad up to a computer through USB and then use a program to turn a joystick into a MIDI controller, but he really doesn't want to use a computer for it. He said the synthesizer has 1/4" jacks but I wasn't sure if you could actually rig it up to work through those. I've played DDR for a long time but the only thing I've ever done to pads is mount them on wood to keep them from slipping and bunching up. Also, I'm not muh of an electrician so I don't know about the wiring. Is it possible?

Also, he said they opened a pad up to check where all the lines were running and that they can measure electricity from the buttons up where they all come together in the cord, but at the cord, they get nothing. Another thing, there are 10 buttons on the pad: start, select, ×, 〇, △, □, up, down, left, right, but there are only 9 wires inside the cord. Why is that?

[devout]

Im not sure how he was imagining using the synthesizer... but im guessing the synthesizer is producing the actual sound signals and you just want to use the ddr pads as switches to turn it on and off? Sounds like you need to figure out how the playstation/pc whatever provides power to the pad, and then measure the voltage across the different terminals of the controller outlet as you step on different buttons. Then figure out a way to use those to make some kind of diode-like switch... As you probably guessed since theres fewer wires than buttons, there isnt a one-to-one correspondance with wires and buttons.

The other option would be to bypass the controllerboard/plug entirely and work just with the pad button wiring... that way you'd just wire each step (switch) in series between the synth output and the amplifier, so that the connection is only made while you're stepping on the pad. This method would have a one-to-one correspondance of wires to steps, but it would require you to cut apart the pads a little.

I dont know jack about audio stuff, so hopefully that made sense. I guess basically im saying you could have 4 different sound wave signal generators (ie 4 notes on the synthesizer) and then just use the pads as switches that open close the circuit between the thing making the sound and the speakers. Problem is i think you'd need 4 seperate synthesizers so that you can send out the sound signals on 4 seperate circuits....

[ChilliumBromide]

There are 9 wires in every PS2 controller chord; there's a chip that converts the raw button signals into binaries that the PS2 can read.

Also, I'd imagine that the task would actually be pretty simple; just build a homebrew pad around an existing electric drumset.
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I used to be active here lol

[devout]

[Craig]

Yeah, what I was thinking was that he could route the contact through the 1/4" jack since he said it's one like you would use for a footswitch. I don't think they're all MIDI(i.e. surely some that operate purely on electric signals exist). But then he could probably have one sound triggered per synth as opposed to all 4 arrows triggering different patches on the same synth.

DancingTofu: By building a homebrew pad around an existing drumset, do you mean something like taking the drum pads and making it so that when the kids step, they're stepping directly on the drum pads(maybe disguised to look like a DDR pad so the audience would be none the wiser)? They trigger when hit with a stick or a hand, so why not when a foot steps on them, right? I'm thinking of a Drummania-esque Yamaha DTXpress, by the way, nothing like Roland V-drums. Just simple round black pads.

[ChilliumBromide]