Teensy 3 drum brain project

[yeahtuna]

Hi all,

I'm currently beginning work on a Teensy 3 based drum brain. I was hoping someone could give me some advice regarding wiring piezos. From various resources in the web, I'm currently wiring it like the diagram below.



This seems to work well, but I notice that it easily overloads the input resulting in clipping and preventing me from getting adequate dynamics. My understanding of electronics is not so good. How might I modify this to get a signal that doesn't clip? I tried the following setup which seemed to do the trick. It does prevent the input from clipping, but it just seems overly complex and I suspect it can be simplified. Any thoughts?



Also, is there anything I need to do to prevent the Teensy from being damaged from high levels of voltage?

Regards,
Rob

 

[yeahtuna]

I've been doing some more research and it looks like if I stick with the first diagram and use a smaller resistor, say 100k, I get more headroom. Is it safe to assume that as I use smaller and smaller resistors, I'll get less and less of the piezo signal going to the input on the Teensy and less a chance of damaging it?

Regards,
Rob