How do I set up my electric drums in the same way as an acoustic kit?

MKULTRA

Junior Member
I have finally been able to get my hands on an electric drum kit, a Yamaha DTXplorer.

I have been trying to set it up to resemble an acoustic kit, as best I can, let me explain...

I know the size difference between the too is big, and I know the sounds are different, but I want to set it up to have the same heights and the same distances of the drums apart as a regular rock drum kit.

Like, how tall is a hi-hat, how big is a bass drum, and how high up are the toms when on top of the bass drum, stuff like that.

I am mainly having problems with setting up the hi-hat and the snare drum to work with each other.
When ever I see drummers drumming with both the snare and the hi-hat, they seem to have their wrists crossed, and when I have set my drums up I never have them set up where I can drum with those two with my wrists crossed.

I know I will never have it set up perfectly as an acoustic rock kit, but I want to get it as near as possible, because I plan on getting behind one of those in a band soon enough, and I don't want to have spent all this time practising with this thing, then have to learn all over again.

I know that drummers set up their kits to their comfort, but I just need the standard heights and set ups of an acoustic kit, then I can slightly alter them to my confort after setting them at the right heights and such.

Cheers
 
I know that drummers set up their kits to their comfort, but I just need the standard heights and set ups of an acoustic kit, then I can slightly alter them to my confort after setting them at the right heights and such.

There is no such thing as a "standard" height or set up.

You said it yourself: "I know that drummers set up their kits to their comfort". Check the hi hat heights, snare height, tom height, tom angles, cymbal placement of 50 different drummers and you'll see 50 different ways of setting up a kit. Check it for 1000 drummers and you'll find 1000 ways.....many are similar.....some may even look identical at first glance, but there'll will always be nuances that each drummer has that personalises his/her kit for their own playing situation.

Set it up, start playing and adjust for your own comfort as you go along.
 
There is no standard, but I get the drift of what you're trying to do. I set up my Tama Techstar to "approximate" my acoustic kit.​
Find your throne, and sit down.​
Put the snare between your legs, at some kind of "comfortable" height.​
Find your right foot. Put your kick pedal under it.​
On your left, your hi-hat. Should be "higher than the snare. Ballpark in the 3' range.​
Rack tom, all depends on if you run 1 or 2, and if their mounted on your "virtual" kick drum or off to the side. Anyhow, let's say in an 11 'o clock position of the snare.​
Floor tom. Find that right leg again, to the right of that leg. Let's say 22-24 inches off the floor.​
If you're gonna run 2 rack toms, put a second rack tom to the right of your first. Figure center to center distance is gonna be 12-16 inches apart. Your "virtual" drums are bigger than your pads.​
If you're gonna run 2 floor toms, place the second pad right of the first floor tom, center to center space 16-20 inches, or, you could run a second floor on the left. In that case, left of your left leg, at the same height as the right floor.​
The picture is my Tama hybrid kit. Real cymbals and snare, electronic double kick, 1 rack, 1 floor, and my SPD-S left of my hats.​
have fun​
 

Attachments

  • 1393914_img_2.jpg
    1393914_img_2.jpg
    92.5 KB · Views: 9,489
I for one can't play with my wrists crossed; my left hand is much further forward than that. I have my hihat set up so far forward that I have the option of actually moving my right-hand and stick completely in front of the tip of my left stick, meaning I don't cross my hands at all. This allows me to get a much higher stick height for my backbeat (snare hits) without having to life my hihat hand up high to accomodate it.

I got into this after watching Billy Ashbaugh play, he moves between crossing his hands and moving his right hand far forward a lot. Here's a random video of his that shows what I'm talking about; you can see that his hihat hand moves forward and back again a lot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBJeeQ8S_vg

Anyway, that was just an example drawn from my own experience, since you mentioned hihat positioning and wrist crossing in your post.

So yeah, set your kit up the way it's comfortable for you. There will be massive differences between an electronic and an acoustic kit anyway, so a lot of the techniques that have to do with moving around the kit will have to be re-learned (to some degree). Use the electronic kit to work on your chops, timing, dynamics and general playing skills, and you'll find that very beneficial when moving to a "real" kit, regardless of subtle setup differences.
 
I don't quite understand this question. Why can't you just set-up your e-kit to approximate your acoustic kit? I have an e-kit and its set-up as close to my real kit as I can make it, in order to smooth transition from one to the other.
 

Attachments

  • New DW Driver Seat.jpg
    New DW Driver Seat.jpg
    176.7 KB · Views: 9,591
  • td-20.JPG
    td-20.JPG
    125.5 KB · Views: 9,842
Average kick drum is 20-22" in diameter. typical depth of a tom is 11-12" 22"+12"=34" compensate a few inches for the angle of the hypothetical acoustic drums. set your electric pads roughly 36-37" above the floor. Set your snare pad up relatively close to that height. everything else should be set up where it's easily accessible. Everything else is independent on an acoustic kit so you can put it wherever you want. my personal preference for hi hat position is about 10 o'clock on the snare and roughly 5-7" above it. hope this helps.
 
The whole crossing hands issue is independent of the acoustic/electronic kit comparison.

On the snare hit a lot of players raise the hihat stick much higher than their normal hits to accommodate the snare stick being raised up. so effectively you will accent the hihat simultaneously with the snare. This doesn't usually matter as the snare dominates. This took me quite a while to realise and get sorted.

I agree with the 10 o'clock position for the hat relative to the snare for the e-kit but again this is subject to taste.

I would also say that the gap between hat and snare should be at least 5" but this is down to personal choice.

Because the snare is typically much smaller than an acoustic snare; either you put it to the left and in plan view next to the hi hat. Or you move it to the centre of where the acoustic snare would be and live with a big gap between the snare and hi hat.

This is the trickiest bit of the lot.

I also tune down the mesh heads on my TD12 for the floor tom as this gives a sloppy tom feel!!!

Davo
 
Back
Top