Considering Roland TD-4KP

IsraDrum

Junior Member
I play drums as a hobby--it was acoustic until recently. I sold my set when we moved into an apartment in the city and now my 14 year old wants to get a set and I am willing to get an electronic set for the small footprint and contained sound. We don't have space for a acoustic set nor would my family (nor neighbors) be happy with the noise.

Luckily, a friend of mine loaned me his old Roland TD-6V to play with for a few months, until he moves to a bigger apartment. I am lucky because now I know a LOT more about electronic drums than I knew before, which was zero. The set I have now looks pretty much like this http://www.musiciansbuy.com/mmMBCOM/images/Roland/Roland_td6s_alt.jpg which is a bit different than the newer ones I think.

I think this is a nice set, but the hi hat pedal no longer works and, the bigger issue, one of the plastic connectors that connects the left leg to the main crossbeam broke. So now the whole thing is taped together and a bit rickety. Also the bass drum runs away when you use it, as nothing really fixes it in place. The overall design, in my opinion, is not very stable. I see, however, that newer versions look more stable.

As far as me buying a set, I am looking for a beginner set, nothing fancy. I don't care about a lot of sounds in the brain. I'm not looking for rock bottom price--I want something with decent or good quality, but nothing more than that. I would spend up to $1500 I suppose but I would prefer to spend less. We have no plans to do more than just have some fun with it. Maybe use it at a small party or some such.

What I found in one store here in Jerusalem, Israel is a Medeli DD502 http://www.medeli.com.hk/products/dd/dd-502j.html and runs about $688 USD but it looks like it's pretty low quality. It sounded good when I tried it, but it looks cheap.

I also found the Roland HD-3 V-Drums Lite online but it doesn't look like much, compared to the following:

The next cheapest set in this store (there are other stores in Jerusalem also) is the Roland V-Drums Portable TD-4KP http://www.roland.com/V-Drums/lineup/portable.html which I also found online before. The footprint is great and the portability looks really nice. My son is very shy and only really wants to play in the house now but I could see one day that if he had more skills, he would want to go and play somewhere like with friends or at a family gathering and this set looks great for that. I also like that the TD-4KP has the bass trigger built into the frame so it won't move. :)

I have two issues with it, however. One is that it seems that you can't adjust the location of the pads so much. The guy in the store wasn't so knowledgable really, but also from looking at all the various videos, I see that the toms are located far away from the snare and I'm not sure it's even possible to place them any closer. I suppose, however, that even if so, that's life and we'll live with it.

The other is the snare drum. The pads are touch-sensitive and the cymbals apparently have two triggers (I think that means rim and bell but I forgot to check when I was there but it seems so from videos) but the snare has no rim. The guy in the store told me that for a snare with a rim, you need a much more expensive set. They sell the TD-4KP for $1500 USD and he said a Roland with a snare with a rim would be more like $2K USD.

However I see online that you can upgrade the TD-4KP and switch the plain snare for a mesh snare with a rim. That's what my borrowed TD-6V has and it's definitely nice to have the rim.

Can anybody share anything with regard to these two issues?

As far as buying it, $1500 is crazy I think. I see it online in the USA on sale for $800 (no mesh snare) with free domestic shipping. I think I could do that and then either have a friend bring it over as luggage on an airplane (depends on how big the boxes are however) or even ship it. If the shipping was even $300 I'm still saving money! :)

OK, any feedback is appreciated. Thank you.
 
http://cms.rolandus.com/assets/media/pdf/td-4kp_brochure.pdf

I notice you can upgrade the snare to a PDX-6, which is only about $100 new here in the US.

If you are in an upstairs apartment or condo, even these very quiet kits
still produce some impact noise from the kick pedal that can go through the floor.
I know this from experience.

Lots written on how to deal with that over at vdrums.com,
which means the good news is you can have a kit the neighbors cannot hear.
But it may be a bit more of a struggle to get there than you expect.
 
I play drums as a hobby--it was acoustic until recently. I sold my set when we moved into an apartment in the city and now my 14 year old wants to get a set and I am willing to get an electronic set for the small footprint and contained sound. We don't have space for a acoustic set nor would my family (nor neighbors) be happy with the noise.

Luckily, a friend of mine loaned me his old Roland TD-6V to play with for a few months, until he moves to a bigger apartment. I am lucky because now I know a LOT more about electronic drums than I knew before, which was zero. The set I have now looks pretty much like this http://www.musiciansbuy.com/mmMBCOM/images/Roland/Roland_td6s_alt.jpg which is a bit different than the newer ones I think.

I think this is a nice set, but the hi hat pedal no longer works and, the bigger issue, one of the plastic connectors that connects the left leg to the main crossbeam broke. So now the whole thing is taped together and a bit rickety. Also the bass drum runs away when you use it, as nothing really fixes it in place. The overall design, in my opinion, is not very stable. I see, however, that newer versions look more stable.

As far as me buying a set, I am looking for a beginner set, nothing fancy. I don't care about a lot of sounds in the brain. I'm not looking for rock bottom price--I want something with decent or good quality, but nothing more than that. I would spend up to $1500 I suppose but I would prefer to spend less. We have no plans to do more than just have some fun with it. Maybe use it at a small party or some such.

What I found in one store here in Jerusalem, Israel is a Medeli DD502 http://www.medeli.com.hk/products/dd/dd-502j.html and runs about $688 USD but it looks like it's pretty low quality. It sounded good when I tried it, but it looks cheap.

I also found the Roland HD-3 V-Drums Lite online but it doesn't look like much, compared to the following:

The next cheapest set in this store (there are other stores in Jerusalem also) is the Roland V-Drums Portable TD-4KP http://www.roland.com/V-Drums/lineup/portable.html which I also found online before. The footprint is great and the portability looks really nice. My son is very shy and only really wants to play in the house now but I could see one day that if he had more skills, he would want to go and play somewhere like with friends or at a family gathering and this set looks great for that. I also like that the TD-4KP has the bass trigger built into the frame so it won't move. :)

I have two issues with it, however. One is that it seems that you can't adjust the location of the pads so much. The guy in the store wasn't so knowledgable really, but also from looking at all the various videos, I see that the toms are located far away from the snare and I'm not sure it's even possible to place them any closer. I suppose, however, that even if so, that's life and we'll live with it.

The other is the snare drum. The pads are touch-sensitive and the cymbals apparently have two triggers (I think that means rim and bell but I forgot to check when I was there but it seems so from videos) but the snare has no rim. The guy in the store told me that for a snare with a rim, you need a much more expensive set. They sell the TD-4KP for $1500 USD and he said a Roland with a snare with a rim would be more like $2K USD.

However I see online that you can upgrade the TD-4KP and switch the plain snare for a mesh snare with a rim. That's what my borrowed TD-6V has and it's definitely nice to have the rim.

Can anybody share anything with regard to these two issues?

As far as buying it, $1500 is crazy I think. I see it online in the USA on sale for $800 (no mesh snare) with free domestic shipping. I think I could do that and then either have a friend bring it over as luggage on an airplane (depends on how big the boxes are however) or even ship it. If the shipping was even $300 I'm still saving money! :)

OK, any feedback is appreciated. Thank you.

If you can have someone bring it in cheaper that would be great, they could bring one either with a mesh snare or buy one seperately. It would still be alot more affordable. I think the toms are far apart only because they're smaller than typical acoustic ones; the spacing from the centers should approximate typical distances. Roland makes great VDrums & the 4KP is designed to be unobtrusive, very acousticaly quiet & portable, sort of like an electronic Bop kit. This kit is entry level but I think good enough that you won't outgrow it too quickly.
 
Great. Thanks. I think the mesh snare is a good idea but they're very expensive I think.

This set really is for my son so I think I will get it "as is." Seems that the "upgrade" to a mesh snare is really an addition not a switch, so we can always do that anytime in the future.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
Back
Top