I am about to buy an electronic drum kit. Which should I go for?

E-kits are so much flippin fun when you first get them.

After a year or two though, the novelty will not be there. You'll have one or two custom kit settings you really use, and the rest gets ignored unless you're really bored or something.

Still a great practice tool, but I have a very hard time getting real musical enjoyment out of playing the e-kit. I find myself frustrated in the expression department. The one thing I still really love is that I can pipe in external music from my phone and mix it so that things sound good and I can still hear everything. Much harder to accomplish with a real kit.

It's also not at all something a very new player will notice as much, but there's sort of a "if you haven't tried real strawberries, you might think the strawberry candies are good and an accurate representation" kinda thing. New players don't have all the techniques a developed player spent years working on and learning how to pull different sounds from the drums and cymbals; basically anything they do will sound good and all techniques will produce the same sounds. This also leads to some false confidence since pretty much no matter how you hit an e-drum the sound will be "perfect".

And that concludes my un-asked-for opinion of e-kits.

The point of this is that if as a new drummer you're looking to buy an e-kit, don't spend so much money on it. All those extra features and fantastic samples or sounds you're paying for will likely end up neglected and it may be a glorified practice pad. Stick with the big names, but don't over-buy and consider used gear as well.

Edit: these are general statements, I do not know the OP, or know if they are new or anything else.
 
I've owned two Roland kits - a TD-11 a few years ago, and now I have a TD-30 which was, until recently, top of Roland's range.

I have it set up in a spare room, with headphones at the ready. It's brilliant for practice, and great fun.

It's got dozens of different kit sounds programmed in, endless edit possibilities, click, playalong and more (although i still haven't worked out how to record on the TD-30!)

However, I've never gigged with it and don't intend to for many reasons.

Despite it's endless possibilities, in a live situation it's still no match for a good acoustic kit.

But if you want an electronic kit for practice, I'd say 'go for it'.

Roland are great and if you've got the money, go for at least a mid-range model.
 
but there's sort of a "if you haven't tried real strawberries, you might think the strawberry candies are good and an accurate representation" kinda thing.

I like that, good analogy.


Yeah it's true the novelty wears off if it's just drumming for fun.

But that's not important IF the owner is interested purely in practise. Putting aside all the things we know are a disadvantage with e-drums, it's still a great practise tool for arguably the most important aspect of drumming.. timing.

I still think it's important to practise rolls and some rudiments on pillows (not buzz rolls or drags obviously) and any non bouncy surfaces to develop wrist strength.

But an e-kit with instant record and instant playback and a metronome is a very convenient way to get immediate feedback on your timing, and a good way to hear if a fill or pattern works at the press of a button. I know for myself that, while I prefer practising on acoustic drums, I have to remember to set up a recorder and metronome. That's not a big issue obviously but there's more likelihood to record more regularly and consistently with an e-kit because it's all there ready to go.

I think some people are under the impression that if you play an e-kit you'll instantly sound good. Not true at all. If your timing sucks or you don't have decent technique, you'll sound like shit to all but the most inexperienced players, and the best programmed sounds won't save you.

Also, everyone has their own touch or need to develop their own touch. Many e-kits have dynamics built in, so you can strike the pads at one volume and sound rigid or you can apply dynamics and change the feel.
 
I think some people are under the impression that if you play an e-kit you'll instantly sound good. Not true at all. If your timing sucks or you don't have decent technique, you'll sound like shit to all but the most inexperienced players, and the best programmed sounds won't save you.
Hopefully nobody thought that from my post! On the contrary, I find that an electronic kit is so "literal" that timing issues can be even more obvious when it's a triggered sound versus an organic one.

Also, everyone has their own touch or need to develop their own touch. Many e-kits have dynamics built in, so you can strike the pads at one volume and sound rigid or you can apply dynamics and change the feel.
While this is true, the volume dynamics are a different matter to the difference in sound from different techniques and styles that happens when a good player is really working a drum. It is getting better and better, though. The higher end modules now do stuff that attempts to mimic the less consistent more varied sounds of the real drum cousins. Pitch variation, different samples for levels of dynamics, etc...

They're different animals. Lots more different from say an electric vs acoustic guitar.
 
I have an old Roland TD-6 that suits me just fine, for a practice kit. Certainly it's not the same feel (I only have the rubber pads, not mesh heads) but for what I paid for it (about $500) I have more than gotten my moneys worth in having a way to at least practice some in my home without disturbing the wife and kids. As a bonus, I've even gigged it some, at one casino gig that we have occasionally where they are rather militant about the volume.

Is it the best answer, no. Is it a great compromise, allowing me to at least play in ascenario that I might not otherwise...yes! And the newer kits, with the mesh heads...wow, very cool stuff.
 
I live with others including a wife. I have neighbors. When I started playing after a long layoff 4 years ago, I knew that an e-kit would be best solution for me. I knew I wanted a top end Roland kit, but it didn't bother me that it wasn't the TD30 KV that had just came out, so I picked up a TD20 SX. It was still new enough to be fun and I saved me thousands vs brand new.

It allowed me to play much more than if I got an acoustic kit. While there are real differences it beats not playing or only being able to play a limited amount.

My wife is more tolerant about the noise than she is about the hours I spend playing. My neighbors probably don't even though I play. My wife is happier. Happy wife, happy life.
 
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