AzHeat
Platinum Member
...I ended up returning it.
After reading all the reviews and watching seemingly every YouTube video, I managed to finally stumble across a decent price on a used one at GC. Surprisingly, outside of a few minor scuffs on the main unit body, it actually had all parts and manuals intact. All that was missing was the top piece of styrofoam from the box.
Anyway, I gave it a good run for the money and was originally pretty thrilled with it. I already have a nice set of AKG mics (Concert1) and a Focusrite 18i20 interface. My biggest motivation for buying it was to get my L80s and Super Pads to sound more like drums, which the EAD10 did...well, sort of!
I read other forum posts as well as posts on this forum, where if you have a traditional 4pc, the ride will be way too load and if you have a second FT, it will not be heard. 100% true on the ride issue, but I had no issues with my 16”FT coming through as well as my 14. This may have been resolved via the new low volume firmware which I was running. What I had the biggest issue with was getting my 12” rack tom into the mix. It sits in a snare stand, so lower than a traditional 5pc. This made it almost completely invisible to the EAD10 sensor unit. Moving it up to a traditional 5pc position and all was well, but I don’t like the tom in that position. I think those of us with 20” or smaller BDs won’t have an issue with this. It should put the unit in the proper position. 22” or larger and if you like the tom on the low side, the shell basically sits right next to the EAD unit, so it won’t pick up either head.
I solved the issue with the ride being too load by installing the sensor unit at more of a 10 to 11 o’clock position. The mics in the sensor unit are similar to handheld stereo recorders with the two mics pointing toward each other, so the right mic is pointing up and left and the left mic doing the opposite. Mounting the unit off center, moves the mic away from having a line of sight to the ride, so issue solved. I still had to go up on my rack tom a couple of inches for the mic to pick up the bottom head, but the ergonomics of a 1U configuration is what finally got me to give up on my 3U setup. I was finally so comfortable, I went for ergonomics over my liking of multiple toms. I’ve been there for over a year now and it’s home, so not willing to go back to the higher setup. Things just work and I no longer think about where things are. They are where the should be, so not changing them. For others, this is probably a non-issue, but I have shoulder issues, so lower is best.
The second issue I ran into was the BD trigger. I don’t know if this was because of the Super Pad Batman looking thing or not, but I read another reviewer stating that you had to really hit the BD hard for the trigger to work. I messed with settings plenty and for me this was true. While the mic would pick up the BD just fine, the trigger portion wouldn’t pick up doubles. The other issue I ran into was the BD was the loudest piece, actually painfully so. There was no way to turn it down.
There were a couple of scenes (programs) where compression volume matched everything much better, but at least with silent drumming, ghost notes were pretty darned loud. Compression is adjustable, as are things like reverb, etc., but I found those to muddy things up fast. All are pretty cool and 100% useable in a performance situation where one isn’t trying to play silently, but for me, I’m trying to really clean up my playing, so while the effects were cool, they were far from helping me grow as a drummer.
I considered just triggering everything, but then what do I do with my Super Pads? I should have gone with the OnHead versions if I wanted triggers, but while the Super Pads are already a super pricey option, the Aquarian OnHeads are way more. Additionally, you then lose your triggers when you go full acoustic, so that seems a pretty high price...at least to me.
I went the Super Pad route, because they have kind of a cool tone, compared to mesh, but most importantly, while they have a nice feel, they are just a bit less bouncy than an actual Mylar drum head, so if I can pull something off on the Super Pads, I can definitely pull it off when I go full acoustic. Not so with mesh, which was my main motivation for going the route I did. If you have mesh and love them, a full set of triggers and the EAD10 could just be the ticket.
Overall. After two weeks of fiddling and futzing around for hours, I got almost zero practice in, because I could never find anything that I could hear better than my existing 7 mic and interface setup. If I pull my laptop into the mix, I can add reverb and compression based on individual channels, so I already have a better setup than the EADs all or none (bleed through across mics is an issue for me though). I’m nowhere near as cool with the ability to switch things on and off, but in the end, playing more and tinkering less is what I need.
I really have nothing bad to say about the EAD10. It has its limitations. If Yamaha offers one with more inputs, or maybe a two sensor unit you could split, it would quite possibly be the ultimate, but the price would be outrageous. The new low volume firmware is pretty nice, but for me, it just wasn’t all that even. The L80 hats are still pretty piercing as are the pings on the ride bell. This would be much worse with the louder Sabian version of low volume cymbals. The snare is very thin and toms too low in volume, so I just couldn’t live with it. I have better, albeit a more complicated setup already. I can replicate a lot of the effects, except anything that really counts as an electronic sample with the individual mic and interface setup, so the EAD value was dropping for me fairly fast. It was go full trigger or go home, so I went home. Just not ready for triggers and their complications/expense at this point. I took the unit back and got more practice in 1 hour, than the previous 2 weeks fiddling with stuff.
This is no knock on the EAD10. It’s very cool, but has some striking limitations to work through which I haven’t read anywhere. Hopefully it helps some here if you’re considering options.
Kinda bitter-sweet taking it back, but if anyone wants the EAD10 unit I took back, best to jump on the GC used page now.
Oh, and....happy New Year!
After reading all the reviews and watching seemingly every YouTube video, I managed to finally stumble across a decent price on a used one at GC. Surprisingly, outside of a few minor scuffs on the main unit body, it actually had all parts and manuals intact. All that was missing was the top piece of styrofoam from the box.
Anyway, I gave it a good run for the money and was originally pretty thrilled with it. I already have a nice set of AKG mics (Concert1) and a Focusrite 18i20 interface. My biggest motivation for buying it was to get my L80s and Super Pads to sound more like drums, which the EAD10 did...well, sort of!
I read other forum posts as well as posts on this forum, where if you have a traditional 4pc, the ride will be way too load and if you have a second FT, it will not be heard. 100% true on the ride issue, but I had no issues with my 16”FT coming through as well as my 14. This may have been resolved via the new low volume firmware which I was running. What I had the biggest issue with was getting my 12” rack tom into the mix. It sits in a snare stand, so lower than a traditional 5pc. This made it almost completely invisible to the EAD10 sensor unit. Moving it up to a traditional 5pc position and all was well, but I don’t like the tom in that position. I think those of us with 20” or smaller BDs won’t have an issue with this. It should put the unit in the proper position. 22” or larger and if you like the tom on the low side, the shell basically sits right next to the EAD unit, so it won’t pick up either head.
I solved the issue with the ride being too load by installing the sensor unit at more of a 10 to 11 o’clock position. The mics in the sensor unit are similar to handheld stereo recorders with the two mics pointing toward each other, so the right mic is pointing up and left and the left mic doing the opposite. Mounting the unit off center, moves the mic away from having a line of sight to the ride, so issue solved. I still had to go up on my rack tom a couple of inches for the mic to pick up the bottom head, but the ergonomics of a 1U configuration is what finally got me to give up on my 3U setup. I was finally so comfortable, I went for ergonomics over my liking of multiple toms. I’ve been there for over a year now and it’s home, so not willing to go back to the higher setup. Things just work and I no longer think about where things are. They are where the should be, so not changing them. For others, this is probably a non-issue, but I have shoulder issues, so lower is best.
The second issue I ran into was the BD trigger. I don’t know if this was because of the Super Pad Batman looking thing or not, but I read another reviewer stating that you had to really hit the BD hard for the trigger to work. I messed with settings plenty and for me this was true. While the mic would pick up the BD just fine, the trigger portion wouldn’t pick up doubles. The other issue I ran into was the BD was the loudest piece, actually painfully so. There was no way to turn it down.
There were a couple of scenes (programs) where compression volume matched everything much better, but at least with silent drumming, ghost notes were pretty darned loud. Compression is adjustable, as are things like reverb, etc., but I found those to muddy things up fast. All are pretty cool and 100% useable in a performance situation where one isn’t trying to play silently, but for me, I’m trying to really clean up my playing, so while the effects were cool, they were far from helping me grow as a drummer.
I considered just triggering everything, but then what do I do with my Super Pads? I should have gone with the OnHead versions if I wanted triggers, but while the Super Pads are already a super pricey option, the Aquarian OnHeads are way more. Additionally, you then lose your triggers when you go full acoustic, so that seems a pretty high price...at least to me.
I went the Super Pad route, because they have kind of a cool tone, compared to mesh, but most importantly, while they have a nice feel, they are just a bit less bouncy than an actual Mylar drum head, so if I can pull something off on the Super Pads, I can definitely pull it off when I go full acoustic. Not so with mesh, which was my main motivation for going the route I did. If you have mesh and love them, a full set of triggers and the EAD10 could just be the ticket.
Overall. After two weeks of fiddling and futzing around for hours, I got almost zero practice in, because I could never find anything that I could hear better than my existing 7 mic and interface setup. If I pull my laptop into the mix, I can add reverb and compression based on individual channels, so I already have a better setup than the EADs all or none (bleed through across mics is an issue for me though). I’m nowhere near as cool with the ability to switch things on and off, but in the end, playing more and tinkering less is what I need.
I really have nothing bad to say about the EAD10. It has its limitations. If Yamaha offers one with more inputs, or maybe a two sensor unit you could split, it would quite possibly be the ultimate, but the price would be outrageous. The new low volume firmware is pretty nice, but for me, it just wasn’t all that even. The L80 hats are still pretty piercing as are the pings on the ride bell. This would be much worse with the louder Sabian version of low volume cymbals. The snare is very thin and toms too low in volume, so I just couldn’t live with it. I have better, albeit a more complicated setup already. I can replicate a lot of the effects, except anything that really counts as an electronic sample with the individual mic and interface setup, so the EAD value was dropping for me fairly fast. It was go full trigger or go home, so I went home. Just not ready for triggers and their complications/expense at this point. I took the unit back and got more practice in 1 hour, than the previous 2 weeks fiddling with stuff.
This is no knock on the EAD10. It’s very cool, but has some striking limitations to work through which I haven’t read anywhere. Hopefully it helps some here if you’re considering options.
Kinda bitter-sweet taking it back, but if anyone wants the EAD10 unit I took back, best to jump on the GC used page now.
Oh, and....happy New Year!