Additional sounds needed.

Drumquest2

Senior Member
Lots of songs feature rhythm sounds that can't be reproduced on a standard acoustic kit.
I need an electronic add-on, what can anyone recommend?
 
I really like my Alesis Samplepad. Sure, the high-end Roland things are cool, but at $600-700... To me, the Samplepad at $130-150 meets my needs. It has a small footprint at the kit. I currently use it for:

Extra toms
Claves
Cowbells
Handclaps
Timbales
Gong
Vibralaps
Sirens

And the list could go on...
 
Lots of songs feature rhythm sounds that can't be reproduced on a standard acoustic kit.
I need an electronic add-on, what can anyone recommend?

This just opens up a big can of worms, don't you think? Without knowing what kind of sounds you need, and what kind of budget you have to spend, it's hard to recommend anything. It could be as simple as a sample pad, or as complex as a big MIDI controller plugged into a sampler with the ability to play anything in a library of sounds.

And TBH - I play in cover/pop or classic rock bands a bit and I've never felt the pressure to actually be able to cop a sound directly. Unless it was a big paying act, I'm not sure I'd want to be able to put in the effort if I owned nothing. Although there was a time I played an Octapad linked to a few sound modules and drum machines, but those days are far behind me.
 
Agreed on the Alesis SamplePad, it will play shortish custom samples, and has 25 onboard sounds: claps, snaps, cowbells, congas, shakers, etc. It's $200, usually less right now since the SamplePad Pro came on the market last year.

If you just want the 25 sounds, you can look for the PercPad, it's $99 or less.

They're the best deal going for basic performance and price, and they're very easy/intuitive to operate. You probably won't need to read the instructions, but that only takes about 60 seconds. You'll be up & running in a few minutes.

Bermuda
 
Roland, Yamaha, Ddrum, Alesis, Behringer, Kat, and a few others make pads with varying capabilities.

For basic needs, at a reasonable price, I don't think you can beat the Alesis stuff.
 
Depends what you are after, if you only want sounds, the alesis pads should be enough.
I expanded my setup with a SPD-SX, which I use for some sounds(tambourine, jingle bells-xmas only) and sample parts, like brass, synth, backing vocals, piano phrases.

For what I needed (longer samples), the SPD-SX was the right answer. If you are only using smaller sounds, you can get away with Alesis SamplePad and Sample Pad Pro
 
Honestly get yourself the cheapest sample pad and use an iPod, iPhone, iPad etc with usb camera kit. Connect said kit to usb to midi. Then connect said midi to back of sample pad. Download an app called Sampletank and trigger that with sample pad. The sounds are extremely better then any on board sample pad sounds. Also you can look into superior drummer and ez drummer on a windows tablet as well using a midi to usb cable.
 
It depends on the sounds and the type of music you are playing.

I play with a latin jazz and Middle Eastern group sometimes, and i can take my standard jazz kit, and make it sound like an entirely different set of drums. We can easily go from a bebop tune, and the next tune could be klezmer-ish latin. I just turn off the snares and change where and how I hit the drums.

I'm not saying that the pad isn't a good idea, but you can get a lot of sounds out of a drum kit, with a few accessories (cow bell, wood blocks, etc).
 
This is an especially interesting topic to me, you need to be creative and do some research.

In electronic music there are a large number of effects. I like to try to imitate these acoustically. I use a combination of whistles, animal calls, shakers, chimes, and friction based instruments.

Central America in particular had an unusually well developed set of "noise" whistles, not only imitating birds, but also Jaguars, wind, screams, many of which are very similar to some modern electronic effects, and can be used not only iconically to invoke moods, but also rhythmically, harmonically, and melodically. I took up pottery just so I could learn how to make them.
 
This is an especially interesting topic to me, you need to be creative and do some research.

In electronic music there are a large number of effects. I like to try to imitate these acoustically. I use a combination of whistles, animal calls, shakers, chimes, and friction based instruments.

The challenge is playing those while also playing drums, along with additional miking. Reaching over and hitting a pad in the context of playing is much more efficient rhythmically, as well as volume-wise.

Bermuda
 
Depends on budget and how much effort you want to put in. I have drumkat linked to an old mid 90s rack mounted Yamaha sampler. This set-up is bomb proof and much more stable than any lap top / iPad based system. I also own and use the Roland spd sx but it is a toy as compared to the drumkat-dedicated sampler system. I use the Roland when I want quick and easy. I use Kat-sampler when performance/sound quality/creativity are required

Sampled sounds can be blended pretty seamlessly with acoustic drums - but you need a decent PA and a sound eng. on the desk who knows what balance you want.
 
The challenge is playing those while also playing drums, along with additional miking. Reaching over and hitting a pad in the context of playing is much more efficient rhythmically, as well as volume-wise.

Bermuda

There is different thinking on that, though I have seen some of those reggaton DJs go nuts on a sample pad.

Some songs lend themselves to playing effect after effect. Like Ol' McDonald, others you just need an effect here or there. Some songs are built around a specific sound like a shaker or guiro. Sometimes it's just nice to have something to be doing in the background during a legato section. There are apparatuses for making these things readily available, neck mounts, effects remotes, etc.

Having done a bit of drum sampling, the problem is where do you get your high quality samples in the first place, and how do you use them to make music. The mechanism of performance.
 
I got an Alesis sample pad for Christmas. I've not used it real seriously, just toyed around with it. It is very cool. It has a SD card so you can put your own sounds on it. The band I was recently with has a helicopter crash on a song intro on their CD. They were disappointed in the explosion on the CD. I took the intro from the CD and down loaded a beefier explosion from the net, and blended them together. The band loved it. So we could start the song live just like the CD. I also recorded my lead singers vibraslap and put it on the SD card. The main thing I do with the pad though, is run my kick trigger into it and play crazy fast double kick. At Christmas time they were on sale for 99.00 They are great for entering the electronic seen without breaking the bank.
 
No looping function on the basic SamplePad.
 
I have the Roland spdsx. I run two BT1 triggers on the right hand side of my kit and a KT7 bass drum trigger next to my hats for my left foot. This allows me to add clave patterns or cowbell or tambourine hits with my heel whilst still controlling my hi hats with my toes.The rhs BT1's have a variety of effects assigned to them. The beauty of the spdsx is you can sample in vocal lines,keyboard parts,guitar parts,anything from anywhere, and it adds another dimension to my 1 guitar,bass and drums cover band. We play classic rock and vintage pop covers and tbh, they're all pretty straight forward 4/4 time standards that can get pretty boring after a while. All the added parts I put in with the spdsx makes it more interesting/challenging for me. Yes, it's expensive,but worth it imo.
 
The Yamaha Ead10 has a few inputs for sample pads so you can play electronic sounds while having an extra mic on your kit too

For all that it does, it’s really great for the money you’ll spend on it
 
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