Anytime I have to play an e-kit, I just cringe at the thought of it.
If you are ever in Phoenix, stop by and I will change your mind.
After being away from the drums for a
long time, I was having trouble getting my A kit to sound good. It was set up in a bad room and everything was loud as fuck and resonating so bad I couldn't tell if I was playing good or not. I wondered if I had forgotten how to play or if I never really played well. I tried to play with some music with headphones, I tried dampening the drums...I tried everything.
When an E kit was suggested to me, my exact response was, "blasphemy!!"
But, being an open minded person, I picked up a cheap ($300) used rubber pad TD6 kit on craigslist. The minute I plugged them in, I was sold. I could now hear every single stroke instead a blur of resonance. I could plug in mp3's and work on getting back in shape. I could play at 2AM if I felt like it and I got hundreds of hour in very quickly.
I got together with a couple other players and, because of the E kit, we could play thru a decent PA until 10:30 PM with no disturbing the neighbors and no ringing ears and the mix sounded great. You could hear the vocals!!
I of course upgraded a few times and ended up converting an A kit to electronic. Those tiny E pads are.....stupid. If I play someone's A kit sitting in at a gig, it's not really any different as long as it's a decent sized place, not a coffee house. The thing I don't like is not really knowing what the volume is out in the crowd. With the E kit, I can hear exactly what's going on.
Every band I've worked with over the past couple years has eliminated stage volume by running everything through a PA in order to achieve a consistent mix and the E kit fits in perfectly. To me, the mix is more important than the players skill level. I have seen many good players sound like hell. I have heard many good singers get completely buried. IMO, it is all based on the drums. They are freaking loud and they set the bar for everything else.
I have tried to go back to the A kit several times and have had the E and A set up side by side and I always go back to the E kit.
For a live gig that requires mic'd drums, that is just a bunch more open mics on stage. I know that pros do it but I'm at a level where we need to take care of our own mix and I don't want to be chasing down hums and feed back all the time.
Also, You can build a conversion kit very inexpensively. A used TD 20 is under $1000. On off brand A kit is under $100 plus $40 per drum to convert the drums. Throw in a few pads and cymbals and you have a top of the line sounding/looking kit with a volume control for $1500
Also, I just discovered the super reverb'd snare sound that dominated 80's rock. I feel like a god when I play it because often, a simple single snare hit is on top of everything else in the song.
Also, also, you can record without even getting off the throne. Wireless mouse, and click record. Make a mistake, start over again without getting up.
OK....where am I going with this?
Oh yeah....
anti praise....
Uhhhh...you have to learn the controls and push some buttons. That sucks.