Creating a Hybrid kit

[Tamaefx]

Hi everyone,
I play more and more in small pubs/restaurants, so electronic kit is a necessity unfortunately. I currently play a customized TD11 and the feel and aesthetic is, how to say,,,, not great at all.
I purchased for cheap an as good as new Pearl Rhythm Traveler : pancake style with shallow bass and concert toms. The snare is a wood 13x5 shell.
You get the idea : keeping my Roland cymbals and the module and convert the ensemble in electro.
5 mesh heads plus triggers seems needed.
It's way cheaper than moving to a Roland VAD. I even find that the Pearl Rhythm travelers looks nicer than the VAD 306

I don't have any experience, is the Roland RT-30 trigger clamped to the hoops a viable solution to gig with?
I've planned to buy a hi hat VH-11 type and tweak the rack to accommodate de cables, module, cymbal stands and 14" floor.

 

[roncadillac]

Hi everyone,
I play more and more in small pubs/restaurants, so electronic kit is a necessity unfortunately. I currently play a customized TD11 and the feel and aesthetic is, how to say,,,, not great at all.
I purchased for cheap an as good as new Pearl Rhythm Traveler : pancake style with shallow bass and concert toms. The snare is a wood 13x5 shell.
You get the idea : keeping my Roland cymbals and the module and convert the ensemble in electro.
5 mesh heads plus triggers seems needed.
It's way cheaper than moving to a Roland VAD. I even find that the Pearl Rhythm travelers looks nicer than the VAD 306

I don't have any experience, is the Roland RT-30 trigger clamped to the hoops a viable solution to gig with?
I've planned to buy a hi hat VH-11 type and tweak the rack to accommodate de cables, module, cymbal stands and 14" floor.

Not to derail but where did you find that pearl rhythm traveler kit? I've been looking for one for probably 15+ years at this point.

 

[Tamaefx]

Not to derail but where did you find that pearl rhythm traveler kit? I've been looking for one for probably 15+ years at this point.

Ahah ! Next to my work : 130€ and : the good model : chrome hardware and real spurs not the first iteration with useless feet.

 

[roncadillac]

Ahah ! Next to my work : 130€ and : the good model : chrome hardware and real spurs not the first iteration with useless feet.

NICE score!

Back to your OP: take a look at drumtec, I'm pretty sure they sell conversion kits and are very informative and helpful about all things ekits.

 

[SYMBOLIC DEATH]

As long as you have the settings in the TD11 set up correctly any trigger will work. You may lose some functionality with non-roland triggers, but they will work. I use Ddrum triggers with my TM6 and they work just fine. I only trigger my bass drums and samples from a pd8, so I'm in a slightly different world and don't need the the same functionality you might need. So Roland triggers will give you the full functionality, to check which ones are compatible with your module.

 

[Doraemon]

Ahah ! Next to my work : 130€ and : the good model : chrome hardware and real spurs not the first iteration with useless feet.

That's really nice! Why not ditch the rack and use stands?
You'll probably need to change the trigger settings or pad type, Roland usually has a choice for their clip-on triggers. There are various conversion kits, too, but they can get expensive. Pintech in the US has some cheaper options.

 

[MattRitter]

A few years ago, I built a hybrid kit using a Tama drumset and a full set of R-Drums triggers. I couldn't believe how perfect those triggers were. I used a Roland Td-50 module, and I never once had any of the weird issues that people talk about in relation to e-kits and hybrid kits ("machine gunning," "cross talk," "hot spotting," etc.).

I eventually sold the kit because I decided to go back to regular acoustic drums...but I'm happy to report that the entire hybrid system worked flawlessly with R-Drums triggers. I can wholeheartedly recommend them.

 

[Tamaefx]

Hey, thank you for the advice!
Yesterday night we did a gig in a pub, playing with the TD-11 - the sound was good but the "drum" visual, wasn't of course.
I met a guy who did a hybrid kit, he told me to go with 2box triggers, as good as Roland but half, even 1/4 of the price.
I guess that time has to be spent on the tweaking on the module to get the dynamics.

About the rack vs stands, I'd rather go with 3 regular stands but I'm wondering about the cable and the module attachment. Since I already have the rack I will give a try and move to cymbal stands and clamps ASAP.

MattRitter, the R drum triggers are external triggers or triggers that are screwed inside the shells ?

Indeed the visual >>>

 

[roncadillac]

Hey, thank you for the advice!
Yesterday night we did a gig in a pub, playing with the TD-11 - the sound was good but the "drum" visual, wasn't of course.
I met a guy who did a hybrid kit, he told me to go with 2box triggers, as good as Roland but half, even 1/4 of the price.
I guess that time has to be spent on the tweaking on the module to get the dynamics.

About the rack vs stands, I'd rather go with 3 regular stands but I'm wondering about the cable and the module attachment. Since I already have the rack I will give a try and move to cymbal stands and clamps ASAP.

MattRitter, the R drum triggers are external triggers or triggers that are screwed inside the shells ?

It sounds like you are happy with every aspect of your Roland except the look. How about getting a banner printed and fixing that to the front of the rack? It would be a big way to advertise your bands name and logo while simultaneously hiding the ekit "look" in a classy way.

I'll try to dig around YouTube but I got this idea from a YouTube video I watched a couple years ago about a metal band who switched to using an ekit live. They absolutely loved every aspect of it except the look so they just got a banner printed and hang it off the rack.

 

[MattRitter]

MattRitter, the R drum triggers are external triggers or triggers that are screwed inside the shells ?

They're screwed inside the shells. If you're looking for a quick and inexpensive solution, they aren't the ones to use. On the other hand, they will give you an end result that is on par with those multi-thousand-dollar kits that Roland has recently started selling (the ones that look like acoustic sets).

 

[Doraemon]

About the rack vs stands, I'd rather go with 3 regular stands but I'm wondering about the cable and the module attachment. Since I already have the rack I will give a try and move to cymbal stands and clamps ASAP.

I'd get some cable sleeves from Amazon or wherever.. and bundle them at the module, and then branch a few out, sleeve it to the far end and let the ends out in-between 2-3 sections. You could use velcro cable ties on the stands. You might need a few extension cables if they're short.

 

[Tamaefx]

It sounds like you are happy with every aspect of your Roland except the look. How about getting a banner printed and fixing that to the front of the rack? It would be a big way to advertise your bands name and logo while simultaneously hiding the ekit "look" in a classy way.

I'll try to dig around YouTube but I got this idea from a YouTube video I watched a couple years ago about a metal band who switched to using an ekit live. They absolutely loved every aspect of it except the look so they just got a banner printed and hang it off the rack.

I did this ! A couple of times. It was clipped to the rack. A good idea except our band poster is a bit too big, and it was clumsy to attach without damaging it. But your right. A good way to advertise and to hide the plastic Roland.

 

[Tamaefx]

Some news, I received and set up the kit. Mesh heads and triggers. 2 triggers were already broken out of the box.
I returned the products to Thomann but it didn’t help to trust the product.
2box Triggerit. Still, I took time to set them up and give a try and it was convincing in term of feeling, velocity and sensitivity.
I didn’t get any rim sound but the head triggering was ok. Playing on bigger surfaces with the vibration from the bass drum is more pleasant.

 

[green glass drum]

Hi...are the Rhythm Travelers fiberglass shells sir?

 

[Tamaefx]

The rhythm traveller is wood shell, even the snare drum. I guess it’s philipin mahogany.

 

[Tamaefx]

Hello,
I finally built up the hybrid kit :
I first received a 2box trigger set ; I returned it to the shop because 2 triggers had broken part. It was rather cheap but seemed fragile.
I purchased the RT 30 by roland : much more expensive, yes, but that way I'm more confident.
I tried the set yesterday and it went flawlessly.
Pearl Rhythm traveller shell
5 RT-10 Roland Trigger
Parts of a Roland Rack
Roland TD-11
CY 12 - CY 13 cymbals and, for the moment the basic FD 8 / CY 8 hi hat.

I added a weight inside the bass drum, because it's otherwise too light.
Everything went fine after tweaking the sensitivity / threshold settings.
I get a bit of acoustic return from the shell and hoops, and the bass feel is much more comfortable.

And visually, I let you judge.