E kit with great midi interface

A

AudioWonderland

Silver Member
I am looking for a kit with a decent brain and midi capabilities for recording. I don't care about the sounds, I will select those in the DAW. I just need to get the midi information into the DAW, multitrack if possible. As always, cost matters. It would be used as a standalone kit and possibly integrated with the acoustic kit.

What are some good options?
 
"cost matters" - what's your budget - as a number, with currency? Then we can advise.

Have you played anything? Any pads you like the feel of? :)
 
electrodrummer said:
"cost matters" - what's your budget - as a number, with currency? Then we can advise.

Have you played anything? Any pads you like the feel of? :)
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Maybe $1k USD. I have not played anything yet. Still narrowing the field a bit. The Roland pads and similar designs would be more than adequate. Accuracy in triggering would be the important part I think
 
Nick74 said:
Get hotspot-free mesh pads like PDX-8 / -12 along with an eDRUMin. Tons of info here: https://www.e-drumming.com
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The only thing is that e-drumming does not play any sounds only processes Midi so a computer will be required. Other than that it is a great device.
my recommendation will be to save some more $$$ and get a new Roland TD-17 or find a used Roland TD-30 or similar.

I very seldomly see used Yamaha E-kits but those would be good too.
 
Get the best Roland kit (probably used) you can, it's a small budget for high expectations unfortunately.

The problem is, while the features and limitations of triggers (how many zones, how many inputs) all depend on the module/interface, the better ones are sold with the better pads, so you need to pay up. You can't just buy a set of great pads without a fancy module, and if you get a fancy module, you don't need the edrumin. But if you get a cheap, budget kit that lacks features, the edrumin can be the perfect upgrade, as it supports a lot of higher tier pads from various manufacturers, so you can add e.g. a few (Roland-copy) Lemon cymbals. It's also great if you have an A2E converted kit.

For 1k I'd probably look for a Roland TD17 used, maybe an Alesis Strike SE (unlikely) or a Lemon kit from Alibaba with Edrumin. It's a difficult budget, a little too much for a cheap kit and a bit too little for a good one.
 
Also, MIDI is just one stream, you will need to separate it in the DAW, but it's easy. Every pad has a MIDI note (like C or D etc. on the piano) they use, so you just select all the Ds and copy them to a new track. But you might not need to, if you use an advanced VST like Superior Drummer, you will have more control over each instrument and "mic" than you can ever learn to use. :)
 
Doraemon said:
Get the best Roland kit (probably used) you can, it's a small budget for high expectations unfortunately.
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I am not sure how sending midi signals to a DAW is such a high expectation. I am not asking for world class sound, huge libraries or anything else. If its a bridge to far then I will look elsewhere
 
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AudioWonderland said:
I am not sure how sending midi signals to a DAW is such a high expectation. I am not asking for world class sound, huge libraries or anything else. If its a bridge to far then I will look elsewhere
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You mentioned accuracy in triggering, but not sure what you expect there. Getting anything remotely similar to real drums in playability is usually very expensive. MIDI signals are not an issue, but what signal do you want? E.g. if you want to play a ride bell, you can forget most of the cheap kits and you'd still probably need to look at used ones. A variable hi-hat signal (vs. open/close is also a fancy thing. These are regardless of sound, just trigger features that come with better kits.
If you have an acoustic kit, you could just add triggers to it and then use the Edrumin. Or to enter some basic beats without much realism, you could get a multipad and that would be useful with the kit, too.

It's such a common misconception to think ekits are just sound generators. It's the least important part, an ekit without sounds would be the same expensive as one with samples, it's almost irrelevant. You pay for the quality of materials and the electronic components, sensors, the analog-to-digital conversion etc. Heck, some of the top kits don't even come with any sounds, like the DWe kit (for about 7 grand) needs a DAW.
 
If converting your playing to accurate MIDI tracking is one of your major concerns please remember that a very large percent of that is your ability to setup the pads to your playing style. It is much easier to get accurate tracking setup if you are playing 8th notes than 32nd notes. It also depends on how you are mounting pads/triggers to avoid crosstalk.

My guess is that these days the technology to make that happen isn’t much of a secret so setup may actually be a bigger factor than the quality of hardware
 
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