What electronic drum features are "wasted" on a beginner?

E

ensa000

New Member
I'm an adult looking to buy my first electronic (or any kind of) drum set. I'm generally interested in just learning to play drums. I currently play guitar and a little piano I have also been playing around with recording, so learning drums for me would be motivated by enjoying learning new instruments and also hopefully getting to the point where I can record my own drum and guitar tracks just for fun. I don't really have any aspirations of gigging or anything, this is just a hobby for me.

I live in a house with a basement where I'll set up the drums, but I also have kids with early bedtimes so, all of this put together, I think electronic drums are the way to go (quiet, easier to record, etc.).

However, when I go through all of the options for kits from Roland/Alesis, etc. there are tons of variations. What I'm interested in getting opinions on are what features do drummers consider to be very important for a beginner kit? And what features can be ignored (because you'd need to be more advanced to use them)?

As a mid-career professional, I could afford to get a higher end kit, but I also tend not to agree with the advice of "buy the best you can afford" and here's why. For other things I know, like guitar, getting a custom shop Fender as a beginner would do nothing to help you learn the guitar and you'd really be wasting a lot of money. A simple, well-built Mexican made Player Stratocaster is going to be more than enough guitar for a beginner. Those also hold their value well and can be resold if it turns out you either don't play much or you play a lot and want to upgrade later. I think you're managing your money much better by starting there, even if you can afford a custom shop Les Paul or whatever right away. A beginner wouldn't even notice the things that make the custom shop guitar better.

For drums, I'm sort of at a loss on what features to focus on. Questions I have or assumptions I'm making are as follows. But please weigh in, let me know what I'm missing out have wrong:
  • kick drum pedal with something to actually hit is pretty important (for feel), this seems to be the consensus, which would rule out the really cheap kits that just have a pedal to step on electronically but no actual kick drum pedal
  • mesh is much better than rubber (again for feel, also for volume, so this would rule out again some of the lower tier options)
  • high hat on a stand is much nicer than high hat on the rack? (less sure about this one)
  • how important is a bell zone on the cymbal for a beginner? (Roland for example only includes that on TD-07KVX/TD-17KVX and up, but is this needed for a beginner?)
  • how many pads/cymbals should you start out with? some kits have a small number (VAD103), others have a ton (Alesis Strike Pro). What do you need as a beginner?
  • how about the module? I lean toward it not being super important for a beginner if you like the sounds on a basic module or plan to just get drum software anyway for messing around for recording, the only thing that stood out to me was Bluetooth streaming music, which I think is just generally more convenient than plugging in a phone/tablet and would make me more likely to just sit down and play? Am I right or wrong on this?
  • what about size of the mesh pads? do these matter for a beginner?
 
My take on this is that at some point you won't be a beginner anymore and you will want some added features of the more mid-sized kits and instead of buying the cheapest thing out there and then having to upgrade later, you can buy a nice mid-priced kit and keep it for a long time. I have the Roland TD-17KV. It is a mid-level kit. It has been a great set that has pretty much everything you'll need. This kit has the hi-hat mounted on the rack and I find that it's fine. The mesh pads are so much nicer than rubber pads and I did buy a triple-zone cymbal for the ride and used the cymbal that it came with as an additional crash. The larger pad for the snare is welcome and I do find that sometimes I hit the edges of the smaller tom pads. I use the Bluetooth feature all the time and as far as the selection of kit sounds, I don't use that many of them but find it fun to play around with them sometimes. It has USB out for recording to a computer and you can use an external memory card to record yourself directly on the module for quick playback.
 
ensa000 said:
this is just a hobby for me.

I live in a house with a basement where I'll set up the drums, but I also have kids with early bedtimes so, all of this put together, I think electronic drums are the way to go (quiet, easier to record, etc.).

However, when I go through all of the options for kits from Roland/Alesis, etc. there are tons of variations. What I'm interested in getting opinions on are what features do drummers consider to be very important for a beginner kit? And what features can be ignored (because you'd need to be more advanced to use them)?

As a mid-career professional, I could afford to get a higher end kit, but I also tend not to agree with the advice of "buy the best you can afford"

For drums, I'm sort of at a loss on what features to focus on. Questions I have or assumptions I'm making are as follows. But please weigh in, let me know what I'm missing out have wrong:
  • kick drum pedal with something to actually hit is pretty important (for feel), this seems to be the consensus, which would rule out the really cheap kits that just have a pedal to step on electronically but no actual kick drum pedal
  • mesh is much better than rubber (again for feel, also for volume, so this would rule out again some of the lower tier options)
  • high hat on a stand is much nicer than high hat on the rack? (less sure about this one)
  • how important is a bell zone on the cymbal for a beginner? (Roland for example only includes that on TD-07KVX/TD-17KVX and up, but is this needed for a beginner?)
  • how many pads/cymbals should you start out with? some kits have a small number (VAD103), others have a ton (Alesis Strike Pro). What do you need as a beginner?
  • how about the module? I lean toward it not being super important for a beginner if you like the sounds on a basic module or plan to just get drum software anyway for messing around for recording, the only thing that stood out to me was Bluetooth streaming music, which I think is just generally more convenient than plugging in a phone/tablet and would make me more likely to just sit down and play? Am I right or wrong on this?
  • what about size of the mesh pads? do these matter for a beginner?
Click to expand...
Look at this kit for cheap but not too bad beginner kit:

https://www.amazon.com/Donner-DED-4...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

and it's review from 66Samus here:

The Donner kit has a bass drum pad and it comes with a pedal and sticks I think even maybe a stool not sure on that.

The Hi Hats on the donner can be upgraded with this:

https://www.amazon.com/Goedrum-GHC-...id=1657203552&sprefix=go+edrum,aps,160&sr=8-1

You can use the included Hi Hat cymbal or get a better one (you will also need a Hi Hat stand).

The pads are mesh which is great to play on and not very loud, much better than rubber pads.
A bell zone on the ride is not mandatory but most e-kits now have at least 2 zones for the ride so you do get a bell and an edge.
most electronic kits have 5 pads (3 Toms, Snare and Bass) plus 3 cymbals (hi hats, crash, ride). Some modules let you add one pad (tom or cymbal) A lot of the new modules are dual zone on all pads which if you can split zones that means you can have more toms or more cymbals (my Roland TD-11 currently has 7 cymbals and 5 pads without any other extras other than some DIY splitters that I made following this guy's method:


(not sure if you can split zones with the Donner Module but I know for sure you can with the Roland TD-11- TD-15 which means you can have a 3 zone ride (bell, bow and edge) proper hi hats with the GoEdrum controller, and 5 more cymbals with at least one two of them being double zone. (you do lose the double zone of your toms but most people don't really use that or they use it for cymbals so if you have actual cymbals it is just better).
You can record the sounds of the module (for the Roland at least) in 2 ways: one using the Audio outs into a soundcard, or via usb into a computer (no need for a sound card but maybe prone to latency.. not in my case but I don't know your computer situation.
and finally you can use USB or MIDI to trigger a VST (computer software such as EZDrummer). you can do that with any module that has USB so the Donner will work, but I just like Roland because of proven reliability. plus the TD11 is not a bad module and you can get nicer pads used now for cheap and have a very nice kit for under $1500. (of course most guys here HATE e drums so they will try to steer you away from them. If you have the ability to play at acoustic drum volume without getting the police called on you, I say get an acoustic kit... much less fuzz (except when recording) which is why this guy converted his acoustic to electronic:


also the Roland and most modern modules for that matter have an aux input usually a 1/4 headphone in which you can use to plug in your phone or your music playing device and have that playing through the module which is how I am able to connect my camera (which has a mic input ) so it goes like this:
1 from Ipad headphone out to TD-11 aux in
2 from TD-11 headphone out to two way splitter
2 from two way splitter to my headphones and to Camera Mic in

Presto!, synched good quality audio and video.

of course you can shuffle it around by connecting the module to a computer, using EZDrummer for the sounds, adding a track in a DAW, recording everything and plugging the splitter to your laptop so that you can still have video and audio synched, but the opportunity to change the audio once you master it fully on your daw.
Those who hate on E drums and only use acoustic will have to :
Get an interface that supports a few mics, set said mics properly, experiment until they can achieve a good sound, live with that until they can upgrade to better gear or better location...
Hopefully this answered some of your questions.
 
Now, my personal thoughts on your points:
  1. True, actual kick pad with pedal is very important
  2. mesh vs rubber actually depends, I find that rubber isn't really louder, and for me feels simply better than mesh, but it's just my experience - OVERALLY mesh can be loosened/tightened, so more universal
  3. Hi - Hat on stand is actually nicer, but quality hi-hat on rack is also good (not counting cheap Alesis open/closed controllers)
  4. Bell zone isn't very important for beginner, but it's one of the features which WILL be important in near future, so consider that drumset at least supports it
  5. Standard set is snare, 3 toms, hihat, crash and ride (+kickpad) and for many people this is enough, maaaybe sometime in future adding second crash would be good idea
  6. Keep in mind that if you get drumset with awful sounds, it can easily demotivate you
  7. Size of pads is also pretty controversial topic - my opinion is that bigger pads are in fact more confortable to play on, however on small pads you can learn to hit drums more accurately. Size of pads only matters in case of "feel", until you get to the price tag where you get 'positional sensing'
I'm currently owning Yamaha DTX6K-X - before I was owner of TD-17KV, and I would personally never go back to Roland - I've found that for me Yamaha rubber pads > Roland mesh, also Yamaha has outstanding module which I think easily conquers TD-07 and TD-17 modules. Also Yamaha has their own TCS material, which for some (alongside me) feels awesome, but for some is worse than mesh. The best thing you could do in terms of pads is just simply go to Your local drum shop and simply play on some Yamaha, Roland etc. kits.

And that's all my opinion.
 
ensa000 said:
For drums, I'm sort of at a loss on what features to focus on. Questions I have or assumptions I'm making are as follows. But please weigh in, let me know what I'm missing out have wrong:
  • kick drum pedal with something to actually hit is pretty important (for feel), this seems to be the consensus, which would rule out the really cheap kits that just have a pedal to step on electronically but no actual kick drum pedal
  • mesh is much better than rubber (again for feel, also for volume, so this would rule out again some of the lower tier options)
  • high hat on a stand is much nicer than high hat on the rack? (less sure about this one)
  • how important is a bell zone on the cymbal for a beginner? (Roland for example only includes that on TD-07KVX/TD-17KVX and up, but is this needed for a beginner?)
  • how many pads/cymbals should you start out with? some kits have a small number (VAD103), others have a ton (Alesis Strike Pro). What do you need as a beginner?
  • how about the module? I lean toward it not being super important for a beginner if you like the sounds on a basic module or plan to just get drum software anyway for messing around for recording, the only thing that stood out to me was Bluetooth streaming music, which I think is just generally more convenient than plugging in a phone/tablet and would make me more likely to just sit down and play? Am I right or wrong on this?
  • what about size of the mesh pads? do these matter for a beginner?
Click to expand...

[opinion stuff - beware those of a nervous disposition]
1. Mesh is not "better" - it's a feel thing. There's also silicone pads (Yamaha TCS). It's down to you to try. (mesh introduces hot spots - areas of the head which are very responsive, with a rapid fall off away from that area) and is limited to 2-zones)
2. hat on a stand - I own all options - I find a separate foot controller to be more sensitive and much more flexible. Moving hats are anachronistic.
3. bell is good for beginner in my opinion.
4. number of pads up to you - kick/snare/couple of toms/hat/ride/crash is a good minimum. Main thing to look out for is expansion so you can add without hacking.
5. Bluetooth is not needed. You're not running round - just plug in a cable.
6. Sounds are important if you just wanna plug in a play and not faff about with computers and software. I'll never use a computer on stage, A good module also has better adjustments for your personal style.
7. Size doesn't matter. Drummers only generally hit the centre 4-6" on any drum.

SO

GO and hit some things. Download and read manuals.
 
doggyd69b said:
(of course most guys here HATE e drums so they will try to steer you away from them. If you have the ability to play at acoustic drum volume without getting the police called on you, I say get an acoustic kit...
Click to expand...

I'm not totally against this, but I haven't seen a great comparison of a muffled acoustic set vs. electronic for noise (some videos of each separately, but the bass drum on acoustic sets even when super muffled sounds loud enough to annoy my family from what I've seen). The other downside I can see is making it more complicated to record, which is part of why I want to get into playing drums.

P.S. Thanks to everyone for feedback and suggestions to far. Lots of good advice!
 
 
ensa000 said:
  • kick drum pedal with something to actually hit is pretty important (for feel), this seems to be the consensus, which would rule out the really cheap kits that just have a pedal to step on electronically but no actual kick drum pedal
  • mesh is much better than rubber (again for feel, also for volume, so this would rule out again some of the lower tier options)
  • high hat on a stand is much nicer than high hat on the rack? (less sure about this one)
  • how important is a bell zone on the cymbal for a beginner? (Roland for example only includes that on TD-07KVX/TD-17KVX and up, but is this needed for a beginner?)
  • how many pads/cymbals should you start out with? some kits have a small number (VAD103), others have a ton (Alesis Strike Pro). What do you need as a beginner?
  • how about the module? I lean toward it not being super important for a beginner if you like the sounds on a basic module or plan to just get drum software anyway for messing around for recording, the only thing that stood out to me was Bluetooth streaming music, which I think is just generally more convenient than plugging in a phone/tablet and would make me more likely to just sit down and play? Am I right or wrong on this?
  • what about size of the mesh pads? do these matter for a beginner?
Click to expand...
I still stay buy the best kit you can afford. They're expensive, so the chances you would want to upgrade or replace a cheap kit are quite high.
There are different people with very different needs and even more different budgets that don't align with skill levels. Much depends on your goals, what makes you feel happy, the noise, your improved technique, playing certain songs, the sound quality, durability, ease of recording, saving money, the looks of a huge kit or the lowest noise level you can cram into your dorm room. Any diy skills, soldering? Store and brand representation in your country... These all may point to different kits.
You might need a ride bell on week two if your fav song has it which you're determined to play. Number of pads and sounds may be a little more important depending on music style. Using VST is a good way to have great sounds, but could also be an expensive option unless you already have a great computer and use free versions, plus it's usually inconvenient. IMO a real kick pedal is very important. Bigger snare, hihat stand are sweet, more pads are nice (usually can be added later), good sounds are more enjoyable, a bell is better than none.
Think about what you'd need the most, research (lots of similar topics on reddit), I think you already read a lot and have a good idea about some points. I think having a specific budget will greatly reduce your options and questions. Buy from a reputable store with extended warranty.
Try what you can at a store. If unsure, just start with a pad. Drums can be very easy to learn at the beginning, so you may get a good idea of what you want to do and what you need soon. I've seen many people online who replace their kits or start looking for upgrades after a few months, hence it may be the best to just go all in. It's not like a handmade guitar made of special wood, an expensive ekit is just a little less lacking stuff.
 
Doraemon said:
I still stay buy the best kit you can afford. They're expensive, so the chances you would want to upgrade or replace a cheap kit are quite high.
There are different people with very different needs and even more different budgets that don't align with skill levels. Much depends on your goals, what makes you feel happy, the noise, your improved technique, playing certain songs, the sound quality, durability, ease of recording, saving money, the looks of a huge kit or the lowest noise level you can cram into your dorm room. Any diy skills, soldering? Store and brand representation in your country... These all may point to different kits.
You might need a ride bell on week two if your fav song has it which you're determined to play. Number of pads and sounds may be a little more important depending on music style. Using VST is a good way to have great sounds, but could also be an expensive option unless you already have a great computer and use free versions, plus it's usually inconvenient. IMO a real kick pedal is very important. Bigger snare, hihat stand are sweet, more pads are nice (usually can be added later), good sounds are more enjoyable, a bell is better than none.
Think about what you'd need the most, research (lots of similar topics on reddit), I think you already read a lot and have a good idea about some points. I think having a specific budget will greatly reduce your options and questions. Buy from a reputable store with extended warranty.
Try what you can at a store. If unsure, just start with a pad. Drums can be very easy to learn at the beginning, so you may get a good idea of what you want to do and what you need soon. I've seen many people online who replace their kits or start looking for upgrades after a few months, hence it may be the best to just go all in. It's not like a handmade guitar made of special wood, an expensive ekit is just a little less lacking stuff.
Click to expand...
There are a few free drum VSTs but they don't really offer much (what do you expect for free?) but Get Good Drums getgooddrums.com offers small packages for very affordable prices and they do sound good (not really my taste because modern music uses those samples on everything but you can get a great sounding kit with not much $$ The Donner drumset can use VSTs I think it has a bell and bow maybe even 3 zone ride, and you don't need a super powerful computer to run Kontakt (which powers that vst) as far as DIY skills, if you don't have them, you can easily acquire them by watching a few how to videos (which YouTube is full of). Store brand representation is most important.
Now about the buy the best kit you can afford... Just because I can afford to pay $8000 for a DrumTec kit or a top of the line Roland, doesn't mean I should just spend that when I can build a better kit myself for about $2000 and if you are going to use Vsts then the module doesn't matter much. as for buying cheap kit (like the Donner) and later upgrading, you can start by upgrading one pad at a time (the nice used Roland pads can be had for about $ 150 to 250 depending on what you find:

www.ebay.com

Roland PD-85 Dual-Trigger Mesh Head V-Drum Pad 3 Pack | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Roland PD-85 Dual-Trigger Mesh Head V-Drum Pad 3 Pack at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
 
I think that the great and consistent sound of electronic kits is wasted on beginners because it deprives them of the opportunity to develop feel and touch insofar as striking the drums is concerned.

You just have to lay the notes down in the proper order to sound good on an e-kit. Not so on an acoustic kit, by a long shot.
 
My. three acoustic kits are in storage so I'm playing an inexpensive Alesi Surge ekit at home. It's fine-the cymbals aren't so hot but rest sounds great. But it's a different instrument than an acoustic kit-it's more like playing an electric organ just instead of hitting keys your hitting pads with sticks or a bass pedal. In a general way you go through motions of playing drums-but I agree with Yammyfan that you won't develop technique or feel of how and where you hit a drum or cymbal varies in sound and you can control it. You just whack the pad for the sound-a real kit you cajole sounds from drums, rides, crashes, and hats. E kits are pretty one dimensional but I enjoy playing mine-the cymbals don't so sound so bad when playing along with music in mix. I miss the "finessing sound" is my main grievance I guess=especially hats. I can't play the hats with my foot like a real one.
 
doggyd69b said:
Store brand representation is most important.
Now about the buy the best kit you can afford... Just because I can afford to pay $8000 for a DrumTec kit or a top of the line Roland, doesn't mean
Click to expand...
I personally wouldn't buy drums on Amazon if I can get about the same value with 1 or 2 years extra warranty from e.g. Sweetwater or Thomann. (E.g. Alesis or Millenium kits from the same factory.) You don't have to take "buy the best" literally, especially if you're rich, but if someone is shopping for a few hundred dollars kit, or under 1K, it's worth streching your budget, because the difference another $100 can make can be a lot more in functionality or quality compared to the little money you save.
IMO the module matters a lot (not the sounds), since that limits the availability of features and level of triggering, even with a vst. If you have a switch type kick, you can't add a real pedal, you can't add zones or bells or hihat stand if it's not already supported electronically.
 
The best parts of an electronic drum kit in my opinion are the volume control and headphones. You can practice quieter.

Acoustic drums are such a different experience, though. Tap on a drum head various places or ways and you get different sounds.
 
Lots of long replies that I didn't read here but my opinion is that you should be playing acoustic drums if you are just learning. EDrums are just nothing like actual drums when it comes to the feel of it.
 
Pretty much agree with everything Essenter stated, answering your questions and needs.

My beginner experience included much of what your diving into. I decided upon a Roland TD-15. Small pads, hard kick pad (which I grew to really like, and the rack high hat with foot pedal (FD-9) that worked perfectly fine for me. I could do most things, but the nuance things from an acoustic hi-hat was hard to find. I told my self... self, those small pads will be a challenge and training to my brain to hit center.
I also bought a sample of sounds from vexpressions. This kit now sounded good. Agree, if it doesn't sound good, you will find your drive to play fade.
I used this kit for several years... training in the beginning and then in rehearsals and gigging.
I did eventually buy a BT-1 for expansion but that was just G.A.S. A good module will have a huge variety of sounds and variables that can be manipulated. Maybe too much if you spend all day tweaking it. Anyway, I lean towards, buying what you can and having it available vs. buying the basics and figuring out the inevitable expansions in the future.
 
Macarina said:
I used this kit for several years... training in the beginning and then in rehearsals and gigging.
Click to expand...
After learning on an electric kit, how well did you find your skills transferred over to acoustic drums? Was it a minor adjustment to play acoustic or more like a major leap? Or have you remained primarily an E kit player?
 
pinstripe said:
After learning on an electric kit, how well did you find your skills transferred over to acoustic drums? Was it a minor adjustment to play acoustic or more like a major leap? Or have you remained primarily an E kit player?
Click to expand...
Not a major leap… with that being said, my jump from the TD-15 was to a hybrid A2E kit.

Mac's A2E Project

Essentially a duplicate effort from Vdrum... I'm midway into my Acoustic to Electronic project. Thought I'd start writing about the journey. I'll get you all up date on starting and to where I'm at. Then add comments and ideas as things evolve. About mid winter some months back, I ran across...
www.drummerworld.com

It was a pretty transparent switch for my drumming skills, with the minor issue going from the small hard kick pad to the large acoustic head. Had lots of rebound, but with some tweaks on the kick & pedal and tweaks from me, it eventually clicked. I do enjoy the normal size heads way more.

So yes, still triggering electronically with headphones or PA.

Next leap will be all acoustic.

In the very near future, I will most likely use a small acoustic kit for jams, rehearsals, etc. Acoustic heads w/ metal cymbals which in all practically is The Leap. And I’m pretty confident it will not be a big deal.

And I’ll continue to use my A2E at home for practice.
 
I agree with others who have said that you generally won't regret getting a slightly nicer E kit than you are ready for. You will be interfacing with everything through a screen so in time you will learn all that is in there. You will make discoveries and have ideas along the way which may require features you thought would be superflous.
The notion of getting a spartan setup is more for the drummer who really is on a budget. I have a Roland TD-11, a tiny little "practice Roland" that fits in a corner. But when I record with it, I can make it sound like a much bigger kit.

The argument that you should do everything in your power to get an acoustic kit instead of an electronic kit is kind of complex.
yammyfan said:
I think that the great and consistent sound of electronic kits is wasted on beginners because deprives them of the opportunity to develop feel and touch insofar as striking the drums is concerned.

You just have to lay the notes down in the proper order to sound good on an e-kit. Not so on an acoustic kit, by a long shot.
Click to expand...
It is absolutely true that most of the work you'll do to sound good on an E kit won't directly translate to anything like that sound on an acoustic kit. This has more to do with the nature of muscle memory, than the "quality/rigor" of the skill it takes to play an E kit well. But still this can be anathema to many people, once you do the calculation that you might only have enough time in your life to get good at one or the other.
It may be true that a beginner should play acoustic drums first. But I don't know, I got my first V kit just 2.5 years ago and It's been mostly a seperate learning curve. V Drums will reward you for having very good touch. But my touch on the acoustic kit was refined by hitting bronze and skins, not mesh and rubber.

I've heard acoustic drummers say getting used to a V Kit feels "suffocating" for awhile. Like your percussionist soul is aware that your stick strokes aren't actually generating any acoustic sounds. It's all coming through a wire. You are relying on the speaker interfacing with your brain to give you the feeling like you are playing drums. In fact the trippiest thing is that the mesh heads actually "feel" different whenever you switch from one type of snare or tom to another.

But the notion that E drums are not nuanced musical instruments is kind of a paradox. We are in apples to oranges territory here.
It's true that the noises made by nice V Drums sound very cleaned up and polished. The argument that this means the V-Drums are doing most of the work for you is sort of misleading. To a beginner or intermediate listener, "just lining up the notes" on a V kit sounds WAY better than doing the same on an acoustic kit.
But if you really explore the expressivity of even a 15 year old set of VDrums, you'll find that even a stock Roland will intercept all of your virtuosity and keep you challenged for years. Especially once you start seriously recording with them.

Quality V Drums IMO, are every bit as unforgiving and rewarding in their own way. They aren't "toys"...just instruments for a modern paradigm.
ensa000 said:
The other downside I can see is making it more complicated to record, which is part of why I want to get into playing drums.
Click to expand...
Should you decide to go the V drum route, recording with these things can be so much fun. Easy too. My little TD-11 has a one-touch record button with enough onboard memory that I use it to track entire songs. Everything can be plugged in. Smartphone, laptop, headphones, monitor.
And bro, once you hear an mp3 playback of you jamming to a drums-removed YT song, you'll smile. You won't even believe such a clean sounding mix could be made without a dozen mics and a huge acoustic drumset. This is where that "extra clean" prossesed drum sound pays for itself. That candy coated drum and cymbal noise that blends gorgeously with prerecorded songs.
 
Oh and one of my favorite features: The onboard metronome that plays audibly while you are recording, but then isn't present in the final playback. Nice!
The metro is friendly too, with choice of sharp or subtle sounds.
 
For my acoustic switch it was more difficult.
Increased articulation was needed just for the larger size drums, plus the raised lip of the hoop to get over slowed everything down. This was balanced by an easier rebound feel to control, especially on the cymbals.
Getting equivalent sound quality that I was used to from ekits in such an easy manner is an ongoing issue though. Endless research, disappointing purchases etc. It is just so easy just tweak an edit with a different kit, drum, drum size, drum tuning etc -likewise with cymbals.
That said, I do prefer the ergonomics of the acoustic, but having to wear headphones to reduce the natural kit volume does seem to defeat the object of acoustic kits- with ekits whilst playing along the volume can be set to compliment the music level being listened to which is my sole purpose as a hobby kit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top