Will a KD-120 kick pad fit with my Roland rack?

MrWriter

Active Member
Will a KD-120 kick pad fit with my Roland rack?

I have a Roland TD-15 KV that has the MDS-9V drum stand that came with it. I currently have the KD-10 kick pad, which is nice, but it does have a tendency to rock sideways a little and it makes too much noise and just does not ‘feel’ right. I figured a used KD-120 would ‘feel’ better and would be a big improvement not only in feel, playability, but also it would probably be quieter too - am I correct with these assumptions?

My questions is this. My KD-10 is offset to the right (moved further right, touching the edge of the rack vertical stand). If I buy a used KD-120 I won’t be able to have it over to the right due to it’s size, so it would be in the dead centre, which means my kick pedal moves exactly 14 cm to the left, making things rather difficult due to how my rack-mounted snare (PD-128 BC) is positioned and there is little scope to move this too much further to the left.

I don’t think I can upgrade the rack to a higher end one that has a wider space as my loom wires might not reach my two floor toms.

Is there a workaround, anybody else has this issue and, if so, how did you manage to get a KD-120 further to the right?
 
I have the TD-11 KV with the compact rack. I needed to upgrade my KD-9 to something I could comfortably record double-kick bass upon. I was going to get a KD-120 until I discovered the KD-85.

The 120 probably fits okay under these racks, but if you have a very small window of tolerance, the KD-85 has the upgrade advantage of the white mesh head (and foam) and is a considerably neater fit.
 
Yeah, I just danced 12-inch instead of 8 for the kick as I suspect the extra mesh surface area will give a more authentic feel that is close to an acoustic. Could be wrong on this and without trying both side-by-side I would not really be able to tell. I know my 8 inch toms fee hard compared to my 10 inch toms, even when tightened to the same degree using a digital tool to check the tension. So given the 8 feels too hard for me I suspect it would be the same with the kick.
 
Yeah, I just danced 12-inch instead of 8 for the kick as I suspect the extra mesh surface area will give a more authentic feel that is close to an acoustic. Could be wrong on this and without trying both side-by-side I would not really be able to tell. I know my 8 inch toms fee hard compared to my 10 inch toms, even when tightened to the same degree using a digital tool to check the tension. So given the 8 feels too hard for me I suspect it would be the same with the kick.
Can confirm that the KD85 will absolutely suit your needs and doesn't take up much more room then the KD10 so rack sapce shouldn't be an issue.

The only caveat I will say is that I found the KD85 still had a bit of "wiggle" to it (particularly when playing heel toe double bass) so I felt the need to weigh it down with a sandbag as I can't stand any movement at all from my bass drum pad.

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The KD120 is obviously larger (so you maight encounter space issues but I'm pretty sure it will be the most stable (apart from the KD140 of course- that thing is HEAVY)!
 
Now if you were considering upgrading your rack the cable length issue is solved with this :

That way you can make all your cables custom length. If you want to be fancy, make a project box. kind of like a patch panel of sorts so that all your snake cables connect to it and at the other end of the box you have single outputs for all the pads. (One of the projects I have been putting off for lack of time but I will post a step by step with pictures once I have some time). that should take you minutes to make if you have a small box and use some connectors.
 
So I just took delivery of the KD-120 and it fits exactly where my KD9 was. My Yamaha pedal is exactly on the same footprint (mark on carpet) that it was before so Frame not an issue in the end.
 
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