looking to buy an electronic drum kit, which one?

[Irish614]

Originally Posted by thetrooper37

Honestly, unless you play only blastbeats, I wouldn't limit myself to an electronic kit, especially considering you only have 1200 to spend.

I agree but if you think about it like he said he wouldn't have to spend $$$ on mics to record the thing, wouldn't have to purchase new heads for a better sound he wouldn't have to buy a ton of audio equipment just to record the drums. Not to mention new cymbals and hardware for the cymbals. Starts getting really expensive.

[eyefi]

i'm still looking at all this and still very unsure what to do yet but i can make a kit that responds like a top end roland by converting some cheap toms with homemade internal triggers and mesh heads. this will make all my toms snare and bass drum and give me as much as possible a natural feeling kit, mount this on a frame with some trigger converted dampened real cymbals and hat and it should look quite nice as well. quite a lot of work but a way to get all i want for the price i want.

[brandondrury]

I wouldn't limit myself to an electronic kit, especially considering you only have 1200 to spend.

I'm interested in this "limit". What limit?

Brandon

[thesilentdrummer]

When I started learning how to play, i had a yamaha set like this Simmons thing. It was cheap, sounded pretty good, was small and compact (I still bring it on road trips), had MIDI in/out, and was easy to transition into a real kit. If you are just tapping out beats and not doing anything complicated, then this is great. You can use it to trigger something DAW side like DFH Superior 2 (which looks incredible, coming out soon). I would recommend this, especially for a beginner and if you aren't doing technically complicated drumming. The Lower end "full size" electric kit has similar pads for several hundred dollars more, but the better quality pads are gonna cost in the multiple thousands of dollars (1000+ pounds).

[zipdaman12]

Just my 2 cents:
I have played acoustic all of my life 20 so odd years.... I had to convert to electric when I got married and started a family. I tried the sound off method on my acoustic set for a while but there is little to know response from them. The kit looked nice, but sounded and felt terrible.

I had been eying a v-drum kit forever. They finally got smart and made a kit around $2,000.00 that had all mesh heads vcymbals and a decent brain. I love it. The kit really comes alive when you purchase some of the after market kits made by V expressions.

Jack

[eyefi]

just a quick update on this. i built my own kit in the end. it's a mapex acoustic kit on which i built all the triggers under the skins. this kit is awesome, the triggering is fantastic. still a few settings to tweek and bits to finish off, but i am more than happy with this option. it's a joy to play and not a rubber pad in sight, and real (electronic) cymbals. i'll post a full write-up when get some spare time that i don't want to spend bashing these babies final cost around £400 ($800) including a brand new acoustic kit.

wohoo!

[brandondrury]

So what's the deal with everyone wanting real cymbals but being content with samples drums? I'm just curious because I'm about to go this route and I've heard multiple drummers complain about edrum cymbals.

Brandon

[eyefi]

i'm not sure if you misunderstood my post but i meant that i had converted some real cymbals to electronic triggers. i don't want acoustic cymbals, just the look.

are the complainers complaining about the trigger or the resulting sound? i think a lot of the time drummers are comparing ekits as a simulation to acoustic kits which they are not and probably never will be. a cymbal is a very dynamic and expressive instrument which is generally just a hit in the leccy kits, i think thats the general gripe.

the cymbals in the software drum brains sound great to me (i personally don't like the sounds in the roland modules), the expressiveness of the (electronic) hi-hats blows me away each time i use it but they are not the same as a set of real hats

[thesilentdrummer]

My guess as a drummer would be the feel of a cymbal. The really good electric ones have 3 sounds (pretty badass IMO): the "crash" sound (hitting the side of a cymbal), the "ride" sound (hitting the cymbal with the stick tip), and the bell. Most ekits don't have this 3 sound cymbal. Even so you can't do "weird" stuff with the ecymbals. For example, with the metal loop on the opposite end of my brushes, I can make a really cool "zing" sound effect by sliding it across the cymbal.

The pads don't have the same bounce, the same movement on the stand (especially the hats), or the same range of sounds.

[brandondrury]

i'm not sure if you misunderstood my post but i meant that i had converted some real cymbals to electronic triggers. i don't want acoustic cymbals, just the look.

Just the look? Oh. I see.

are the complainers complaining about the trigger or the resulting sound?

I'm not sure. I've not been in situations where I can find out. That's what I was asking here.

The really good electric ones have 3 sounds (pretty badass IMO): the "crash" sound (hitting the side of a cymbal), the "ride" sound (hitting the cymbal with the stick tip), and the bell. Most ekits don't have this 3 sound cymbal.

Oh. Well that doesn't bother me at all. In my experience, this is what drummers do when they should be practicing to a click, learning to groove, or writing songs.

For example, with the metal loop on the opposite end of my brushes, I can make a really cool "zing" sound effect by sliding it across the cymbal.

Yeah, I have my share of stupid guitar tricks, too. I have a feeling that neither my guitar tricks nor your zing thingy are worth sacrificing the sound of producing projects that need to sound as close to the big boys as possible on 1/1,000,000 the budget.

I do know quite a few bands who require their zing thingies and in most cases this is a self serving situation designed to entertain the musician more than entertaining the consumer.

This does bring up an interesting point. Do you immediately "blow your cover" to would-be buyers by recording real drums in less than ideal conditions? The second the first snare is hit they know that this is a less-than-pro recording. Or do you "maintain your secret identity" and possibly miss out on subtle extras in the music?

Personally, I take the approach that subtle extras are not what make the recordings. This is why they are called "subtle extras". I think under limited conditions where compromise is required (no label budget, no luxury of working 3 straight months on the album full time with no other work as a distraction) you have to sacrifice something. I'll give up my guitar tricks and your zing.

Brandon