Beginner E-Drum Advice

crosstownk

Hi All,

I'm hoping some of you drummers can offer some advice here.

I've decided I'm gonna have a stab at playing drums. I'm a keyboard player in a band, so I've no desire to end up as a gigging drummer - I just wanna give it a go for personal satisfaction, if you know what I mean. So all I really need is a basic E-kit just to mess around with at home. The absolute max I'm gonna spend is €600. So I was looking at these kits:

1. http://www.thomann.de/ie/millenium_mps100_edrum_starter_set.htm

2. http://www.thomann.de/ie/millenium_mps_200_e_drum_komplett_set.htm

3. http://www.thomann.de/ie/milleniumalesis_mps300dm5_edrumset.htm

What I need to know is what's the main difference between these kits and what implications these differences will have to me - a pure novice at drums.

Now I know these kits aren't top of the range or anything and certain things may not be possible such as rim shots, multiple cymbal zones, etc. These kits have different surfaces - will this affect the 'noise' level while playing. I'm in a semi-d house so I need it to be kinda quiet. I asked the drum dept at Thomann what the differences were but the response (below) doesn't mean a whole lot to me! Maybe some of you more experienced drummers could enlighten me!

Response from Thomann:

Hello ,
Mps-100 come with Plastik pads mono Triggering and real heads on it dampet ,
MPS-200 Come with Rubber Pads mono Triggering ,
MPS-300 Pad come with metal Pads and Rims and real Heads damped mono Triggering

The Soundmodul of MPS-100 / 200 are the same ,
for MPS-300 Pad Set we offer Sets with diffrent Soundmodul


Sorry for the slightly long post. Any comments/advice greatly appreciated.

Paladin

I have a cheap electronic kit. If you are a beginner, then get the cheapest kit. Electronic kits dont get really good unless you spend over a grand imo. As a beginner you will appreciate a good kit to an extent, but as far as getting started and getting a bit of rythym and coordination the cheapest kit will do fine. And if you do get to a level where it is not good enough then it will have been worth the money.

Just so you know the important things with electronic drums, there are really just 2.

1)Feel
2)Module for sound and hit detection.

Fancy drum pads feel better and send a different signal to the module depending on how/where they are hit.
A fancy module can detect faster hit rates and output better sounds. Simple really.
Expect a poor module/pad combination to fail to detect fast hit rates. You can live with that as a beginner I think.

bombidol

I have one of those cheapo kits and its good for practicing etc on. Noise levels are pretty low too. little bit of a thump but not much else.

crosstownk

So basically it looks like the cheapest kit as even the most expensive in my list above is still lacking should I decide to take things further. I've done a bit of reasearch and, tbh, this seems like the best policy.

Thanks for the advice.

bombidol

Depend on what you want to do, I like the cheap one cause im not a drummer but i like to bang around a bit, but if i was interested in taking up the drums i deffo get a good set.

crosstownk

bombidol wrote:

im not a drummer but i like to bang around a bit

That descibes me perfectly. Cheapo set for me. I've just spent an hour on Skype to the drummer in the band and he is of the same opinion.