Electronic Drums

!_Brian_!

Howaya's


Decided I'm going to buy myself some electronic drums to be used in my flat in an apartment building.

Havnt a clue about them but have narrowed it down to these two

http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/roland-td-6kw/11990

http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/71451



Can some tell me the major difference between the two? Are the drums themselves on the TD-6KX louder acousticaly, ie when not amped up or something? Or is it a more natural feel type thing? Would this be a pro or a con giving the apartment building setting?

Also, is it easy or even possible to add another cymbal pad to these units? Ideal set up would be two crashes, a splash and ride set up.


Any help welcome!

Rustar

Looks like the difference between the two is that the TD6KX (the more expensive one) has fancier and probably better-rebounding pads for the snare and toms.

The regular pads work quite well, but the fancy ones look like they'd give a more natural feel (closer to acoustic heads). The only way to find out for sure is to try them in a store.

Neither one of the sets is made to be played acoustically - they'll both require an amplifier (or at least a set of headphones).

As far as the ability to add pads, you'd have to go to the Roland site and look at the sound module (TD-6V), which is used on both kits.
My Yamaha kit came with all the standard pads, and an extra input if I wanted to add a pad later.

I don't think it's necessary to add any pads though, with 3 toms and 2 cymbals...especially since any pad is programmable to any drum sound. Yes, you can play kick drum on your cymbal!




Edit: Whoop! Just noticed that the cheaper set has a dual-kick pedal. Something to consider, if you're going to become a hard rock/metal drummer. Necessary? No.

Patricide

Id get the more expensive one if i were you, the mesh heads really do make a lot of difference to the feel. Like me personally i can live with just the mesh head on the snare but some people out there cant stand the feel of the plastic pads. Try before you buy maybe?

i used to work in waltons and played the v-drums all the time. think they are made by yamaha but they were brill.

Libertine2002

If you're planning on using the kit for more that an hour at a time definitely get the mesh pads. Your hands will blister like you wouldn't beleive with the rubber pads. You won't fully appreciate just how agonising those rubber pads actually are til you play them for a couple hours.

Also, the kits don't come with bass drum pedals or stools. The ones in the photos are for "illustrative purposes only". Both are compatible with double bass pedals though.

The TD6KX has a couple of not so obvious advantages also. The ride cymbal is more advanced than the TD6KW and sounds far more natural. Also the brain (or module) has a few upgrades. The drum rack on the KX kit is a more expensive hard wearing one also.The KX's snare drum is much better as it allows for rimshots and is just more accurate and responsive in general.

You can easily add more pads and cymbals to the kit and if you have a laptop and ableton live you can trigger to milions of sounds not available on the brain.

As far as I know Roland have dropped the price of the TD6KX to something close to the KW model so If I were you I'd get the meatier KX kit. I have a deposit on one at the moment!

You can also pick up good monitors for around 150 bucks but if its just for practice a good set of headphones will do the trick.

sham69

That website is pretty cool.
Anyone buy stuff from these guys, how much is shipping to dublin?
Have my eye on the Washburn N2....

Dord

I tried to buy a drum machine from them the other day and they rejected the sale "because Dublin doesn't have a U.K. post code". They wanted me to ring them....FFS! :mad:

!_Brian_!

Cheers for the feedback folks. After a bit more research and the comments here I'll be ordering the TD-6KX hopefully next week. woot!

!_Brian_!

Update:



I ordered TD6-KX off GAK on the 15th of January or there abouts. Went a little over board tho, Bought the kit, an extra cymbal pad, double kick pedals, a stool and headphones all to the tune of 2026 euro! Opps! :eek: Your man on the phone told me he reckoned he could have it to me by the first week of Febuary and low and behold it arrived on the 1st of Febuary! I was well impressed, espically so as my olny other foray into buying instruments online was a 1600 euor guitar I bought last year and was quoted delivery time of 4 to 6 weeks. The thing didnt arrive for four fcuking months!!!



Anyway, this is some yolk tho! The feel off the all mesh heads is very authentic, they respond just like normal drums. Theres a lot of different kit sounds, some you'd use, others I'd never use anyway. Just selections of bizzarly random sounds. To be honest I only use the first kit. I twiddled with it a lil but aside from that its pretty much factory default settings. The sound is UNBELIEVEABLE! Whack on a pair of headphones and your playing one of the sexiest sounding kits you've ever heard!

Excellent buy! I'm chuffed to bits with it!

Rustar

Awesome, dude!

Somewhere in the patches there should be a "Bonham kit". Try searching that one out.

eoin5

Well done on your new kit. I live in a rented house with 3 other people and I've not had any real problems with my roland kit. I will say though to be mindful that you are still hitting something with sticks as I find you can loose yourself playing drums easily so dont forget keep an eye on the clock in the evenings...

!_Brian_!

thats a fact! The snare and toms are fine but it can get a bit nosiy when milling away on the double bass!