Drumkit: electronic ?

curfumsarinn

Hi Folks, new poster so be gentle. I've always wanted to play the drums, but cant get a proper kit due to restrictions on space, and restrictions on noise (young son). Someone suggested going electronic, but I wasa bit dubious so am trying to find out more.

Are electronic kits a substitute ? Are they ok ? Do they give an authentic experience ? An authentic sound ?

Thanks

artvandulet

The more money you spend on one, the more authentic they become as the pads can have heads that give a more realistic feel and recoil when you hit them with a stick. The sounds can be good.
The main thing I'd say from when I had one (a Roland TD5 a few years back) is that they are still relatively noisy. Something I hadnt considered! You are at the end of the day, whacking rubber with sticks and a kick pedal. It makes noise. Maybe the mesh heads are quieter.
I had the kit upstairs and the missus could here the racket downstairs watching tv.

kranog

Hey mate...
A quick answer to all your questions is "No".
However, they are handy in your situation.
I have a roland TD6 in my house (it's still loud to play though...the girlfriend is always giving out that the vibrations on the roof are very loud downstairs)
It's great to have an electric kit especially when recording some demo's or just practicing your technique but alas...they don't feel the same as an acoustic setup - they don't respond the same and they certainly don't sound the same!
But none of this means that they are bad....I think a decent elctronic kit would suit you just right and maybe after some time you can think about getting an acoustic kit and maybe renting a studio to make some noise in - or just convert yer back shed!

Einstein

To be fair ye'd want to have walls of paper or be using tree trunks as sticks for electric kit to be heard downstairs...

Theres pro's and cons to electric kits..

Unless it's the mesh pads, constant playing can cause pain in the wrists. The electric kit is far more forgiving than a real kit when it comes to rudiments etc...it's far easier to make a drumroll sound good on an electronic one as there's much more of a bounce!

Good thing about em is that they're great for practicing, and learning to play. Essentially noiseless, selection of different sounds, options to plug in iPods etc and play along / record...built in metronomes in the brains...all while playing through headphones!

I wouldn't consider them to be a substitute, but they're great for practice if space / sound is an issue!

fuzztone

I'm in a similar situation so for me its an e-kit or nothing. I bought a Roland TD-6 kit a few years ago and it was fun for a while but I grew tired of the small rubber pads and the lackluster on boards sounds so I sold it.

I recently however got the urge to play drums again though so I put this kit together:



Its a 12" Roland snare and floor tom, 2 x 10" Roland toms, KD-8 bass drum, TD-3 rack, TD-3 brain, and some various e-cymbals I got off Ebay. Its connected via midi to my computer to trigger Toontracks Superior 2.0 drum software. Its very quiet, sounds amazing and feels close enough to an acoustic kit to satisfy me. Whole thing cost less than 700 euro as some of the parts were pretty beat up but a bit of elbow grease and some shell wrap and they were good as new

artvandulet

^Looks great!

To be fair ye'd want to have walls of paper or be using tree trunks as sticks for electric kit to be heard downstairs...

7A's and a house with decent walls! Its the vibration created by the kick primarily. As I said, I'd expect mesh heads to be much quieter over all.

Passenger

Aye, The Roland TD series seems to be the most popular but the sounds available from the brain module with the TD-3 are actually very good for a practice environment. It might be different story depending on the amplification you are using and the acoustics in the room you are in. The setup fuzztone has shown in his pics above would be a neat little kit especially with Toontracks.

What kind of amp are you using there btw fuzztone?

fuzztone

Passenger wrote: »

Aye, The Roland TD series seems to be the most popular but the sounds available from the brain module with the TD-3 are actually very good for a practice environment. It might be different story depending on the amplification you are using and the acoustics in the room you are in. The setup fuzztone has shown in his pics above would be a neat little kit especially with Toontracks.

What kind of amp are you using there btw fuzztone?

Its a DB Opera m12-4 plus. Sounds great with the drums or with my guitar through an amp modeler.


Edit: Here's a video of a guy using a very similar setup to me, a TD-3 brain going into Superior. There are no drums in the backing track, everything you hear is coming from the kit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiqgMN--hMg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skevelcHaM0