A bit of initial research has led me to realize I’m dogpaddling in a sea of unknowns with regard to electronic drums.
Having played drums for twenty-five years, for a variety of reasons I stopped playing about twenty years ago. The interest has rekindled of late, but present circumstances cause me to be considering electronic drums. I actually still have a couple of sets of acoustic drums squirrelled away, but that’s not a solution that will work for now.
Some poking around has turned up Hart, Roland, Yamaha and Simmons most often. Hart’s offerings have made the most favorable impression so far, but I don’t really know much about any of them. Searches are not turning up much that’s not from sellers.
All I really need is a snare, bass, one tom, a hi-hat, a ride and a crash. And whatever e-brain is required for a headphones only drumming experience.
I got an electronic kit because I had to go silent when my twin daughters came along. I couldn’t play soft enough on the acoustic kit. Screaming and crying wasn’t exactly the reaction I was going for .
I went with a basic mesh snare and rubber everything else Roland kit and bought an extra cymbal pad so the kit would mimic my acoustic kit. That was almost 7 years ago and there are more offerings out there. The kit in the link isn’t the one I have, but it’s basically an updated version at the same price point. The mesh pads are really nice, but the more you get, the more expensive the kit is (of course).
You probably want to look at what features the brain has - how many sounds, sequencing, pre-recorded grooves you can play along to, etc. The only way to see if you like the sounds is to go to a music store and check them out. The only thing I don’t like about the Rolands is sometimes the cymbal pads don’t fire. It’s alot of fun mixing the drums and favorite songs I like to play to.
Drummer in my band uses a Roland kit, TD9-SX one of the more expensive ones. I was chomping at the bit for him to get the Alesis, which was new and very reasonably priced, but he held tough for the dual trigger pads of the Roland. (mesh head is one trigger, rubber rim is another)
The amount of texture he adds now is unbelievable. He started with a basic kit, snare, kick, 3 toms, hi hat, ride, crash, and has since maxed out the brain with another cymbal and a 4th tom. The kit functions perfectly with traditional drum kit sounds, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference, but now the band gets hand claps, tympani, congas, whistles! I can’t see him going back to an acoustic kit. His kit is balanced, versatile, and quiet!
Roland obviously has a history with e-drums, they’ve been doing it for a long enough time. He likes the feel of the mesh heads, says they feel like regular heads. It’s held up well moving it from rehearsal to gigs about once a month.
Yamaha’s probably second to Roland in terms of having electronic kits out on the market for the longest time. ddrums is another brand that was at the high end for a long time and now they make acoustic drums and triggers. The Simmons drums for sale now have no relationship to the Simmons drums of the '80s (I still have an SDS8 kit in my basement yes I’m a geezer). Alesis has some kits out. They’re a good company that reliably comes up with ‘better than the price would suggest’ gear so those might be worth checking out.
Forgive my ignorance here, but what exactly is the “brain”? Does it have full synth capabilities? Does it just combine the signals of the various drums? Suppose I get a Roland kit but I prefer the sounds on my Boss Dr. Rhythm. Could I MIDI out to it? How much of the “brain” would I need for that setup?
The sounds are all in the brain (or module), the pads are just triggers. One difference between models is the number of extra trigger inputs. As far as I know, all modules are midi-capable so yes, you can use the sounds on your Boss.
I have a Yamaha DT Express 4, which I bought used for 700$ about 6 months ago. This was my first electric kit, so I’m not the best authority on electric drums, but I like it. It has a big variety of sounds/kits to choose from, sounds and feels much better than I expected from an electric kit, and is a lot of fun to mess around on.
I bought it because I will be moving to an area where playing acoustic drums wouldn’t work out so well and for that purpose, it seems great – I usually just plug in some high quality headphones and go at it. Not sure what your main concerns are, but I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have on my experience with this kit.
I think Alesis makes a great kit for the $$, they have one of the most the most popular ‘brains’ out there with the DM4 and DM5. They include that module with many of thier kits. good sounds, and yes, most brains have midi in/out capability, so you can use the sounds from an alternate souce, or even you computer.
It’s also possible to add mesh heads and triggers (very cheap actually) to a real drum kit. It will be completly silent, but the triggers can be fidgity, and you’ll still need a brain like the aforementioned DM4/DM5.
How do you know when a drummer is outside your door?
Folks, if you want to make jokes about drummers, pls. start a different thread for that – the drummers have heard them already, and the non-drummers aren’t reading this thread.
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