E drums (again)

aaronmcoleman

aaronmcoleman

The truth is out there!
Hey,

I live in an apartment so real drums aren't an option right now. I've been using ezdrummer and it sounds pretty cool.

I want to playm my own tracks so I'm looking at some e drums. What do you guys like? I don't want to spend too much so I wanted to hear what you think.

What do you think about alesis dm6? Since I'm using ezdrummer I don't need all the sounds in the kit, just some cheap triggers. And since I'm not a drummer I don't need anything too fancy.

Thanks.
 
There is no "best" - but rather what is right for you. In your case (an apartment) I would strongly suggest that whatever electronic "kit" you choose - spend the money to get mesh. Mesh pad are much quiter than the less expensive "rubber" pads.

You would be suprised how loud and how much of the impact energy can be heard/felt with the bubber pads - or even the drum "heads" used on the upper line Yamaha kits.
 
Xdrummer said:
I would strongly suggest that whatever electronic "kit" you choose - spend the money to get mesh. Mesh pad are much quiter than the less expensive "rubber" pads.

You would be suprised how loud and how much of the impact energy can be heard/felt with the rubber pads - or even the drum "heads" used on the upper line Yamaha kits.
Click to expand...
This is so true. I used to have the Roland TD6 but I modified it over a period of time {like it had a TD10 brain} with a mesh snare among other things. Obviously it wasn't as loud as acoustic drums ~ but it was still noticeable, especially when all was quiet. Pok pok pok pok puppuk. It was a sound that I could see driving the easilly irritated nuts.
 
The first time we ever recorded using e-drums - we also used 2 overhead to record real acoustic cymbals. We were tracking relatively live (drums, bass, guitar & keys) with the intent to overdub solos, vocals, etc.

I was sitting in the control room after tracking the first song and I thought I heard some type of "clicking" attack sound (at first I was the only person to hear it) - it was driving me nuts, since it seemed to be rhythmic, but not a sound that I thought we were tracking.

I started to bring down faders, one by one - and finally discovered that the overheads were picking up the attack of the sticks on the rubber drum pads. That was one of those "aha moments" that stay with you:eek:

We tried to get creative with noise gates - but to keep the gate open long enough to allow the cymbals to decay, we still tracked some of the clicks.

When I bought my own e-drums - I bought the mesh heads and the first thing I did was tracking to mack sure overheads did not pick-up the attack (it was still faintly there - but not nearly as dominant as the rubber pads).
 
Last summer I started experimenting with an electric kick. I bought a cheap set up {a Session pro running through a DD502 module} and it works great. Every other part of the drumkit is acoustic and with everything playing, you never hear the sound of the kick pedal hitting the rubber pad. But if you isolate the overheads, very faintly you can hear it. Fortunately it's not intrusive. Came in very handy when in a freak accident tracks from various projects disappeared or spilled into others and the kick part of one song in particular had to be retracked.
 
I would recommend you go to a Guitar Center or other music retailer if possible and play some of the kits. I was hoping when I first started looking at electronic kits a year ago that prices had fallen and the non-mesh sets played pretty well (the last time I'd played an electronic kit was 10 years ago). It turns out (not surprisingly I suppose), that the non-mesh kits really didn't feel at all like a real set. The Alesis kit I played which bosted "real plastic drumheads!" actually felt worse than any of the rubber pad-based kits (absolutely dead - no stick bounce whatsoever, and the heads were stretched tight). I ended up purchasing the following Roland kit, as it was the cheapest set that felt in some way like a real kit:

Roland V-Drums V-Tour TD-9K2 | Sweetwater.com

It's not cheap, but I also knew if I spent 500 bucks on something that didn't feel right, I'd never play it. The module also has some decent sounds in it, giving you the ability to build some decent sounding drum kits. I'm using it to record an album of rock / folk material in an apartment, and couldn't be happier.
 
Xdrummer said:
There is no "best" - but rather what is right for you. In your case (an apartment) I would strongly suggest that whatever electronic "kit" you choose - spend the money to get mesh. Mesh pad are much quiter than the less expensive "rubber" pads.

You would be suprised how loud and how much of the impact energy can be heard/felt with the bubber pads - or even the drum "heads" used on the upper line Yamaha kits.
Click to expand...

My kit has a mesh head snare, and rubber toms. I can't agree with the loudness thing, they are both equally as loud acoustically.

I will say playing on mesh heads feels nicer though (like a lot nicer).

Also: If you live upstairs keep in mind, even though it's an electric kit the kick pedal still thumps the floor like a bastard.
 
cool thanks for the tips. i'm not a drummer...i can barely keep any beat (yet). i do think i want at least a mesh snare, and probably rubber toms to keep the cost down.

Thanks, I'll go and check some out.
 
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