I wonder if this would work....

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Tekker

Tekker

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Instead of buying a $4,000 electic V-drums kit (the ones with the realistic looking drums instead of those small black pads)....would it be possible to buy those messed practice pads (that don't make any noise) and use drum triggers with those to turn it into an electronic set? What type of triggers would be good and are they touch sensitive (get louder when I play harder and quieter when I play softer)?

-tkr
 
$4000 will buy you a KILLER set of real drums that sound downright great. Good cymbals, too. Huge difference in recording quality.
 
Yeah I know, I already have a set of real drums. I was thinking of this more for my youth group. Because the warehouse we are in has extremely reflective walls and the drums sound absolutely horrible in there and I figured that this would be alot cheaper that trying to soundproof the whole room.

-tkr
 
In theory, yes you could trigger a module from a mesh head (I'm thinking of the Pearl Rythem Traveler kit which can be used with mesh or real heads. Technically you can trigger from anything that can convert a vibration into a signal.

How well it would trigger (dynamics, etc.) depends on the type of trigger and more importantly the sound module. I've always had good luck with Hart triggers - but many consider the Ddrum triggers to be the best.
 
I've never priced Ddrum triggers - I'm sure they are much more expensive than the Harts. I know there are a couple of people on this site who have used these triggers - maybe a search will give you the info you need.

Whatever you choose to buy, make sure it is compatible with the module you choose. Case in point the Ddrum triggers are designed for Ddrums - how well they will work with say an Alesis module is something I can't tell you.

Also keep in mind the level of dynamics is significantly affected by the velocity curve and other parameters which are programed within the sound module.
 
Tekker, I explored and costed every concievable alternative before selling my acoustics. And yeah, I considered building my own racks of mounted/triggerd practice pads once I was sold on the digital capability of drum modules.

In short I concluded: Ya can't get "dual zone" practice pads, so that's out.
Ya can't economicaly grab an "economy" set of pads and have enough left over to grab what I considered my bottom line module- a TD-8.
Ya can't load your acoustics with worth-while triggers (there's a lot of junk out there!) and have enough for a module. Plus, what do you do about cymbals? I considered triggered drums and micing my brass, but that kinda defeats the "clean recording" scenario.
I dunno. I parked my drums at a consignment store and low and behold, Zzounds throws Roland V-Studio Kits (must have been displays, not demos) on the web for $1399! I grabbed a set that day. My acoustics sold that weekend. :( No turning back.

Anyway, the only thing that looked unpacked was the rack itself. All the pads were in new plastic, never opend as was the TD-8 brain.
Quick study showed that this brain is comprehensive as hell and tunable beyond my wildest dreams.
If the V-Kit wasn't available I would grab a Pintech Concert Cast kit and the Roland module. Maybe that's your ticket.

BTW- I thought the rubber pads would be a major nightmare to get used to, but I'm acclomating to them quite quickly. I said in another post that a lighter touch on the sticks is the only real technique curve.

Good luck.
Rick
 
getuhgrip,

What are "dual zone" practice pads?

The cymbals would probably be those black rubber pads....or I could just put a trigger on a real cymbal and cover it with duck tape so the cymbal its self doesn't make any sound. :D

Do you know how much semi decent triggers and pads for the cymbals would be and how much was your TD-8?

This is just for my youth group so we don't really need totally high quality sound and we have lived with a less than decent drumset for a lot longer than I have been going there. So anything we could rig up here would still be alot better than what we've been using....especially since we just moved into the warehouse. ;)

I know I couldn't adjust to those small rubber pads as they have had those set up at Guitar Center and I have played on those a LOT and I don't like em....way to small. The V-Drums totally rock, but on the V-Drum set they have set up now the toms are still to small (but they're still bigger than the those rubber pads, so I know I could never get used to those).

Thanx for the reply.

-tkr
 
Not dual zone "practice pad", dual zone drum pad. Yeah, those small rubber doohickies. Dual zone means a programable drum sound in the center, and a secondary sound at the rim i.e., snare sound center, rim shot at the edge. Bell at the center, crash at the rim. You can asign any sound to the zones.

I'm not really up on what's available to trigger conventional cymbals. Sorry.

The TD-8 was packaged with the kit. I haven't seen it by itself for less than $800

Larger PD9 pads are available and are usable where in the line-up.

Church youth group? Cool. :cool:
 
In short I concluded: Ya can't get "dual zone" practice pads, so that's out.
Click to expand...
So then you're saying that you can't buy those dual zone rubber pads? Why on earth wouldn't they sell those??? What if you wanted to add a double floor tom or cymbal or something? How would you do it? I can't believe that they don't sell those. :(

I'm not really up on what's available to trigger conventional cymbals. Sorry.
Click to expand...
That was more of a joke actually, I was just planning on using the rubber pads.

The TD-8 was packaged with the kit. I haven't seen it by itself for less than $800
Click to expand...
$800 for a bottom of the line module??? Hmmm.....maybe it would be less expensive to soundproof the whole warehouse.....and buy a better drumset also. :D
I can't just run the triggers into my Behringer mixer??? :D :D

Church youth group?
Click to expand...
Yup.

-tkr
 
Tekker said:
Cool, do you know how much the Ddrum triggers are?

-tkr
Click to expand...

I have a the ddrum4 kit... that kit (5 drum pads, hats, 2 cym pads) was $2500

by the way... and I just have to get this dig in... ddrum4 KILLS roland v-toys

I had a v-pro kit for 2 years and finally came to my senses and sold that POS to get the d's

:)
 
You'll have to excuse my inability to communicate well last night as I was celebrating a bit. :D

The "dual zone practice pad" thing was rhetorical in that as far as I know, there's no such thing. The V-Drum pads of course are dual zone.

The TD-8 is by no stretch the bottom of Roland's line. There is a unit above it on the food chain, the TD-10 at around $1400.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...6110689867/search/g=perc/detail/base_id/36364
I believe there is a TD-5,6, and 7.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...6110689867/search/g=perc/detail/base_id/40975

http://www.interstatemusic.com/weba...lay?prmenbr=1&prrfnbr=190337&topcat=&prevcat=

Line all the kids up in a row. Give each one a trigger, and arrange a code so that each "trigger kid" knows when to trip his trigger!
:D

Anyway, I don't know what your goals are, but the answer to your origional question is: yes, you can trigger virtualy any surface that you can physically mount a trigger to. I have seen some kits that folks have built around practice pads (conventional and mesh). Ddrums and Pintech offer some decent trigger packages. Roland, Yamaha and Alesis all market drum modules.
The quality of your pad is only going to be significant in terms of "feel".
They will have minimal effect on the trigger because between the trigger and the module, you have some adjustability in terms of sensitivity.
The module really winds up being your main concern as it controls the sounds that the kit will be able to render: Expensive pads+cheap module=cheap sound. Cheap pads+expensive module=great sound but takes some getting used to the feel.

Check ebay to get an idea of what's out there. Lot's of "home-grown" kits as food for thought.
Check these out too:

http://members.aol.com/btnkbndt/mykit.html
http://www.hartdynamics.com/
http://www.vdrums.com/news.html
http://www.pintechusa.com/New_Pintech_Si/welcome.html
http://www.harmony-central.com/Drums/EDW/
http://triggerperfect.com/
http://www.1ie-drums.com/specials.htm

Happy hunting! ;)
 
The coolest thing about the V-drums...
you can jam at a perfect volume with the whole band at 3am without waking someone on the other side of the house. Coo las hell, shit sounds great at lower volumes. Band practice is generally way too loud and shitty acoustics exagerrate everything negative. We played one time at a volume that the singer could sing over us just barely needing a mic to be heard WELL, and it sounded awesome. I'd like to have some just to go nuts on at 3am. Fun shit. I still prefer real drums though.
 
tubedude said:
The coolest thing about the V-drums...
you can jam at a perfect volume with the whole band at 3am without waking someone on the other side of the house. Coo las hell, shit sounds great at lower volumes. Band practice is generally way too loud and shitty acoustics exagerrate everything negative. We played one time at a volume that the singer could sing over us just barely needing a mic to be heard WELL, and it sounded awesome. I'd like to have some just to go nuts on at 3am. Fun shit. I still prefer real drums though.
Click to expand...

Tubedude, have you *tried* Clavia's ddrum4 kit yet??? I have found that ddrum's kill v's in realism... i mean my gawd... lets talk about "machine gun" when doing a fill on the toms on a v-kit... yuck!!!

You have almost *none* of that "machine gun" quality on the ddrums...

Yeah, on the ddrum brain, there are NO bells or whistles, and yes the signature series samples (the one's you'd want to use... the factory loaded samples are weak) take up an enourmous amount of space... but man... the sounds are amazing, the realism is unreal (?)

like I said... i had the v-pro kit for 2 years, but when I heard the ddrums... i sold my v-pro on ebay and bought the ddrums (which cost half of what a v-pro kit runs).

But alas... i prefer real drums too :)
 
Nothing better than being able to jam at 4am after coming in from a club with the whole band and some chicks.
Get them thongs off....
 
lets talk about "machine gun" when doing a fill on the toms on a v-kit
Click to expand...

This may have been true of the older modules but with a lil verb and a smidge of delay, these kicks and toms sound more like bombs than machine guns! :cool:
 
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