Pintech Electronic Drums?

[Tekker]

My youth pastor wants to get an electronic drum set for the youth group, possibly within a month and I told him about the Pintech set that I saw in the Musician's Friend catalog for $700 and he's very interested in it. But I wanted to find out how good they are before he buys it. So has anyone had any experience with this brand? It looks great in the catalog and I love the fact that it's similiar to the V-drums and not those cheesy hard rubber pads, but how good does it sound and how does it play?

Thanks,
-tkr

 

[mikeh]

Pintech make some decent low cost triggers - but unless something has changed that I'm not aware of (it's hard to keep up with all the different gear out there) - Pintech does not make sound modules.

I don't have a MF catalog in front of me - so I don't know what is included for $700 - in particular what sound module (if any) is included. Candidly, I find it hard to believe you can get a kit with module for that little $$$$.

The Pintech pads I played (triggering an Alesis D4 and a DM5) triggered OK and felt OK - I only used them for a couple of hours here and there during session work.

 

[Tekker]

Well that's cheap!

It shows everything together in the picture (with a module that looks like it should come with the kit), then it says: "Pedal, Rack, and Module not included". So it doesn't even include the stinkin' rack! That's pretty lame...

-tkr

 

[jake-owa]

a friend of mine bought the pintech kit which was fine but the module (alesis DM pro) didn't work with the highhat pedal so we could only do closed or open hat...shitty.

I would use it with real cymbals anyhow. The kit is real nice otherwise. By 'rack' I don't think they mean mounting cage, that comes included.

 

[Tekker]

That's great that they do include the stand!! But I wonder what they mean my "rack".... ?

So what would be a good drum module to get, that will do the open and closed hi-hat (that's pretty pathetic ) and how much would it cost? He may still go for it if we can keep the price under $1,000...

-tkr

 

[H2oskiphil]

For under 1K, you can get the Yamaha DTXpress...

If you go on the MF web site, check out their Scratch and Dent area. You can easily put together a set for less than 1K there. I know they've got the Hart Dynamics rack and kit in there, and you should be able to pick up an Alesis DM5, as well. That's the set I've got, and I got the whole thing (including an extra dual-trigger tom, throne, and kick pedal) for about $850.

 

[Tekker]

For under 1K, you can get the Yamaha DTXpress...

I'm really not to fond of those hard rubber pads, which is why I like the Pintech set....

The Pintech set does come with the stands, but no module or kick pedal... So all we would really need is a good module for under $300 or so... (that doesn't sound really cheesy! )

-tkr

 

[erichenryus]

So all we would really need is a good module for under $300 or so... (that doesn't sound really cheesy! )

-tkr

That's gonna be tough to do imo. I have the roland TD-8 and it sounds pretty darn good but still not the real thing. That one goes for about 750 last i checked.

btw, you'll spend less just buying a real drumset.....and it will sound like a real drumset .

 

[Tekker]

btw, you'll spend less just buying a real drumset.....and it will sound like a real drumset .

I know, and I'm not really a fan of electronic sets (even really good ones), but we've had 2 complaints about the noise (as there are apartment buildings directly behind our warehouse) and the drums are by far the loudest things in there... So I figured that getting an electronic set would be the best thing. But I don't want something that's going to sound like garbage (not that our current set is any better but it didn't cost no $1k either!).

That's gonna be tough to do imo. I have the roland TD-8 and it sounds pretty darn good but still not the real thing. That one goes for about 750 last i checked.

That's what I was afraid of... I don't think he'll go for it if it's gonna cost over $1k, but we really do need to do something about the noise level.

I'll have to talk to him again and get a definite price range and see what we can come up with....

Thanks for your help guys!
-tkr

 

[mikeh]

Tekker,

I understand that you don't like the rubber pads - but at that $1,000 limit I think the DTExpress (with rubber pads) is about the best you can hope for.

 

[Badger]

We have the older roland set out our church, sounds ok, but the drummers dont like the rubber pads. Its a big improvement over acoustic drums, however, because the acoustics in our church are horrible, and it makes it just that much easier to tame.

 

[erichenryus]

well noise level is one thing that electric sets are really good at!
i'm currently rehearsing with a band in a big bedroom at someone's house. i can't imagine real drums in that situation.

but those rubber pads are just an injury waiting to happen. i hate those things. the mesh pads however, are very cool and very low impact.

here's something you could do if you have an extra laptop or a computer available. get the pintechs and the cheapest brain you can find and just use it to trigger midi to a computer which would then run something like NI Battery or any software sampler you can get your hands on. Now that can sound pretty damn close to the real thing (and even better in some cases), but it's more apt to work in a studio situation than a live situation. Relying on a computer for a live show is risky.

there isn't any way you can do some poor man's soundproofing is there? like surrounding the drumset with plexiglass or something like that?

good luck to ya.

 

[Tekker]

well noise level is one thing that electric sets are really good at!
here's something you could do if you have an extra laptop or a computer available. get the pintechs and the cheapest brain you can find and just use it to trigger midi to a computer which would then run something like NI Battery or any software sampler you can get your hands on. Now that can sound pretty damn close to the real thing (and even better in some cases), but it's more apt to work in a studio situation than a live situation. Relying on a computer for a live show is risky.

There's an idea, the youth group does have a computer that they use with Power Point to put the lyrics to the songs up on screen.... I'll have to check into that.

there isn't any way you can do some poor man's soundproofing is there? like surrounding the drumset with plexiglass or something like that?

That doesn't really do to much for sound proofing "outside" the building. But our drumset is garbage anyways, so on top of the sound proofing we'd probably have to get a new set also... So we might as well kill two birds with one stone!

I've got youth group tonight, so I'll try to talk to him about getting a "final price" that he'll be able to go and we'll figure out what we can do from there...

Thanks,
-tkr

 

[Tekker]

Well bummer, he said he didn't get the budget he was hoping for this year so he's not really too sure how much he'll be able to put into it at the moment...

I told him about the computer program idea and that sounds like a definite possibility, so what are some good programs and how much would they cost?

Thanks again!
-tkr

 

[theletterq]

Another option is to go ahead and spend a little more on the module, fill your current drums full with packing peanuts or something to totally deaden them, and just use triggers on the drums themselves.

 

[erichenryus]

Another option is to go ahead and spend a little more on the module, fill your current drums full with packing peanuts or something to totally deaden them, and just use triggers on the drums themselves.

see, now that's some good thinking! i love the internet.

 

[Tekker]

Another option is to go ahead and spend a little more on the module, fill your current drums full with packing peanuts or something to totally deaden them, and just use triggers on the drums themselves.

That may be a possiblitity, then we could get some of the rubber pads for the cymbals....

We could probably get off really cheap if we did that AND did the sampling program for the PC, especially if it will sound better than an expensive drum module... So does anyone know of any good programs for doing this?

Thanks again!
-tkr

 

[erichenryus]

So does anyone know of any good programs for doing this?

Thanks again!
-tkr

The cheapest route I can think of here is Native Instruments Battery + M-audio Audiophile (cause you'll need a low latency audio card) + Sonic Implants Blue Jay Drums.

Sonic Implants has individual kits that are 25 bucks each. They are pretty damn real imo. There's also a very good kit out there called, ironically in your case, Drumkit from Hell that goes for about 80 bucks now I think. Probably some kits that ship with Battery that are useable as well.

 

[Tekker]

Thanks a lot!! We'll check into those....

Now let me make sure I've got this, we'll run from the MIDI out on the drum module, into the joy stick/MIDI port on the PC, then the drum module will trigger and play the samples in the PC program and then we take the output from the computer and run it into the sound board... And all of this should work in real time (with hopefully not too much latency) correct?

I guess I need to start learning how to use all this MIDI stuff now!! lol

-tkr

 

[erichenryus]

well latency might be an issue but that's a tough thing to find out without running some tests. so i'd recommend the following before you go buying a bunch of stuff.

1. Download a trial copy of NI Battery.
2. Hook up any midi keyboard to your soundcard.
3. start hitting keys and see how fast it reacts.
4. adjust the latency settings in Battery as low as you can to see if it's acceptable. i don't have battery but in other NI products there is a control setting for 'samples'. Just set it as low as it will go and see what happens.

alternatively, if you have a soundblaster soundcard, i remember that it can play soundfonts natively using some program called vienna sound font studio. if the latency isn't too bad with that, you might avoid the purchase of Battery. check it out. just make sure to run tests with your computer before you go buying all this stuff. you know how it goes with computers.