Your Thoughts On Digital Drums!

[Chad Michael]

My brother recently bought the Roland TD30... we have a gig Sept. 7, will report first hand. But... listen to the first 4 minutes of this, I am impressed. Speakers or headphones required, that dime - sized speaker in your smartphone won't get you there. [edit] the tune @ 7:49 to 8:15 is tasty...

 

[CoffeeLove]

My brother recently bought the Roland TD30... we have a gig Sept. 7, will report first hand. But... listen to the first 4 minutes of this, I am impressed. Speakers or headphones required, that dime - sized speaker in your smartphone won't get you there.

OP Here. That kit sounds fantastic, and nothing like my drummers Roland TD-17kv, which in no-way resembles an acoustic kit. Maybe the $6,500 difference in price tag has something to do with it.

 

[Chad Michael]

Maybe the $6,500 difference in price tag has something to do with it.

My bro bought the set used for under 3k as I recall...

[edit] the TD25 is nine tenths of the TD30, acoustic sounds start around 1:10

 

[CoffeeLove]

Yeah, it seems the high-end models have the potential to get much closer to an acoustic kit, and the TD-30kv in particular seems to be known for that.

 

[DrMole]

My brother recently bought the Roland TD30... we have a gig Sept. 7, will report first hand. But... listen to the first 4 minutes of this, I am impressed. Speakers or headphones required, that dime - sized speaker in your smartphone won't get you there. [edit] the tune @ 7:49 to 8:15 is tasty...

Eyes closed, difficult to discern between samples and acoustic on several of the kits.

My $100k dream Studio has this set in-house.

 

[vvvmmm]

A Roland TD11KV (all mesh heads) runs about $700 (used) shipped on ebay. A discussion on vdrums concluded that kit will feel and sound ok for many drummers.

I've recorded about 20 songs w/ the TD11 and thought it sounded pretty damn good. I sure was hoping I didn't need to spend that much to have a back-up sitting in the closet ...

 

[murph7489]

The drummer in my band bought a pearl mimic pro brain / module to use with his kit and he loves it. He did agree that roland is the best, their high end model but he said he is extremely happy with his pearl..he also uses an Alesis brain too, not sure what exact model but he uses that primarily for sound effects..along with the pearl..

 

[Brad Johnson]

I like drummers who can play and sound good. How they get there is inconsequential to me.

 

[GIBrat51]

I honestly couldn't say, one way or the other. When I was in a band, almost none of the electronic stuff people take for granted now, had been invented yet. Even solid state amps were new and strange... and we couldn't afford them, anyway. I suppose that, if I was foolish enough to join another band - or, if one was foolish enough to hire me; it was a paying gig; and that's what the drummer used? Well, I'm mercenary enough to do what I'm paid to do - whether I really like it or not...

 

[EastCoastThump]

As with earlier instruments, acoustic, electric, digital: horses for courses.

For bands playing most kinds of modern dance music or produced pop, I'll take a drummer who has put in enough work on e-drums or on acoustic/e-drum/software hybrid kits to have something interesting to say on 'em.

 

[murph7489]

The sound guy kept coming up to the drummer asking him to "turn the reverb" off to which we continued to reply "there's no reverb on; we have never heard this before."
^^^^

This happened once with our drummer. In the end I think it was something to do with the direct boxes he was using. They were ones that he never used before and then he switched back to his old ones and the problem went away..weird, maybe its some strange thing to do with the board, or the DI..or something. who knows all we know is sometimes I guess things can be quirky...

I had a problem once with a DI too..would work for some reason..I went back to the one coming out of my head and it worked..Never did figure out why that was, maybe its because my bass is active...I don't know.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

I am considering a purchase of the Roland TD-17KVX2. Roland also sells a "Quiet Line" of V-drums that are supposed to be substantially quieter while unamplified. Can anyone comment on how well the damping works?

 

[Turnaround]

When our hard-hitting drummer bought a digital kit, the rest of the band celebrated. We now have a volume control on the drums.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

I am considering a purchase of the Roland TD-17KVX2. Roland also sells a "Quiet Line" of V-drums that are supposed to be substantially quieter while unamplified. Can anyone comment on how well the damping works?

Found a video that answers (shows) how it works. There are trade offs. For me, I think the KVX2 model will be better.

 

[Major Seven]

What DON'T you like about it. Aesthetics? Or sound?

I would say try to work with it because...
1) It's coming anyway. Bass players aren't the only ones looking for lighter and easier load in- load out gear.

2) Volume control!

So far I have seen only two bands with e drums and I admit the mix is much cleaner.

 

[dsteinschneider]

Back in the 90's I cobbled together a DIY kit using Dauz pads, a DW EP1 kick pedal and the Alesis D4. It sounded ok for recording simple drum parts. I donated that to our keyboard players kid and kept an eye on the edrums market. In 2019 I bought a MegaDrum trigger-only unit that I fed into Superior Drummer. It was complex to dial in the triggering so I replaced it with an eDRUMin trigger unit.

I converted a Ludwig Accent Combo 5 piece using UFO Drums trigger bars. Originally I used a bunch of Pintech practice cymbals with DIY piezo triggers but replaced those with Yamaha 3 way cymbals. In a 15'x15' practice room playing it though a pair 15" powered PA speakers it was plenty loud enough but didn't sound right until I added a single EV SUB1 powered sub using it's built in cross over. I then downsized the PA speakers to JBL Eon 10's. I use the Superior Drummer Eddie Kramer Legacy of Rock SDX "Jet Black" kit (Stones) and dial down the bleed mics and effects processing.

This kit is less portable than an acoustic kit. It's basically an acoustic kit plus 12 cables, a stand with the eDRUMin, USB Audio interface and laptop and the sub and Eon 10's.