Electronic Drumkits - who has 'em, and who uses 'em with software?

Drew_TNBD · August 2013

Used to have a TD-6 that our drummer loaned me. I was using it with BFD2. It worked quite well, but the kit itself had seen better days and the pads were a bit bashed up and lost some responsiveness. Drummer had to take it back, so I lost my e-kit, now I'm thinking of getting a kit of my own.

We have a TD-20 at the office which we use for testing purposes. The only thing that is crap about it is the hi-hat. It is insanely difficult to get the hi-hat to work properly over midi, and this is a long commented thing - not just in regards to BFD2, but Superior Drummer and all the others as well. The TD-6 used a single pad and an expression pedal for the hi-hat, and it worked much much better.

So I was looking at drumkits, and I don't want to get a crappy one. I want to get a half decent one, with multiple zones on the hi-hat, cymbals, snare, and toms. I was looking at the 2box DrumIt Five MKII, but it has a similar hi-hat to the TD-20. So I'm pretty nervous about using it over midi with software. If I run into the same tracking problems as the TD-20, I'm not going to be too thrilled at spending £1700 on it!!

Real drumkit or real cymbals is not an option. I'm in a flat, and I can get away with loud guitar, but definitely not drums.

So in short - what kits do you guys out there have, and how are you finding the hi-hat performance with your drum software?

axisus · August 2013

My kit is pretty old, I don't even remember what it is now??? (looks a bit like the TD 9K2 picture). To be honest, I'm a complete primate when it comes to quality issues the level of which you are talking. I just bought something to hit. Recorded, I didn't like the inbuilt sounds so I run with drum software from ....... bl**dy hell, I'm getting senile I don't even recall what it's called now!!! - just fished around the net, it's EZDrummer.

Haven't touched it in a year, must get back into it again ....

johnnyurq · August 2013

Firstly I am not a drummer but a guitarist who dabbles.

I have owned a couple of Roland kits and still think they are pretty cool but I also bought an Alesis DM-10X kit which was brilliant.

http://www.alesis.com/dm10xkit

They also now have an iPad dock version of the DM10 module so uses a combination of apps, software and hardware with the iPad at the heart of it. Not sure what they are like but if you have an iPad maybe worth a nosey.

http://www.alesis.com/dmdock

The Alesis DM-10X behaved very well via MIDI with BFD, Superior Drummer and the drum plugins that are part of Sonar X2. Not sure if it suffers from the same issue as the Roland stuff re Hi Hats but I certainly don't remember any such issue, but as I said I am not much of a drummer.

The drum brain in some ways was in some ways better than Roland's similar pitched offerings, not sure how it compares to the TD20 and above which is way pricier (and superior).

I changed out the mylar heads to mesh because I prefer the feel of mesh heads.

Well worth checking out and it was only really space issues hat caused me to sell it.

Nowadays I use a combination of a Roland SPD-S with a 2 GB memory card and the above software (plus drumagog too) using decent samples imported over to the SPD-S.

http://www.roland.co.uk/products/productdetails.aspx?p=537

From a space point of view it works better for me but if you are looking more upmarket solution the 2box kit is supposed to be very good indeed and almost affordable if you can find a 2nd hand kit.

Drew_TNBD · August 2013

I did look at the dm10 but from what I can see the pad and brain for the hat doesn't support two zones so no shank and tip artics.

johnnyurq · August 2013

Fair do's I was never a power user so not sure quite what you were describing..

So I would guess that leaves either the 2box stuff or maybe Hart Dynamics if they do anything that has the functionality you need.

Jobeky do hardware but not sure if they do a Hi Hat kit or merely use 2box and Roland units.

http://www.jobekydrums.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index

They do some lovely stuff though and if space and money allowed I may be tempted.

For sure I would be interested in how you get on because for a drummer friend things like this are a deal breaker to using a leccy kit and would maybe have go if these techniques were covered.

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Electronic Drumkits - who has 'em, and who uses 'em with software?

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