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Attention Drum Folk!


thedoctor

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I would like to surprise my grandson with a quality electronic kit. He is a decent player and is a heavy kick-drum user. Lots of Tex-Mex in the group he plays with. Can you steer me in one directiopn or another? Can he keep his regular snare and use the elec. toms and such? I am not much of a percussion guy so I stand clueless. Yamaha? Roland? Psuedo-Korg? Other? What do you use for an amp if the sound guy is not up to drums on his PA?

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I use a Hart Dynamic's kit with an Alesis DM5

Studio3.jpg

I can't make recommendations or road ready eKits because I've only used them in the studio.

If sound reinforcement isn't provided, he'll have to. Amp, mixer and speakers. But depending on the drum module, you may be able to bypass the mixer (if it's all ready two channels) but wouldn't recommend it.

Realistically, wouldn't it be best if you could figure out a way to found out from him what he would like? In my opinion musical instrument purchases should always involve the musician in the process. :D

Edited by Gorecki
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i used an alesis dm5 and roland pads when i used to play. never had a problem with either, and would recommend both products.

the only reason i sold them was to buy a motorbike, otherwise i would still have them.

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Bear in mind, though, that the feel of a real set and an electronic one is worlds apart.. Personally, I'd never even consider an electronic set.. It's either a real one or none.. For one thing, I find that all the electronic sets I've tried don't seem to bounce right, especially the snare.. But I suppose that does depend on your (or your grandson, in this case) style of playing.. Just something consider.. :D

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Bear in mind, though, that the feel of a real set and an electronic one is worlds apart.. Personally, I'd never even consider an electronic set.. It's either a real one or none.. For one thing, I find that all the electronic sets I've tried don't seem to bounce right, especially the snare.. But I suppose that does depend on your (or your grandson, in this case) style of playing.. Just something consider..  :D

I think that like you mention, it's all in the type of music.

Then again you can get a Neil Peart set, on the Grace Under Pressure album.

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but as far as quietness goes - an electronic kit is better than those horrible practise pads you can buy to place over the batter heads - now thats no bounce! they stink as well!

ill be buying a nice yammie this summer, they are compact, quiet and have decent sounds, thats all i need, something quiet to play along to cowboys from hell or whatever on!

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We just finished shooting video for the new Mark Schultz CD in Marion, IL and his drummer had a pair of 18" subwoofers right in front of him. The monitors fed his kick right back in his face! No hearing loss here! His snare sounded like crap but I could tell he was really good. There was a 45 minute time-code issue where they couldn't record so the band just screwed around. Off the front SR his drums sounded a WHOLE lot better than they did amplified. Is this something that is a problem with micing drums or is the sound guy lazy? I thought you could get your desired sound with good elec. kits all the time. I guess not.

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Micing drums is just a fiddly thing. Could have been the mics, could have been the sound guy. Any good sound guy would have spent probably 30 minutes or so just on the drums, checking each feed and making sure it sounded it's best. Could also have depended on the drums too. People tune their drums differently, and if you don't tune for maximum resonance you won't get a good mic'd sound, even though acoustically they sound good.

So you work with a video outfit? My father in law is a grip in nashville.. doesn't do as many feature films anymore as he's gotten older and had some shoulder injuries, but they do a ton of music videos. a lot of CCM and Country stuff obviously, being in nashville.

We just finished shooting video for the new Mark Schultz CD in Marion, IL and his drummer had a pair of 18" subwoofers right in front of him. The monitors fed his kick right back in his face! No hearing loss here! His snare sounded like crap but I could tell he was really good. There was a 45 minute time-code issue where they couldn't record so the band just screwed around. Off the front SR his drums sounded a WHOLE lot better than they did amplified. Is this something that is a problem with micing drums or is the sound guy lazy? I thought you could get your desired sound with good elec. kits all the time. I guess not.

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My son owns "57 South" video and Sound. He and I are both union "bitches" and do a lot of Christian-Rock taping, even though we are of the Hebrew persuasion. They got the money and we need it. Nashville is only 120 miles from here but we don't have any competetive-overlap from that area. They got more money and better equip. down there. We do the lower-budget stuff until, like, Jackson Video or someone like that comes in and needs ProdAssis or grips. I like going for doughnuts! It's like a 2-hour break! In thier truck!

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My son owns "57 South" video and Sound. He and I are both union "bitches" and do a lot of Christian-Rock taping, even though we are of the Hebrew persuasion. They got the money and we need it. Nashville is only 120 miles from here but we don't have any competetive-overlap from that area. They got more money and better equip. down there. We do the lower-budget stuff until, like, Jackson Video or someone like that comes in and needs ProdAssis or grips. I like going for doughnuts! It's like a 2-hour break! In thier truck!

That's cool. I was into video for a while, before I got into programming. Mostly PC MiniDV NLE stuff.. It had to take hobby status though and eventually took "don't have time" status. They do spend some money down there in nashville though. Esp the country music stuff. The CCM scene probably doesn't warrant paying a lot for vids. not sure where they play CCM vids anymore :D

It's crazy being on a feature film set.. Would be fun to work PA on some of those things.. hang out by the catering truck all the time :D

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That would be my son's gig (PA) on a shoot but to hear him tell it there is NO fun involved. He spent 4 hours getting two Persian rugs and a mountain bike "donated" for the last shoot. Sounds like ego-placation to me! The longer shoots give the PAs a couple of PA PAs. Now, that could get good!

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That would be my son's gig (PA) on a shoot but to hear him tell it there is NO fun involved. He spent 4 hours getting two Persian rugs and a mountain bike "donated" for the last shoot. Sounds like ego-placation to me! The longer shoots give the PAs a couple of PA PAs. Now, that could get good!

Right.. no fun at all :D A PA's PA.. that's pretty far down the food chain huh..

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I don't know. A PA's PA probly doesn't even get to exhale! BUT!! I have found that PinTech is not what I think he needs. In addition, I have found a Roland TD-6 that says it has mesh heads but is missing three cables for a flat G-note plus shipping. I also found something I have never heard of which is a ddrums ES with no snare. WAY cheap but I have never heard of ddrums. Any input? And, no, I am NOT hitting the "d" key too much. That is how it is entered in the classifieds.

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DDrums were the king of mesh head elec drums back in the day.. the one armed dude from def leppard played ddrums. ( i don't remember his name, i'm not being mean)

roland just kind of took over the market. If you can get a roland or pintech, you'll be current and not have to worry about parts or compatibility of equipment.

Not sure what you mean about pintech not being what you need.. They are the same thing as vdrums. they make both mesh and rubber surface drums, but then again, so does roland.

edit.. the TD6s are not mesh heads. those are the old rubber kind. If you're used to skins, these things will wear you out.. high impact on the wrists.. the heads sap a lot of the stick attack and save your wrists.

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Can I ask why electronic?

One thing you might consider is a custom maple kit.. 99.999% of maple high end drums are made of Keller Shells. There are a ton of companies that make drums and have good deals. On Ebay, check out Donoho Drums. It's a dude outside of nashville and he has great prices on his shell packs. Our drummer has several kits, and the Donaho he uses the most. Top notch stuff. You could get a shell pack of those for about a grand or less.. and be int he quality area of DW and the other boutiquy sets. They sound killer and really project.

Electonic kits are nice in certain situations.. church, small coffee houses, headphone practice.. but i've played gigs with an e-drummer and it's really hard to get the sound right if your sound folks aren't good.. and nothing is worse than not being able to hear the drummer.

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THANK YOU everyone for your input to a "percussion-challenged" person!

The final result is that I have ordered a 6-piece set of Shure drum mics and a 8-channel mixer/processor from the double z. After all your input, I believe he needs to stay with his (very good) conventional set and have a little more control over the micing. I do not wanna be there when he meets his first sound man but, I won't, so no prob.

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