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Digital Drums?!?


ibanez_crazy

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I know this is a guitar forum....but in my younger days, I was a drummer. Now I would like to get my kid a drumset, but mom dosesnt want the noise. Digital drums can be quiet, and take up less room. Anyone have any experience with an economy set....say under 400 bucks? Looking specifically for a double kick, and dual zone triggers. Suggestions?

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I was looking into these for my kid too. But from what I gathered, the low end drums tend to have a lot of problems reading the beat--that is, you hit the pad, and it takes a while for it to generate the sound, if at all, or it'll trigger several beats at once, things like that.

On the other hand, I've just discovered that there are rubber cymbals and also rubber pads that one can lay across the heads of normal drums--they're not completely silent, but they'll do. The feel is not the same as the actual drums, of course, but he doesn't have to use them when no one else is around.

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I just sold my 9 piece kit with rack and cymbals because it took up so much room, and I never had a chance to play it for more than 5 min at a time. Thats why its kinda bittersweet looking at the digital stuff. Your right about the double trigers or loss if a hit, but for teaching a kid, or just goofing around, its not that bad. Its not like Im gigging or recording with it. I do however want the dual zone for rim shots with the snare, and chokable cymbals. I played on the newest roland V series kits, and its acuracy is amazing.....its also 5 grand, so in a month from now my kid can say Im done with it :D

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I know someone with a digital kit & he's very happy with it...I'm not sure what make it is but I seem to recall that it's one of the Yamaha kits, DT Xpress I think. It was a relatively cheap kit but he's basically upgraded all the pads to mesh heads & got some decent cymbals & now it's like one of the higher end kits but much cheaper. Essentially the kits are trigger pads & a module....nothing stopping you from buying it all seperately & putting together your own kit.

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I'm lucky, since we keep the kit in my office/studio/workshop/practice space. So he can bang away all he likes (he wears hearing protection). nd we can jam together too, which is tons of fun. But we've just borrowed this kit--it's a full size. If he keeps up with the drums, next year we'll get him his own kid-sized kit, and that'll go in his bedroom. I'm tempted by digital too, since there are a lot of advantages.

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when i moved out of home and into a small flat, my neighbours didn't like the noise from my drums, so i sold my acoustic set and built a digital set.

i bought an alesis dm5 drum unit, and a practice pad kit. went to tandy's (radio shack in australia) and bought myself some piezo's, drilled a hole in the bottom of the practice pads and hot glued the piezo's inside. my mate soldered some jacks onto the piezos and bob's your uncle.

it didn't allow for dual triggering, and i already had a double kick pedal, and although it wasn't the prettiest of things, it was fantastic. the most expensive part was the dm5 which was about $400 from memory (but that was brand new). i had many years of playing on that kit virtually noise free, until i decided to upgrade my motorcyle, and sold every musical instrument/amp that i owned (except for my acoustic which i have had for over 25 years - no real value save for sentimentality).

here are some links for sites that tell you all about building pads.

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

it is so basic and simple, that i think it's criminal the amount of money digital drum manufacturers charge for their pads.

cheers

darren

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Yeah I know, I saw one of those sites that had a 20 dollar donation, and they give you access to the tech area where they show you how to make a dual zone pad. My bud just gave me a yamaha drum machine with 7 pad and 2 makeshift pedals. It would be fine except for the fact that once in a while, depending on where you hit it, it kills power just long enough to reset the kit to factory presets. So Im jamming on a double bass lick, and all of a sudden, the sound changes, and your on a single kick preset... oh well...it was free.

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