E-Drums - At what price point worth it?

[Al1885]

@akos

@John_E

I would like to know the advice as well from the original question.

I’ve looked at these and have no idea what features are important and what’s worth it etc and what level is just crap.

My EUR 0.02:

• If you actually intend to play drums in a band at some point in the future, then
  • if noise is not an issue, then get an acoustic kit
  • if noise is an issue, then get a high-end e-drum kit with mesh heads, real pedals and real hi-hat stand, so that the feel (not just the sound) is going to be as close as possible to a real acoustic kit
• If you just want to mess around at home, learn a few rhythms, record your own drum track to play bass with, etc, then just get any cheap kit. It’s going to be perfectly fine.

Here’s my take on acoustic drum kits
They are loud oh yeah ever met of old school drummers with perfect hearing? Earplugs just rob you of your sonic spectrum.
They are hard(er) to tune
They are harder to mic/record, not to mention mix.
They are expensive, oh yeah the one you want is going to be expensive, lol.
Most importantly, they are not forgiving, and you absolutely can’t cheat. Plus nowadays, they are used in combination of plugins to trigger sampling drum sounds anyway.

All of which edrums specifically V-drums have solved, although the last point is getting harder and harder because digital drum sensors are getting so accurate it can translate ever nuances of your playing input. Nowadays, you can get en edrum set that looks just like the acoustics counterpart and if you can’t spot the wiring cables you would not be able to tell the difference.

At this point in my life I don’t want to spend years perfecting rimshots hit. I want them to be in the margin of great hit every time. I found that I can just “buy” the skills. Not so coordinated can’t hit the bass drum with every cymbal crash, well add bass drum to your cymbals.

@John_E should be familiar with the concept, he’s a saxophonist. It takes years just to get the tone right that’s before you start doing fancy stuff like solo, lol. There’s nothing available now that can bypass that in the sax’s world but They are getting there fast.

[John_E]

@Al1885

It takes years just to get the tone right that’s before you start doing fancy stuff like solo, lol. There’s nothing available now that can bypass that in the sax’s world but They are getting there fast.

Not too fast, but I do understand your comment and makes a lot of sense!
Finally back to my saxes after months off and spending hours and hours getting back in tune and getting my tone back. Man, if they just had tuning pegs for saxes!

[sshoihet]

Alesis nitro mesh is a good starting point.

[howard]

The built in sounds on these things - you’re not stuck with that. You can use them to trigger any drum samples you want via MIDI. In fact that’s one big way Roland Octapads used to be used - to drive other drum machines.

[Retta75]

I’ve had a few different e-kits over the years and really it comes down to how it feels to play. I now have the Roland VAD506 and this thing is a beast. But I have played much more basic Ekits and I’ve grown to love the mesh heads as opposed to the the silicone pads I had with a yamaha kit. You really need to sit down and try some different ones. Go to your local music store and try the ones they have set up on display. That’ll give you a general idea of what you like or don’t like. A decent kit isn’t cheap but it will last a
Long time.