KVR Audio

musikjock · Post by **musikjock** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:35 pm

greetings all-

haven't had a chance to post in awhile due to unwanted busy-ness

anyway, I am heavily considering purchasing a simmons s5dk electronic drum kit...ya know..the cheapest one on the market that goes for $600? well, i am considering buying it in hopes of it spicing up my drum tracks-which always tend to be the lackluster part of my mixes. I am now using jamstix, battery 2 and hypersonic as my drum modules and i just find mouse-click drumming very uninspiring. My question is do you guys think this will be a worthy investment in regards to creating better drum tracks? i know that the simmons kit is the bottom of the barrel E-drum set but i dont plan on using any of the built in simmons sounds...just purely midi based straight into battery 2.

buying this kit seems like the missing link to my puzzle but i always like to confer with my fellow KVR-inites that have had experience with this kinda thing. i dont want to buy this kit and then find out it is of no help.

I should also mention i am getting this kit at the manufactured cost of $218.18. ahh..how i love employee discounts

what do ya guys think?

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:39 pm

Let's hope you can learn how to not suck on playing actual (e-)drums

Maybe something like a TriggerFinger could serve the same purpose for half the money

musikjock · Post by **musikjock** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:44 pm

haha..hey cut me some credit! i am a musician ya know and i CAN play drums. I wouldn't market myself as a drummer to a band but i can get the job done...especially when i am allowed to correct misplayed notes

mckenic · Post by **mckenic** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 5:06 pm

Check out the Alesis Trigger io... been watching it for AGES and it looks like its finally in stock!

For that price its worth taking a look at for me - even with my BASIC drumming skillz

Dave

MelloProg · Post by **MelloProg** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 9:09 pm

it really depends on what type of music u make and what you aim for by using the electronic kit.

if you do electronica of any sorts it may be fine, but...
if you make any music in which this electronic kit is used to simulate the sound of a real acoustic drum set then i would strongly advice to only use it for producing demos and for composition or just for fun.
for serious recordings you would have to use sample based instruments and program them meticulously. usually i can "smell" an electronic drum kit in a recording all too soon and its sterile sound simply irritates me. the result is that i simply do not buy rock albums where i can hear that they were produced with an electronic drum kit.

btw. i have both, an electronic kit and an acoustic kit. i use the electronic as mentioned above, to quickly record and sketch out ideas, and for fun, but that's it.

musikjock · Post by **musikjock** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 2:06 am

mello- definately agree. and actually down the road i plan on getting symbols an hi-hats so i can record acoustically and mix best of both worlds (dont have enough room for a whole kit). on top of getting an electronic kit to spice up the drum tracks..well...i've just always really wanted one

Distorted_Mastermind · Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:25 am

I wouldn't mind a set for practice and last minute jams.

They are a heck of a lot more portable than an acoustic kit which in my mid-size sedan the only way to get the bass drum in is to scoot the front seat all the way up...it won't even fit in the trunk.

At that price I would get them for sure if you are even slightly interested in playing the drums.
If you don't think you'll be interested in practicing, then something like the mpd24 might be a better option and would certainly save room.
My opinion is drums rock and I've yet to find an instrument that is funner to play.

seafoamgreen · Post by **seafoamgreen** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:40 pm

Does anyone have experience with using an electronic drum kit just to capture the MIDI signals, and then trigger it using a nicer set of sampled drums like BFD?

I'm trying to record a demo and having a tough time getting the drum sound I want, but I do have good multi-sampled drums. Wondering if I couldn't just rent a nicer electronic kit for a day just to capture the performance.

beej · Post by **beej** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:38 pm

Yes - BFD etc will sound much better than any current electronic kit, but unless you are a drummer, don't expect to rig the pads up, start playing and have a brilliant drum track, unless you quantize the hell out of it (which negates much of the point of having a kit), as your timing is likely to be all over the place, even if you can play basic parts.

But yes, you can capture the MIDI performance and tweak to your hearts content.

seafoamgreen · Post by **seafoamgreen** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:17 pm

Yep, it'd be me recording our drummer's performance. However, he has no experience playing on electronic drums. Anyone have experience with how much of an issue that is?

Slightly less related: if anyone in the San Francisco bay area is reading this, do you know where I might rent an electronic drum kit like this?

beej · Post by **beej** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:24 pm

He'll need to adjust, but it depends on the kit you get and the style of the drummer.

Basic rubber trigger pads are pretty horrible, the mesh V-Drum pads are pretty good, although a bit more dead than real drums. Take your drummer into a music store and spend a little time playing, and see whether he thinks he'll be comfortable on them or not.

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 5:28 pm

seafoamgreen wrote: Slightly less related: if anyone in the San Francisco bay area is reading this, do you know where I might rent an electronic drum kit like this?

I can't think of anywhere that would do this, especially for something like drum pads, where you're going to be pounding the hell out of them. On the other hand, Guitar Center has a liberal return policy...

musikjock · Post by **musikjock** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 11:25 pm

deastman wrote: I can't think of anywhere that would do this, especially for something like drum pads, where you're going to be pounding the hell out of them. On the other hand, Guitar Center has a liberal return policy...

Hey! i work at guitar center and that is totally not cool! think of the salesmen's heart you are going to break after he rings you up a $3000 kit only to have you bring it back a week later for no good reason!

He's right though...you've got 30 days to return that sucker. Don't get caught up abusing that policy though because we do catch on to those kinds of shennanigans.

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:55 am

musikjock wrote:
deastman wrote: I can't think of anywhere that would do this, especially for something like drum pads, where you're going to be pounding the hell out of them. On the other hand, Guitar Center has a liberal return policy...

Hey! i work at guitar center and that is totally not cool! think of the salesmen's heart you are going to break after he rings you up a $3000 kit only to have you bring it back a week later for no good reason!

He's right though...you've got 30 days to return that sucker. Don't get caught up abusing that policy though because we do catch on to those kinds of shennanigans.

I was (mostly) joking about abusing GC's return policy. It did remind me of one experience I had there... I was curious about trying out the modeling features in the TC Helicon VoicePrism Plus, but they only had the standard version in stock. The salesman suggested that they could special order one for me, and I could take it home to try out for a month, and then return it when I was finished. I said that I didn't really want to take advantage of them, and was merely curious to see how well the effects worked. He said it was no problem, because they were no longer paid on commission, and he'd be happy to place the order anyway. I asked him to hold off until I had a month with more free time to put it through its paces, but I never did get back to him about it. Hmmm...

electronic drum kit?