Are beaterless kick drum triggers any good?

[publicradio]

I recently bought a Yamaha KU100 kick pedal unit, because it was a decent price, it's silent, it's small and it's portable. I have noticed that most complete electronic drum kits seem to have these beater-less kick pedals, but I know you can also buy pads online that connect to an analog kick beater.

Anyway, I'm not much of a drummer, but I'm trying to get a feel for my pedal. I also have an old Yamaha drum pad unit, and I like it better than triggering drums with midi keys, or even MPC-style pads, because you can bounce your drumstick on the pads and get realistic, bouncy rhythms, rolls and fills.

It occurred to me, after I bought this pedal, that real drummers probably bounce or dribble their kick pedals, and that I can't emulate that with what I have. But again, I don't have acoustic drumming experience so I don't know how common this is, or, if I bought a pad for this, whether the resistance would be similar enough that I could use an analog kick beater similarly to a real kick drum.

If anyone has any experiences and/or thoughts about this, I would appreciate the insight.

[lfm]

In transition from keyboard drumming over to eDrums I had a Yamaha DD-55 pads unit which was equipped with a mouseball kind of kick contact. I very soon bought a kick pad and pedal to go with it instead.

It's something about the weight and energy in the kick pedal that have your brain anticipating the hit better, something like that. You don't get that feel with a contact.

So unless they did something clever like modern hammer action keys for digital keyboards that also have weight that you interact with, it does not compare. Some kind of pedulum inside that reflect a kick pedal.

I now have a full set of Yamaha pads kit with proper hihat controller and stand as well, had for 15 years now.

And you have many adjustments to make it to your liking having kick pedal and hihat stand. Position of hammer, angle of pedal, strength of spring for return of hammer etc.

[bungle]

You limit capabilities quite a lot, double kick pedals be it on two pedals or single pedal dual height etc, plus a few techniques too, but they work at a push.

[publicradio]

Interesting, I never even thought about double pedals. Well let me ask you this, then: If I bought a standard, acoustic kick pedal, and then bought an electronic kick tower, does that feel pretty close to a real kick drum?

Maybe I can use the beaterless pedal for something else. What else to people use pedals for in their drum kits? I always assumed it was just kick and to close the hi hats, but I guess you could hit something else with a pedal.

[RunBeerRun]

Def Leppard hit the snare with a pedal, but only because the drummer has one arm.

I like double kick drum pedals, but I use a sustain pedal with audio to midi conversion for my bass drum. I use a Wiimote with motion sensitivity for the drumkit. (keeps the volume down)

[publicradio]

I thought about using a sustain pedal, but I knew I wouldn't have velocity control, so I just use it as the Hi-Hat pedal.