Which drums for home use?
Discussion
My 9 year old has declared an interest in playing drum and I am looking to buy something for home use. It appears there are a few choices:
1) Full set - the real, thing but noisy
2) Practice kits which are really just heads mounted on a frame - quieter, and I'm hoping will still have the feel of drums, though I guess you need to use normal cymbals, which kind of defeats the object a bit
3)Pads +/- the ability to couple them with an amp - cymbal issue still applies?
Do any drummers out there have any thoughts on the best way to proceed?
Thanks
1) Full set - the real, thing but noisy
2) Practice kits which are really just heads mounted on a frame - quieter, and I'm hoping will still have the feel of drums, though I guess you need to use normal cymbals, which kind of defeats the object a bit
3)Pads +/- the ability to couple them with an amp - cymbal issue still applies?
Do any drummers out there have any thoughts on the best way to proceed?
Thanks
I have fifteen hundred quids worth of electric drums sitting in the spare room and, mostly, I'm just as happy playing along on my knee. Maybe with a towel over to save the bruising!
Does nothing for your feet mind you.
E-drums can be really noisy, too. The thud from the kick drum (if on a rubber head) will rattle your house down.
Does nothing for your feet mind you.
E-drums can be really noisy, too. The thud from the kick drum (if on a rubber head) will rattle your house down.
Thanks chaps
We have a detached house and can put the drums in an isolated room at the back, so noise isn't a massive issue. He is currently having lessons at school and is showing some aptitude. I'm not going to do anything yet until its clear he is going to stick with it, but just having a look around to see which direction to go in, if he keeps it up.
We have a detached house and can put the drums in an isolated room at the back, so noise isn't a massive issue. He is currently having lessons at school and is showing some aptitude. I'm not going to do anything yet until its clear he is going to stick with it, but just having a look around to see which direction to go in, if he keeps it up.
SuperDude said:
I have fifteen hundred quids worth of electric drums sitting in the spare room and, mostly, I'm just as happy playing along on my knee. Maybe with a towel over to save the bruising!
Does nothing for your feet mind you.
E-drums can be really noisy, too. The thud from the kick drum (if on a rubber head) will rattle your house down.
Spot on. I tried to get my 4yo interested by buying an electronic kit (Alesis DM7 which is great by the way).Does nothing for your feet mind you.
E-drums can be really noisy, too. The thud from the kick drum (if on a rubber head) will rattle your house down.
I'd love another big kit but to be honest unless you have the space and sound isolation then electronic kits are the way forward.
- that comes from a drummer who HATED anything electronic.
Edited by MonkeyBusiness on Saturday 10th May 20:50
It's not just his aptitude that's relevant, but what it is about the drums he likes. For me, at 12, it was sitting behind a drum kit every much as much as the act of playing them. And this leads you on to what he's learning to do. They are an acoustic instrument that needs to be learnt properly - whilst I'm staggered by the quality of good electric kits I still feel if you're going down the electric route, especially as a first kit, you may as well get him rock band for the playstation.
Do you want someone who can sit there and bash out a 4/4 beat with a few fills, or a musician?
Saying this, he'll be a long way off professional at 9 so you have no need to buy him something expensive at all. A cheap but passable full kit and some extreme patience on your part and in a few years time you'll go on to lexperience gratitude you can't measure.
Do you want someone who can sit there and bash out a 4/4 beat with a few fills, or a musician?
Saying this, he'll be a long way off professional at 9 so you have no need to buy him something expensive at all. A cheap but passable full kit and some extreme patience on your part and in a few years time you'll go on to lexperience gratitude you can't measure.
From the perspective of someone who tried to learn on both, an actual kit is IMHO the only realistic way to learn properly.
As someone else describes, the task is acoustic, once you get the rhythm. I got the rhythm relatively quickly on an electric kit, but moving to a real kit I found I was a long way off. I played a friend's more expensive electric but it still was much "easier" - then I was crap again when I got home to my own drums.
As for noise, obviously a real kit is problematic. I used to dampen it with tea towels over the skins, which is surprisingly effective at killing the sharpness of the sound especially of the snare. The most effective and not compromising solution I found was to fit a mesh head to my kick drum.
This cut down the low frequency vibrations (which will likely drive you mad) significantly, and still makes a sound in the room. Perfectly fine as long as you don't want to be playing a double bass pedal.
I actually would have liked mesh heads on other drums for 90% of the practicing, but they are a pain to swap out and change for that 10% when you want to play, well, actual drums.
One last thing - resale value is outstanding on a decent acoustic kit - especially if bought second hand originally. Keep it tidy, it will resell again for a similar price.
As someone else describes, the task is acoustic, once you get the rhythm. I got the rhythm relatively quickly on an electric kit, but moving to a real kit I found I was a long way off. I played a friend's more expensive electric but it still was much "easier" - then I was crap again when I got home to my own drums.
As for noise, obviously a real kit is problematic. I used to dampen it with tea towels over the skins, which is surprisingly effective at killing the sharpness of the sound especially of the snare. The most effective and not compromising solution I found was to fit a mesh head to my kick drum.
This cut down the low frequency vibrations (which will likely drive you mad) significantly, and still makes a sound in the room. Perfectly fine as long as you don't want to be playing a double bass pedal.
I actually would have liked mesh heads on other drums for 90% of the practicing, but they are a pain to swap out and change for that 10% when you want to play, well, actual drums.
One last thing - resale value is outstanding on a decent acoustic kit - especially if bought second hand originally. Keep it tidy, it will resell again for a similar price.
I recently took up playing again from an 8 year absence...I debated between electronic and real kit for a long time. Electronic is fun yeah but not ideal for learning ....I wanted something that wouldn't take up the full room, so decided to keep everything small. 12' hats, 12' snare, 8',10'12,13' toms, 14' crash, 18' ride, 16"bass....Gretch Catalina club like this
http://www.andertons.co.uk/shell-packs/pid31789/ci...
I absolutely love it. I play almost every night and the sound from this little kit is awesome in my opinion. Would make a great kit for a kid starting out.
I previously owned a £2.5k maple custom kit, I get just as much pleasure from the Gretch which cost around £700 in total with some preowned K and A custom cymbals.
http://www.andertons.co.uk/shell-packs/pid31789/ci...
I absolutely love it. I play almost every night and the sound from this little kit is awesome in my opinion. Would make a great kit for a kid starting out.
I previously owned a £2.5k maple custom kit, I get just as much pleasure from the Gretch which cost around £700 in total with some preowned K and A custom cymbals.
Edited by Jamster123 on Saturday 10th May 22:58
I started on a full size acoustic kit but I had silencer pads I could put on the drums and cymbals when it needed to be quiet. They worked very well, my double pedal chewed through 2 bass drum ones but I'm sure your son is a way off doing anything like that. I'd definitely say start on an acoustic kit rather than an electric if you can IMHO.
Our drummer has a "Trapps" practice kit which sounds pretty decent, we even use it for small gigs with just a mic. on the bass drum fed into my bass amp, he says the cymbals that came with it were rubbish though.
A major advantage is that it packs away so tidily that he can transport it all in his Porsche Boxster without having to use the cabin. This feature also makes it practical if you are pushed for space at home.
A major advantage is that it packs away so tidily that he can transport it all in his Porsche Boxster without having to use the cabin. This feature also makes it practical if you are pushed for space at home.
I bought myself a Roland TD12 electronic kit a couple of years ago when I got back into playing, (having sold a 75th anniversary Premier Genista kit for peanuts-DOH!)
Great for playing late at night, or rehearsing.
I still ended up buying another acoustic kit for live work. The electronic kits are great, but no substitute for the feel and look of a real kit.
Great for playing late at night, or rehearsing.
I still ended up buying another acoustic kit for live work. The electronic kits are great, but no substitute for the feel and look of a real kit.
Edited by HOGEPH on Monday 12th May 19:10
Edited by HOGEPH on Monday 12th May 19:15
Nothing will beat the feel of playing on a real kit but electronic kits have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. I teach on a Yamaha DTX530 kit which has a silicone snare pad (much better and more realistic feel than mesh heads IMO) and utilises a real hi-hat stand and your own choice of bass-drum pedal.
MartinM said:
Nothing will beat the feel of playing on a real kit but electronic kits have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. I teach on a Yamaha DTX530 kit which has a silicone snare pad (much better and more realistic feel than mesh heads IMO) and utilises a real hi-hat stand and your own choice of bass-drum pedal.
It's still not as good as an acoustic kit. Electronic kits are better than they were, But still miles off the real feel of drums. Jazzy Jefferson said:
It's still not as good as an acoustic kit. Electronic kits are better than they were, But still miles off the real feel of drums.
I've started playing drums in a small band and we use local rehearsal rooms that provide the drum kit (and other equipment such as PA and 2 x guitar amps). However I don't have a drum kit myself, so the only practice I get is once a week at our three hour rehearsals. I was thinking of getting an electronic kit such as the Yamaha or Roland ones (the type with the better snare head if not the whole tomtom heads). However it concerns me that I'll practice on the electronic kit and then the acoustic kit will feel different and I'll maybe struggle to alternate between the two types. I don't want to take the electronic kit there every week due to the hassle of moving it (though I'd be happy to take it to gigs if we manage to get any eventually). It maybe doesn't help but I've never had lessons on the kit either (I played side drum when I was in the forces to a decent standard), though I could take drum lessons at the same place I go to for guitar lessons, though they use electronic kits there too.
[quote=HOGEPH]I bought myself a Roland TD12 electronic kit a couple of years ago when I got back into playing, (having sold a 75th anniversary Premier Genista kit for peanuts-DOH!)
Great for playing late at night, or rehearsing.
I still ended up buying another acoustic kit for live work. The electronic kits are great, but no substitute for the feel and look of a real kit.
Whats this we're looking at here?
Great for playing late at night, or rehearsing.
I still ended up buying another acoustic kit for live work. The electronic kits are great, but no substitute for the feel and look of a real kit.
Whats this we're looking at here?
That is a Drumcraft Series 8, http://www.drumcraft.com/drumkits8_dc.html?&L=... with mostly Sabian AAX cymbals and a Tama Speed Cobra double pedal.
Gassing Station | Music | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff