# E-kit for ~$1000. Need suggestions/recommendations



## templton89 (Dec 3, 2010)

I hate programming drums and so does my friend who was actually playing drums in a band for a while, so we decided that he will get an e-kit and I will get monitors and s2.0 and will hook it all up for home recording.

I've seen similar threads on other forums, but most of the info is somewhat dated, and a lot of people seem to use sound libraries that actually come with the kit. So I thought I'd ask here because a lot of people on here fancy superior drummer and record using similar methods.

The budget is pretty limited, we are not looking for the cheapest $200 solution (something that would suck as bad as rockband drums) but also not looking for a pro-setup that would be used professionally, simply because it's for home use only. 

I've seen some great videos on youtube, where people use mesh-based heads and multiple sounds can be mapped to a single drum, but their kits are way out of my price range (~3-4k) and I'm not sure we need all that. 
We are looking for something that's responsive and practical. It would be nice to have brush/rim/hit sounds on a single snare, but from what I see that wont happen with anything that's not mesh. correct me if i got it wrong.

Are there alternative technologies? Or maybe DIY solutions (I've seen some diy mesh heads). Getting a used kit is an option, but since I'm completely new to this stuff, what should i look for on a used kit, anything I should watch out for?
Any recommendations or thoughts would be much appreciated


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## TimSE (Dec 3, 2010)

Alesis DM10 Pro/Studio if your budget can stretch to them. i sell them at my work and theyr wicked


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## templton89 (Dec 3, 2010)

we can probably stretch the budget to 1200, but only if it's something that is mind blowing compared to another product for 1000.

DM10 studio looks like pretty good based on specs, we would need something that pretty quiet, so definitely cant go with Pro version


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## TimSE (Dec 3, 2010)

They are. My fav thing is you can download onto and off them (drumkit from hell samples for example, or your own.


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## templton89 (Dec 3, 2010)

what I'm planning to do (i assume thats what most people do anyway) is using s2.0 for monitoring while we jam but record only the midi notes so I could change the sound in a any way i want later on.

Another question just came up - most of these e-kit have only one pedal for bass drum, could we buy some extension to turn it in double bass?


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## TimSE (Dec 3, 2010)

this kit doesnt come with a kick pedal. kits at this level are for players who would already have their own kick pedals. you would want to set it up with your drummers kick pedal

EDIT: I love saying Kick pedal


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## templton89 (Dec 3, 2010)

im a tard. i thought the pedal has to be a specific e-type lol
so any kick pedal would do? sweeeet!


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## TimSE (Dec 3, 2010)

templton89 said:


> im a tard. i thought the pedal has to be a specific e-type lol
> so any kick pedal would do? sweeeet!



Yep


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## SYLrules88 (Dec 3, 2010)

and several companies sell kick pads that are big enough to accomodate two beaters. i dont know if most/all e kits come with kick pads of those size, but the e kit my friend bought 9 years ago didnt. if you did have to buy a bigger kick pad, dont get the yamaha one. it doesnt cost much but im having trouble with it reading all the hits with my left foot at the same volume. ive moved the beaters on the pedal as close as i can and ive got them both hitting as centered as i can, but i think the pad isnt quite large enough actually. id look for the roland one with the large mesh pad. seems like that would give better response anyway. i HATE the feel of rubber pads.

Tim i might look into the kit you recommended. im using my friends old roland V drum kit (i forget the model number) and the sounds overall just really arent that good. and theres actually a small bit of latency in the brain


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## templton89 (Dec 3, 2010)

Yea I'm looking at some more DM10 videos, mods, construction etc and have another question - is it true that most e-kits need maintenance every few weeks? such as replacing foam pads etc?

good news is that a friend of mine works for some online store and could get it from a dealer at a good price


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## guitarplayerone (Dec 10, 2010)

DIY your edrums and get an Alesis I/O or megadrum... will be nice and realistic, feel nice, and much cheaper.

if you are triggering S2.0 you really don't need a module, it's a waste of money


DIY EDRUM LINKS... Here's the place to share your links. - vdrums.com forum



Snare & Toms

essentially what is done is you purchase rack toms and slice them in half, and either make mesh heads or put mesh heads on them. there's a lot more to it, all of the information is in the links, especially Vdrums.com.

commonly cymbals are converted from pintech practice cymbals, but you can always buy cymbals as well, it would run you $200-250 to outfit a whole kit. you can also buy the real pintech cymbals too, or multi-zone cymbals which are also chokeable (more expensive progressively).

the most expensive part of all of these DIY ekits is always the module, being that a 10" tom on ebay seems to go for about $30-40 plus shipping and one tom gives you two e-toms.

the cymbals you can buy or make, depends on your preferences.

but i've looked into this and it seems the overall cost for a kit of this sort would be around $6-700 max including an alesis trigger I/O. I've done a bit of research, and I know that for my needs (just triggering s2.0, want lots of drums and cymbals for 'metal' drumming setup, want as realistic of a feel as possible for drummer) and price range, this is what I'd go with If you wanted to, you could either build a giant metal kit with two-or-three-zone triggering on all cymbals (that you buy) with no brain (all S2.0 only), or build the same ekit as i have described with an old TD-12 or even TD-20 module, for the top-of-the-line roland module.

have you considered taking your friend's acoustic set and temporarily triggering it to make an Ekit? You don't even need to use DDrum triggers, you can just use or buy mesh heads and use the "cake pan" method for a drop-in acoustic to electric conversion; The cymbals would need to be bought, but they can quite easily be made, even a moving hi-hat using a slide potentiometer hooked up to your real hi-hat pedal. After that you either need an alesis I/O or you can even plug those triggers directly into your interface if you have one. Granted you would be somewhat limited in the number of channels if you have limited I/O but it is another possibility. Even with a MIDI I/O, however, triggering existing drums should cost you much less than buying a full edrum kit with a brain, or DIYing a kit and needing to buy hardware. You don't need to chop toms in half, this just saves money for those of us buying acoustic drums specifically for the purpose of converting them to edrums. (Plus it makes the drums look like high-end roland TD20 pads, which is essentially exactly what they become)

enjoy (researching those links are the reason why I haven't been on this site in months) 

one example of a DIY result from that site gallery


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## JP Universe (Dec 10, 2010)

I got the DM10 studio last week and attest to it's awesomeness for the price. I prefer it to my friends TD6 V drums (it has rubber pads though)


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## templton89 (Dec 17, 2010)

guitarplayerone thanks for awesome info.

we figured that md10 module could be useful as well, I've heard some samples and they sound pretty damn good. obviously SD2.0 gives me the ability to EQ, compress and mix drums in post, but having more options with module wont hurt


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## iron blast (Dec 17, 2010)

the allesis usb pro kit is the same as the dm10 but with the allesis tmi instead of the dm 10 module wich saves you almost 1000 dollars and you can use superrior drummer with it. 
They have some on ebay still


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