# Rubber vs Mylar vs Mesh for e-drums



## xeonblade

I'm looking to buy e-drums and I was wondering which of those give the closest feel to acoustic drums.
I was guessing Mylar because I've read that real drum heads are made from Mylar but I need opinions.


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## ArrowHead

Mesh.

Mylar heads on e-drums do not feel like real drums. They're stiffer, and noisy ass hell.

Trick is, you can put a mesh head on any drum you can put a mylar head on. So buy what you want and change heads.


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## SpaceDock

Mesh rebounds more like a real drum. The rubber pads suck ass, I had a td 6 with all rubber except the snare and it was abysmal.


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## xeonblade

I wanted to buy Alesis USB Studio since it's in my price range (it's 520e here) but it has mylar heads. You're saying I could just put roland V mesh heads (which are 20-30e each) later and chill out?
So, rubber NO, mylar MAYBE (till I get money for mesh) and mesh FOR SURE?

ALSO: Are Alesis SURGE cymbals worth it or should I just go for standard ones (studio kit)? Price difference is 230e just for cymbals as I see which increases the price by 50%.
I've read somewhere people were saying SURGE cymbals feel dead, like if you were hitting real choked cymbal.


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## SpaceDock

You know, the high hat pedals are a big prob with these as well.


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## xeonblade

SpaceDock said:


> You know, the high hat pedals are a big prob with these as well.



Hardware breaking down or hard to setup? Because I've asked a guy that have that exact kit and he said it was just pain to setup the Hi-hat to work properly.


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## SpaceDock

The open/close function on my set was not very accurate. It made doing any intricate hi hat work near impossible.


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## xeonblade

SpaceDock said:


> The open/close function on my set was not very accurate. It made doing any intricate hi hat work near impossible.



Did u try spending a lot of time fiddling with module to make it work somehow or it's hardware fault for sure?


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## ArrowHead

I have an alesis USB studio kit - no problems with the hi-hat pedal at all.

And yes, you can put mesh heads on it. Not just roland heads at $30 a pop. I buy my own mesh heads from an ebay user who sells them for around $9 a pop.

The whole thing with the mesh heads is that Roland has a patent on the mesh head/cone sensor setup. So no other manufacturer can ship mesh heads on their kits without paying Roland to do so.


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## xeonblade

ArrowHead said:


> I have an alesis USB studio kit - no problems with the hi-hat pedal at all.
> 
> And yes, you can put mesh heads on it. Not just roland heads at $30 a pop. I buy my own mesh heads from an ebay user who sells them for around $9 a pop.
> 
> The whole thing with the mesh heads is that Roland has a patent on the mesh head/cone sensor setup. So no other manufacturer can ship mesh heads on their kits without paying Roland to do so.



How do cymbals feel? And, it will be good if I just replace mylar with mesh with that roland heads (cause local shop have only those mesh heads and I've tried them on TD-8 yesterday, they feel nice)? It's just replacing heads or I have to move the sensor?


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## ArrowHead

When I swapped my heads, I replaced the heads, replaced a piece of foam inside the drum with a larger better piece (came with the heads via ebay) and re-arranged the order of the pieces inside.) Sounds 1000X more complex than it really it - took all of 20 minutes to change out the heads on all 5 drums.

As for the roland heads, all mesh heads feel pretty good. The biggest difference is 1 vs 2 ply. I use 2 ply. Again - Roland is a scam. They're sitting on the patents so they're the only ones who can sell the heads. Thus they overprice them. My own heads are made out of a screen door type material, they play and feel great, and it was $55 for all 5 heads and foam. With the roland heads, you'll be spending $200, and that doesn't even include the foam.

If you're interested PM me and I'll give you a link to the ebay user selling the mesh heads. Also, head over to DMDrummer.com, there's a lot of info over there including many videos and step by step tutorials on how to change out the heads on the Alesis kits.

As for the cymbals, they're great. I prefer the feel and response of the metal Surge cymbals, however the noise levels were awfully loud and NOT apartment friendly. Now I have the rubbery style DM pads like the photo above. A little stiffer feeling, but still very playable and much much much less noisy.


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## ArrowHead

That goes for anyone else too. PM me for the auctioneer that sells the mesh heads inexpensively. I don't want to post it because 

a) I don't want to seem like I'm spamming. I don't know the guy, I'm just a happy customer

b) I don't want his name to become TOO common knowledge, because I fear if Roland gets wind they'll shut him down or force him to pay a license fee.


Just send me a PM.


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## Rev2010

ArrowHead said:


> When I swapped my heads, I replaced the heads, replaced a piece of foam inside the drum with a larger better piece (came with the heads via ebay) and re-arranged the order of the pieces inside.) Sounds 1000X more complex than it really it - took all of 20 minutes to change out the heads on all 5 drums.



This is the one thing you do need to do if you switch the Alesis pads to mesh, because if you don't you can crack the piezo sensors due to their positioning and the extra flex of mesh.

I have an Alesis kit too (DM10 Pro kit) and used to own a Roland kit I built up with all mesh Roland pads, except the kick, Roland cymbals including the 3-zone ride, and TD6 module - all triggering DFH Superior (now Superior Drummer). The Alesis kit cost a lot less and the pads have mylar heads which my drummer said he liked, but I think the mesh is better. Also, the Mylar Alesis heads are LOUD!!! That and the Surge cymbals are incredibly loud as well. At this point I really wish I had another Roland kit instead.

There are several other issues I have with the Alesis kit:

It takes a ton of tweaking to find the crosstalk (etc) sweetspots, I had things working flawlessly with a lot less work on my last Roland kit, and the kit is in the same place in my house as before on carpet.

I simply can NOT keep my Ride cymbal clamped down, not even ever so gently, I had to fully remove the screw on top piece because any pressure whatsoever caused tons of bell mis-triggering

They don't update their product at all - no new firmware to fix bugs or add any features for years now, even though they told me they would fix a bug I have in a new firmware (again, years ago) and they also came out with revised kit editions. They also never came out with any more than one (crappy) sound expansion even though they proudly advertised it as the "worlds first drum module that allows new sample sets to be loaded". And the unit only has 128megs of space to overwrite anyway!

Personally, I now seriously dislike Alesis and have sworn off their products.


Rev.


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## xeonblade

I would use Alesis IO which is just midi to usb so I don't need any space or anything.
I'm aware that you need to take a few hours to set it up how you want.
I just don't have 1000e to afford a roland.


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## Rev2010

xeonblade said:


> I would use Alesis IO which is just midi to usb so I don't need any space or anything.
> I'm aware that you need to take a few hours to set it up how you want.
> I just don't have 1000e to afford a roland.



My point was that I would still choose a rubber pad Roland or Yamaha kit over the Alesis DM10 Pro kit I own.  The Alesis kit gets waaaay too many noise complaints, my drummer can't play it without tons of complaints from the upstairs family members - never was a problem ever with the Roland kit, and I did start with a rubber pad Roland kit.


Rev.


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## xeonblade

Rev2010 said:


> My point was that I would still choose a rubber pad Roland or Yamaha kit over the Alesis DM10 Pro kit I own.  The Alesis kit gets waaaay too many noise complaints, my drummer can't play it without tons of complaints from the upstairs family members - never was a problem ever with the Roland kit, and I did start with a rubber pad Roland kit.
> 
> 
> Rev.



Already said that I'd spend 100ish euros on mesh pads which brings me into 600e range even with all heads replaced.


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## thewildturkey

Mesh heads are easily the closest thing. I currently own all 3 types, and I love the mesh.

I use a kit called "traps" drum kits, they are real sized, but no shells, with mesh heads and d drum triggers. I also have the new Zildjian gen16 AE cymbals. The this combo is the closest thing you can get to legit drums, without being to noisy. The AE cymbals are deff louder than rubbers, if it is too loud, pintech ecymbals are not bad, but nothing at all like a real cymbal.


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## xeonblade

So I could try buying e-cymbals and real drum shells and replace heads with mesh and triggers? Sounds interesting, but where will I find 18, 20 or 22" mesh head for bass drum?

EDIT: Just came up with a retarded idea: Buy pearl export 8", 10", 12", 14" toms and 22" kick, cut them in half (since they have lugs just near the head, not over whole shell), put mesh heads and triggers and make 2 sets out of that.
I mean this:



, not like this





Something like this:


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## Pedrojoca

xeonblade said:


> So I could try buying e-cymbals and real drum shells and replace heads with mesh and triggers? Sounds interesting, but where will I find 18, 20 or 22" mesh head for bass drum?
> 
> EDIT: Just came up with a retarded idea: Buy pearl export 8", 10", 12", 14" toms and 22" kick, cut them in half (since they have lugs just near the head, not over whole shell), put mesh heads and triggers and make 2 sets out of that.
> 
> Something like this:



that's actually a pretty great idea


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## xeonblade

Oh well, in that case one 12", one 14" and one 10" toms would be enough 
1 half of 12" for "snare", other half for high floor tom
1 half of 14" for "bass" drum, other half for floor tom
2 halves of 10" for tom1 and tom2


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## xeonblade

Well, I did a quick calculation and it turned out to cost me around 1500e for a triggered set with mesh heads. NOTHING TO DO HERE! (that's with Roland hi hat pedal, triggers and mesh heads)


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