Drum kit upgrade

Over the last couple of weeks I've been buying Roland drums, a cymbal and a TD17 module to upgrade Shelley's drum kit.

I had a few setbacks. The cables that came with the module were for a partially digital setup, so they did not have the full analogue output that I needed. I've had to buy a spider cable from a TD9 to get everything working. The ride pedal that we had was incompatible with the Roland setup, so I also had to buy one of those.

Shelley's been so happy with the new setup.

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Roland PDX-8 Drum with DD516 Kit

I did a lot of hunting on the Internet to find out if the Roland V Drum PDX-8 would work with the electronic drum module that comes with the WHD 516-Pro (DD516) kit.

There was no information that I could find but gear4music very kindly tried it out for me and confirmed.  Everyone I have spoken to there has been very enthusiastic and helpful. 

For anyone else who wants to mix and match drums I can also confirm that the Roland PDX-8 drum does work with the DD516 module.  Including the rim shot.

I did have to adjust the Threshold setting to avoid getting the rim sound instead of the drum sound but that was easy.

I initially set the Threshold for the snare up to 15 which completely eliminates accidental rim shot sounds.  Unfortunately this also made it difficult to do fast drum rolls.  I found 13 was the optimal setting.  For the avoidance of doubt, this is not the sensitivity setting which just determines how loud the noise is based on the velocity it is struck at.


Mounting The Roland Drum

The Roland drum uses a slightly larger metal post to mount on to.  The ones with the DD516 are too small.  I bought a Roland bracket to suit from eBay.  Not just the metal bit but the plastic clamp as well because the size of the other end that fixes to the clamp is also different.  Fortunately the racks are standard 1.5 inch diameter so the clamp fits the rack.

Looking at other e-bay sites there are two sizes of drum mounting post.  The Gibraltar racks have a choice of just over 10mm and just over 12mm sizes.  I found it difficult to measure what I had because those sizes must refer to the diameter of the knurled section which is a bit larger than the metal rod.  The Roland drums fit the 12mm size and the DD516 drums use the 10mm size.


Roland PDX-8 Drum

This drum has an overall size of just over 10" with a mesh head about 8" diameter.  Shelley says the mesh head is just like playing an acoustic drum.  She is very impressed.

The budget DD516-Pro (or WHD 516-Pro) is very good value and the module is all that she needs but the more expensive Roland drum has a better feel and response when playing.

The DD516 module has an extra socket for an additional tom. Shelley now has a snare, 4 toms, kick, hi-hat, crash and ride. One spare crash socket still unused... :-)

Pimp My Drums

Actually pimp Shelley's drums.

Black rack from e-bay with the original drum mountings sprayed black to match.

Added an iPod holder next to the controller.  Modified from an in-car mount.  Plus, as you can see, the skull theme.  These are cotton printed bandanas from http://www.bandana-world.com/ and there is also a massive choice on ebay.

Gear4Music DR-30 Drum Monitor Amp Review

I was a little sceptical about buying a low cost amplifier to use with the electronic drums.  I had read that drums need a very wide range from low to high frequency responses.  I had already tried putting them through my normal home stereo but that was not good enough, rubbish would be a better description.  The sound of the sticks on the plastic can be heard clearly instead of the drum voices.

Headphones sound excellent with all the drum sounds clear and they completely blot out the tap of stick on plastic that everyone else can hear but for the odd jamming session we needed to be able to hear the drums out loud.

Having looked a lot on the Internet there was very little choice in lower cost dedicated drum amps.  PA systems were not much different and most active speakers are a bit small to get a decent base sound.

The Gear4Music (SubZero) DR-30 drum amp description was exactly what I was looking for but it was advertised at less than £100 and there was nothing similar at that sort of price.  The rest with a similar spec, like the Roland PM-10 were all over £200.

For the few times it was going to be used it was worth taking a chance on.  It arrived today and I am very pleasantly surprised.  The drums come out very clearly and the two volume controls allow mixing the background tracks with the drum sounds to whatever you desire.

It is even much louder than we will ever need for our small rooms.  It allows you to play the drums without headphones and they sound like drums.  It is very sturdy, has feet on two sides and most importantly has a good deep base sound as well as clarity.

My only surprise is how big it is.  I neglected to check the dimensions and it is about twice the size and weight that I expected.

Not sure how I expected them to fit a 10" speaker in a smaller box. 

I have nothing more expensive to compare it to but for the purpose it was intended it works very well.  If you want a low cost drum monitor amp I would thoroughly recommend the Gear4Music DR-30 (now branded SubZero DR-30.)

That's Min by the way assisting with drum practice.

Electronic Drum Monitor Amps

Very quick comment.  Drums like Electric Keyboards need high quality sound amplification.  Guitar amps are low quality and not appropriate.

Headphones, no matter how low cost, are likely to sound much better than any amp.

Electronic drums are therefore best used with expensive PA or Keyboard amps or dedictaed drum amps which have good low to high ranges.

Electronic Drums

In my search for a fun present for Shelley I have been looking at Electronic Drums.

I didn't know how much they would get used so I looked at the budget options. Here are some of the reviews:

http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/drums/electronic-drum-kits-6-best-beginner-sets-in-the-world-today-177956#!1
http://www.musicradar.com/gear/all/drums/electronic-drums/electronic-drum-kits/whd-dd516-pro-electronic-drum-kit-495228/review

The set I bought Shelley were: http://www.gear4music.com/Drums-and-Percussion/WHD-516-Pro-Electronic-Drum-Kit/EV7

This appears to be manufactured by  http://www.medeli.com.hk and branded by several suppliers.  The models in the range are the DD501, DD502 and DD505 and the above DD516.  Others brands for the same items are, Session Pro, Techtonic, Technote and Medeli.

The various brands of the same kit are all available on ebay.

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Edit: Shelley liked them so much we have added better quality individual drums to her set. She likes the Roland drums.