Acoustic to Electronic Drum Kit Conversion Project...

cobbler

cobbler

Fractal Fanatic
I recently moved and am in the process of transforming a room in to a man cave toy room. I have all the guitars I need for now. A shiny new Axe XL just got delivered so I will soon be putting the Axe II mk1 on the market. A Mac Pro is in transit to control all the computing requirements. I have a couple keyboards that handle my merger needs in that area. The only thing I was missing was a drum kit.

With that said, I didn't want to piss off my NEW neighbors with an obnoxious acoustic kit so I decided to look at the available E-Kits on the market. After doing just a little research I realized there is a large range of kits available and their prices vary accordingly. Of course being the spoiled brat I am I wanted one of the two top Roland kits. (TD30K, TD30KV) I was shocked at the prices being upwards of 5K and 7K. I know you are paying a lot of that for the brain but still. So that option was out. Also, they just look odd to me. I guess I am old school to the heart.

So I got to talking with fellow forum members Big Joe Daddy and UnsungHeroGuitars since I knew they converted their acoustic kits to E-Kits. After hearing them talk about the process and seeing the results I decided this was the way to go. Not only would I have a traditional looking kit but I would also have the future expandability that comes with software advances and the knowledge acquired during the building process. Also, the total cost of parts was half of the Roland TD30k kit. A no brainer for me. Of course it's far beyond plug and play but I enjoy projects like this so in to the deep end I jumped.

h4CS2Ky.jpg


The parts:

PDP Concept Maple 5 piece shell kit. (Transparent Cherry)
PDP series 8.155 hardware pack
Extreme Drums triggers
Remo mesh heads (though only really needed on the batter head I am going to replace the resonant head as well for more silence)
Pintech Visulite Cymbals Red (1-hi hat, 2-crash, 1-ride)
Ddrum DDTi trigger to MIDI USB interface
Custom kick drum cover (those who know me and my hockey fan-ship will love this :))
Superior Drummer 2

note: Scott Peterson turned me on to the PDP kits and the great reviews they are getting at their cost point. They are the asian version of DW drums and have the same hardware which was my determining factor since the sounds would come from triggered software. I am very pleased with the choice!

Did I mention the total cost was half the Roland TD30K? :)

The kit and parts laid out and ready to be worked on:

rWaiCMr.jpg


On to the trigger and head installs so...

Stay tuned.
 
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This will be a fun process to watch unfold and very informative.

Go Cobbler!!!!!!!!!!! ;)
 
My Drummer did this with a vintage ludwig kit, and while it took some tweaking and has the occasional issues(he beats the hell out of them)...it's been been well worth it and sounds amazing.
People are always trying to figure out how he sounds so good with no visible mic's. And my ears don't miss his cymbals. Good luck and go Hawks (chicago transplant).
 
Not only are you doing this with well founded justification and a clear objective Craig, you're also doing it with style!

Am enjoying sharing the ride
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I'll be watching your progress. I really liked everything I saw about the TD-30KV and so far I've been really happy with the investment, but they are really overpriced. I'm going to eventually get an acoustic set and DW was the brand I was leaning towards. Now you've gotten me really interested in PDP.
 
Serendipity. I was just discussing the benefits of e-kits for live use (again) with bandmates last night, and they made the point that they just look kinda' lame and take away from the atmosphere of a rock show for the audience. It was a good point, and I suggested doing pretty much exactly what you're doing.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep this thread going. I want to forward them to it to see how well it can turn out :D
 
Hi Graig,
If You experience problems with the latency, when connecting to the host, take a look at the Drumit5 Module from 2box. It's very affordable and has the lowest Latency of ALL drum modules on the market (Maybe the new TD30k has a little less, but even the most expensive Yamaha modules can't mess with it. And the trigger consistency and feeling is absolutely High End class. ....Have fun, man!

Cheerio,
Andy from Red Bull Country
 
luke said:
Kinda like ditching your half stack and having only CLR wedge and a 2sp rack bag.

98AE7D25-C5C1-4392-B612-A9E84B9215C6_zps3guy2irb.jpg
Click to expand...

Actually, yeah, exactly like that.
...and if I had the tour support to have a wall of empty Mesa OS Recto cabs behind me, I would.
Don't get me wrong, I'm in the e-kit camp 100% and firmly believe their benefits far outweigh not having a pair of bass drums & some floating brass. But a show is exactly that. If i could get more people to have a good time with those empty mesa cabs and running direct with a POD, I would do that too.
...eh, well, maybe I wouldn't, but you get my point.
 
Rotti said:
Serendipity. I was just discussing the benefits of e-kits for live use (again) with bandmates last night, and they made the point that they just look kinda' lame and take away from the atmosphere of a rock show for the audience. It was a good point, and I suggested doing pretty much exactly what you're doing.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep this thread going. I want to forward them to it to see how well it can turn out :D
Click to expand...

I will keep it going through the completion of the project. Putting it all together is the simple part. The programming is what will be time consuming.

My inspiration, as stated, came from Big Joe Daddy and UnsungHeroGuitars and I am definitely piggybacking off of their trial and error experiences. They have been remarkable in their willingness to share with little ole me. They went with different cymbals (Alesis Surge) for a more authentic look for stage use. I chose the Pintech Visulite acrylic colored cymbals as a compromise between the "authentic" brass look and the rubber frisbees seen on a lot of e-kits. I made that choice based on the silent factor. They will look cool in my humble room regardless. I'll post pics when I get to them.

Here is a thread where some of this was discussed and UnsungHeroGuitars posted pics of his sweet setup:

http://forum.fractalaudio.com/lounge/92047-how-do-you-get-your-drums.html
 
I'm actually interested in this as well! Not really a drummer, but wanting to learn some as well as my kiddo and I think e-kits are the way to go for us. I need to start doing research on some kits just to see what would be best for us. I agree, keep the thread going!
 
Very cool. I've been playing Roland eDrums for years (TD-7, TD-20,TD-30).

They work great except the hi-hat : not at all like the real thing even with the new VH-13. Try a closed strike and gradual open. It doesn't do what you expect. I also get some machine-gun effect with the snare.

How do you guys like superior drummer? Does it play well live (see above)?

I've captured MIDI from the TD-30 and used NI Studio Drummer which seems to have more round-robin samples to help with the snare. Haven't tried it live though.



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I have used all the NI Plugins (Studio, Abbey Road, Battery, etc.) as well as EZ Drummer. I like them all for different reasons, but I generally stick to the onboard sounds in the TD-30 while playing and just record a midi track to use later with whatever plugins suit me. EZ Drummer is definitely more user friendly for quick assembly of loops/parts, but I still prefer just coming up with a part on an actual kit. My long term plan is to get a regular acoustic kit and then buy the triggers although I haven't decided on which kind yet. Those extreme triggers look pretty appealing.
 
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