Drum Set Electronic

DrumSetElectronic.com gives you the low-down on all popular electronic drum sets.

What Is An Electronic Drum Set?

From Wikipedia, "An electronic drum is a percussion instrument in which the sound is generated by an electronic waveform generator or sampler instead of by acoustic vibration."

So an electronic drum set is simply one of many percussion instruments just working electronically..

Roland V-Drums TD20

How Do Electronic Drum Sets Work?

When you hit an electronic drum pad, this sends a signal and a change in voltage is detected. These signals are then sent to the electronic "drum brain" and then translated into digital waveforms.

These waveforms  produce the required percussion sound that is assigned to that particular pad. Recent drum models have trigger inputs for a bass drum, atleast2 cymbals, 3-4 tom-toms, a  snare, and a hi-hat. The hi-hat also has a foot pedal attached to it which makes open and closed sounds.

Some of the newer models even have sound variations in between.  Because the pads have the ability to store many different sounds,  the electronic drummer has a vast selection of  different sounding drum kits from just one set of electronic drums.   Also, electronic drummers can sample non-percussive sounds and use them as drum sounds.

This is one of the major advantages that many people consider this to have over acoustic type drums.  You can change the kit selector switch on the module and make your kit sound totally different.  If you want a rock kit, select it.  If you want a jazz kit, you can select that too and it goes on from there.

Modern electronic drum sets have addressed many of the things that were wrong with the earlier models.   Some of the cheaper low-end drums and modules currently being manufactured have quality only slightly better than some of their earlier counterparts.  Generally, these new electronic drum sets are focused toward the beginner or hobbyist.

While each of the following manufacturers have low-end or beginner sets, the professional kits are focused toward creating a playing and sound experience that is almost identical to that of a good acoustic set.  Some examples include Roland's TD-12, the Yamaha DTXtreme IIS, the DDrum4SE, and  Roland TD 20 V-Drum set electronic, with retails prices ranging between $4,195.00 and $6,999.00.  These high-end electronic drum sets usually come with:

• Top Quality Digital Sound- These modules offer options ranging from high quality modeled drum sounds (Roland and Yamaha) to actual 24 bit samples  of actual percussion sounds with hundreds of samples to choose from. Yamaha's DTXtreme IIs even offers the ability to store user-generated samples in the module with up to 8 GB of memory.

• Realistic Hi-Hats- These are mounted on standard hi-hat stands, and allow for actual open and closed foot playing. An electronic module inside the unit detects the movement and provides variations of open, partially open, and closed samples as played, with different sounds assigned to a foot close, and a quick close-open.

• Multiple Triggers- Snares and Toms have impact zones for both the head and the rim called dual-zones.  This allows for rim and cross shots as well as shell tapping. Cymbals handle  zones for bell, bow, and edge strikes.

• Multiple Outputs- These modules have multiple outputs' to the sound board so that each percussion group (i.e. Cymbals, Toms, etc.) can be mixed independent of one another.  In addition, these groups have independent volume faders on the module to fine tune the volume settings for each group.

• Expansion Slots/MIDI Connections- for upgrading software and samples as they are improved, as well as for control of external devices.  A lot of drummers have taken to using their electronic drum kits as controllers for computer based instruments and/or plugins.  The increased processing power provided by this option allows the drummer to use real-time, random samples of professionally recorded drums. This results in phenomenally accurate sound  and, by many accounts, makes it a near identical replacement for drums recorded acoustically.

• Positional Sensing and Dynamic Impact Detection- The module can detect which area of the drum head is struck, and provide a sample that is representative of that strike on an acoustic head.  Also, the timber and volume of the strike is dependent on the speed of the strike.

Filed Under: Drum Set Electronic