Author Topic: Laurin drums  (Read 5541 times)

Laurin drums
« on: June 15, 2017, 09:12:36 PM »
Hello fellow drummers
I was thinking about replacing all the pads on my dm10x with laurin drums but I always seek insight before major purchases like this so anyone with laurin drums stories good or bad I would like to hear

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2017, 08:51:57 AM »
Hi, I replaced my snare on my DM10x with a Laurin one. Really pleased with the quality and sensivity of the snare. Even thought about changing all my toms but would end up costing about 800$ and I was not sure if I wanted to wait for the strike pro instead.  Still thinking about it though after the not so good reviews on the strike.

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2017, 09:37:50 AM »
yeah i was even looking at that and maybe even going the td-30 or td 50 route since the pro is not proven yet but the laurin drums on a rack setup would look awesome

Offline AlanK

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2017, 02:03:45 PM »
can't type alot, just had carpal surgery.. but if you search out Laurin Drums you'll get at least 6 posts of mine describing my satisfaction
DM10X with Addictive Drums 2, Pro X hi-hat, 4 crashes, foam cone conversion w Roland mesh heads, Laurin Drums snare and kick, Mapex P710W double kick pedal, Mapex 2 legged hi-hat, Behringer 8 channel USB mixer, Tascam 144MK AI, Samson Expedition Escape powered speakers

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2017, 10:12:33 PM »
i think the full tom and snare look of the laurin drums is sick. It takes away from the traditional edrum look but as most drummers I come from an acoustic set background and without paying thousands for the roland flagship setup the full laurin setup seems pretty legit.

BTW... I must admit that the Roland KD-A22 does look pretty snazzy under a full rack and tom setup!!!

Offline Mr.J.

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2017, 08:09:24 AM »
Hi

I ordered up a 12 inch tom from Laurin. It was a bit of a gamble as I had not seen one in person nor had I heard one either.

I used my new 12 tom for one practice session and then promptly ordered a second one. Eventually  I will convert my whole kit to Laurin. They are sweet and the play-ability is fantastic.

So far so good, the jury is still out on long term playing.

Offline AlanK

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2017, 09:19:22 AM »
I've had my Laurins for a couple years now and they're still like new (I'm not a basher, though).. love them
DM10X with Addictive Drums 2, Pro X hi-hat, 4 crashes, foam cone conversion w Roland mesh heads, Laurin Drums snare and kick, Mapex P710W double kick pedal, Mapex 2 legged hi-hat, Behringer 8 channel USB mixer, Tascam 144MK AI, Samson Expedition Escape powered speakers

Offline Rmiller

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2017, 09:57:40 AM »
I have 2 10"s, 3 12"s and bass drum. I changed all the hardware to chrome (gibraltar) on rack and drums and got the white heads. I have not been disappointed. I also got a bent angle tube for the left side of the rack which allows for more room with the hihat stand and module. I took the laurin bass drum mount, cut it down at the front extension, had it powder coated and added 2 sets of detachable spurs. It stays put. I painted the cymbals as you can see and went back to the Alesis ride which is not shown in the pic. The one in the pic is just too loud for me. Also not shown in the pic, is I added a pintech cymbal replacement pad to the hihat cymbals (modified Sabians with jman's triggers) which is working well. I am using the ProX controller but its ok. I will get a different controller one day when I change the module and it supports dual zone on the hihat. I really like the roland hithat stuff (not sure which one would work with what module) but they are all little pricey. I wish they just made a good controller. I use a MacBook computer with AD2 as well as some of the module kits. With AD2 and the Laurin bass drum I do have occasional issues with it being overly sensitive. It will double trigger, first when you strike it then again as the beater is coming off the head. Only happens with certain AD2 bass drums. I also use a separate cymbal stand for the ride and a heavy duty snare stand. All pedal are Speed Cobras. As for the sample pad, I mainly use it for cowbell and to trigger fx samples as well as start/stop record in Logic Pro X (on laptop). Been contemplating the Mimic Pro (expensive) or just wait and see if Alesis starts selling the strike module. Recently I saw where you can load AD2 kits directly into the Stike module on an SD card and play them without the laptop. I really like that feature. To me thats a game changer as well as all the outputs.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2017, 11:25:37 AM by Rmiller »

Offline AlanK

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2017, 01:40:56 PM »
Wow, very cool setup. I really like that curved tube add-on. And the paint job on the cymbals is fantastic. Before Alesis came out with the Strike kits, I'd been considering doing as you did, buy more Laurins to make my kit look big. I'd almost bought some more Hart Dynamics (I have a snare at a friend's place, it looks just like a real one without the snare latch). I just have to decide if I want to eventually upgrade to the Strike Pro or if not, I may buy another pair of Laurin toms (or someday maybe try an acoustic conversion).

I also found their kick mount contraption to be a bit overdone but I guess that it's rock solid on the ground. I've always found it difficult to get the right placement of the kick drum/pedal within an ekit frame.. the front right post seems to really limit where it'll fit comfortably. Then when I found a decent spot (the post sits in between two of the kick base's feet), then it started tapping against the lower cross post. So I've removed the second crossbar on my frame in front, don't really need it and gives the kick drum more room for me to place it where it feels right.

I think I've had that same double triggering in the kick! I feel like I fixed it by increasing the threshold setting or the retriggering. I kind of recall getting some kind of quiet ghost triggering as well. Almost as if just the releasing of the pedal with the tension on the spring as it relaxed, the creaking was picked up by the piezo. But its been a while, it may have been something else but I feel like that was the issue. I did have issues with the kick at first, I think the piezo and cone was either too close or too far from where the beater hit so I took the head off and moved it up or down the wooden cross piece inside and it did the trick.

Hey by the way, I'm not a big fan of black mesh or black rims, hardware. I've done all my mesh converts with white, trying to have it look a bit closer to kit with white skins on it. Haven't change the Laurins yet, but I do have the white mesh heads waiting for me to do. Haven't found the rim hardware and lugs etc but someday, that'd make it (to me) look a lot better. I did put an 8" pad on my uppers though for realism.. I was able to split up the pads of this DM10X kit and another smaller kit I bought used so that I'd have two similar setups at home and at my buddy's place with an 8, 10 and two 12" toms on each rack.

I'll try to attach my latest setup (had trouble with my last upload..maybe it's going to work today)
ok, attachment doesn't seem to work for me still (even 512kb file size!) so here's a link if you care:
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Ajl2rS1ucigc0WUk8wuHVEF0t-w1

it's just a onedrive photo I've set to viewable
« Last Edit: October 06, 2017, 01:47:37 PM by AlanK »
DM10X with Addictive Drums 2, Pro X hi-hat, 4 crashes, foam cone conversion w Roland mesh heads, Laurin Drums snare and kick, Mapex P710W double kick pedal, Mapex 2 legged hi-hat, Behringer 8 channel USB mixer, Tascam 144MK AI, Samson Expedition Escape powered speakers

Offline Rmiller

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2017, 02:54:23 PM »
Thanks Alank. You’re setup looks good as well. That curved rack arm allowed me to place a cymbal boom arm and mount at the end post. We are running the same number of pads and cymbals, I just have my last cymbal in the location stated. The strike looks good but even with those fancy trigger setups I don’t know if they play any better ? I am curious about the cymbals playability though. My setup started as a used partial dm10 kit. It had the rack, cymbals, hihat , snake and module for $200. Added throne, pedals, hihat stand, snare and cymbal stand, Lauren drums, chrome hardware and hoops. After all said and done, I have total about $1800 in it. Not including laptop, audio interface, software, amp and monitors etc. I figure if Alesis ever sells the strike module, I guess it would go for $800 to $1000. If I bought one for that it would put me in the $2600 to $2800 ballpark. If you bought a strike pro kit and added throne,pedals, hihat stand, better snare and cymbal stand, chrome rack hardware and an additional cymbal, I think you would be pushing $3400 to $3500. Now if you have the extra stuff and just wanted to change things then the strike pro is definitely the way to go. Since you have everything but the laurin toms, he sells a 4 Tom kit for around $700. All that’s left is the strike module if and when that comes out. That would be a worst case total of $1700 vs $2400. The only question is the difference in playability . All those things that make you go hmm.

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #10 on: October 08, 2017, 05:12:08 PM »
How do the triggers compare?  Does anyone have a picture with the head off?

Offline Mr.J.

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #11 on: October 29, 2017, 11:54:55 AM »
Hey Gang

Since we last spoke I have upgraded all 4 tom to the Laurin and have placed the order for the snare and bass drum to finish off my kit.

Please see http://www.alesisdrummer.com/index.php?topic=7168.0 for my primary reasons doing this. Once you add a Laurin drum to your kit you quickly realize, when compared to the existing drums, just how much of an improvement they really are. My kit is the DM10X Mesh kit. To emphasis this point, I am Canadian which makes the Laurin drums so expensive. For example with the dollar exchange, plus being in the same country I have to pay tax so it makes a $200 drum for me close to $300. Not cheap but for me 100% worth it for even more reasons than what I had brought up in my post above. Play-ability and responsiveness, thus enjoyment of sitting in front of the kit goes way up.

 I didn't do it for how they look but that ends up being a very welcomed side bar. Yes I really like how they look and at first I didn't like the black hardware but it has grown on me. I will post pictures once the new snare and bass drum are in my kit.

A quick over view. They come with an extra L-rod clamp. I thought that was a bit of overkill because the hardware seemed very efficient at keeping the tom in place, however it also has a surprising benefit. It's like a memory lock so if you were to remove your tom this extra clamp stays in its place so that when you put your tom back it is in the exact spot you had it before.

The 1/4 inch plug is at the bottom of the tom. Unfortunately it is located directly in line and below the rod clamp If I had to make a design change I would off set it because now the plug interferes with the hardware, or vise versa so you'll most likely have to change how you l-rod clamps are arranged. These Laurin tom are taller than the original toms so having to re-configure my kit was going to happen anyways but still a pain in the butt.

Quality seems to be there. Note I did have an issue with one of my new toms. I did contact Laurin about it and he immediately offered to send me a new one, no questions asked. I opened this tom up and it turned out to be a loose nut, it works perfect now. As well I removed the rubber rim and saw a very small dent in the rim. So small I may have been told I was nit picking but like I said above these are expensive for me and just look so good that this tiny bend really bugged me. I got a new rim from Laurin in 3 days, again, no questions asked so i am very impressed with the customer service and I have zero concerns should I ever experience an issue in the future.

I do have one sour note and this really does bug me. I wanted white mass heads. The mesh heads were listed at the same price as the black ones however they charged me for the white ones. I find this bad business. Same price should have been a clean one for one swap. I did get the original black mesh head along with the white one I ordered. I guess I can look at it as a back up but that doesn't take away that this leaves a very bad taste for me.

Another note is that the responsiveness of the kit does change so you most likely will find yourself changing things like velocity and sensitivity and other settings on your kit's brain.

That's all for now and I'll get to your questions at sometime.

Offline Mr.J.

Re: Laurin drums
« Reply #12 on: November 05, 2017, 06:59:41 PM »
Hey gang

I got my bass and snare mid last week, kit looks awesome.

Couple of comments.  I was getting really bad double bounces of my beater, had to back off the mesh head tension to eliminate that. I do have a double kick pedal but never set it up with original bass drum but the 12 inch Laurin can handle that no problems.  It came with velcro strips that you can use but I didn't need to use them as the way I have my setup the bass drum is against the right post and isn't moving at all.

I didn't like the the snare response.  I had to really go at it to get anything out of it. However I did realize that was after I tightened the mesh head. I like a lot of bounce and for me a tighter mesh head gives me what I want . By tightening the mesh head I wasn't getting good contact with the piezo,  so I raised the piezo just a tiny bit and I really like it a lot now.

Still making adjustments to get feel/dynamics but overall I am incredibly happy. Still have one change to my kit to make before I post pics.

This has cost me way more than I wanted to spend and other than buyers regret I would do it all over again.