It's not GONE... maybe diminished? Case in point...
I figured I would try my hands a drums around the first of the year. After a little research, I decided on an Alesis Nitro Mesh kit. I figured E-Drums would save my marriage and friendships with my neighbors versus an acoustic kit...
I received my package January 20th of this year.
Thats like... 70(ish) days ago.
Since then I have:
(1) Bought and added a 10" Snare from the Surge kit. I moved Tom 2 to Tom 4 and the 8" snare to Tom 2 to use the rim...
(2) Bought and added a 14" Strike 3-zone snare... that I learned (the hard way) only works with 1-zone on my Alesis Nitro Kit. Oh well... I got it for a decent price ($99) and maybe I will be able to use it to it's full potential when I upgrade (I am already looking seriously at a Crimson II kit)...
(3) I was disappointed to see so few "bell" options out there... so I made my own. I bought plastic 2-bell gizmo from Amazon... I added a piezo to the inside top of the bell, ran the wire out the back... filled the bell with spray foam... then covered the top of the bell with 1/8" Neoprene Rubber. I also made caps out of the rubber so as to not see the foam inside. It works fantastic! My first attempt didn't come out as visually appealing... I figured I would do the exact same, but rather than use the neoprene rubber, I would coat the whole bell with "Flex Seal"... not the best idea. Messy and while it WORKS, it's pretty damn ugly. It's much better just sticking with the plastic then using the neoprene rubber for the "pad" at the top. I made a thick rubber washer for each to isolate the vibrations as well... works great! I can hit each trigger next to each other and not hear the other.... you can see in the video below the purple "bell"... that's the end result. The black ugly thing next to it is the Flex-Seal attempt... that was a yellow colored bell. I will probably replace that eventually with a wood block trigger of some sort (I like making triggers of what sound I want from them).
(4) Being as disappointed that I could not get the bell sound from that 3-zone ride on this kit, I decided to take things in my own hand. I'm NEARLY DONE with this one... should be tonight. I picked up a 4" cymbal (2 actually) from a Chinese vendor on Amazon... the plan is to cover one in neoprene rubber, add a piezo to the bottom... run the wire down the through the ride cymbals center post... and then using a foam washer to isolate it from the cymbal, I plan on stacking it on top of the ride... giving the pad a "ride bell" sound... so I will have my bell! I've already tested it out and it works great... just waiting for the glue to dry on the neoprene rubber pad, etc.
...and I am just getting started.
Anyway... here is a video of my drumming (at 62 days total) ... note the purple "bell"... I play it a little toward the middle-end...
https://youtu.be/QyNGJUsR2fcI'll post the results of my cymbal ride idea tonight when I get it completed.