Hi all,
Thought it would be nice to start a topic about the conversion that I'm going to do. Ordered everything last monday, so i think that somewhere in december i will have converted my Pearl Vision VBA (and my Pearl Masters BCX double bass kit will move to the practice space). I've been thinking of getting a better electric kit to upgrade my DM10 Studio Kit. I upgraded to mesh heads myself, but triggering has become awful and I just dislike all the 8" pads and the 10" snare pad. I was looking at the Strike Pro since it has real sizes and have read good reviews about it, but still it is a lot of money.
So i started investigating if i could convert an acoustic kit to an electric kit. With triggers that is not a problem, but i wanted cymbals that feel more real. I have a set of Zildjian L80 Low Volume cymbals and found a thread here on how to convert them, but I'm not that technical. So i searched the interwebz and I found a guy in the US that makes triggers and a conversion set for the L80's. To make a long story short; i ordered a set from him and they're on their way. Looking forward to checking these out.
To go into more technical details and what i will use:
Pearl Vision VBA: 22x18, 10x7, 12x8, 14x12, 16x14, 14x5.5 Osan snare
Remo Silent Stroke heads on all the drums. I've cut up some old heads (big hole in the center) to put on the resonant side so there is something on the bearing edge there
DDrum Acoustic Pro triggers on the drums
Zildjian L80: 14" dual zone hihat (top cymbal combined with Goedrum hihat controller on Pearl hihat stand), 16 and 18" crashes dual zone; crash and choke, 20" ride triple zone; bell, bow, edge.
Alesis DM10 Module: to use as trigger interface and to send midi to my laptop. I ordered Superior Drummer 3 to trigger the sounds. I already have Cubase to record etc.
All things considered the conversion will cost roughly the same as a DM10 MKII kit, except way better sounds, real sizes and just looking more awesome. Except if you need to buy a new acoustic kit and hardware; then is conversion is more expensive, but over the years I gathered a lot of spare hardware to mount everything.
I will post pics when I have everything setup!