Hi guys,
First post here!
I'm in a bit of a problem which drumset to choose,
I've been looking around for electronic drumsets, so far I've spend about 1 day researching online, about which drumsets are available and how much they cost.
Ofcourse I love the Roland with their meshed pads, but I don't have the budget to spend nearly $1000 on an electronic drum set. (I read about mesh conversion kits, and will probably read up more on this the coming days).
I mainly am searching for a drum to trigger drum software on my computer, and use it to rehearse my drum skills. Nothing fancy.
In fact, I don't care at all about the internal drum samples, as I plan only to use external ones!
About 5 years ago, the landscape of electronic drums was totally different.
I was able to get an electronic drum set for less than $300, little did I know about it back then, but seemingly today all drumsets are touch sensitive, and have dual zone on some (or all) pads.
So, I've been looking around now, and the only ones available for $300 in USA are the ION drumsets, but they don't have a midi out.
It seems ION's older modules (eg: IED05) have MIDI in and out, but they are no longer sold, and the newer modules IED11 and IED12 don't have midi.
I've looked at Yoki, which has midi out, but Yoki as well as Ion Audio's drumsets don't support dualzone pads, which I think is very necessary!
This feat seemingly significantly raised the price (to $599 for a drum with dual zone)
So I looked at the Alesis DM5 Pro, and the DM6; as well as the Yamaha DTXplorer.
I know of Alesis DM5 that it has no dual zone, but I read somewhere that the DM6 has one channel (#4) that supports dual zone...
So more dissapointment for me!
I am actually looking for a module that has at least 2 dualzone inputs, one for the snare (Snare/rimshot), and another for the ride (Ride/Bell).
In fact, I had thought tripple zone pads and modules would be out by now, as I would love to have a ride with 3 sensors (one for the bell, one for mid cymbal, and one for the rim or outter edge).
So far I think the Yamaha DTXplorer is my best shot, as it supports 3 zone snare, and 2 zone cymbals.
I'm really not fond of Yamaha, and wished Alesis would have created their DM6 with a single 3 zone and a single dual zone input.
What really drew me to Alesis is, that:
1- it's not Yamaha, and
2- Even without hearing the samples, I can already imagine Alesis to sound better than Yamaha. I've really never been fond of Yamaha's sterile sound on nearly ALL their instruments, so I won't be surprised if this drumset would sound sterile, and not so nice. But that won't matter much when I plug it into my drum software. (for those who want to know I'm probably going for Kore's Pop drums, and Abbey Road '80's drum kit.)
3- It has a MIDI over USB, which is interesting, because then I won't need to purchase an external midi soundcard!
I really don't care about zones for the toms, hihat and kick, as I won't be using more than the basic setting.
So I read that the Yamaha DTXplorer set of 599 has a module supporting the multizone pads, but now I need to find the hardware (cymbal and snare).
Since I'm so fond of Roland (but they are too expensive), I was thinking I could get a Roland mesh snare (8" is good enough for me), and a 3 zone cymbal somewhere.
But here are some issues:
1- I've read somewhere that Roland pads are not compatible with the Yamaha module, is that correct?
Some people are saying that the signal of certain pads are too hot, causing you to have to drum very softly, or too cold, causing you to have to slam too hard on the pads, to get a normal sound. Is that a verified issue?
2- Can I plug a 3 zone cymbal (and which brand/type) into the 3zone snare input, and use the 2 zone cymbal input for snare? In other words, can I change the software in the module to fit my setup, or is the 3zone (for snare) input only meant to plug a snare pad into it?
Sorry for the long question, and thank you for your help!
