I have students regularly ask me about electric drums, mostly because they need to practice quietly or they don’t have a lot of space to practice. And in general, that’s how electric drums are thought of. Not to replace acoustic drums, but more as a practice tool. But I think that’s changing with companies like DW and Zildjian offering full-fledged electric drums that look and feel like acoustic ones.
And a big feature of electric drums is the variety of drum and cymbal sounds that are included, as well as percussion samples and sound effects. And depending on the drum set you get, you can customize those sounds and even import your own.
For what it’s worth, I’ve always thought of electric and acoustic drum sets as different instruments, much like electric guitar and acoustic guitar. I think the human ear can tell the difference between the dynamics of a press roll moved around the surface of an acoustic drum and that same press roll triggering a pre-recorded sound on electric drums. But with improving technology, multiple trigger zones and sampled sound variations, that may change in the future.
So, if you’re in the market for an electric drum set, here are some things to consider. You can obviously get drum sets at a varying price tag, anywhere from say $500 to $8,000. And depending on how much you want to spend, that will determine what bells and whistles you get with your drum set.
The less expensive ones come with rubber pads that you strike. But if you can get ones with mesh heads mounted with hoops that you can tension, that will give you a more realistic feel. And that also goes for the feel of the cymbals. The less expensive ones are rubber pads. And on the other end of the spectrum, the new Zildjian electric drums come with actual low-volume cymbals for a realistic feel.
I’d also say to check to see if there’s a trigger sensor on the rim of the snare if you want to play cross stick sounds. Also, check for the sensitivity playing open and closed hi hat barks or splashes with the hi hat foot. More and more kits are coming with an actual hi hat stand rather than a pad and a separate pedal.
As for hearing the drums, you can connect headphones or a speaker to the drum module to monitor your drumming. If you use headphones, make sure to get good quality ones. Most all electric drums have pretty good quality sounds, but cheap headphones won’t sound good. You want to make sure the headphones can reproduce the frequencies that the drums and cymbals are putting out. And that also goes if you use a speaker or dedicated drum monitor. A guitar amp won’t reproduce the full frequency spectrum of the drums and cymbals. Another thing about using headphones, depending on how quiet you play, you may want to get noise cancelling ones so that you don’t hear the stick sounds on the rubber or mesh pads when you play.
And finally, two things I think are important to mention is playing volume and the spacing of the pads. If you primarily play electric drums and haven’t had much experience playing acoustic drums, it’s easy to arrange all of the pads so they’re close together and they’re usually smaller in diameter than acoustic drums would be. So, when you do get on an acoustic drum set, you find that you have to travel a lot further to move from drum to drum. If you can get on an acoustic drum set, take note of how far apart the drums are. I recommend setting up the electric pads that far apart so you won’t have any trouble switching back and forth from electric to acoustic. If you don’t have access to an acoustic kit, try to visit a local drum shop to see if you can play one there briefly.
And that’s the same for the volume of the pads you strike. It’s easy to just turn up the volume on the electric kit so you barely have to strike the pads. But when you play an acoustic one, you’ll have to adjust how hard you strike to get the same volume level. Again, play some acoustic drums and take note of how loud they are for the way you normally play and set your electric drums to that volume level so that you control playing louder or quieter by how you strike.
