Electronic drums: Compromise or Dealbreaker?

[Jules]

Several times in my life I have played electronic drums live. Almost always in a church setting. To those who don't have to actually play them, they are perfect. There's a volume knob, they are usually compact compared to a full blown set, blah blah blah...

I have been playing with a particular minister of music for nearly 30 years on and off. After all this time he must not have paid attention to my aversion to electronic drums. Not only am I not a fan in general, but my wrists are already terrible and rubber pads fatigue them very quickly.

The last three weeks my new rig was at his church and I was a guest there. They don't have a drummer and I am always welcomes with open arms. The church just did a 1.4 million dollar renovation and somehow the stage seems to have shrunk. So, I was quite cramped on week 2 and 3 having been forced to play a contortionists version of Tetris, from which my floor tom was partially under the piano.

His answer to this?

He may order a small (read: cheap) electronic drum set. I am not a drummer's drummer, but I have GREAT feel and dynamics and everything I appreciate about my playing and that is mirrored by those who like having me there, is lost on an electronic drum set. If you can sense the aggravation in my writing so far, let me just tell you that I consider it a tremendous insult and disrespect for something like that to even be considered. Especially since over the years, I have taken great effort and expense to provide acoustic drums to replace electronic ones. I just don't see how someone can be so oblivious to something like that.

Alright, rant over. What do YOU think?

[tcbetka]

Before this Vintage kit came up for sale (well, before I saw it...), I bought an EFNOTE series-7 kit: 20" kick, 11, 13ft, 15ft and a 14" snare. A couple of 18" crash cymbals, a 20" ride and 14" hi-hats. They were nice. The problem for me was the feel of the hi-hats, which of course are played more than anything else on the kick in terms of the number of times they're hit. I just couldn't get past the "feel" of them. But for the low audio, they were perfect in the house.

Then I discoverd the used Sonor Vintage kit, and I knew the deal was too good to pass up. So I was lucky enough to sell them to a great dude in Chicago, and we've become friends to some degree. I'm currently using Evans dB One low-volume heads/cymbals, but will go to FULL volume over the winter when I build out the space.

So the eDrums served a purpose, but I'm glad to be back on acoustic shells.

[Scott_M]

He may order a small (read: cheap) electronic drum set. I am not a drummer's drummer, but I have GREAT feel and dynamics and everything I appreciate about my playing and that is mirrored by those who like having me there, is lost on an electronic drum set.

The issue isn't the fact that it would be an electronic kit, but the quality level of the kit and how accustomed to the pads you are.

I played a ddrum4 kit off and on for about 15 years - live, rehearsals, recording, personal practice, hybrid with my acoustic, etc, and NEVER had an issue with it. It was able to track dynamics, feel, even some muting/chokes and the occasional pitch bend. Easily competed with other high-end ($4k+) setups...

Like anything else - buy cheap tools/supplies/material and get a cheap result. Buy quality, and get a quality result...

You may want to remind this pastor of a few things:
1 - The "footprint" of an electronic kit isn't THAT much smaller than a modest acoustic kit (Bop kit, 20" kicks, etc)
2 - The learning curve for anyone who needs to set it up, and the constant "setting thing back to where they needed to be" in the module will be a constant struggle (people can't help themselves and will play with the knobs/settings...)
3 - Maintenance and repair is going to be more involved than with an acoustic kit - specialized heads/pads, sensor failures, cables to manage/wrangle, etc.
and most importantly:
4 - The better the quality the electronic kit, the better the quality of the sound and the drummer's playing that will come through. As we know, good quality ain't cheap...

[Jules]

Scott, you make solid points. He is a keyboard player and there are 2 full size $1300 Yamahas (2 keyboard players) on the stage. Basically, trading off good acoustic drums for cheap electronic ones (he's never going to buy a decent set) would translate to replacing his keyboard with a cheap Casio, but he is never going to see it that way.

I could go on all days about this and the related things I/we deal with as drummers, but I digress.

[Scott_M]

All that said, I agreed to an audition on an electronic kit because the band had it and it was (supposedly) already setup (it wasn't).

I got there and not only was it not cabled correctly (cables tangled all over the place from rushing to get it out of storage), which caused the pads and the hihat pedal to be in weird places (kick and snare were the only ones close to "normal positioning"), but the pad sensitivity levels and output mix was all wrong for the single PA speaker they connected it to (minimal tom sounds, overpowering kick and snare, crashes cut through, but the hats and ride were weak, etc).

Since it wasn't a model I knew, not my kit, and no time to sort it out on the fly - I didn't try and straighten any of it out or change any of the settings. I used as it was, and ended up only playing at about 40% of my ability on their material and declined to "just jam" on anything else with them.

Needless to say, I didn't get the gig.

I also WON'T do that again without at least seeing a picture of the setup first...

[Jules]

I think that what annoys me the most is the absolute lack of respect for the craft (drumming) in general. To be that absorbed in music and it still elude them that there is an art to how the drums are hit, and the different nuances of sounds and whatever else, and just replace it with a two dimensional device.

[tcbetka]

All that said, I agreed to an audition on an electronic kit because the band had it and it was (supposedly) already setup (it wasn't).

I got there and not only was it not cabled correctly (cables tangled all over the place from rushing to get it out of storage), which caused the pads and the hihat pedal to be in weird places (kick and snare were the only ones close to "normal positioning"), but the pad sensitivity levels and output mix was all wrong for the single PA speaker they connected it to (minimal tom sounds, overpowering kick and snare, crashes cut through, but the hats and ride were weak, etc).

Since it wasn't a model I knew, not my kit, and no time to sort it out on the fly - I didn't try and straighten any of it out or change any of the settings. I used as it was, and ended up only playing at about 40% of my ability on their material and declined to "just jam" on anything else with them.

Needless to say, I didn't get the gig.

I also WON'T do that again without at least seeing a picture of the setup first...

Maybe they did you a favor in that sense? Sounds like it was a band you really don't want to be associated with...lol.

[Scott_M]

Maybe they did you a favor in that sense? Sounds like it was a band you really don't want to be associated with...lol.

No, they're a cool bunch of guys and their music is fun.

They didn't understand what wasn't working about the kit or my reluctance to play anything more than what I'd prepared on it (why would they? it was their departing drummer's and none of them understood how it was supposed to be setup), and I didn't feel like trying to explain to the guitar players that it would be like someone handing them a guitar with the pickups wired weird and in DADGAD tuning as I'd likely have just come off as being whiny and blaming the gear instead of my own playing.

I should have loaded up one of my kits anyways, then swapped it out for the electronic kit once I saw it. But - live and learn.

[Scott_M]

So - looping back to Jules' original topic question:

I have NO problem with using an electronic kit as long as it's in good order, functioning and setup properly.

I will NOT use a cheap electronic kit for any kind of live or studio work no matter how well it's dialed in, as they just can't track as well and the sounds aren't at a level I would be happy with.

[tcbetka]

EDIT: This post is in response to your first reply Scott, but you added your second before I posted this reply...so it appears out of order.

The quintessential "house kit" of sorts, I get it. I've played on kits like that over the years. People who play instruments that don't change significantly from axe to axe don't seem to get it. All guitars have a body, and all guitars have necks. And strings. And frets. So guitarists, although they may not like playing on something that's NOT their axe, really don't face anywhere near the challenges we face as drummers.

The struggle is real.