Tweet
Some time ago I asked lots of questions about the best upgrade path for my TD-3K. Anyway, I've recently finished upgrading my kit, so I thought I'd share my experiences for anyone else in the same situation.
A few years ago I bought a TD-3K. I went for a low end kit because I was afraid that I might get sick of drumming and I didn't want to see a thousand dollar toy gathering dust in the garage.
Anyway 2 years later I'm as hooked on drumming as ever and play as much as my sore neck and back will allow me (any references or advice on good posture would be really welcome! I'm now considering playing with brushes to stop the neck pain).
So I was looking to upgrade my kit a little bit but unsure which direction to go. Looking around these forums I noticed many people say that the sounds from VSTs (e.g. EzDrummer) are far superior even to what the TD-20 could put out. So I wondered if I should go with a software solution and just upgrade my pads instead. On top of this my appartment is probably too small to fit the rack of a TD-20K so keeping the existing small rack and just adding some nice pads seemed like a good idea.
So that's exactly what I did. I bought a CY-15 for the ride, CY-14 for the crash, shifted my PD-85 from the snare position to the low tom, bought another PD-85 for the high tom and a PD-125 for the snare. My existing CY-8 became a splash, and I bought a VH-11 for the hi-hat (I heard people complaining about the heaviness of the VH-12). I kept the KD-8, again because I heard people complaining that the mesh kick drums were too bouncy.
Anyway, so after doing the full upgrade and running EzDrummer I have to say I'm really satisfied with the result. I have a kit that is very much like a TD-20K, sounds superior, fits into my tiny appartment, and the more annoying aspects of the TD-20K are removed (VH-12 and mesh kick drum).
Best of all it cost me about $1300 USD to do the upgrade, which together with my initial TD-3K ($800 USD), leads to a total cost of $2100 USD.
For comparison a TD-12K in my city costs around $3300 USD, and a TD-20K costs $5900 USD. So I actually payed less than a TD-12K and got a superior setup.
Anyway, just thought I'd share my experiences with you all. The main thing I learn't from all this is that a big part of the cost of any Roland kit is the brain. And given that many of us choose to run EzDrummer (which doesn't use positional sensing anyway), the TD-3 does quite fine. So there is little reason to buy a high end kit, other than the nice pads.
Anyway, just my experiences. Have fun everyone!
A few years ago I bought a TD-3K. I went for a low end kit because I was afraid that I might get sick of drumming and I didn't want to see a thousand dollar toy gathering dust in the garage.
Anyway 2 years later I'm as hooked on drumming as ever and play as much as my sore neck and back will allow me (any references or advice on good posture would be really welcome! I'm now considering playing with brushes to stop the neck pain).
So I was looking to upgrade my kit a little bit but unsure which direction to go. Looking around these forums I noticed many people say that the sounds from VSTs (e.g. EzDrummer) are far superior even to what the TD-20 could put out. So I wondered if I should go with a software solution and just upgrade my pads instead. On top of this my appartment is probably too small to fit the rack of a TD-20K so keeping the existing small rack and just adding some nice pads seemed like a good idea.
So that's exactly what I did. I bought a CY-15 for the ride, CY-14 for the crash, shifted my PD-85 from the snare position to the low tom, bought another PD-85 for the high tom and a PD-125 for the snare. My existing CY-8 became a splash, and I bought a VH-11 for the hi-hat (I heard people complaining about the heaviness of the VH-12). I kept the KD-8, again because I heard people complaining that the mesh kick drums were too bouncy.
Anyway, so after doing the full upgrade and running EzDrummer I have to say I'm really satisfied with the result. I have a kit that is very much like a TD-20K, sounds superior, fits into my tiny appartment, and the more annoying aspects of the TD-20K are removed (VH-12 and mesh kick drum).
Best of all it cost me about $1300 USD to do the upgrade, which together with my initial TD-3K ($800 USD), leads to a total cost of $2100 USD.
For comparison a TD-12K in my city costs around $3300 USD, and a TD-20K costs $5900 USD. So I actually payed less than a TD-12K and got a superior setup.
Anyway, just thought I'd share my experiences with you all. The main thing I learn't from all this is that a big part of the cost of any Roland kit is the brain. And given that many of us choose to run EzDrummer (which doesn't use positional sensing anyway), the TD-3 does quite fine. So there is little reason to buy a high end kit, other than the nice pads.
Anyway, just my experiences. Have fun everyone!
Comment