To V or not to V? Or which V?

[RU4G]

Here's the deal. My church is looking in to purchasing a set of electronic drums. We do all styles of music from rock to latino. We also have a percussionist. We've been using a set of the new Peavey drums (awesome), however they are just absolutely too loud for our setting. The church is not that great acoustically. Half the time, we are unable to even turn the drums on in the mains. I figured electronic drums is our best solution.

So tell me, should we fork out the $3K for the Pros or settle for the Customs. We will be doing live recording as well. I was hoping to have our drummer keep his cymbals and use the cymbal pads for our percussionist to have a djembe, timbales, and timpani drums. Is this plausible? Can you do that with the Customs and Pros?

I have convinced the board to bite the bullet for the $3K for the Pros, but I am concerned that the price will reduce drastically and we will have paid too much. In other words, I need to find the best drums for the best price. I know thsi request is rather redundant, but answer anyway. Any advice would be greatlyappreciated!

[Marc.]

Very interesting. A new topic! To V or NOT?

Pound-for-Pound?

Most Bang-For-Your-Buck?

I do not think the V's qualify.

I luv my V's,
-

[Boingo]

In your setting, I'd go with the Pro's. Especially if you are recording. As far as the price goes, maybe it would be smart to wait and see what Roland's reaction is to Yamaha's entry. That shouldn't take more than 4-8 weeks. Waiting longer than that is foolish. We have a saying at work, there comes a time when you have to shoot the engineer and build the product. Quit waiting - do it.

We have a percussionist also. We kept some cymbals for those extended swells using mallets. As far as crashes, we use the pads because the speakers are away from the band, they have to be mic'ed to be part of the kit and the live cymbal sound in the corner (with the band) doesn't blend real well and can be overpowering due to limitations of the room. Evaluate and then decide. Don't commit to using pads for percussion until you're sure.



[This message has been edited by Boingo (edited January 09, 2001).]

[puttenvr]

Originally posted by RU4G:
I was hoping to have our drummer keep his cymbals and use the cymbal pads for our percussionist to have a djembe, timbales, and timpani drums. Is this plausible? Can you do that with the Customs and Pros?

I think the Handsonic is better for percussionist to trigger percussion-like sounds and have the hand-playing techniques from dejembe and congas. I think with normal drumpads this will be a hard thing to do OR: your percussionist must be happy with the sounds alone and don't care about the playing technique.

The TD-8 has more sounds and a better sequencer for less money. The TD-10 has a few more edit options and some effects. So, it depends on what you want. I think both kits can be used for recordings perfectly, so that's not the point.

I don't think the Roland price will reduce because:
1. Roland never did
2. Japanese companies like US Dollars and (being outside the USA I know this) the dollar is still quite high rated international.

[drmoze]

Well, going against the grain here, I think that the Customs would also fit the bill nicely, with more sounds than the stock TD-10 and clean outputs for recording. (I assume you'll be doing mixing etc. on an external board, but I'm no expert in this area anyway!) And the roughly $2200 price tag might be easier to sell. $^)

And here's another thought along the lines of your suggestion. If your drummer will be using his acoustic cymbals, you could set up a small second rack (single bar?) next to it with the 3 PD-7 pads and have a second person play percussion sounds (congas, woodblocks, tambourine, whatever!) on those. You could even add up to 2 more PD-7s (5 total) and a Yamaha 2-trigger stick (PB80 I think) and still have it all fit into the TD-8's inputs. That would be 12 separate triggers on the 'percussion' rack (5 pads, 5 rims, 2 stick), and the drum rack would have snare, 3 toms, and bass drum. Hmmmmmm......

[This message has been edited by drmoze (edited January 10, 2001).]

[Zilla]

RU4G,
I just purchased a set of Customs back in October. I was somewhat reluctant to make a total switch from acoustic to electronic. I guess I just always figured the electronic guys were cheating by not learning to hit the drum right. I was totally wrong! It is me who is relearning. My acoustic playing I believe is actually benefitting from the Vs. Back to the subject, my reason for purchasing the Custom was not because of price, but more do to size. The smaller pads make it a more versatile instrument to me because I can integrate the kit into my acoustic kit, or just play totally electronic. By the way, in addition to a rock gig I have, I also play in a praise band. I have had nothing but rave reviews with them in church. The congregation loves them because they tend to blend nicely with other instruments, the other players love them because stage volume of all instruments is lower giving vocalist a much better monitor mix. One thing to keep in mind when purchasing the electronic kit is I believe you are going to need a good monitor for them. You can check back on previous posts to see what everyone is saying about that subject. Anyway, I've rambled long enough...if your drummer would like to visit with me, please feel free to give him my email. Good luck
dan