Set up / Position of a kit

[Supernaught]

Interesting, are you able to post an example of a video on YouTube? I'm keen to know more....

Type Rockband drums into a Youtube search and you get loads. Heres one if youve never seen Rock Band Click me

That one shows the guy playing as well as the chart, if youre playing along you really just want the chart, but thats a good example of whats what.

If youve never played the game it can take a while to get used to sightreading the charts, but it does become easy quickly.

Each colour on the chart represents a drum pad, and the yellow line is the bass drum. From left to right the pads are snare, hi tom, mid tom, floor tom.

As RB doesnt have cymbals the hi hat is generally mapped to the high tom pad, but with that in mind you can easily adapt to playing it on the hats.

The crash is generally mapped to the floor tom, and ride is mapped to the mid tom. As you will see, what is mapped to which pad is dependant on whats actually being played Ie. if its a tom hit or a cymbal hit.

I use it mainly for getting the main part of the song correct, and play around with the fills etc. on my own.

I always enjoy playing this one Click me. The sound qualitys crap, but great fun to play.

[Doramuboy]

This is going to sound really dumb to you proper drummers, but the greatest advantage to my setup isnt the view through the window, its being able to see the pc monitor. I can play along with Rock Band tracks on Youtube! If I dont know how to play a song Im basically able to sightread the whole thing! It improves my drumming and helps me learn songs without having to repeat sections over and over again! It also stops me playing baby-backbeat-only versions of tough songs.

Interesting, are you able to post an example of a video on YouTube? I'm keen to know more....

[Dannyw]

Don't trust those rockband charts entirely though mate. I ragged that game before i got bored of it and can promise you that the drum charts are dumbed down quite often. Literally missing off notes and stuff.

[Supernaught]

This is going to sound really dumb to you proper drummers, but the greatest advantage to my setup isnt the view through the window, its being able to see the pc monitor. I can play along with Rock Band tracks on Youtube! If I dont know how to play a song Im basically able to sightread the whole thing! It improves my drumming and helps me learn songs without having to repeat sections over and over again! It also stops me playing baby-backbeat-only versions of tough songs.

[Odisey]

It's great that you can play looking out over your yard. I'm jealous as I'm in playing the corner of my room. I really do need one of those "playing to a stadium" posters i saw somewhere on this forum.

To improve your playing?... I would ditch the barbeque, put in a couple of rocks /pebbles, a little waterfall feature, and add a zen meditation backing track

I was at LOWES over the weekend... For those of you who are not in the USA LOWES is a home and garden shop. LOWES is having a huge sale on wood chips and other products for sprucing up the yard. I suggest visiting.... looking in to that waterfall.... and getting some charcoal for that grill..


Odisey

[Doramuboy]

It's great that you can play looking out over your yard. I'm jealous as I'm in playing the corner of my room. I really do need one of those "playing to a stadium" posters i saw somewhere on this forum.

To improve your playing?... I would ditch the barbeque, put in a couple of rocks /pebbles, a little waterfall feature, and add a zen meditation backing track

[Colquhoun]

On my td9, i switched the placement of the module and the hihat recently, to get the hat further to the left. Now while playing, my two hands cross at the wrists and not at the sticks, and the sticks cannot hit if I tried!

[Supernaught]

It looks like the way your hihat is positioned in relation to your snare might lead to your sticks interfering with one another, especially if you lift your left hand too much while your right is playing the hat. If you find that's a problem, try moving the hat a little counter-clockwise (back toward the module) so that your right hand is over your left wrist when playing the hihat and snare.

I get that a little. Not as much as I used to and I put that down to getting better at playing.

The intro to Aerosmith's Rag Doll here always gives me a problem with this though. The swing rhythm on the hats comes at just the wrong place when the snare is hit on beat 3 and I always end up smacking my hands together, or missing the beat. I just put this down to me being a useless player.

[hampis]

the only problem i see is that the case for the computer is missing !

No...joking it looks fine, why don't u try using the hihat between the toms playing free handed.i have done this and it;s more comfortable.There is a thread about this issue somewhere in the forum check the search engine and i recommend to give it a try

[Odisey]

Position of kit

I have a white paper on my footer.... Setting-up your trap kit. You might find it interesting. I don't see anything wrong in the picture, except the beaters are not centered - as has been mentioned - and there are not any hotdogs and burgers on the grill in the backyard. When you havin' a cookout? I will bring some beer.

Odisey

[duncs]

The beauty of playing an E kit for me is not even refering to it as being like an A kit, but a totally different instrument. If you use a cow bell regular then put it on your snare rim you don't have to move far to trigge it. just look how many foot triggers Rick Allen uses. Duncs.

[lopan]

If your not going to play Acoustic, position won't matter that much. Just be sure everything is within reasonable reach, so your not extending your arm to play the ride or over-reaching for anything. If you want to position your hat in the middle or on the right side, there's nothing wrong with it. I have have an X-hat on my A kit and my E kit. As pictured, your set-up looks pretty straight forward.

[stickinthemud]

It looks like the way your hihat is positioned in relation to your snare might lead to your sticks interfering with one another, especially if you lift your left hand too much while your right is playing the hat. If you find that's a problem, try moving the hat a little counter-clockwise (back toward the module) so that your right hand is over your left wrist when playing the hihat and snare.

[spyder]

c) what your preference is for playing rim accented shots.

I need to mess with this part of it.. i seem to be triggering too many rimshots... but i can't get my snare stand any lower with it tightened down all the way for a 12" snare... my old A snare was 14" and when tightened down was the perfect height if you get what I am saying...



just keep playing with it.. you'll find whats most comfortable..

[Oz DrumR]

From what I can see from your photo, I should (?) have the snare and HH more flat, ie. parallel to the floor?

I guess this depends on a number of things:

a) how tall you are
b) where your arms / writsts / sticks sit 'naurally' (at rest), and
c) what your preference is for playing rim accented shots.

Ultimately, as you've said, it's all about ease of access. - I personally have my snare quite high and slighly angled towards me, that's the most comfortable way for me to get access to head shots (without accidentally triggering the rim) - but easily get to the rim . . . all this talk of 'head' and 'rim' concerns me!

Your setup looks fine to me.