EDrum Choice: Roland TD-9 SX vs TD-9S

[mrhudson]

Good afternoon,

I'm looking to add an electronic drum kit to my set-up, and the two models in my subject line are in my price range and look like decent options. There are some sales this weekend that make me a little eager to buy! I'm just looking to layer drums into my home recordings using a kit controller. Quality of the sounds are more important to me than superb feel/playability, and I'll end up using this kit to record midi into Logic Pro and then trigger other samples. Obviously want latency to be not a big deal (hope my imac can do OK for latency with a midi->USB cable direct into the imac - my Duet has no midi).

As far as these two kits go, the big product differences that take the price from $1800 to $2500 are the addition of mesh toms, fancier ride, and what looks like a somewhat better/different snare, though both kits have a mesh snare of some kind.

Now, I played drums for 5 years or so, but its been a while. I'm hardly a drummer that will notice subtleties of feel. I'm leaning towards the cheaper kit, but am curious whether folks have tried out either of these and whether the extra features end up contributing a big deal? The price spread between the two kits would be money that could work quite well on something else, but I don't want to miss out on features either. But, if the key diff is just mesh toms, that doesn't seem worth the extra $$s - could afford sound libraries for that price diff.....

Guess the difference is the ride and snare - any big diffs there? PDX-8 snare vs PD105BK snare......What makes the PD105BK snare better? Can you NOT get the cymbal bell out of the cheaper ride on the TD-9S?

Also, what software drum samples within LogicPro work the best with either of these vdrums? Are the subtleties/mappings of where you hit the drum, etc.., preserved through to when you trigger these sample packages?

[sciomako]

I've been doing quite a bit of research (i.e. googling :-)) myself. I can answer the cymbal part. The cheaper CY-8, the one included in the cheaper TD-9 kit, has only triggers at the edge and the bow. Only CY-12R/C (and the even more expensive CY-14 and CY-15) has trigger at the bell.

The difference between PDX-8 and PD105... it is also a question I wanted to ask.

[mrhudson]

Can you maybe reprogram the cymbal to get the bell from the edge or something? Maybe could program a tom to have bell/bow with the rim/pad? Just trying to think about work arounds....

I wonder whether you can buy the better cymbal at a later date and swap in?

[sciomako]

I think you can program any other trigger to do the bell. But I don't think it's a good idea if you need to play on an acoustic kit from time to time.

[saku]

I've been doing quite a bit of research (i.e. googling :-)) myself. I can answer the cymbal part. The cheaper CY-8, the one included in the cheaper TD-9 kit, has only triggers at the edge and the bow. Only CY-12R/C (and the even more expensive CY-14 and CY-15) has trigger at the bell.

The difference between PDX-8 and PD105... it is also a question I wanted to ask.

The Cy15 has the three way trigger, not the 14. the 12 does as well, which is why they have the R/C designation after them. The cy 12R/C has a much better feel than the cy 8, and can also be used 360, rather than just the portion of the cy 8 that is meant for hitting...it is much better in my opinion...

the pdx-8 only has a 8 inch snare area..it however has a 10 inch rim trigger area...ie because with the pd85, it was too easy to hit the rims accidently - they were too high in relation to the hitting area of the snare - Roland moved the rims away, but kept the snare area the same...

the 105, or even the 125 which isnt all that more expensive than the 105, are much better than the pdx 8.
much more target area, even if some people have complained about there being a hotspot directly in the centre...I am not so accurate that it affects me!

[saku]

Can you maybe reprogram the cymbal to get the bell from the edge or something? Maybe could program a tom to have bell/bow with the rim/pad? Just trying to think about work arounds....

I wonder whether you can buy the better cymbal at a later date and swap in?

you can define the edge or a tom rim to have the bell sound, yes. no problem...

also, of course, you can buy the extra cymbal later, use it as a ride and keep the old cymbal as an extra crash..

[mrhudson]

Do you happen to know whether the increased subtlety of the better snare will still be reflected if you swap out the Roland sounds for superior drummer or bfd2, etc., etc? Or, is it a matter of positional subtlety that goes away because there isn't a fully defined map on the sampler side? From what I read, many/most folks end up jettisoning the Roland sounds but I'm still trying to figure out whether that affects the choice between the pad types......Thanks so much!

[saku]

Do you happen to know whether the increased subtlety of the better snare will still be reflected if you swap out the Roland sounds for superior drummer or bfd2, etc., etc? Or, is it a matter of positional subtlety that goes away because there isn't a fully defined map on the sampler side? From what I read, many/most folks end up jettisoning the Roland sounds but I'm still trying to figure out whether that affects the choice between the pad types......Thanks so much!

I'm not sure that it is 'many/most' people who switch out the sounds! with vex packs, or the tdw 20 expansion card, or even in my humble td 9, the sounds are fine...and there is the ease of use...just switch on the module,...as opposed to firing up the computer & launching the software & loading the mapping and...hoping that it all works correctly...

It is my understanding that as far as BFD or S2 are concerned, it doesnt matter whether you have a TD9 or a cheaper td 6...neither of these modules nor the td 3 have positional sensing on the snare anyway, you need to go up to a td 12 or 20 for that..it's not a function of the pad, but of the drum brain...

[emanuel_robert]

Hello everybody . . .

Saku , I have a question . I'm trying to make a copy of my acoustic drums with a td-9k set , do you use all your cymbals and pads in your set description / how many extra pads and cymbals can you connect to the td-9k set ? Thanks in advance .

[kismet110]

^^^

Hopefully I can help here. On the TD9 you have the default of snare, kick, hi-hats, 3 toms and two cymbals. On top of these you can also two further items via extra inputs (i.e. 4th tom and 3rd cymbal).

You can also split the signal from the 2 extra inputs afaik and have more than two extra items but this might necessitate you ending up with single-trigger devices rather than dual on the extra inputs.

[saku]

^^^

Hopefully I can help here. On the TD9 you have the default of snare, kick, hi-hats, 3 toms and two cymbals. On top of these you can also two further items via extra inputs (i.e. 4th tom and 3rd cymbal).

You can also split the signal from the 2 extra inputs afaik and have more than two extra items but this might necessitate you ending up with single-trigger devices rather than dual on the extra inputs.

thanks kismet I was away last night at a hockey match...the local team beat the evil southerners yea!

just to again note that you can set any trigger to any sounds, so you can keep only three toms and get an extra crash or splash, or indeed replace your snare with COWBELL!

also tos plit any of the dual triggers to single triggers entails building a raper circuit (do a search in the diy section for raper circuit)

[emanuel_robert]

Thanks alot ...

I'm from romania , I've been playing for 3 years now, I have a band , I'm 23 years old , I have my own pearl export set , extra 8" tom , and zildjian 14" zbt hi-hat , with 2 extra sabian b8 rock(16" & 18") crash cymbals , paiste china (18") pst3 , sabian 18" ride , and a meinl black plastic bell . I've traveled trough europe last year and had the chance to practice on TD-9K in a local shop in belgium (before this I was a little retained about electronic drums) , my friend who own's the shop let me in into the world of virtual drumming . For me then It was like best think ever , to put on your headphones and enjoy playing without bothering your neighbours (I live in an apartment) . The kits from the TD-9 module are awsome and I want to make a virtual copy to practice home and to become better (just have to save some money) . We are having our first concert on the 16 february (tomorow) .
I would like to thank you very much for the help provided , I like the TD-9 module for it's functions (like v-scope) and I was worried about the expansion posibilities , but it turns out to be OK . Thanks again .