what are the differents between electric drums and normal ones? would you rather electric or normal?

Question

are there any advatages or disadvantages with electric drums?
do electric ones come with speakers?
and, are there different sincers all over the drum pad?

Answer 1

Electric drums are in a sense, synthesizers for the drums. They have a brain,usually rack mountable, that has the sounds and patches so you can program the different sounds to your liking. When you play the drums, the pads send a "trigger" to the brain and then you get the sound. I don't know for sure if the common tech set has its own speakers, but for a concert you would have to run them through the PA. for the audience to hear them...In studio or for personal practice you could use headphones....Acoustic drums of course make the sounds without any outside help except for a person to play them.One can also combine the two for an extraordinary different sound. I was in a band where the drummer used a synth drum kicker only for the bass drum so we could get that heavy,big low drum beat with out miking and the feedback. The acoustic kick drum miked never matched the sound output of the synth drum..anything else????

Answer 2

I would go with a 'normal' drum kit if you have the space and the understanding neighbours. But if you don't then I would suggest going with the electric set. The more you better the better the sound quality will be. I would suggest going to your local drum shop and asking if you can try them out to get the feel for the two. A lot of places now have test rooms you can try drums out in.

Answer 3

Electric drums are like programmed drums. You know the drum sound you would get from a keyboard? It would be something like that but coming from a drum instead. They have the sound but it's not natural. They have speakers on each drum piece.

Normal drums are just that normal.

Answer 4

Well, as a musician, I tend to be biased on this issue. I've never liked electric drums/programmed drums. I like regular acoustic drums because you can't beat a live drummer. There's more feeling into it.

Answer 5

i think you mean an electronic kit, as in the ones that Roland and Yamaha make.

obviously, those ones make very little acoustic sounds, so you can have them in an apartment or a dorm and not wake up the neighbors. also, you can store thousands of different sounds in the memory brain that comes with them. you can get the sounds of an old Gretch kit, a vintage ludwig, or slingerland, or get steel drums, or the muddy sounds of modern metal bands, all by pushing buttons. lots of other sounds too, birds chirping, helicopter noises, waterfalls... you can make it sound like you're playing in a giant hall, etc.

but, unless you spend a lot of money on one, those kits can have a somewhat limited range of sounds, you might not be happy with the drum tones of a cheap electronic set. and it might be hard to figure out exactly what sounds you want for a particular song/ recordig session. the more options, the harder the choices.

a good old fashioned acoustic kit doesnt need an amp, headphones, no electronic accessories, and the sound the kit makes is the sound you have, so you only need to worry about sitting down and playing, and its a little easier to understand the scope of your drums. when you hit those electronic pads on different kit settings, you need to learn how they respond in all different settings, with an actual kit you only need to get used to one set of drums that respond one way.

the electronic ones dont usually come with an amp, and the nicer kits do respond differently all over the pads, you could get maybe 10 different sounds from one pad, but for a nice one, be prepared to spend $1500 - $2000. you can get the sound boxes, or "brains", for them later that will cost just as much, but the drum sounds are amazing. a lot of studios have those, and you'd be amazed how many bands out there use them for recording. there are songs on the radio every day that use those things, and listening to the recordings you'd never know.

good luck man! its a hard choice, but check out Roland and Yamaha, which are the two biggest names in affordable electronic kits. if you're looking for an acoustic kit, i'd recommend Ludwig, you get pretty good bang for the buck outta those.