Dan's Adventures in Drumming (and Lessons in Drum Setup)

The Adventure Begins

My adventures in drumming began in earnest this past Fall. Like everyone else who was stuck inside during COVID, I was looking for new hobbies and the idea of learning to play drums started taking hold. I had just started using GarageBand to try and make songs and was impressed with the YouTube videos where people would re-create classic songs in this software. They almost always started with a drum beat, and when they talked about putting a kick on the 1 & 3 and a backbeat on the 2 & 4, I realized how little I knew about how drum beats were made. I also thought often of the nights I used to stay up late playing Drum Hero and Rock Band on Playstation, and remembering how much fun I had pretending to play drums for a large concert audience. This inspired me to pick up my first drum set: an Alesis Nitro Mesh Kit.

I picked it up in person from Guitar Center on sale for somewhere between $300-350, and it was a ton of fun.

I also signed up for online lessons through Drumeo. This was a really fun way to learn, and I made pretty rapid progress through the Drumeo Method, making my way to Level 4 in just a month or two. I also had fun with "Rock Drumming Masterclass" and "Electrify Your Drumming" lesson packs that were included for free with my membership. The Electrify course was especially great. Whenever I started to get bored with rock and metal beats, the electric styles and sounds would be something new and fun to get me excited about the drum kit again.

I slowed down a lot in Level 5 of the method in some particularly hard lessons. I also discovered the play-along songs feature of Drumeo at this point, and man, was that fun! How did it take me this long to find this? Now, I mostly just play along with great music here, and I'm pretty sure this feature alone justifies the cost of the membership. You play along with YouTube videos and the music scrolls as the music progresses so you can easily play through the whole thing and learn a lot about different patterns and fills along the way. I haven't yet pulled the tringer on a lifetime membership. The $1,000 cost is a bit high. At $200 a year, I'd have to play for more than 5 years to make that worth it, and I'm just not that sure yet that this hobby will last this long.

One thing in particular made this drum set very fun to play: a video on YouTube by "Demonic Sweaters" that showed how to setup the kit get a 1980's Def Leppard sound. Although the video creator said this sound wasn't one you'd want to use everywhere, I simply loved the sound and did indeed love how it sounded on pretty much anything I'd play. The booming bass and toms with tons of reverb and compression sounded great. In fact, I'd later learn that I enjoyed this sound so much it pretty much ruined me when it comes to listening to raw, unprocessed drums. I think they all sound like crap, and I end up wanting the highly processed Def Leppard sound back again.

I also put together a preset for electronic drumming to go along with the dance, house, trance, and dubstep music in the "Electrify Your Drumming" course. As mentioned in the lessons, the key is a good electronic bass. Having some traditional electric snare and tom sounds is also helpful. And at least one of the toms needs to be setup to do a "clap" sound effect. Once this is ready, you can make some fun dance beats.

This setup was a ton of fun, and encouraged me a lot early on. It only had a few real downsides that started to irk me and make me want to upgrade:

1. The high-hat controller is very flimsy, doesn't like to stay on the ground, and doesn't do a great job triggering the right sounds. If you are trying to play 16th notes and open the hi-hat for 1 or 2, it doesn't really work well. Swing beats are also problematic since it's hard to get a good "splash" when you step on the pedal.
2. The ride cymbal doesn't have a separate sound for the bell. Every time a piece of music calls for hitting the bell, it reminds me that these cymbals just aren't doing all they need to do.
3. The drum pads are a little small. I wasn't ready to shell out $700 or more for a kit with a bigger snare pad, but there were plenty of times where it seemed like it would be really nice to have a bigger target.

Other than these things - which are pretty typical of all entry-level electronic drum sets, playing this kit was a lot of fun and great for learning the basics of drumming.

Upgrading Cymbals and Speakers

My main annoyance with the Alesis Nitro kit was the cymbals. They didn't feel real at all, and the deficiencies listed above were getting in the way of me being able to follow along with the lessons in Drumeo. I decided to buy a set of real cymbals to use to make sure I learned the right technique. Since cymbals are notoriously loud, I went with the Zildjian L80 low-volume cymbals. I banged on these a bit at Sam Ash and they sounded good. For about $550 I was able to pick up a set of cymbals (hi-hat, crash, and ride) and the hardware to go with them (hi-hat stand, 2 cymbal stands, and even a bonus snare drum stand and kick drum pedal). These were quite fun to play with and met my needs perfectly. I took the electric cymbals off my kit and played with these ones instead, although I sometimes put the electric back on if I wanted to get different sounds or play a bit more quietly.

I also bought a new studio monitor amplifier at the same time as the cymbals. I had been playing through a guitar amp, and several forums said you'd get a better sound out of studio monitors or electric piano speakers. Boy was this true! The guitar amp just didn't have the same low end as more versatile, generic speakers. Now the kick drum and toms were booming and things sounded great! My only complaint with my monitor (a Coolmusic Bluetooth Monitor I picked up on Amazon for $100) was that it didn't have a headphone jack for me to plug in and be able to play quietly without bothering anybody.

Acoustic Drums

Eventually, I started thinking to myself: "I already have cymbals, a snare drum stand, and a kick pedal. How much more would a real, acoustic drum set really cost?" It was a bit tricky to figure out what kind of set I wanted to try. The Tama brand was used by several musicians I liked, and I could find used kits at Guitar Center for about $350. Lars Ulrich even used a relatively cheap Tama Rockstar as his practice kit when he was on tour (although he played a much more expensive Tama Starclassic Maple on stage). I eventually found this video on YouTube by SpectreSoundStudios, where a professional studio technician compared a $6,000 DW set to a $300 used Tama Rockstar. He said that the Rockstar was one of his favorite kits to record early on in his career, and the video said it still held its own when compared to the much more expensive kit. This encouraged me to pull the trigger and buy a used Tama Rockstar kit from Guitar Center.

When it came and I set it up, I finally felt like a real drummer! It looked great. However, the sound was... let's just say less than satisfying. The bass didn't have the same kick I was used to on the electric drums. I could never get that massive, reverberating sound I loved so much in my Def Leppard setup. They just sounded... bland. The toms in particular drove me nuts. They never sounded right. I tried all kinds of tunings and watched all kinds of videos. I tried tuning them up and then down, tuning them in major thirds, minor thirds, fourths, and perfect fifths. I bought a Tunebot to help, and this at least made them tolerable (before the Tunebot they were absolutely dreadful). But they still weren't fun to play. Not nearly as fun as my electric setup anyway. I replaced all the heads with the same Aquarian heads that were used by SprectreSoundStudios on YouTube, and while this was a big step-up in sound, it still wasn't enough to make me happy. I tried Moongel and gaffer tape for muffling. The bass finally sounded good. The snare sounded good. But those toms drove me nuts, and I hated the sound of them rather passionately.

I was thinking of trying out the an 8-piece PDP Double Drive Drum Set that cost about $900. In addition to an extra tom (and different sized toms than my Tama Rockstar) it had two bass drums that would make double bass playing possible with two regular pedals rather than a double bass pedal. I decided against it and bought a Tama double bass pedal so I could learn to play with this technique on my current set.

At this point, I was stuck at a crossroad: do I continue to invest in acoustic drums and try to get them to sound good, or do I just give up and go fully electric? There were plenty of higher-end electric drum sets out there with better cymbals, larger pads, and supposedly better sounds. But would they ever be able to feel like real drums? And would I feel like less of a "real" drummer if I gave up on acoustics and only played electrics?

Somehow I had started thinking cymbals would be a good next step in my acoustic journey, and I was doing lots of research about differences between classics like Zildjian A Customs and then all the other varieties from Sabian, Meinl, and Paiste. A good set of cymbals was going to cost anywhere from $500-1,000, and even then I'd still be stuck with my despised toms and wondering if I'd need to spend another $1,000 upgrading my shell kit.

I went to some stores to bang on different drum kits and try out some cymbals. A "cheap" Mapex ($700) at GuitarCenter sounded so much better than my Tama Rockstar. I couldn't decide between cymbals though. Metallica uses Zildjian A Customs. Rammstein has used both Meinl and Sabian. There were also "dark" cymbal kits that sounded good in some places and not-so-good in others. A YouTube video by someone who seemed to know a lot explained how you want a big heavy ride and then lighter, more explosive crash cymbals. There were also some good china cymabls from a brand called "Wuhan" ("Wuhan China" has an interesting connotation these days). What to do?

On the electronic front, I had done some research into Alesis, Roland, and ATV kits. I sat down with a $3,000 Roland TD-27 kit at GuitarCenter and thought it felt great. I wasn't excited about the drum module sounds. Out of 50 or so presets there were only about 3 I liked. But the drum pads and especially the cymbal pads: man were they nice! The cheaper Roland TD-17 just wasn't going to cut it after playing on that. I didn't want thin drum pads. I wanted something with thickness that looked at least a bit like a real drum. I had liked the Alesis Strike Pro kit, but the drum specialist at Guitar Center had some interesting insight into the quality of that kit. He said the Roland TD-27 and the Alesis Strike Pro they had on display had both been setup at the same time two years ago. The Alesis had triggers failing and had several pads already replaced. The Roland was "as good as the day we set it up." I also seen a nice Alesis Strike Pro kit at another GuitarCenter when I bought my first electric kit. I hated the sparkly red finish, but it sounded great. I went back to that store a few months later and it was completely tore up. The pads were worn down and some even had holes in them. I don't know what the customers had done to that set, but it did not stand up well. With definite quality concerns around Alesis, my choice was narrowed down to Roland and ATV.

My New Electric Setup

By the time I had left Guitar Center after playing the Roland TD-27, I was pretty sure electric drums were the way to go and that I should just give up on the acoustics. I had learned the basics of how to play on a "real" drum and knew how they felt and what was different between them and electric. But at the end of the day, the acoustic drums just don't sound as good to me whereas the electric sound good every time. You also get a variety of drum sets in the electric drums - high-end drum samples from kits that cost $6,000 or more.

$3,000 on the Roland TD-27 was too hard for me to justify, especially when I wasn't thrilled with the drum module. And the $2,000 TD-17 just didn't have drum pads that I liked. I opted to go for the ATV EXS-5. I knew the drum module didn't have nearly all the features of a Roland, but it had 13 kits with several that I liked. The 4 or 5 kits on the ATV xd3 module that I liked didn't seem much different than the 3 or 4 kits I liked on the Roland. The ATV set also looked a LOT nicer than the comparably priced TD-17. For $2,000 I could get a high-end drum setup. And if I hated the module and wanted to upgrade, the ATV sets are fully compatible with Roland, so I could easily place a TD-17 or TD-27 module on it and enjoy all the Roland sounds. (I had recently learned that even Rammstein uses an electronic Roland drum when practicing, and I figured the Roland module could give me similar sounds to them.)

I was so excited when the ATV set came. It was beautiful!

The rack was a very solid, heavy metal with equally strong supports for drums and cymbals. The drum pads were perfect and felt great. The 3-zone cymbals were nice. I finally could hit the bell of the ride cymbal and get the sound I wanted! My only real complaint (about the hardware) was that the hi-hat made a lot of noise when it slammed closed. It triggered well though and sounded good. It was attached to a real hi-hat stand. (This was one of my requirements in a kit since I hated the Alesis hi-hat controller so much). If you played 16th notes and opened it for a note or two, it hit them pretty well. I was even impressed that the xd3 module allowed all 13 drum kits from the ATV Sound Store to be stored on it at once. I had thought I'd be limited to 5 and have to pick my 5 favorites, but this was not the case. The Sound Store also had the ability for you to create your own kit from the available sounds and export them to the kit. I hadn't expected these features.

There was only one problem with the EXS-5: I hated the way the toms sounded. This was actually a bit funny because the reason I hated them was that they sounded just like my acoustic kit. I tried playing along with songs on the new kit, but it just never sounded or felt right. It felt like playing acoustics. Ironically, ATV does such a great job of reproducing real, acoustic drum sounds, that I dislike those sounds as much as I disliked my acoustic set. So now what? I had a $2,000 electric drum set that didn't fill me with the energy and joy I got playing my entry-level Alesis Nitro. The more I played the new set, the more upset I became as I realized it just wasn't doing it for me. This was depressing.

VSTs to the Rescue

So, what do you do when you just bought an expensive new electronic drum set and hate the way it sounds? You upgrade the module, of course. I knew that upgrading to a Roland module was a possibility when I bought the ATV. In fact, I figured I'd end up doing that sooner or later just to get more kits, sounds, and options. The big question was whether to upgrade to the TD-17 ($749) or the TD-27 ($1,399). Back to YouTube I went to hear the reviews and get input on each of these. Unfortunately, the community seemed to agree that the TD-27 was much better than the TD-17, even though some people still had some complaints about it. There was no way I was going to go up to the TD-50 ($2,799). I definitely wasn't going to upgrade to the ATV ad5 module ($899). I was pretty sure it was going to have the same "problem" as the xd3: super-realistic acoustic drum sounds that I can't stand. I felt stuck on this decision for a new module and didn't know which way to go. I was getting really frustrated.

While searching the internet for ways to sound like Metallica, someone said "well, first you need to get Superior Drummer 3". Superior Drummer 3 is made by Toontrack, the same company that makes EZDrummer. I had already bought EZDrummer a few months back as an alternate way to create drum beats for GarageBand. I hadn't really taken a liking to it since I had no interest in the preset MIDI grooves or song designer features. I found that GarageBand was actually easier for writing MIDI tracks and being able to change the drum set and try different sounds. I had even started writing my own songs and using the auto-drummer feature in GarageBand to get a basic beat going until I could think of what i wanted to put in its place.

Now I had a new thought: what if I used EZDrummer as my drum module? I remember when I bought the Alesis Nitro Mesh seeing videos where people plugged into EZDrummer and said the sounds were so much better this way than with the onboard Alesis sounds. I hooked up my new drums to EZDrummer and suddenly I had drum sounds with tons of reverb, compression, and customizable kits and options. I was so happy at finding a way forward without spending $1,000. I also could put to use some software that had just been sitting since I bought it. EZDrummer is just now (April, 2022) about to get an upgrade to version 3. They also continually release new expansion packs with new kits and sounds. In addition, the sounds are actually brand-named instruments: Sabian, Zildjian, and Paiste cymbals; DW, Gretsch, Ludwig, and Yamaha kits. Now I really had all kinds of professional-sounding drum kits at my fingertips and knew that the product would be supported and updated for years to come. This is a vastly superior option compared to a drum module that is fixed in its capabilities until it eventually becomes outdated.

In hindsight, it makes a lot of sense. Good drum modules cost a lot because they have to provide their own hardware. The CPU, memory, hard drive. All of these are already provided by a good laptop, so all the VST maker has to supply is the software and sound library. I did have to buy a $129 audio interface to get my laptop to output sound to my drum monitor. There are cheaper ways to do this, but the audio interface gives me the option to plugin a guitar and microphone later. It also lets me plug in headphones (an option that is lacking on my drum monitor) to play in quiet without bothering anybody. And it sounds great!

I'm so happy with this setup, and that's the reason for writing this blog entry. I've learned a lot along the way. I've learned about kits I like and kits I don't like. I've learned that I hate raw, acoustic drum sounds. I need to have all the processing that you hear on the final mix: the microphones, compression, reverb, all that fun stuff that makes the drums actually sound good. I found a way to avoid the expensive mistake of buying a Roland module for $1,399 when a $70 piece of software could do the same job. I also have multiple upgrade options, including the EZX expansion packs with new kit sounds or the Superior Drummer 3 software ($299 for the upgrade) if I ever want more control around things like microphone placements or different effects on individual pads.

I'm a bit scared by Superior Drummer 3's promise to provide high-quality, raw acoustic drum sounds in their sound library. I know I won't like those. They will take a lot of processing to make them bearable. Do I really want to do that when EZDrummer's sound packs are already processed and are closer to what I want? I figure if I ever get to the point where I need more control, I can upgrade to Superior Drummer 3. The good news is that all the EZDrummer expansion packs will still work with that product. The SD3 expansion packs are more expensive than EZDrummers ($179 versus $79 per pack). Maybe they're worth it, but that's an expensive upgrade if I'm happy with what I have. I think I'll stick with the current setup until I feel the itch to expand/upgrade again. At the pace I've been going these past 7 months, that likely won't be very long!

Future Expansion Paths

From where I'm at now, I have a few different options to expand and upgrade. I can expand EZDrummer with new sounds and expansion packs, or I can upgrade to Superior Drummer 3. I might also eventually want to add more cymbals and pads to my setup. An extra floor tom and some more cymbals would be nice, but the xd3 module doesn't have any additional inputs. In order to expand I'd have to either:

• Upgrade to a new module (ad5 would give me 1 more input and the TD-27 would give me 1 or 2 more?)
• Add a new module and run the new pads through that to the computer.
• Add a multipad or sample pad and send its MIDI output to EZDrummer separately.

Getting a new module and using it in conjunction with my xd3 module is an attractive option. This would give me a lot more inputs and potentially some new module sounds to play with (assuming I don't just buy another xd3 module). The multipad might be a smaller, more affordable step. There are some pads that could send multiple MIDI outputs to the computer to trigger additional toms, cymbals, or other sounds. Then if I really need more, I can get a new drum module and buy some more expensive pads, cymbals, and the supporting hardware. I'd like to take a break before making another expensive upgrade to my kit though. It also would be good to learn how to play those extra cymbals and toms. The EXS-5 already added 1 cymbal more than I had with the Alesis, and I haven't quite mastered my ability to play that or even think in terms of additional cymbal sounds.

Listed below are my potential upgrades with the most likely upgrades listed first:

1. EZDrummer Expansion Packs ($79 per pack, or 3 for $179. Mainly: rock, metal, electronic)
2. Superior Drummer 3 ($299 for upgrade, then $179 per expansion pack)
3. Multipad MIDI input (the KAT KTMP1 Multipad looks like a nice option at $99)
4. Additional pads and cymbals (few hundred dollars per pad and likely requiring a new drum module - maybe another xd3, ad5, or a cheap Roland?)

Wow! There are so many different options and sounds. I had no idea. Does it ever stop, or does the itch to upgrade and find new sounds just continue forever?

Total Cost of drumming

Overall, I've spent nearly $5,000 exploring the wonderful world of drums.  This is a more expensive hobby than I at first imagined.

Follow Up: 1 Year Later

It's been over a year since I wrote this post.  I've learned a few more things since then.  First, I tried out Addictive Drums 2 and I like it much more than EZDrummer for playing electric drums.  It's so much easier to find a drum sound that you like (The PCD Heavy Rock setting from the United Heavy pack is my favorite!) and play around with different tom and cymbal sounds if you like.  By comparison, EZDrummer is a real pain in the butt and limited in what you can do.  I think EZDrummer is built for more for digitally writing drum tracks rather than playing with an electric kit.

Second, I learned how important it is to get your acoustic drum set professionally tuned.  I took it to the local drum shop and they made the drums sound great for just $50.  I also learned from watching the guy at the shop that the Drum Dial is much better than Tune-bot for tuning.  I had tried to use Tune-bot myself and failed.  But tension is more important than pitch, and the drum dial helps you lock in a perfectly even tension on your head.

I upgraded my cymbals and my acoustic drum set several times.  It was quite an expensive journey.  And while I did finally get the acoustic set sounding good, I learned the sound will never be exactly right.  They will never sound as good as the electric drums that are setup, recorded, and processed by professionals to provide a "mix-ready" sound like you'd get on an album.  I do still enjoy playing the acoustics.  They just feel fun.  But the sound I get out of the electrics is so much better.

I've written another post about the expensive lessons learned as I tried to make the acoustic set sound and feel exactly the way I wanted it.  The most important lesson learned was: be happy with what you have.  Don't get obsessed with buying and upgrading drums (which is easy enough to do if you have the time and resources).  I would have saved a lot of money and a lot of time if I had just stuck with my electric drums and maybe a simple, cheap acoustic setup.

If anyone is reading this and wondering what I'd do if I could do it all again: I'd probably still start on the Alesis Nitro Mesh kit since it was a relatively cheap way to see if drumming was even something I'd like.  I'd recommend saving up for a nicer electric kit (like the ATV EXS-5) if you start to get serious about it.  Don't worry about the drum module.  If you're OK playing through a computer, then just get Addictive Drums 2, a decent drum speaker, and maybe some headphones so you can hear yourself without hearing the rubber cymbal strikes so much.  But I'd avoid the long, expensive, and frustrating journey with acoustic drums if possible.  If you really get the urge to play acoustic drums, go take some lessons at the local drum store and see what they feel like.  Play a bunch of drums and see what you like.  Find a kit for under $1,000.  A Gretsch Catalina or a PDP Concept are good choices (and you'll get even more options if you're willing to buy used).  Be prepared to spend another $1,000 on cymbals.  But also be ready to realize that the acoustic set will never sound as good as the electric, and don't think that spending more money will change that.  Enjoy what you have.  Try your best to be content and focus on learning to play.  If you can put on some music and drum along for an hour or two while having a lot of fun, you're doing it right, and you don't really need anything more than what you already have.