The Wildhearts

My new wife has decided that she wishes to take up drumming, which is fabulous!

So, we need a kit to practise on. We have to get an electric kit due to volume and space.

I like the look of two kits. Either the newer Roland HD1 - very compact and pretty good sound. But maybe it's too small for her to learn on? Her lessons will be on an acoustic so maybe the contrast would be too great.

The other is the Roland TD6 KW - much bigger, better sounds, plus better for my own personal uses which is recording music.

Anyone here got a view on that?

Our singer has a HD1 and it's great fun! The pads are maybe a little bit close together compared to a full size acoustic kit and if you're a hard hitter you might find it a little unstable but that's the trade off for it being so compact.

For the price though, have you considered something like a Alesis DM5 Pro Kit? A snip at £300

Excellent! I hope She really enjoys it.

'course you realise that if She gets good, you'll end up being her drum roadie...

What's your budget (if you don't mind me asking?), 'cos there's quite a price difference between those two kits?

I'd suggest if possible, that you maybe she hold off buying until She's had a few lessons and got to grips with the kit a bit. She might not like it, or - and it's a slim chance - be one of the few who can never get to grips with four limbs all doing different things at once (There are a few out there - mostly guitarists I've found... I'm saying nothing).

Chances are her first few practice bits will involve working on single drum rhythms and exercises that you can do on the top of a padded kitchen stool or anything with a bit of bounce anyway, then when She's more comfortable with the way it all works, find somewhere that stocks the kits and go and play on them.

Ean wrote:Excellent! I hope She really enjoys it.

I'd suggest if possible, that you maybe she hold off buying until She's had a few lessons and got to grips with the kit a bit. She might not like it, or - and it's a slim chance - be one of the few who can never get to grips with four limbs all doing different things at once (There are a few out there - mostly guitarists I've found... I'm saying nothing).

forget 4 limbs I can barely move 2 limbs independently, hence I gave up keys and took uo the axe!

Purely from a drumming perspective, I might suggest that your wife could acquire a fold-away practice kit that essentially consists of five padded drum heads attached to a fully-positionable frame (note, the heads are not attached to normal shells, thus saving space and preventing any sound other than a dull 'thwack').

In my experience, the advantage of this type of practice kit over an electronic kit, or over those rubber mufflers that you can place on the top of actual live drum heads to dampen the sound is that, because you are playing onto an actual drum head, rather than a chunk of rubber, the 'feel' of the playing experience is consistent with that of being behind a normal set of drums; The heads can be tightened or slackened to suit each individual's playing style or technique, just like on a normal kit, and the stick reponse feels completely natural.

For a beginner, this consistency between the kit they have their lessons on and the equipment they use to practice on at home can make all the difference (the same difference as having your guitar lessons on a well tuned acoustic, and then running home to practice what you have learned on your big brother's out of tune SG copy).

Obviously, music shops that sell secondhand gear would be a good place to look for this type of practice kit, and it shouldn't be more than £50. Alternatively, good old eBay (where else?) will probably have a nice new one, but should still come in around £100-£150, not incl. P&P.

Either way, I wish your wife good luck - she's chosen to learn the instrument that is the most fun to play, and if she sticks (do you see what I did there?) at it, she will never regret it.

earthvs wrote:Either way, I wish your wife good luck - she's chosen to learn the instrument that is the most fun to play...

Yep, right up until you start to gig, then you realise why every fucker else took up the guitar.

Ean wrote:

earthvs wrote:Either way, I wish your wife good luck - she's chosen to learn the instrument that is the most fun to play...

Yep, right up until you start to gig, then you realise why every fucker else took up the guitar.

Funny that, I always tended to have a quid pro quo situation with most of the guitarists i've ever worked with - its them fuckin' singers with their plastic, cordless Sure mics in their one, little silver flight case that used to fuckin' disappear whenever there was roadying to be done. Always wanted to have a go on the drums after i'd set them up though

I wasn't saying that I never got any help, it's just a whole lot easier to be able to rock up late and plug a couple of things in and be ready to play. The guys in my band did help - although there was a noticeable slowing down in the setting up of their own stuff so there would be less left to do when they'd finished.

Buggers always loved standing on my bass drums at gigs though - until the creaking noises started...

shockingcandy wrote:
forget 4 limbs I can barely move 2 limbs independently, hence I gave up keys and took up the axe!

Me too, which is why my front door is in such a state...

beerofthedark wrote:

shockingcandy wrote:
forget 4 limbs I can barely move 2 limbs independently, hence I gave up keys and took up the axe!

Me too, which is why my front door is in such a state...

You've just gotta learn to aim better

Hi guys, thanks for all the responses!

OK, I should come totally clean, she is learning of her own volition however I am jumping on the idea, partly beacuse I think it's great, because it'll be great to jam with her as she learns, but also because I do a lot of my own recording myself and I currently use PC program called PC Drummer to form drum lines! If I had a drum kit (drums were my first rock love) I could do them myself! And what better than an electric kit that I can plug straight into the back of my Digitech GNX4 (thanks to Nuno for putting me on to that)?

So. The HD1. I could get second hand one for about £400 or so as they're still quite new. however, someone in England is offering a three month old TD6 KW with stool, kick pedal and some sticks for £550, and I've talked them down to £500. As far as I am concerned this is a fantastic deal. The advantage of the TD6KW is that the snare has a mesh head so it provides a similar response to a real drum skin, plus all the usual Roland refinements such as dual trigger, velocity triggers etc etc.

I had a photo msg of the kit in question last night, and while I can't post that as.. well... I just can't, here is a pic of what the kit effectively looks like, just with a standard kick instead of a double.



Videos of the kit in action (this guy is very funny, he must have thighs of iron - for some reason he has two bass drums instead of just a double pedal. Maybe he kicks so fast the triggers can't keep up with him).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viBitmHG ... re=related

For that money, get the TD6 - It's a frikkin' steal! Plus, there's more scope for expansion at a later date with it - plenty of space for hanging more stuff off that frame. You can pick up the bits from eBay or wherever, and the higher model 'brains' with more inputs and sound flexibility turn up now and again too.

It's mostly a feel thing that's the difference between two bass drums and a double pedal - they play slightly differently, and with two basses you have more sound flexibility (tune them differently, have two different sized ones, and so on). I find two more comfortable as you can sit straighter and arrange the kit more or less evenly around you either side of the snare.

I'm not saying you can't do that with a double pedal, but because you need that bit of extra space for the second pedal, it's more usual to find you sit to one side and arrange the kit so it flows away from you round to the right (if you're a righty, and vice versa). A big hole in one half or your kit looks odd too - The only person who gets away with it is Jimmy Chamberlain but he stuffs a fucking big fan in the hole instead, so he's sort of cheating.

I've found that the satellite pedal moves around on the floor more than it would if it was bolted on to the rest of the kit too, and that just annoys me.

Ean wrote:I've found that the satellite pedal moves around on the floor more than it would if it was bolted on to the rest of the kit too, and that just annoys me.

i only play the drums very occasionally, but even i find this is true. nearly broke the satellite pedal on a kit once, as it moved around so much, it got stuck under the snare stand (don't ask me how the hell that happened, but somehow it did). admittedly that wouldn't be a problem for an electronic kit, but still, the movement alone will start to really fuck you off after a while.

spoon_of_grimbo wrote:

Ean wrote:I've found that the satellite pedal moves around on the floor more than it would if it was bolted on to the rest of the kit too, and that just annoys me.

i only play the drums very occasionally, but even i find this is true. nearly broke the satellite pedal on a kit once, as it moved around so much, it got stuck under the snare stand (don't ask me how the hell that happened, but somehow it did). admittedly that wouldn't be a problem for an electronic kit, but still, the movement alone will start to really fuck you off after a while.

That's why i always take a carpet with me, the pedal should have some sort of spur to dig in? I usually carry a bradawal too so i can dig a hole in any floor i'm playing on.
It helps if the second pedal has a footplate too.


Sorry, yeah the kit question... I prefer the mesh headed Roland drums simply for the response (particularly for the snare).

Andwah wrote:

spoon_of_grimbo wrote:

Ean wrote:I've found that the satellite pedal moves around on the floor more than it would if it was bolted on to the rest of the kit too, and that just annoys me.

i only play the drums very occasionally, but even i find this is true. nearly broke the satellite pedal on a kit once, as it moved around so much, it got stuck under the snare stand (don't ask me how the hell that happened, but somehow it did). admittedly that wouldn't be a problem for an electronic kit, but still, the movement alone will start to really fuck you off after a while.

That's why i always take a carpet with me, the pedal should have some sort of spur to dig in? I usually carry a bradawal too so i can dig a hole in any floor i'm playing on.
It helps if the second pedal has a footplate too.

Yeah, mostly they do, but since the pedal itself isn't any kind of substantial weight, they don't always stay where they're supposed to be - besides, Bass drums have spikes and are pretty heavy, and I've chased more than a few of them across the floor too.

I bet they bloody love you digging holes in their floors? I nearly got my balls ripped off for leaving a bit of a spike-scratch on the floor of my local hall, and that was through my mat.

It's fair enough that there sometimes isn't the room for twin bass drums, but given the choice that's what I use - mind you, as I don't currently own a double pedal (or indeed play drums on a regular basis), it's somewhat of a moot point.

Sorry, yeah the kit question... I prefer the mesh headed Roland drums simply for the response (particularly for the snare).

Hey, stop that! Get back off topic!