Moving from an Electronic Kit to an Acoustic Kit

Torkerz

Senior Member
Probably already exists, but I thought I'd ignite fresh discussion, and I think this is relative to technique.

I have found that when I'm playing my electronic kit, I can throw out great chops, can get through exercises great.

Get back on my acoustic kit and I SUCK. Everything just seems twice as hard to do, I can't play hardly any of the fills etc I like and I feel I have just gone back to square 1...

Does anyone have any hints tips for this? I don't always have access to my acoustic kit and in my apartment, my electric is the best way for me to practice.

Thanks

Luke
 
I pretty much only use my electronic kit when I can't use my acoustic one. And when I am playing on the electronic kit I only work on tempo stuff - not as much on "chopsie" stuff - because as you said I can pull things off with the electro kit that I cannot with the acoustic kit. I have not seen my ability to "pull it off" electronically convert to acoustic success.

MM
 
I would stick with higher tunings as you'll get more rebound out of your heads.
It might just be me, but I feel I get better rebound when my reso head is in a higher tuning than my batter (I aim for a minor 3rd)

Do you play with ear protection? I play my acoustic kit differently when I'm wearing ear protection than I do when I'm not. With ear protection any rattles, buzzes or reflected sound is dampened and I hear more of the "meat" of what i'm playing. I'm also more comfortable "letting loose" with ear protection.
 
Yeah i wear ear protection... I dunno it just seems I can't seem to move round the kit as best as I would like to... I don't know what it is really. Just seeing if anyone else has the same problems
 
I can relate to this a lot. Only times I get to use an acoustic kit are at the band practice space and at gigs.

I'm very comfortable at home playing on my Roland kit and can move around the kit well with the rudiments I've put time into practicing.

It doesn't translate as well to when I play the acoustic kits. I'm less inclined to take risks and find it harder to pull off fills I can easily do at home.
 
I can relate to this as well. I feel like I'm repeating myself over and over again, but here goes:

Been playing the drums for more than a decade (i.e. following weekly classes, classical, pop and jazz courses). The last four years or so I have swapped my acoustic kit for an e-kit, acoustic kit is in boxes - can't even set it up due to no place. I'm stuck with my e-kit, but sometimes in some rehearsal or gig location I can play on an acoustic kit and it's such a fresh experience. It sounds great, you can do a lot with it at that time. You have more control.

Coming from an e-kit, though, I also noticed some problems. I couldn't move as easily/quickly around the kit as I could on my e-kit. I figured out two possible reasons:

- the heads of an e-kit are smaller. Subsequently, everything is much closer together than on an acoustic kit. An e-kit is small and practical: no space is lost. This means you can more quickly move from one tom to another, which you wouldn't be able to do on an acoustic kit.
- the heads are different than acoustic kits'. Especially when you are playing rubber heads. I highly advise against using rubber heads for your e-kit. Mesh heads are a must-have. Either way, the e-kits often have a rubber head or a thight mesh head, which means your stick bounces back more quickly than it would on an acoustic. Therefore you can, theoretically, play faster on an e-kit.

I don't really have a solution for these problems, but it is good to try to figure out what causes this problem/alienation from the acoustic kit.
 
I have learnt on both and play a lot on my e-kit, but I feel that for me the skills are transferable, there is clearly a difference between the e kit and acoustic and the key for me is control and dynamics as there are times where you have to play acoustic kit live these skills are necessary. I get the moving around the kit thing with the space but I went to a Yamaha DTX which had the drum rack and being able to space out the heads it so much better. For me the hardest thing is the control the sound level of the kit drum when going to to an acoustic.
 
maybe your acoustic kit isn't set up as ergonomically as your e-kit?

one thing I do think that might affect things though .. I started on an acoustic and played nothing but acoustic for a long time .. then got an Ekit for quiet practice.

I could see someone starting on edrums feeling off on acoustic.
it is possible to tap lightly around and get a full sound. then you go to an acoustic and don't know how to move correctly to get a double stroke on a loose floor tom .. if that makes any sense.
 
I jave a TD 20 kit and a few acoustic kits. I actually tuned mt e kit heads loser so they feel the same.

The exagorated rebound is make you work much less then you acoutic kit.
 
Acoustic drums don't rebound the same and the sound coming from them gets its consistency from you and not some module. I tune my tom batter heads a little low and I get no where near the rebound that I get from my snare. This affects rudiments played around the set. Double strokes need to be more in your wrist because rebound won't help create them and miffed notes, thin hits, rim clicks are all more pronounced. If you don't play your acoustic kit enough I can see how it could create some bad technique.
 
In my experience, the only adjustments I have to make are on the cymbals and HH. I need to ease up and use some finesse.

When I first got the E's, I thought it was more ergonomic, being closer together, but I now find it easier to hit the larger targets on the A's. After 2.5 years on the E's, I still get my sticks caught up between the small E's.

My E mesh heads feel like they have the same rebound as the A's. Close enough anyway.

The reason I like the E kit right away was simply because I could hear it better. There was so much resonance in every drum and cymbal that it sounded like a train wreck while practicing solo.
 
Well i can relate to that,but i play alway 2 time a week on a acoustic kit the rest on a roland E kit just to practice .
What i do i make my e kit harder to play i put a towel over the bass drum and over the mesh heads and adjust the triggers,so i need to make it harder to play.
Because as you said its easy to do great thinks on a E Kit,but a acoustic kit you need to work muts harder,to get thinks done.About 100% E kit is about 30% acoustic kit.
But to if you work out more on the acoustic that level it up ,this works for me.
 
I jave a TD 20 kit and a few acoustic kits. I actually tuned mt e kit heads loser so they feel the same.

The exagorated rebound is make you work much less then you acoutic kit.

Yes thats a way to do it ,but this can damage your triggers.
 
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