Gigging with EKits

[roncadillac]

The module is good, the pads not so much, upgrade to used Roland pads, I got 3 10 inch and 2 12 inch pads for $400 no double triggering and no issues, those were from a top of the line kit a few years ago so they are great pads.

Thanks for the info! I don't really have issues with most of the pads except the snare. The bass drum needed a heavy foot before but a combination of playing with the mesh tension and the module settings have fixed that. I dove into the snare since my last post about it and it's exactly what I thought: one of the four foam triggers sat right in the 'sweet spot' of where I hit my snare and hitting directly in that trigger will cause a double hit. This is a band-aid fix but I found that by rotating the drum counterclockwise by a faction of an inch and/or moving it away from me slightly puts that trigger out of the sweet spot.

 

[Trip McNealy]

I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to gigging. Could be interesting to compare notes.

Do you gig with an ekit?
If so, how large a kit?
What do you bring for spares?
Are you able to shove entire folded rack and pads into a single large bag?

Do you gig with an ekit?
Towards the latter years of a 14-year stint with my old cover band I started to use E-kit depending on the venue. I found it most beneficial on real small stages or places where they were dB hounds. I've used everything from your "basic" Roland TD-11 and TD-15, ATV aD5, up to top-of-the-line TD-50X.

If so, how large a kit?
Most often your typical 4-pc kit with an extra pad or two for cowbell/percussion and HH, 2 crash, and Ride. I used an ATV Artist Kit.
If I played a "dinner crowd" kind of night I'd actually just use an Alesis Strike Multipad with a kick trigger, almost like a cocktail kit!

What do you bring for spares?
Your typical stuff - extra sticks, kick beater, drum key.... then plus, extra TRS and audio cables, extra 10 or 12" pad for snare backup, and when I used the pro modules I would keep my old TD-12 as a spare module.

Are you able to shove entire folded rack and pads into a single large bag?
I never used a bag for a rack - I believe at the time I used a Roland MDS-9V rack and just folded up at the hinges and stuck it in the rear seats. I eventually transitioned to your typical cymbal stands and stuff, which obv fit into a bag.

If I had to recommend a few more absolute necessities for gigging with an e-kit, it's either a monitor (12"/15") that you and your bandmates hear your drums through or IEMs for everyone, run Mono out and forget all the Direct Out and Stereo Out nonsense, err on omitting or drastically reducing Room/Reverb/Compression on the entire kit, and spend time to set kit levels and EQ using your FOH PA if your band brings one. You can have the greatest Led Zep or Def Leppard kits balanced and EQ'd perfect in your headphones at home but trust me it will sound like absolute mud at the venue and not translate well.

Happy E-drumming!

 

[doggyd69b]

Unrelated but I just bought a Roland TD27 kV2 which comes with digital snare, digital ride and digital hats, normally priced $3499, but since this was the floor demo model I got it for $1500!.
This leaves me with 3 extra mesh pads, 2 10 in and one 12 in ,and 3 rubber pads and an 8 inch mesh pad from the TD11, plus a few cymbals.. I just created a 5 Tom kit with 8 cymbals, very fun to play. I had to use the TD 11 module for the extra toms an cymbals, I might add the rubber pads for percussion effects… I connected the two modules to a Behringer mini mixer, the laptop to the TD 11 aux in, it sounded bad connected to the mixer…I got all leveled and jammed for about 5 hrs. I will post some pics tomorrow.

 

[doggyd69b]

I never did but plenty of people certainly do take the laptop with their favourite software out to gigs (I'd always be too paranoid about the laptop falling off the table or whatever but I'm sure the pro's have an answer for that).

At least we have the Pearl Mimic these days (basically Steven Slate drums built into a module) so you don't have to take the laptop out at all.

Shakira’s drummer uses VSTs live, he uses 2 laptops, running parallel, so if one dies the other one takes over.

 

[SicTim]

Shakira’s drummer uses VSTs live, he uses 2 laptops, running parallel, so if one dies the other one takes over.

Hey! He's using Battery, which is one of the two VSTs I mentioned. That makes me feel kinda good, 'cause I have a lot of drum VSTs (including all the ones that come with Komplete 14 Standard) and here's a pro using my favorite. Also, he says he's using Battery 3, but when you see the laptop screens, he's clearly using Battery 4. Heh.

 

[doggyd69b]

My new(ish) e-kit:
14 inch digital snare, vh14 digital hi hats, 18 inch digital ride, 3 10 inch toms, 2 12 inch toms, 6 extra cymbal pads not counting, the hats and the ride, and since I’m also using the TD 11 module, I can still add 6 more pads, or I could add the Alesis DM5 module and be able to add 16 pads…
of course, if I was to gig with it, I would downsize it to just the TD27 with 4 Tom pads and maybe 5 cymbals.