Roland TD4K2...I'm hooked and expanding

[Timmkatt]

Had the electronic kit for a week and I cannot get myself away from it. I'm contemplating giving up my acoustics in order to expand the Roland Kit.

My plan is this...Purchase a second TD4K2 kit. Combine the modules by connecting the Headphone out on one to the Mix In on the other. I've tested this with my simmons drum pad and it was so easy to blend the the simmons pad's volume with the Roland drum volume. With two identical modules I suspect they are going to blend seamlessly. I'll utilize the components of the second rack to make a larger rack out of both to accomodate the existing and additional pads as follows. Second High Hat and pedal become a remote high hat on the right/pedal over on the left next to the main HH pedal. The second mesh snare pad becomes an auxilliary snare to the left. 2 of the additional toms become a third rack tom and a "14" floor tom to make a 3 up 2 down on the drums. I've tested the tuning feature and can tune a 12" rack tom instrument higher so it blends perfectly in pitch with the 12 and 13 as a 10" tom. The extra tom pad will become a variable percussion instrument like cow bell, wood block, tambale, Cajon, tamborine etc whatever is needed. For the cymbals I already added a 2nd crash to my existing kit. The added 2 cymbals will become a crash in the center and a china or 18" crash to the right above/after the floor toms. For the RC2 connection I'll buy a cymbal pad for a splash near the main high hat. The extra kick will just become a spare. A few TSR extension cables to accomodate the cable distance from the second module to the pads and a stereo cable to connect the 2 modules and just like that a 9 drum Roland kit with plenty of cymbals. Thoughts?

[Russ]

I wouldn't be in a hurry to ditch them. You never know when the situation will suddenly change, you'll be out of money and needing a kit for an acoustic only recording. I'd advise keeping the acoustic kit, and possibly even combining them adding midi functionality to your Pearls. I mean I like the way you're thinking though, but having run into a similar issue i'd say keep your options open.

[scorch whammin]

Had the electronic kit for a week and I cannot get myself away from it. I'm contemplating giving up my acoustics in order to expand the Roland Kit.

My plan is this...Purchase a second TD4K2 kit. Combine the modules by connecting the Headphone out on one to the Mix In on the other. Thoughts?

Don't do it!...I would keep your A-kit...e-kits are fun and they have their place...but you need to keep your chops sharp on the A's..and you won't be able to do that with just an e-kit...additionally, dynamics are very critical/important on A-kits...the only way to get better with this is by practicing on an A-kit...and no offense...but why would you want to expand an entry level e-kit??

[Timmkatt]

I got the second TD4K2 today and have built an awsome set. While I agree about practicing on the acoustics therein lies the problem... finding the time when noone is around to play them. The sad reality is that unless you have a dedicated practice space noone wants to hear you practicing. It doesn't matter who you are or what acoustic drums you have. To those around you it aint ever sounding like the highly polished, hyper engineered videos the drummers are putting out rather it is just crashing and bashing to them. No offense to any brother drummers out there. Drums are loud! I'm just sayin.

I like being home with my family and not out at a practice space for 2 or 3 hours a night. Since I bought the first Roland on July 1 I have practiced at least 2-3 hours a day whenever I want on them without disturbing anyone. With that much practice I already feel looser, more accurate and faster. Getting off work, hoping I get home first to play the acoustics and then getting a rushed no warmup practice in is not good for any drummer. I'm not sure there is much I would describe on the Roland kit as "Entry level" other than the price. The quality and sturdiness is superior, the sound of the Kits is awsome and it records well. The pads and high hat pedals are responsive, feel real and are accurate with plenty of instrument choices, tuning and muffling adjustments. Even the cartons this thing comes in are about the highest quality cardboard I have ever seen. This kit just sounds AWSOME! The pics and a desciption below...









I have Kit 1 the compact V and Kit 13 Arena set up between two brains as follows. From Left to right. Drums: Percussion or left side floor tom, Auxilliary snare, Main snare, Rack tom 1, 2, 3- Tuned as a 10, 12, 13", Kick, Floor tom 1 (14"), Floor tom 2 (16"). Cymbals: 16" medium Crash, Main High Hat, 18" Dark Crash, 16" Dark Crash, 18" Medium Crash, Remote High Hat (pedal on the left), Heavy Ride with Bell, China. Hybrid Rack made from components of both sets racks. With the padding in my carpet The Speed Cobra's were causing the kick to move a little left to right when double bassing so I dug through my parts and engineered the little legs you see in the pics now it is solid as a rock front to back and side to side. A little more work to do on tucking away the wires and it will be complete.

[pastor_bob]

Timmkatt, it sounds like you got exactly what you needed for your situation, and you are excited about playing. Both of those elements will lead to drumming improvement, as you have already noted. Congratualtions on the new kit(s)!

[DLDante]

I'm not sure there is much I would describe on the Roland kit as "Entry level" other than the price.

The TD4 is indeed an entry-level kit, both in hardware and the module. Not saying that what you purchased isn't good, it just pales in comparison to Roland's top-of-the-line stuff. Even the mesh snare on the TD4 is a "lite" version of Roland's line of mesh pads. I don't oppose entry-level kits for folks who are going to use them as a supplemental tool for practice away from the acoustic set. But if your goal is to completely replace your acoustic set, you're going to find the entry-level kits are lacking and it'll annoy you more as time goes on.

For the price you paid for two of those kits you could've gotten something like a TD12 which would've come with all mesh heads, the realistic hi-hat, and better cymbals. A module like that also gives you significantly more options for expanding your kit and altering your sounds and that would've been especially helpful considering your desire to abandon acoustic sets altogether. For example, a TD4 cannot use V-Expressions, which are super high-quality sounds (produced by an independent company) that you can purchase and load into your module. The quality difference between the standard sounds and V-Expressions is simply ridiculous and it's a shame to pay Roland prices for gear and not have the option of using one of the strongest reasons for going with Roland over Yamaha (who makes similar quality hardware/modules for significantly less money).

I don't want to make you feel badly about your purchases but I fear that you may have some buyer's remorse as you learn more about e-drums and the different capabilities of different sets. I fear you may have just shelled out significant money for something you will be looking to upgrade in the near future.

[Timmkatt]

It's cool...No remorse here. Lacking? Bored? DL you are forgetting one thing MIDI! Today I connected both modules via their MIDI out to my computer and bought Addictive Drums. I setup a Sonor Kit, A Tama Kit and even a Ludwig Vista Lite Kit which I used to play in the 80's. ALL the choices are sampled from the real thing. Extremely cool sounds as professional as my acoustics ever did with all the mic's and mixing I had to do. I can choose any size drum, shell, manufacturer, cymbals the same etc. I'll leave everyone to their opinions on lite, entry level, V expressions or whatever. Roland and the TD4 is enough quality for me and i'll put my hybrid rack up against any out there for stability and rock solid sturdiness.

The idea here was to have a large E-kit that I can practice on any time of day and not an expensive 5pc E-kit. The TD4 is compatable with most of the Roland pads so If I wanted to upgrade I can. As far as the more expensive modules I really do not need 100+ kit's or to play a kit that sounds like steel drums or like I am jamming on an alien planet on a kit that sounds like lasers. Now that I've gone down the path of MIDI I'm even more happy with my choice since the modules now just become the triggering interface. The MIDI and Addictive drums software give me any option of acoustic kit I choose to build and sounds so realistic it's almost scary. I researched V expressions before making my decisions and it is cool but the who has the time to pay, download, hope you made the right choice etc. With Addictive drums everything is there to basically build the same things and much much more without paying everytime you want something new.

[NPYYZ]

Had the electronic kit for a week and I cannot get myself away from it. I'm contemplating giving up my acoustics in order to expand the Roland Kit.

Thoughts?

DON'T DO IT

Hold on to your acoustic kit and keep playing it just as much as you play the e-kit. I speak from experience here. I did exactly what you are considering back in 2006. I got rid of all my Acoustic drums and played nothing but an e-kit for 4 years. Big mistake. Because playing an e-kit is effortless, the muscles you use for drumming will get very lazy and weak, and if and when you switch back to acoustic drums you will suffer for it. It took me a full year to get my chops back and re -develop my muscles once I made the switch back to acoustic drums. I'll never play an e-kit again.

EDIT: ****, looks like I'm too late. My condolences.

[NPYYZ]

It's cool...No remorse here. Lacking? Bored? DL you are forgetting one thing MIDI! Today I connected both modules via their MIDI out to my computer and bought Addictive Drums. I setup a Sonor Kit, A Tama Kit and even a Ludwig Vista Lite Kit which I used to play in the 80's. ALL the choices are sampled from the real thing. Extremely cool sounds as professional as my acoustics ever did with all the mic's and mixing I had to do. I can choose any size drum, shell, manufacturer, cymbals the same etc. I'll leave everyone to their opinions on lite, entry level, V expressions or whatever. Roland and the TD4 is enough quality for me and i'll put my hybrid rack up against any out there for stability and rock solid sturdiness.

The idea here was to have a large E-kit that I can practice on any time of day and not an expensive 5pc E-kit. The TD4 is compatable with most of the Roland pads so If I wanted to upgrade I can. As far as the more expensive modules I really do not need 100+ kit's or to play a kit that sounds like steel drums or like I am jamming on an alien planet on a kit that sounds like lasers. Now that I've gone down the path of MIDI I'm even more happy with my choice since the modules now just become the triggering interface. The MIDI and Addictive drums software give me any option of acoustic kit I choose to build and sounds so realistic it's almost scary. I researched V expressions before making my decisions and it is cool but the who has the time to pay, download, hope you made the right choice etc. With Addictive drums everything is there to basically build the same things and much much more without paying everytime you want something new.

Damn, you sound just like I did. It's to late, we've lost him. I had the Yamaha Flagship DTXTREME lll kit. I said all those same things. I loved it for 4 years. Then I started playing with other people again and the E-kit just couldn't cut it, you know the rest.

[Russ]

Midi doesn't work in every occasion. It's close to the real thing, very very close in fact, but not truly "it". Someday you will discover why the mic beats the trigger, as I have. I think it's great to have around for practice and maybe even some recordings, but acoustic is natural, and when you come to reembrace it again you will see it's uses over the e-kit.

[jordison515]

It's cool...No remorse here. Lacking? Bored? DL you are forgetting one thing MIDI! Today I connected both modules via their MIDI out to my computer and bought Addictive Drums. I setup a Sonor Kit, A Tama Kit and even a Ludwig Vista Lite Kit which I used to play in the 80's. ALL the choices are sampled from the real thing. Extremely cool sounds as professional as my acoustics ever did with all the mic's and mixing I had to do. I can choose any size drum, shell, manufacturer, cymbals the same etc. I'll leave everyone to their opinions on lite, entry level, V expressions or whatever. Roland and the TD4 is enough quality for me and i'll put my hybrid rack up against any out there for stability and rock solid sturdiness.

The idea here was to have a large E-kit that I can practice on any time of day and not an expensive 5pc E-kit. The TD4 is compatable with most of the Roland pads so If I wanted to upgrade I can. As far as the more expensive modules I really do not need 100+ kit's or to play a kit that sounds like steel drums or like I am jamming on an alien planet on a kit that sounds like lasers. Now that I've gone down the path of MIDI I'm even more happy with my choice since the modules now just become the triggering interface. The MIDI and Addictive drums software give me any option of acoustic kit I choose to build and sounds so realistic it's almost scary. I researched V expressions before making my decisions and it is cool but the who has the time to pay, download, hope you made the right choice etc. With Addictive drums everything is there to basically build the same things and much much more without paying everytime you want something new.

Timm,

I can obviously tell you're excited about your new ekit. But what i'm going to say is this:

Nothing beats the feel of an acoustic kit. Nothing beats an acoustic kit, period. Don't get rid of it; at least keep it around so that when you DO have time to yourself, you can play it and not lose your chops. Rubber does not beat the feel of a pure wood acoustic kit. The acoustic may not be as practical or as versatile, but you can create just as many sounds with your acoustic kit as your module can store.

Just my $.02.

In short, don't give up on your acoustic kit. Sorry if I sounded harsh, though, that's my bad.

Jordison

[Timmkatt]

It's cool everyone, as I said I'm cool with my decision. While there is a different feel between e and a. I find the e-drums require more effort to get the same articulation and dynamics than acoustics. I've played drums for almost 40 years and actaully the lack of practice time in the last year or so has had more of a detriment to my skills. I've played these e drums every day 1-3 hours and I believe my skills are sharpening. I would not say they are effortless because for instance it still takes that effort to get the double or triple with one bass drum pedal or a fast triple roll with both or working your way around the kit or a tight groove. I was sore as hell for the first week I played them so much. The type of muscle soreness you have when you really workout again for the first time after a long break. I've been doing lot's of snare warmups every day and the little muscles on my wrists (on the top inside with palms down) are hard again. Just like acoustics if you play balls out the sound will just be flat and one dimensional but it takes the same skill and effort on both types to get your dynamics to articulate. Neither type will play themselves unless you want them too...(Triggers/Midi Beats).

MIDI and Addictive drums is about the coolest thing I've ever played with. With my computer and addictive drums I spent yesterday and this morning getting my MIDI mappings finalized in two AD plugin instances for the Sonor Designer kit 10, 12, 13, 14FT, 16FT, 5 Sabian Cymbals, 2 HH, Sonor snare, Pearl picollo snare, Paiste ride, Cowbell all adjustable in terms of room type, Microphone placement, tuning etc. Everything is sampled from the real thing in an actual studio environment so you can even have the sympathetic snare buzz if you want it. This kit is so fat and realistic sounding i'll challenge anyone to be able to tell if it is real or the AD kit. Very impressive software for $99. Thanks for the feedback everyone. It will be ok. I'll post an update/samples on my Addictive drums set up later.