2

I'll start by saying my interests are mostly in DnB, Jungle and Breakcore. I'm looking to learn the drums and how people play them to make better songs, along with developing my sense of rhythm, but I probably won't be using them since I'll mostly just be using samples and MIDI. It'd mostly just be to teach myself rhythm and how to structure my beats.

With that being said, I was thinking tabletop electronic drum pads or some practice pads would suffice. But I do worry about sturdiness and ergonomics so I'm leaning towards something like this drum set.

Is my reasoning solid? Or is there another kit I should be looking for? Is there anything cheaper?

Elements In Space
  • 13,682
  • 4
  • 29
  • 78
t_t
  • 137
  • 1
  • 1
    You can learn rhythm by clapping and snapping, or with a pair of sticks and a single practice pad. So no matter what you’re asking is enough to learn rhythm, the answer is “yes”. – Todd Wilcox Feb 17 '24 at 13:31
  • This is two questions. If it's double braced hardware, and the cymbals have one of the three names on them, then it's "good enough". - Devolving rhythm has nothing to do with the gear. – Mazura Feb 17 '24 at 23:26
  • Considering the target styles, being able to play drums is not a requirement. Knowing how drums and their playing works certainly doesn't harm (and may even provide some interesting insights), but you shouldn't consider that as fundamental. I remember loving some tracks in the early days of those genres and, being a drummer, I knew that some of those patterns wouldn't have made sense (with some being almost unplayable); nonetheless, they were extremely cool. Electronic music gives us freedom to explore the "unplayable", so, I'd reply to you with a premise and 2 quite different questions: » – musicamante Feb 19 '24 at 04:11
  • » Premise: as said above, you don't need a drumkit to "develop rhythm"; there are plenty of percussionists who have deep rhythm knowledge/awareness, and they are not able to play drums, if not at basic levels. Questions: 1. do you realize the difficulties in learning drums (coordination/independence with all 4 limbs) and are you aware of your capabilities while considering the effectiveness of facing such difficulties? 2. have you considered that just being able to play drums doesn't automatically make your music better, but may only allow you to partially understand some of its aspects? – musicamante Feb 19 '24 at 04:11

2 Answers2

4

This kit is certainly good enough for you to develop rhythm skills. If portability and space saving is a big issue for you this practice pad set is a good way to go.

However, for about what this practice kit costs, on the same website you can get a basic electronic drum set which will have pad representations of snare, hat, 3 toms and 2 cymbals. Depending on how much you spend the bass drum may or may not have an actual pad and beater. The advantage to an e-kit is you can hear drum sounds with either earbuds, headphones or a powered speaker when you play. So not only does it have the complete kit which the practice pads do not have, you can hear the actual sounds of what you play. It also gives you the ability to output to a computer with USB which will allow you to use the kit to play and program your parts.

This site is not for product recommendations but I will at least say I’m not familiar with the “Fame” brand on that site. From personal experience, I bought an Alesis kit a few years ago with mesh tunable heads and a real bass drum pedal and pad and am very happy with it. Some say the mesh heads give a more natural feel, it’s probably a matter of personal preference. I would say most major manufacturers produce products with comprable build and sound quality so if you choose to go this route do some research and read reviews (preferably published, not user reviews) to help you decide what is best for you personally. Good luck with whatever you decide.

John Belzaguy
  • 26,401
  • 1
  • 33
  • 93
  • 1
    Another option is a cheap acoustic drum set with the heads replaced by mesh heads and a set of low volume cymbals. Biggest downside to that setup is it’s bigger than practice pads or electronic kits. The upsides are that it feels a lot more like a drum set and can be used as one with a head change and a set of real cymbals. – Todd Wilcox Feb 17 '24 at 19:18
  • @ToddWilcox That certainly is an option and has certain advantages like you say but by the time you buy a cheap kit and start adding mesh heads and low volume cymbals or cymbal mutes it starts to add up. Space, cost and volume were not mentioned as considerations by the OP so we can only speculate on those things. – John Belzaguy Feb 17 '24 at 19:30
  • I believe Fame is that particular store's house brand. I.e., the brand they use to re-sell OEM or white-label instruments. They're not necessarily bad. Fame guitars, for example, are built in cooperation with a luthier in East Germany that normally builds super-high-end guitars. Fame instruments are also sold in supermarkets, electronics stores, furniture stores, and on Amazon. – Jörg W Mittag Feb 17 '24 at 21:23
  • @JörgWMittag I’m familiar with store brands. We don’t really have them here in the US but I know they exist in some European and Asian companies. It’s very possible that Fame instruments are made in the same factory as some name brand instruments. I actually have a store brand Fender jazz style bass from Japan named “History”. It is an excellent bass, every bit as good as USA Fenders. – John Belzaguy Feb 18 '24 at 01:07
0

I don't see this as 'recommend me a particular piece of kit' - so, the pads in question are all rather small, making learning to play drums quite tricky.

For the same sort of money, you could find a pre-loved drumkit, with real sounds, and real cymbals, all of decent proportions. Yes, the downside would be they're noisy to practise on, and take up more room. Or, for the same money, find a pre-loved, probably older electronic kit, which has the disadvantage mentioned - smaller pads, but the advantage of quiet play, using cans. Another advantage is that various other sounds could be programmed from this kit.

Using the kit in question I think would soon become boring, as it won't produce any variance in sounds, such as a proper kit would. Consider the 5 or 6 different sounds one can make from just one cymbal!

For basic rhythm patterns, a simple practice pad may suffice - use the floor as the bass and hi-hat if desperate, and that'll get you started. Or even a table top for the drumsticks (or use hands). Sounds crass, but it works!

Tim
  • 192,860
  • 17
  • 187
  • 471
  • 1
    I remember seeing a Drumeo pad that had multiple layers. I was thinking of buying that but is there any other practice pad you recommend instead? I was also thinking of investing in a practice bass too (it'd feel nice). – t_t Feb 17 '24 at 12:46
  • I have that pad, but instead, tend to use a kit with my own home-made damper pads on each drum. That way, each drum is in its proper place, and the 'right' size, but 20% volume. I won't recommend anything, as that contravenes the rules of this site. – Tim Feb 17 '24 at 12:51
  • 1
    I think I have a better idea now. I'll use a practice pad for a snare and a hi hat stand and kick pedal to practice bass and hi hat. Do you have any suggestions how to practice toms? – t_t Feb 17 '24 at 13:05
  • Short of having another couple of practice pads, no. But one would do for now. – Tim Feb 17 '24 at 14:52
  • I don't know how much the size is a problem, since most people try to hit the drums in the center anyway. – ojs Feb 17 '24 at 18:34
  • Going from an 8" trigger to an actual 14" snare is night and day. IMO all a pad does is teach you how to play w/o dynamics. Relying totally on how hard its hit as opposed to going slightly off-center for a ghost note is difficult. – Mazura Feb 17 '24 at 22:54
  • @t_t "I'll use a practice pad for a snare and [buy a real] hi hat stand and kick pedal to practice bass and hi hat." - That's how you should be going about it. That 'thing' comes with a kick pedal. That's it. If it was a real HH stand, then sure. (only thing transferable to a real set is that meh kick pedal) - I just bought a $200 snare stand for a $300 ele set because I was tired of it bending out of the way on its single mount on a plastic rack. When I get the rest a real set together, I'll have a S stand worth using the rest of my life. – Mazura Feb 17 '24 at 23:44