TranslationHi all I'm new to both this forum and electric drumming.
I used DAWs (Reaper) and VST for recording before, but only when a miked acoustic drumkit was not available. My knowledge of electronic drumming is really minimal.
That's why when I heard of edrumin it was like I found the device of my dreams: something that could interface my acoustic kit to my pc and let me use VSTs without needing to buy an electronic kit.
And that's why I'm asking for advice from the expert users to see if my goals are achievable and how much they'll cost.
1) Can I use edrumin effectivelly without permanently altering my kit? I know some use drill holes for jacks in the drums. That would be a no for me, and I'd only use removable triggers like DDrum Red Shots. Will they work?
2) What kind of triggers would you suggest to turn regular (or low volume) cymbals to electronic? I heard of the Goedrum triggers that should do the trick, even transforming a ride cymbal in a 3 zone. Are they good?
3) What PC libraries would you reccomend that support all the features of edrumin, in particular 3 zone drums and cymbals? As I said I would like a system to supplement a regular set, so I'd like something where most if not all the nuances of acoustic drumming, like playing ride on the bell or chokes would not be lost. And regading this last point, since the edrumin and trigger gear would already be a good dent on my budget to start, are there any free drum libraries good enough to start the project that I could use? I don't mean or expect free libraries to be as good as a commercial library like Superior Drummer, of course, it would be enough if it would support 3 zone pads anc cymbals and chokes, een if the sample quality is not outstanding.
Thank you all in advance for any answers.
Advice for newbie acoustic to edrumin
Re: Advice for newbie acoustic to edrumin
I can provide some quick answers:Tarrasque wrote: ↑Sat Jan 29, 2022 3:14 pm1) Can I use edrumin effectivelly without permanently altering my kit? I know some use drill holes for jacks in the drums. That would be a no for me, and I'd only use removable triggers like DDrum Red Shots. Will they work?
2) What kind of triggers would you suggest to turn regular (or low volume) cymbals to electronic? I heard of the Goedrum triggers that should do the trick, even transforming a ride cymbal in a 3 zone. Are they good?
3) What PC libraries would you reccomend that support all the features of edrumin, in particular 3 zone drums and cymbals? As I said I would like a system to supplement a regular set, so I'd like something where most if not all the nuances of acoustic drumming, like playing ride on the bell or chokes would not be lost. And regading this last point, since the edrumin and trigger gear would already be a good dent on my budget to start, are there any free drum libraries good enough to start the project that I could use? I don't mean or expect free libraries to be as good as a commercial library like Superior Drummer, of course, it would be enough if it would support 3 zone pads anc cymbals and chokes, een if the sample quality is not outstanding.
1) Yes, I'm sure you will be able to get removable triggers to work effectively with an eDRumin. It is so flelxible and adaptable i believe you can get any well-designed trigger system to work. That means the trigger needs to be well mounted.
2) I do feel GoEdrum triggers are worth a shot, but I have not used them myself. Do a search here to see what others have found. The "Unofficially supported devices" forum here is a great resource. It's where users in the forum report their first-hand experiences and results with devices that Rob (the one-man operation that designs, builds, writes all the software and does all the support for eDRUMin devices - yup!) hasn't been able to test himself.
3) You might try EZDrummer. It's a great starting point, is user-friendly and uncomplicated (as opposed to SD3 with all its power an complexity to go with it.) and won't break the bank.
Good luck!
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Rabidreject
- Posts: 148
- Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2021 2:34 pm
Re: Advice for newbie acoustic to edrumin
Hey man.
Yeah you would be able to find non destructive drum triggers for sure. You could get the external side triggers such as the red shot triggers or some companies do non destructive internal centre mounted triggers which would then allow you to use positional sensing - different sounds for hitting different areas of the same drum. I would suggest maybe trying to use a centre mount trigger for your snare. Not essential for the rest of the pads but I do find it makes a huge difference to have that function at least in your snare. Gear drum make great looking triggers that expand their arms out to stay in place by pressing on the inside on the shell then you just make it smaller to slide it back out. Obviously you would have to take the head off and put it back on but you don’t even need to remove lug screws to fit the trigger in place which is cool.
Cymbals triggers I can’t really answer but it depends how many zones you are wanting. Pretty sure you can make a very simple single zone e cymbal by simply sticking a pre-wired piezo (or low budget acoustic guitar piezo i saw the guy on YouTube doing it with.)to a low volume cymbal and putting rubber trim round the outside to stop it vibrating as much.
I was actually looking at the goedrum cymbal piezo’s / switches to convert some LV cymbals myself but I realised a lot of the threads on that the people say they are fiddling with the wiring in their cymbal conversions more than they were actually playing the kit so I ended up just ordering a LV pre wired ride cymbal from diamond drums. To each their own tho - iv heard the goedrum triggers are good - it you search on YouTube DIY E CYMBAL BUILD the majority of the people I have seen building one use them. I’m surprised more companies don’t do triggers for them. There is another brand I can think of but I’m pretty sure they are just single zone too. Their name escapes me though
With regards to VST sounds, I ended up going with EZ drummer first because it has a sound expansion I really wanted that came with it when I bought it. I also liked the way their EZX expansions are still useable when you upgrade to SD3. I think that’s cool. I’m glad I got EZD but honestly, I wish I had SD3 now that I have got used to how everything linked up to the software and now I know which sounds I like out of it, which need tweaking (eq, compression etc) and how it’s all routed and mic’s and all that good stuff.
I have been messing around with Steven Slate Drums 5.5 (SSD5.5) free edition. That would be your place to start for sure. You get one or two full kits with it and one of them in particular, to me, sounds fantastic. I LOVE the snare and the cymbals sounds fantastic also. I was actually going to pounce on the full version of SSD 5.5 through their rent to buy option (they r the only drum VST company I could find which does that - I think it’s cool) but It only accepted credit cards and not debit so I couldn’t.
One thing I would say is just be aware of where you are installing or placing the library files because at first when I installed it I couldn’t figure out why it had no sounds (I just assumed it was coz it was the free edition) but actually I had to go into settings and re-assign where the sound library was. I restarted and all was well. It doesn’t come with a kit loaded either so you have to go to instruments or kit and load one. It’s V good tho - better than any other free ones I have used.
If you go to YouTube and find the channel 65drums, he does a video on there which is going through various different free drum VST’s that work with e drums). They arnt great but better than nothing for now. I would rate SSD 5.5 MILES above any of them on that video tho if I’m honest. It’s a personal preference tho and It obviously depends which style of music you are playing.
If you have any more q’s don’t hesitate to make another post. This community is awesome and has always come up with a great answer when iv had questions.
With regards to the edrumin 4 and edrumin 10 they are both GREAT devices. I got the ED4 over Xmas when the ed10 was out of stock and it really blew my mind. I havnt thrown a pad at it yet that it’s not been able to handle! I also think it’s a very competitive price for what it is.
I set up my ed10 last night, so for the first time actually had my whole kit routed through the Edrumin unit and Oh my!! What a difference! It really is incredibly. I was using an alesis trigger IO or an Alesis DM10 module before and there was next to no dynamics and hardly any tools to be able to change that. There were like 4 trigger settings on the whole device. It was really very primitive! I was playing this last night and had the most fun playing drums i have had in such a long time. The ONLY downside so far is that I have to really watch how I’m playing and pay attention to it because now there are actually different natural velocities I am hitting at that needs practice!
Either way, I would HIGHLY recommend the edrumin. It’s just to much more full on and a fraction of the price of a whole module - even when you factor in cost of the VST you use. Also if it’s for recording it just makes it an absolute breeze and you can focus on creating rather than focusing on trying to solve software / hardware problems.
Hope that helped mate
Yeah you would be able to find non destructive drum triggers for sure. You could get the external side triggers such as the red shot triggers or some companies do non destructive internal centre mounted triggers which would then allow you to use positional sensing - different sounds for hitting different areas of the same drum. I would suggest maybe trying to use a centre mount trigger for your snare. Not essential for the rest of the pads but I do find it makes a huge difference to have that function at least in your snare. Gear drum make great looking triggers that expand their arms out to stay in place by pressing on the inside on the shell then you just make it smaller to slide it back out. Obviously you would have to take the head off and put it back on but you don’t even need to remove lug screws to fit the trigger in place which is cool.
Cymbals triggers I can’t really answer but it depends how many zones you are wanting. Pretty sure you can make a very simple single zone e cymbal by simply sticking a pre-wired piezo (or low budget acoustic guitar piezo i saw the guy on YouTube doing it with.)to a low volume cymbal and putting rubber trim round the outside to stop it vibrating as much.
I was actually looking at the goedrum cymbal piezo’s / switches to convert some LV cymbals myself but I realised a lot of the threads on that the people say they are fiddling with the wiring in their cymbal conversions more than they were actually playing the kit so I ended up just ordering a LV pre wired ride cymbal from diamond drums. To each their own tho - iv heard the goedrum triggers are good - it you search on YouTube DIY E CYMBAL BUILD the majority of the people I have seen building one use them. I’m surprised more companies don’t do triggers for them. There is another brand I can think of but I’m pretty sure they are just single zone too. Their name escapes me though
With regards to VST sounds, I ended up going with EZ drummer first because it has a sound expansion I really wanted that came with it when I bought it. I also liked the way their EZX expansions are still useable when you upgrade to SD3. I think that’s cool. I’m glad I got EZD but honestly, I wish I had SD3 now that I have got used to how everything linked up to the software and now I know which sounds I like out of it, which need tweaking (eq, compression etc) and how it’s all routed and mic’s and all that good stuff.
I have been messing around with Steven Slate Drums 5.5 (SSD5.5) free edition. That would be your place to start for sure. You get one or two full kits with it and one of them in particular, to me, sounds fantastic. I LOVE the snare and the cymbals sounds fantastic also. I was actually going to pounce on the full version of SSD 5.5 through their rent to buy option (they r the only drum VST company I could find which does that - I think it’s cool) but It only accepted credit cards and not debit so I couldn’t.
One thing I would say is just be aware of where you are installing or placing the library files because at first when I installed it I couldn’t figure out why it had no sounds (I just assumed it was coz it was the free edition) but actually I had to go into settings and re-assign where the sound library was. I restarted and all was well. It doesn’t come with a kit loaded either so you have to go to instruments or kit and load one. It’s V good tho - better than any other free ones I have used.
If you go to YouTube and find the channel 65drums, he does a video on there which is going through various different free drum VST’s that work with e drums). They arnt great but better than nothing for now. I would rate SSD 5.5 MILES above any of them on that video tho if I’m honest. It’s a personal preference tho and It obviously depends which style of music you are playing.
If you have any more q’s don’t hesitate to make another post. This community is awesome and has always come up with a great answer when iv had questions.
With regards to the edrumin 4 and edrumin 10 they are both GREAT devices. I got the ED4 over Xmas when the ed10 was out of stock and it really blew my mind. I havnt thrown a pad at it yet that it’s not been able to handle! I also think it’s a very competitive price for what it is.
I set up my ed10 last night, so for the first time actually had my whole kit routed through the Edrumin unit and Oh my!! What a difference! It really is incredibly. I was using an alesis trigger IO or an Alesis DM10 module before and there was next to no dynamics and hardly any tools to be able to change that. There were like 4 trigger settings on the whole device. It was really very primitive! I was playing this last night and had the most fun playing drums i have had in such a long time. The ONLY downside so far is that I have to really watch how I’m playing and pay attention to it because now there are actually different natural velocities I am hitting at that needs practice!
Either way, I would HIGHLY recommend the edrumin. It’s just to much more full on and a fraction of the price of a whole module - even when you factor in cost of the VST you use. Also if it’s for recording it just makes it an absolute breeze and you can focus on creating rather than focusing on trying to solve software / hardware problems.
Hope that helped mate
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dsteinschneider
- Posts: 415
- Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2019 11:17 pm
Re: Advice for newbie acoustic to edrumin
The only change I made to my Ludwig kit was I used the air vent to mount the jack. If you're keeping your acoustic heads (non mesh) and don't want to modify your vent I have seen photos online of people who created a small hole in the resonant head and fitted a wire grommet on it to pass the jack wire through. The jack just dangles from the bottom of the head.