Elektronauts Drummers

You should change neighbours :wink:

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As for practice pads ā€¦

this together with a real snare stand and real sticks are a great start. I like to have those four fields, which have different feeling and sound. Practicing rudaments and changing the fields is IMO better and more fun than to have one single field only.

When I started learning drums, I learned ā€¦ as an example ā€¦ my first paradiddles on the snare, but after some time I was adviced to move across different drums ā€¦ and that was real fun. This can be practiced to some extend with this Drumeo pad as well.

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Last summer a neighboring family offered me a childā€™s drum kit that was in their car port, unused, dirty, and getting rained on. I brought it home (much to my husbandā€™s chagrin), bought some drum sticks and the kids have a fine time with it. I do too. I am TERRIBLE at it, but there is nothing like playing an acoustic instrument, IMO.

I say, grab some sticks and just bang on whatever. Then get a cheap pad and see if you would like to improve the sound quality of said bangings and bammings.

(next stop: sampling said kit).

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i would add ā€” take a couple of lessons to utilize rebounds.
itā€™s not even about proper technique ā€” itā€™s about playing without getting tired too soon.

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Iā€™d recommend a practice pad, a good metronome with subdivisions (Iā€™ve used a Dr. Beat DB-88 for a long time and really like it), and a copy of George Stoneā€™s ā€œStick Control: For the Snare Drummer.ā€ The first few pages are the most important. Practice moving the rudiments between your hands, hands and feet (i.e. right hand and left foot and vice versa), and feet. The idea is to open up and get comfortable with all the different rhythmic permutations between your hands and feet.

I prefer practicing on a practice pad or on an electronic drum kit because acoustic kits are really loud. I have a Roland TD-4KP and itā€™s great for this purpose.

I use a DW-5000 double bass drum pedal for practicing rudiments with my feet. I donā€™t generally use double bass when Iā€™m recording or playing with other people, only for working on my feet independence.

Play along with recordings you like.

Proper posture and developing an efficient, relaxed, and reliable technique is very important.

Getting comfortable playing quiet is crucial.

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Ah. Ok. Well. Get a pair of 7a sticks. Any practice pad will do. Learn all double stick roll variations, and parradiddle variations. At all tempos. Probably a good idea to just learn the 26 rudiments. Nail that. Then transfer it to the kit later. Good luck!

Ive been playing drums for years, doubles are harder than people realise. If you learn it as a kid, easy, if you come to it later in life. Hard. Like the ollie in skateboarding.

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Sounds like the OP isnā€™t heading for drums any time soon, but I second the Ludwig Breakbeats recommendation. Some of the small kits are great. I got a battered old set of breakbeats and renovated them, just to play myself for some fun, and to sit as a little recording kit in my studio when anyone swings by.

I stripped all the shells, stained them a nice new colour, re-wrapped, upgraded the hoops, picked some of my favourite heads, and made a custom subkick to match. Itā€™s a really cool and punchy little kit! Itā€™s got vibe and sounds decent via the Sontronics mics I use.

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Yeah, in a perfect world, Iā€™d have time to indulge some of these semi-ridiculous fantasies. In the meantime, it might be fun to imagine about the future. Awesome work on that kit. If I had the time/space, Iā€™d even considering going this route. But thatā€™s really biting off a big chunk. I donā€™t even know what a sub-kick is (though I can maybe guess at what it does), but it looks cool.

I ended up going for some sticks and a Drumeo P4 pad. Iā€™ll tool around with that for a while, practicing the rudiments. Itā€™s more about having fun than anything else.

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Veeery niceā€¦

Damn that looks tight

I played drums ā€œall my lifeā€ in several bands. From the first steps in something that you could call a school band, in several metal bands (from classic metal over prog to black- and death metal) and ended my ā€œcareerā€ in a rockabilly-wave-rock band. Started as a guitar player, found myself a better drummer than most of the ones we found so I switched instrument. Move to bass-guitar in my later days until I got hit with the synth- and sequencer world where I realized, that I can make music without endless discussions, unreliable people and different ideas about what we want to archive :wink:

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One to watch.

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fun fact: being in synth/sequencer world for a couple of decades, i was about to buy a bass recently.
because AC/DC-style basses are more fun to play than to program.

Him an JD Beck are the new wave

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Yep

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Please letā€™s not finish the thread on this :sweat_smile:

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Iā€™m not fully versed in the acoustic drum world so forgive my naivety, but Iā€™m very curious about your kickā€™s little friend in front. Is that a snare with a hole? Maybe to add midrange to the kick? Just curiousā€¦

Nice restoration btw!

Roland V-Drums here. Mine started out as a low-end kit, but Iā€™ve upgraded piece-by-piece, to a decent spec, using the smaller frame. Currently on a TD-30 brain.

For flexibility in sounds, different tuning per track, effects etc., itā€™s a good way to go imo.

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