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Considering Electronic Drums?
"Electronic drums? Surely not!" I hear you exclaim. Remove from your mind any pre-conceived notions you have of electronic drum kits and consider how much technology has changed since their hey-day in the 1970's and 1980's. Things have progressed to such an extent that an electronic drum kit should be a consideration of every drummer no matter what genres of music interest you. The technology behind the electronic drum kit has not changed, it has simply been refined to such an extent that even entry level electronic drum kits are leagues apart from what was available decades ago.
The principle behind electronic drum kits is still the same, the voltage change that occurs when a pad is struck triggers a piezoelectric transducer that is embedded into the equipment and this is relayed to an electronic chip that converts the signal into waveforms. The beauty of this arrangement is flexibility, different sounds can be applied to different pads making the electronic drum kit the ultimate tool in the drummers arsenal. Admittedly there are plenty of occasions when a true kit cannot be beaten, however it really is worth re-considering the electronic drum kit.
A high quality modern electronic drum kit will come complete with a full library of high quality digital sounds that can be programmed to the drummers liking. These are usually a combination of synthesised and modelled drum sounds coupled with actual high quality recorded samples of drums. Impact detection will come as standard, and will allow for different sounds depending on where the drum head is impacted. The force of the strike also affects the volume of the output sound. A good modern electronic drum kit will also feature a variety of triggers allowing for rim shots and shell tapping.
Most recent kits feature far more versatile and impressive hi-hats as well that allow for true playing rather than the traditional on/off as was the case with older electronic drum kits. Best of all most modern electronic drum kits can be upgraded and expanded thanks to the MIDI connections and expansion slots. These allow the drummer to add more samples and software as it is improved, and also connect the kit to a variety of external equipment. There is no denying that electronic drum kits may not be for everyone but they are certainly worth a look the next time you are considering a new kit.
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