What drum set should I buy?

[Maupy2]

Hey guys,

When I was younger I used to play drums for a little while. I stopped doing that. Now I regret that a lot, 'cause I really want to play drums again, but I don't have the room for a drum set, plus it makes too much noise. (oh, and money is a problem, but I could get past that one)
Anyway, I was thinking, maybe Phase Shift is a solution here. I know playing drums on PS isn't the same as playing on real drums, but... It's at least SOMETHING, and it'll help me play the real drums when I finally have the chance to play them. So my question is: Do you guys know a drum set I could use for Phase Shift that doesn't make too much noise? Preferably 7 lane, and not too expensive. (Don't worry about the size; I'm going to move house in a few months, so I'll probably have room for it then.)

[nobby76]

if you want 7 lane id say go with the official rb3 pro drumkit. ive never had any issues with mine, it still works just as good now as it did when i got it for rb3.

The other option of course.. You said you wanted to get drums, but noise and space was a factor.. have you considered an elec drumkit. they have a volume control, which means noise shouldn't be a problem, you can always use headphones anyway.
Stay away from yamaha or roland, while they are usually very nice kits, they are way overpriced compared to other companies. You could get a second hand Alesis DM5 or DM6 for $300-$400. I bought a DM5pro (it has updated heads compared to the standard DM5) from ebay, it cost me £200 (approx $300 us) all you then need is one of those little $20 10W guitar amps to plug it into or bigger if you want to make more noise. To be honest though, even with my 10w amp set on half volume and my drum kit also set on half volume i still get bangs on the wall from next door occasionally..

Good thing about a dm5 or 6. while they are cheap kits to buy, they are quite hard wearing, ive had mine for 2 years now (and i bought it second hand) and still never had an issue with it yet.
They come on a full frame (some cheap kits come on a single central stand and everything bolts onto that) but these come on a full H frame with side poles (for the hihat, snare and low tom). Which means you can swing those side poles in to make the kit physically smaller, or if you put it in a room with more space, you can open it back out to be the size of a full kit. Which also helps with the "not a lot of space" problem, mine is currently folded in as its stuck i nthe corner of the room, so im playing on a kit not much wider than a RB/GH sized kit, its just taller..

If you are interested, here's a drumming session of mine (the only time ive recorded myself playing and made it public) its quite long.. nearly 45mins, but i play about 8 songs. It will give you an idea of how small you can get an alesis kit when you fold it in.. also give you a chance to see the kit in action.. Youtube

But yeah, my opinion, if you want to play on a real kit, just the noise and space is an issue, id say go with an proper elec kit (not one of those dinky $150 kits that look no different to a GHWT kit, but still pass themselves off as proper kits because its not for a computer or console) as both of those problems can be easily controlled. Or if you are really just wanting to have something to plug into the pc id say go with the RB3 pro drumkit (4 pads, 3 cymbals and kick) but either way id say look for second hand on ebay or somewhere like that. you can get some great "nearly new" kits online if you look around. Ebay was where i got my DM5 pro and my RB3 pro kits from :)

[Maupy2]

Thanks for the answer man.

Turns out all products mentioned are pretty difficult to get for a cheap price where I live. (I live in the Netherlands) I can't find anyone selling their drum kit, or it's like in the US with $70 shipping.
Getting a DM6 or DM5 is difficult, the cheapest I can find it is €439, because I can't find it second hand. The only thing I'm able to buy that isn't ridiculous expensive is a RB3 pro drum kit, but that'll still cost me €240. Is that worth it?

By the way, is a product like this one worth getting?

[nobby76]

The RB3 kit sounds a little pricey even with the euro conversion. i paid about £110 for mine (approx 150 euro) but mine was second hand.. very good condition, but still, second hand.

Id say that alesis isnt too bad, its a starter kit for sure. Its better than an RB kit. but not quite on par with something like a DM5 or DM6, id say maybe about the same as a Roland TD1K (which is one of those central pole systems rather than a proper H frame) Only thing i dont like about it is you have an electronic hihat AND kick pedal. I have a proper chain driven kick pedal (because it has a kick pad) and an electronic hihat. I hate the hihat pedal. What that will mean is you will have very little (some but not much ) volume control, or rather, velocity control (how hard you kick) You will get maybe 2-3 (if you are lucky) levels of velocity from an electronic pedal (in much the same way as an RB kick pedal) at least with a real kick pedal and a fake bass drum you get all the different levels of velocity.. So that would be my (personally) only main dislike for the Alesis DM lite..

If you was to go in order of how decent a kit was. id say GHWT kit is last, RB3 pro kit is next. Ion rocker (which also can be used for RB3pro), then stuff like that Alesis DM lite or the Roland TD1K. Then you start getting into things like the DM5/6 or Roland TD11K (the TD11K is at least £300 more than the DM5/6 Alesis kit, it has a great snare but its 3 toms pads are really cheap so id say its a lesser quality kit) then the DM8, and finally you get into the realm of the DM10pro and fancy roland and yamaha kits (those are getting into the £1000 - £5000 range) Although a £900 Alesis DM10pro is just as good as £2500 roland kit..

BUT.. if its a choice between a DM lite or an RB3 pro kit. Id take the DM lite. If nothing else and the pads feel exactly the same same as an RB kit. you have a drum brain so you can change to a different drumkit whenever you want (or probably store a couple of kits you put together) and you are not tied to only using it on a computer/console. even if your computer exploded (god forbid) you can still use the drumkit...

There is one other thing you can do with a standalone elec kit (and this is something i do all the time, just with RB3 and the pro drums songs not phase shift) if you want to play along and use the note chart from a song as the sheet music (i cannot follow along to sheet music even drum tabs, but i can follow RB notecharts) So i set RB3 running in practise mode (so you get no silly starpower sounds or crowd cheering) and record a video of the song playing, without me playing a single note. That way it records all of the audio minus the drums.. Then when you play the video back at a later date, you get all of the music + the note chart, but the only drums heard will be from the sound coming out of your amp as you play. Kind of like a karaoke track, but for drums not vocals.

If sure you could do a similar sort of thing in phase shift, if the pc and drumkit are in the same room, rather than recording a video to play back later, you can just load phase shift, and run the song in practise mode or something and play along live when ever you want.. The only reason i record the videos is coz my Xbox is downstairs and my drumkit is upstairs (so is the pc)

So yeah.. that RB3 kit seems a bit pricey, that DM lite seems ok for a starter kit and they are about the same price over here (and its cheaper than the RB3 kit, by 30 euros) you can do more with the DM lite. with the RB3 kit you are stuck only every being able to use it with the computer/console. where as the DM lite can be used completely standalone, you dont even need an amp, just some headphones will do (you get amazingly powerful bass out of even cheap headphones when you plug directly into the drumkit) it will probably have some kind of connector port as well, either a usb port or a midi port so there would probably be a way you could hook it up to the pc still (might need to buy extra things like a midi 2 usb cable) I just looked apparently the DM lite comes with USB/Midi ports, for hooking up to sound recording software or as a virtual instrument (which makes it behave like a joystick) for pc use.

Go for the DM lite kit.. and get yourself a cheap little guitar amp... you wont need more than a 10-15w amp

[Maupy2]

Thanks for the advice, man. Really appreciate it that you're taking the time to tell me all this stuff.:D

Okay, when I decided to go for the DM lite kit, I thought it'd be smart to read some reviews first. Turns out the bass pedal breaks extremely quickly - most reviews say it broke in a few days. So it's probably not a good idea to buy that.
You also mentioned Ion Rocker, right? Do you mean a kit like this? Doesn't seem like it can be used for RB3pro though, since it only has 1 cymbal instead of 2.
Ion also made an xBox 360 drum kit. Did you mean that one? Although I can only use it on the pc, I only read positive reviews of it. On top of that, the snare drum is in the right place - in contrary to the snare drum in the official RB3 kit.

By the way, I think I'll have the drum kit and the pc in the same room, so that's not really a problem. I wouldn't have to record videos, but I could just set Phase Shift to practice mode.:)

I'm kinda doubting now what to buy. What do you think about it? The Redline kit is €100 cheaper and I can use it outside of Phase Shift, but I can barely find any reviews of it, plus it has a cymbal fewer. So in that sense, the xBox 360 Drumrocker would be a safer choice.

[Yhughu]

If you want to try a 7-lane RB drum set, you could buy mine, the snare rubber pad is broken, but i detached it and you can just hit the plastic underneath, which works fine. I can post a pic if you want. since it is "broken" and i dont use it anymore, something like €20 should be fine :)

[Maupy2]

Okay I'm gonna send you a PM.
I don't think I'll play on it for a long time (the RB drum set has a weird placement of toms that isn't really like a real drum kit) but since I'll probably have to save up some money to buy a drum kit, this might be a perfect temporary solution.c: (you know, for a few months)

[RichardVincent]

If you're just starting out, there's no point in spending a lot of money on a top of the line set. A standard 5 piece drum set (snare, bass drum, floor tom, high tom, and low tom) should suffice. The factory cymbals that come with drum kits are usually pretty low quality, and get used up pretty quick, especially if you're playing hard rock. So it would be a good idea to invest in some mid-grade cymbals. online MBA programs

[siavash]

Richard, what do I do if I'm looking for an online MBA program?