Zildjian just dropped their first e-kit, which is what ive expected e-kits to be for a long time. The cymbals are silent cymbals with triggers - ACTUAL CYMBALS!
We recently converted our acoustic kit to an eDrum kit. We used our same cymbals and put inexpensive mutes on them from Amazon. It cuts the volume down by 95% and our drummers are happy because they’re hitting real metal cymbals. The whole project cost around $1,000-most of which was the Roland drum module we purchased. They actually sound a lot better than our acoustic kit and we have a lot more control over the sound for each individual drum.
The song I used as an example is Power in the Name by Draylin Young and the shirt is from True Classic. But I can find the short sleeve henley from them anymore
Another cymbal solution is to use Roland V-Cymbals (the rubber ones), which are much quieter. Use the phones out of the Roland module to connect the cymbal signal into the DWe RTAP (audio interface), for ease of control. Used Roland equipment is relatively lower cost.
mmm, I don't exactly agree with the math. A good set of cymbals, and I'm talking about the custom stuff that Elevation or Belonging Co might use is going to run $2k. A good kit is going to run you another couple of thousand, maybe 3. A higher end set of mics is going to run another $1,500. THEN, a plexi shield is going to run $1,300, and a back and top are going to run about $2,300. and then let's talk about the time and talent cost - someone who can keep the kit properly maintained and tuned, and who can build proper channel processing and buss. Guitarists and bass players generally have a pretty good lock on their instrument and signal path because they likely own their own, but keys and drums, particularly in smaller churches, require the FOH techs to understand and maintain a "house" keyboard and drumkit, and this is an area that i've seen neglected in alot of fellowships. It's not a fault or anything, it's just not generally in the skillset of an FOH engineer to have to maintain musical instruments and it's impractical for each drummer to bring in their kit every time. As a drummer, i LOVE a real kit. But I don't love being asked to compromise playing - i know someone in the comments is going to say something about a servants heart, and as a Production Director I totally support and get this. But drums are SUPPOSED to be loud. They need to be hit with a certain amount of physics and mass so that the front head resonates the back head and the energy goes into the wood so that the tone of the drum can sing out. Cymbals are noisy, yes, but they can have *character* and you can be incredibly expressive with them under the right conditions. All this to say - what are we trying to accomplish here? Worship sets are sometimes 3 to 4 songs, they're simple, they're generally uncomplecated. So on one hand, do you want to put in 75% of the iceberg work so that the church family can experience the 25% of the tip of the iceberg? OR, do you want a solution that works every time, never needs to be tuned, virtually never needs head replacement and can be operated without the use of a complete enclosure, which actually brings the worship team together. So, that's something to consider. As someone who for 20 years has played them over the years, this one feels preeeeetty good, i'm not gonna lie. Something else that might work is a low mass/low volume cymbal setup like the Zildjian L80s or the older Zildjian Gen16 or the new Alchem-E system that combines real low mass cymbals with a sensor/micing system that compensates for the lower bandwidth sound going to the FOH - best of both worlds, control AND tone. Another thing that I haven't really seen people try is dropping a couple hundred on a big keyboard amp and putting that behind the drummer. It doesn't have to be as loud as a real kit, but it could bridge that gap between the percieved dry clackyness (which you can't hear in the IEMS, btw) and a sense of control for the FOH.
I wonder why people spend 5k+ on something like this when they could spend around 3k for a PREMIUM drum shield that will give you better sound and a happier drummer.
Well, this kit is acoustic and electric for starters. Can be converted any time to a DW collectors set in about 15 minutes. The electric version isn’t 100% ideal for a church setup but if you swap the cymbals for acoustic ones and just run everything through soundworks it sounds legit incredible
First time I heard the DWe, I was shocked by how bad some aspects of it sounded. The toms are INCREDIBLY machine-gunny on some types of fills. The idea of wireless triggers is AWESOME and I fully agree with the software solution, but the sound just isn’t there. Yet. And also the cymbals need to be sorted out obviously. Finally, I just don’t see the point of spending that much on a kit that can be converted to acoustic, when what you want is an electronic drum kit. I think that’s a waste of money and DW could cut the price roughly in half if they wanted to by providing shells that can only be used for electronic drums. I think where this shines is for touring musicians whose bands run high enough volumes to mask the cymbals and who need fast set up times and consistent sound night after night. These two things just don’t apply in most church settings. Btw: love your southern accent, Chad. :D
World's most expensive ekit that doesn't come with a module. A church or anyone should think real hard about what they need before investing this much money into a kit. If you absolutely need wireless triggers and plan to convert it often, maybe it's for you 🤷
I fully agree. For the most part, the DWe sounds alright, but definitely NOT worth 9k. I was a little dumbfounded when I heard it for the first time, wondering what DW were thinking when they decided to ship this thing with less than top-tier software.
