By Al, the drummer
I made own drum kit. Well, technically it is an acoustic to electronic conversion (A2E).
This blog is the first on a series of three. The other two describe the physical conversion process and the software aspects. This blog just describes why I did it and how it has turned out for me.
It started off life as an acoustic DW Pacific CX Series drum set with Zildjian K cymbals. A very nice kit.
It was great for large festival gigs like the one on the left, but it was a bit loud and uncontrollable for more intimate venues.
So I decided to convert it to an electronic kit, with the aim of keeping the playability and feel of an acoustic kit.
Here’s what I bought:
- Roland TD27 KV2 electronic drum kit
- Three Jobeky mesh heads for the toms (I ditched two of the 5 toms on the original kit. Who needs 5 toms?)
- Three Jobeky side triggers
- One 22″ Jobeky kick drum head
- One Jobeky kick drum trigger
There’s another blog that shows exactly how I did the conversion in all the gory technical detail. But let’s just say that I now have real flexibility to cope with different scenarios as a gigging drummer.
If we’re doing a really small gig, I use the original TD27 KV2 kit as it was intended. The small pads, the small kick drum etc. It will fit into a really tight space.
For a bar gig or a party, where there’s a bit more space, I take the full sized kit with the electronic triggers and brain. I get the real feel of drums but with superb controllability.
When we play a festival, I can still bring ‘breakables’ because I still have my original DW snare drum and my set of Zildjian K’s.
If I ever need an acoustic kit for a gig, I just pop the original heads back on and away I go.
Having said that, I haven’t used the acoustically since doing the conversion because the conversion is so good.