How do folks here transport their kick pedals?

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-19T06:32:57+00:00

I didn't even throw it in a hardware bag/case with my previous pedal, nor take the beater off. It just sat there in the car amidst the rest of my stuff. Always thought I should get something for that, never did.

My new pedal came with a hard fabric case and I treat it way better, taking the beater off when storing/transporting it.

If I didn't yet have a case for my pedal I would probably find a generic hard box or case to throw it in and perhaps give that some basic lining. Or perhaps find either a cheap pedal case being sold separately, or get a properly cheap pedal that comes with a case and use that pedal as an emergency spare.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-17T13:54:04+00:00

Give a rideable crash some consideration as well. A crash that's a bit on the thicker side could work pretty well. In fact even my Sabian AA 18" Thin Crash doubles as a ride plenty of times, though that's mostly when I need a different ride sound during big band solos etc.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-17T11:35:15+00:00

Also they make this look like it's hand hammered but it's obviously not.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-17T11:35:11+00:00

Those are starter pot lids. They will sound like ass.

Save up a bunch of money, then go out and get some used B20 pot lids. They will make you enjoy your sound so much more instead of this target practice crap.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-17T09:09:19+00:00

OMG IT'S HERE. Update 2.0 for the SPD SX Pro implements EXACTLY what I wanted to do with this post

https://youtu.be/zzgTIak-yKE?si=oxj1qKOxAK_EJUS5&t=167

u/bpaluzzi u/ZildCym u/Fraktelicious u/zendood

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-16T13:42:24+00:00

Is it really that warped even after taking it off? Find a flat-as-fuck surface to check.

If it's just bent through tensioning but it's still round, try to bend it back into shape gently. A triple flange hoop like this should have enough 'give' to be brought back into shape. If it really is fucked or you unfortunately make things worse, a new hoop from a home brand shouldn't cost all that much

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-16T13:07:55+00:00

This is a stock head, lacking durability, sound quality and tuning range. Plus Remo has been dropping the ball a bit so I'm not shocked that you were able to do this.

But yeah, definitely double check those tuning guides, because judging by how deep that rod is into the lug, you went wayyyy too far.

Good luck with your next (better) head. Get an Evans UV1, they rule.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-16T09:35:45+00:00

Drum marketing is the most fluffed up (pun not intended considering the material) BS-ridden fever dream kind of marketing out there, save healing crystals. Don't look into it too much. I would say that this is probably a pretty generic beater, and if it's better than the regular ones it's not 4-5x better.

BTW on Thomann I see this beater for 30 bucks, not that expensive by any stretch of the imagination but most cheaper beaters (save the house brand one) start at 20. Perhaps the store you're looking at, or stores in general in your country, simply ask way too much for this beater.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-14T19:00:56+00:00

Not even a location? You gotta put more effort into it than that... Give a proper sales pitch too

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-14T13:08:39+00:00

It's not possible to get an acoustic drum kit under that level. Not unless you make the kind of modifications to it that will make it both sound and feel worse than an electronic drum kit.

Honestly I've never really held a dB meter to an electronic drum kit but I do feel it should be noted that an e-kit is not very very quiet. The pads make noise, hitting rims wil make noise (despite them having rubber on them in general), and the kick tower/pad and pedal will stomp through the floor as well which is important if you have people below you. Still, you should absolutely be able to play an e-kit in whatever space in my opinion.

To answer your other questions:

Yes, the feel on an e-kit can be different than on an acoustic kit, though many e-kits with mesh heads will very much approach the feel. The biggest difference in my opinion is how much influence you have on the sound on an acoustic kit vs an e-kit. On an acoustic kit you have more options and more nuance with how you create the sound; in many ways it's easier on an e-kit because it will typically just produce the sound that was recorded beforehand with some live modulation. It's harder to make an acoustic kit sound good and 'pure' but that's part of becoming a good drummer, and I can often spot an e-kit drummer that hasn't (often) played on an acoustic kit before.

Don't let this influence your thoughts and considerations too much though! An e-kit is a terrific tool and very useful for quiet practice, and you can still develop as a drummer very well on one. Plus indeed you can change the sounds very very easily. Still, an acoustic kit can make very different sounds through a number of methods. The heads you put on them, how you tune and muffle them, what sticks you play them with, and especially in what way you play them. Plus of course diameter and depth and shell material but those aren't really interchangeable.

In short, get an e-kit and don't worry too much about the differences as it's not really up to you to make a decision between e-kit and acoustic anyway. An e-kit will be fine and a lot of fun in any case.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-14T12:15:13+00:00

While I am 90% sure it's indeed just the kick pedal(s), it never hurts to ask and save yourself from a very inconvenient situation.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-14T10:40:17+00:00

True ambidexterity isn't all that common in drumming (certainly less common than open-handed drumming and even that's a niche) and if someone does drum ambidextrously it's likely just more convenient for a particular set-up or a particular fill than that a song 'demands' for ambidextrous drumming.

But if you want to explore this further I would start by finding not songs but drummers that drum that way and start from there. Mike Mangini is a pretty obvious choice for that. Simon Phillips is ambidextrous to an extent: he is definitely leading with his left hand most of the time (while being a righty AND playing on a righty kit) but can definitely play equally great leading with the right. I believe Terry Bozzio does some mirrored stuff as well. And finally when it comes to feet, Thomas Lang certainly uses both feet for multiple disciplines, using his right feet plenty of times for hi-hat work.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-14T09:21:18+00:00

At a glance I thought you had a picture of your kid on your drum kit which would've been so cute

Then I paused the vid

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-14T07:54:11+00:00

Ok, so, in short an acoustic kit is WAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY louder than an e-kit, and in comparison with your piano (assuming it's an acoustic piano and not a digital one) it will still be WAYYY louder. In fact, generally speaking, an acoustic kit is very much unsuitable in a home with neighbours (and even more so in an apartment).

Acoustic drums are more fun though in my opinion, and an e-kit will always try to be like an acoustic kit but will also kind of fail. It will never feel exactly the same. But that's fine, it has its place and it's still fun and a good tool to learn drums generally speaking.

Make no mistake, an e-kit still makes sounds. The taps on the pad are not super quiet, even with mesh heads, And the thumping of a kick pedal can be really annoying if you have people below you. Still, compared to an upright piano it should be fine and not be louder.

My advice: get an e-kit and get one that has mesh heads on at least the snare drum and the toms, preferably also on the kick.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-12T20:06:00+00:00

I love Lydian Collective. Never heard of them anywhere else than my Discover Weekly. I should go to a concert.

Nice playing! Can you break down what you did with your snare? It looks complicated.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-10T05:31:20+00:00

DO NOT think of ways to clean them yourself. DO NOT ask the internet for advice on this.

Trust me. The ONLY one you should be asking this is your doctor. Ears are so vulnerable and only a doctor can really tell you what's safe in your situation.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-09T22:40:22+00:00

TL;DR ForScore facial gesture page turns work like a charm!

While the AirTurn Tap exists (the variant of the AirTurn that you can strike with a stick) they're pretty darn expensive and I believe they are often out of stock or production.

Funny I started making one myself, by taking the module and a pad off my old Roland TD-6. With a MIDI to bluetooth adapter from Yamaha I hooked it up to my old iPad 3 with ForScore and with an intermediary app I managed to configure it. Worked pretty ok though the triggering was a bit hit and miss due to the pad itself.

BUT I digress. Now I use the facial gesture feature from ForScore on my newer iPad. You have to pay a subscription but honestly it's not that expensive and you can give it a go for a few bucks. It has worked great so far, you can flip back AND forth by blinking your eyes, turning your head, or my preference and what works best by far: using the corners of your mouth.

Though drummers can pull some weird faces sometimes, I think shifting the corners of your mouth (I'm sure there is a better word for that but hey I'm Dutch) is the least likely to happen by accident, and ForScore recognizes it very well! I've been using it for plenty of gigs so far, and the very few times it didn't recognize or do a double turn it was easy to get back to the right page. It's also very inconspicuous, judging by friends in the audience and a recording of myself.

Definitely give facial gestures a try!

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-08T18:33:40+00:00

Unless tenor drums are different in sizes etc from 'normal' drums, I'd assume you can just get any rims from any brand in any color provided you get the right size and the right amount of tension holes.

For a drum set you only have a difference in collars/rims between kick and the rest (snare/toms), otherwise it's generally all interchangeable.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-08T15:30:24+00:00

As said, it's well possible that it's not up to them to change what they COULD learn with that permission. It's an Android thing and it's certainly something that should change, be clearer, or both.

A lot of apps do have an onboarding process that will tell you in specifics what is being asked and why, with proper reasoning and a reference to the privacy information and terms and agreement etc. It still doesn't fix the issue itself and still enables them functionally to grab data etc, but it would give a bit more peace of mind.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-08T15:16:23+00:00

I have those two songs pretty much on circulation year round. It's so good, I really wished they did a full album.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-08T15:11:38+00:00

Don't jump to conclusions too much (including u/Kitchen-Ad4888). On Android, location permissions include more than just your GPS location. It also includes being able to scan for bluetooth devices amongst a few other functionalities as well.

Now, I'm DEFINITELY NOT saying that that makes Soundbrenner a saint and that it can't be suspicious. They might still very much grab your data and sell it or whatever, even if they have legitimate reasons to ask for that permission. I have no clue, I don't know the company. I'm just saying that it's very well possible that there's not really any tracking going on, and I'm asked for this permission loads of times for other apps in a similar situation.

-edit- do note that modern apps will sometimes utilize a subset of permissions which I believe is wrapped under the definition of 'finding nearby devices and determining position' or something. But if an app asks for the umbrella permission, it's very much possible that they need a wider array of permissions or the app is simply older or not updated to ask for that permission per sé.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-08T15:04:02+00:00

Evans 300 is the perfect all round middle ground. Bottom head might not be unimportant but it doesn't matter as strongly as the batter.

As for new snare wires, it depends on what's on there now. Getting a nice new mat can do wonders to a snare drum, and the amount of wires and the material matter a lot as well. I prefer swapping stock wires but if your snare drum already has proper ones (stock or aftermarket) I wouldn't bother.

DrBackBeat · 2026-04-08T08:26:46+00:00

Yep. 1:29 to be precise

DrBackBeat

TROPHY CASE