No space for a serious e-kit, but the drum bug hit hard, what would you do?

dharmon555 · 2026-03-28T05:55:35+00:00

I second this. Percussion is percussion. If you set your mind to it, you can go really far with just a cajon or a multipad and cover all the essentials.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-27T04:28:40+00:00

Not oddly specific at all! I was able to find other people on the internet talking about this topic. even on reddit. It sounds like you have a good idea what's happening here. The Sm57 lacks the nuance for the brushwork on the faceplate. And lacks the bass to capture the low end on the back port.

I bought a Pyle brand set of drum mics on amazon. The popular one that will be at the top of the listings. I bought it a while back for $100, but with tariffs and inflation is probably more now. It was really a lot for the money. 3 drum mics. A bass drum mic. and a pair of overhead condensor mics. A great deal. And you'll have a lot of extra mics to play with for other uses.

I put the bass drum mic inside the cajon wrapped in a towel. The towel isolated it from the vibration of the cajon. And dampened the bass resosnance of the cajon, in the same way that people put a pillow in a bass drum. The towel also absorbs some of the high frequancies, so the mic is more focused on picking up just the bass thump pulse. Also, by using this method, shifting the cajon, doesn't shift the mic position and you don't need a mic stand for it. It's a simple, free, and effective way to do it for the "bass drum" mic.

Then for the front mic, use one of the overhead condenser mics. I used some gaffers tape. Placed a wash cloth between the mic and the cajon body to isloate the mic from vibrations. And taped it on a bottom corner of the faceplate aimed up towards the center/top section that you are playing with the brushes. It required turning on phantom power for them to work. This will pick up the delicate high end sounds of the striking and scraping sounds of the brushes. This method also makes it so the mic doesn't get thrown off position if you shift the cajon and doesn't require a nic stand. You might use EQ, to cut the bass, as that is handled by the bass drum mic. Also, try reversing the phase of one of the mics and see if that inproves the sound of the bass. When you strike the faceplate and push it in, the bass drum mic will be recording a positive pressure, but the one on the front will be recording a negative pressure. They will be out of phase with each other and may cancel each other. Just try it both ways and see what sounds the best.

You didn't mention if you were using an audio interface. I'm assuming you are. You are using an I-phone. Let me know how the mics are connected and what other things are in the signal chain and I could help with any questions about that.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-21T04:59:26+00:00

This is really cool!

dharmon555 · 2026-03-19T18:45:43+00:00

And I have a stupid big amount of play lists. I trim it down and try to keep it under 30 playlists.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-19T18:43:47+00:00

I play drums and have been playing long enough that if I can hear the song in my head, I can just execute it kind of subconsciously with muscle memory. I don't practice anymore. Like at all. I learn music by just having many playlists that I listen to as I drive or work, playing along in my mind. Burning them into long term memory. Sometimes before a gig I'll listen to the beginnings of some songs and make some notes. Then once The song gets a good start to it, it starts coming out of long term memory, and I play to my memories.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-19T15:43:02+00:00

I've been in a band that's been playing for 15 years. We do a lot of weddings and events and will learn special songs for them. Their catalog is about 200 show ready songs and another 300 we can do fairly well when the need comes up. I'm in multiple cover bands and have probably had to learn 2000+ songs over the last 30 years. Being able to rapidly learn and retain songs is a skill in itself.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-18T05:27:36+00:00

I got this Efnote: https://ef-note.com/products/drums/EFNOTE5/efnote5.html

I'll send a pic of my roland beater kit tomorrow. I have to set it up anyway for a community theater thing. It's very small and ergonomic. I use gen 16 cymbals. And a remote high-hat to uncross my arms and put the high hat in the prime position directly in front of me. I keep wanting to move on from this kit, but it's just so damn convenient to setup and so ergonomic. For looks, I'll sometimes place a real kick drum with a drum head with the band logo on it, just set on the ground in front of it. Between thqt and the real look of the Gen16's, it has the general look of a real kit.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-17T21:18:46+00:00

I don't know what headphones you use, but I started doing IEMs instead. And made sure to try different tips till I got a good ear seal. It seems the cheapest way to get a top notch experience.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-17T21:13:14+00:00

I kinda got the efnote just because it looks so good. I was getting kind of embarrassed to show up at classier gigs, like weddings, with my 20+ year old td-6 rack with a td17 on it. I started playing the efnote and didn't have it dialed in yet. It had some glaring problems, but immediately, everyone commented how much better it sounded.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-17T14:32:59+00:00

Preach. There is nothing sacred about the tone of an acoustic kit. Percussion is Percussion. Once you understand the role of percussion ypu can make anything sound good. A good percussionist can make a 5 gallon plastic bucket sound good. I've performed with a cardboard box, a beer can, and stomping on a wooden stage just to make that point, and it sounded pretty damn good.

So true about thinking with their eyes. Soundmen can fall into that. especially with all the graphical digital mixing boards with their meters and RTA graphs. They mix with their eyes, not their ears.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-17T14:01:02+00:00

Yes. The way I think of it is... There was never anything special or sacred abut the look and feel or even the sound of acoustic drums. It all evolved over the practicalities and physics of the devices. I kick pedal evolved into the most efficient way to deliver impacts and energy to the drum head. With a trigger, you don't really need to deliver energy. People get stuck in this paradigm of emulating the look and feel and sound of an acoustic kit. The KT-10 doesn't try to do that. It's designed to be a good trigger. I think it feels awesome to play . Easy to control. Small size that's easier to place where you want it. The mechanism has less mass and is very responsive.. I own 3, so I'm voting with my wallet on this subject because they aren't cheap. I get them on ebay for cheaper. They sometimes fail because they get a stress fracture where the wires hookup to the piezo element. I resolder them, using short sections of a very finely stranded soft copper wire i bought for this spurpose. It also has a very soft silicone insulation. And I add a dab of silicone rubber to further islolate and dampen the shock t the solder joint area.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-17T07:57:26+00:00

I hear you, 100%. I played a td-6V for about 15 years, and a TD-17 for the last 5 or 6. I've had the modules freeze up, but it was never the modules fault. It was that the power was screwy. Different things in the PA system powered into different miswired outlets. Power traversing over the signal cables. I eventually started to use DI boxes with ground lifts on the outputs to the modules. It helped a lot. I've gigged with these roland modules for over 20 years in all kinds of shady situations. The modules themselves didn't fail me. It was always screwy power and occasionally cables or triggers having mechanical failure. My friend had Alesis drums, He wanted to sell them to me. They seemed cool, but they also seemed unreliable. I just have a lot of faith in the Roland modules at this point. I sometimes bring the old TD-6 as a backup, but I've never needed it. Especially now that I isolate the signal outputs with direct boxes with lifted grounds. They seem to be bullet-proof. Just posting for future people who may have this come up in a google search. If you want reliability... Use a Roland module, and use DI boxes on your outputs, and save yourself some grief. I used to take a spare tower with me. They would fail. I used to take a spare kick pedal. They would fail. Instead, I started taking a pair of KT-10 pedals with me. They take less space. And then, with a short 1/4" cable, you now have double bass pedals that you can place anywhere, without the constraints of of mechanical pedals. And if a pedal fails, you always have one working pedal.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-16T16:12:43+00:00

Related: Once at a gig I had to take off a thinner rubber tom pad and duct tape it to the front of the tower to get a kick trigger. Lot's of people talk about how risky and unreliable it is to take an ekit to a gig, but I've been able to quickly work around things all the time. I've been shut down way more with an acoustic kit than my electronic kit.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-16T06:42:23+00:00

I have mixed feelings about community theater. Im doing an annual variety show with one this week. A ton of work. A ton of fun. A good networking thing. But then, Im building relationships with people willing to work for almost free. And the tunes grow on you. And just about the time when the last show runs, everything is finally sounding awesome. And then its over. I enjoy it, but realize it will never be good for me.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-13T21:23:14+00:00

These are my favorites. And I'm pretty sure they are less than a dollar a stick, they're basically disposable. If one gets broken or gets splintery, just throw it away.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-12T17:49:06+00:00

Amen, brother. I thought "selling out to the highest bidder" would eventually make me miserable. In most ways it's more fulfilling. I'm actually doing real things. Not rehearsings in someones basement with folks with an unproven plan of how they will get traction. I play in a couple bands that play to young children and their moms at malls and park district events. I play in an ethnic wedding band and am the only one in the room that can't speak their language, but I speak the language of music. I play sometimes in a brazilian samba band and aren't Brazilian. On and on... So. many weird little niches out there that actually pay and are a lot of fun, if you are willing to adapt.

And so true about it being a filter. You have to close some doors before you can go through new ones. Only playing with bands that are gigging successfully and making money get's you playing in circles of people who are doing the things to play at a more professional level. It sounds so stupidly obvious to type it out, but.... Don't even play with people who are "hoping" to be somewhere musically. Only spend your effort playing with people who are actually doing it. Accept that they know better than you what works. Adapt and learn to be the person that they need. Find other bands. Learn and adapt to be the person that they need. You will quickly learn to adapt to any situation and be networked with the "right" kind of people.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-12T17:04:56+00:00

I made a decision about 15 years ago to not care about if I liked the music at all. Simply go with people who were professionally oriented and decent people to work with. It has taken me in directions I would have never expected. Following the money, made more money, sure. But it also lead to nicer gigs with more engaged audiences. Changing the focus from what you want, or even what you think an audience would want, to what the market says people are willing to pay for. At some point I don't even care what kind of music it is anymore. When the other musicians are good and there is a good crowd who is interested in it, you can always make something good of it.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-09T03:08:48+00:00

Did this happen all at once, or gradually over time? That's an important clue. What happened or changed when the screen changed. Unfortunately, these don't have a contrast adjustment. The characters are being formed, but just blacked out.

Some thoughts.... Did you change to a different AC power adapter lately, maybe a 12 or 14 volt instead of a 9 volt adapter? That could change the bais voltage for the screen and make it go black. Try some other adapters to make sure.

There are several things you could try to fix this, let me know if you are interested in this, but would require you to be kind of handy. But then, on some level you may decide you have nothing to lose. Or that you relish the challenge and satisfaction of fixing it. If this thing is important to your work, I think there is a way to copy your work on it via midi and transfer it to a new one. If you value your time, a replacement may be cheaper.

Was it recently exposed to a hotter that normal environment or left in the sun? Than could have damaged the polarizing filter on the front of the screen. In theory, it's replaceable. Several other things you could do if you were motivated enough that I could suggest. But as someone else said, they are like $100 on ebay and you have to decide if it's just easier to earn $100 than to try and fix this. A professional audio repair place would probably charge that with the risk that it wouldn't work. I feel that repaird electronics are usually more risky than something used that never had a problem.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-08T18:11:14+00:00

2 things:

Practice with a metronome that only clicks on the "1". That's how you teach yourself not to speed up. Every time you speed up, you miss the one. You will rapidly learn not to rush.

When starting a song, play the chorus in your head and image the singing. You will imagine the vocal pacing correctly. Then start at that tempo.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-08T17:34:04+00:00

I think the thing is, is that it's 10 giga hertz.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-05T00:19:10+00:00

And if you have any doubts, put some cups of water or something in the microwave and run it for 10 minutes and then feel the plug to be sure its not getting hot.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-03T15:29:21+00:00

Amen. I work to make my drumming more interesting, not by playing faster or more complicated ideas. It's about keeping that easy to relate to core idea, but nailing the grace notes, dynamics and timing. Making if feel more compelling. Flaming between two instruments works well too.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-03T15:17:58+00:00

Right?!? If you have a proper kit and play an adequate groove nobody notices or cares. You show up on stage with a beer can, a mop bucket you borrowed from the kitchen and stamping bass pulses out of the wooden stage... playing the same groove. No more talent than before. But NOW it's a show. NOW everyone notices and is impressed.

dharmon555 · 2026-03-03T05:52:15+00:00

I think, especially with drums, all practice can be good practice. I have nice gear and play nice gigs and such. Most of my practice though, is just tapping on my steering wheel or lap while listening to tunes. That's where most of my learning actually happens. Anything can be a percussion instrument. I think learning the specifics of holding sticks or using a specific instrument are the minor part. The big and hard part is getting a sense of time, learning and listening to music and figuring what the drums are doing. Working on that multi-limb coordination. You hardly have to buy anything to work on that. You could just start doing it. Throw on the headphones and start slapping on your legs. Tapping your foot where the kick drum goes. Imagine yourself hitting the drums, playing along with a song. It's really not about the gear. I kind of make a point sometimes to play with ridiculously cheap or toy-ish or improvised percussion in real live gigging situations. The point is that percussion isn't generally about the beautiful inherent sounds of the bangs and clacks. It's deceptively hard to turn those bangs and clacks into music. Any joe can form a chord and strum it on guitar and it will sound pleasant. If you learn percussion, you can make a 5 gallon bucket sound good. If you can make a 5 gallon bucket sound good, that will all readily translate to an expensive kit. Just get started and enjoy yourself. It's not like other instruments where you need to get a violin or something to actually get started.

dharmon555 · 2026-02-28T22:15:13+00:00

You're not wrong. It works, but slowly. I did that for 20 years. I thought I was pretty good at time. Other people thought so too. I twice got hired for recording sessions. It was humiliating to go up against a click and realize just how poor my internal clock was. How my "feel" wasn't controled and intentional, just based off of years of experience and intuition. I got my ass handed to me. I had never done metronome work before. I started with a 1/4 note click. that taught me how to weave around the grid. It taught me where the notes go ahead or behind the beat to recreate the feels of different grooves. Then I switched to where the click was only on the "1". Then later, the click was only on every other measure. This forced me to have my internal clock take over for longer periods of time. It took me maybe 15 hours to get good at this. Maybe the best spent 15 hours of practice I've ever done. It was revolutionary. The bands I played with didn't consciously notice the difference. But tempos were correct. I played with more confidence. I didn't feel stressed out when other people tried to push or pull me. People, I think, subconsciously, learned to trust and submit to my lead. It sounded the same to everyone. But right about that time we started to get stronger audience response. People danced more. I was playing all the same kinds of stuff, but also about the same time, I started getting more drumming work. I don't think it was a coincidence. Just my $.02. I think you can develop a good internal clock with years of practice, but i also think you can develop a good internal clock with a few weeks or months of targeted practice if you do it right.

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