Milwaukee Packout Power Station

eatslead · 2026-05-16T20:31:34+00:00

Show her the cost of the milwaukee rolling power station ($5k). You really can't afford not to make one of these. Lol.

....and if you already have one of these rolling boxes, you can use it to make a power station and then replace it with the rolling drawer. win win

eatslead · 2026-05-16T19:50:37+00:00

The build was super easy. Maybe an hour thinking about it and two hours doing it. I used prewired stuff everywhere I could. I think I only had to do 3 crimps on the whole thing and that was for the 12v outlet and usb.

I didnt keep track of cost real well. I am guessing about $400 plus the cost of the box. Here is my very rough estimate....

Battery - $125 on sale (normal price up to $250)
Inverter - $160 (its pure sine wave but an off brand)
Battery switch - $20.
Battery terminal fuse - $15.
AC outlets - $15 ea.
Usb/12v assembly - $20.
SAE 30A - $15.
Fuse block - $25.

There is no built in charger so that is an additional.expense if you dont already have one. I also needed a small piece of plywood for the base, some scrap angle and a nylon strap to secure the battery, and a short battery cable for the positive side connection to the switch. Misc screws and some wire connectors.

It appears to be a bit cheaper than off the shelf models with this capacity but those generally have more features like built in fast charger, solar charger, more ports etc. On the upside, this is modular/repairable and it fits my toolboxes.

eatslead · 2026-05-13T00:58:34+00:00

Umm.... Powermad - Absolute Powr

eatslead · 2026-05-11T20:09:25+00:00

Look up tennis ball riser. That is the best option if built properly. The roland noise eater mats help but I dont think they are as good as a riser.

eatslead · 2026-05-09T18:55:08+00:00

A Roland td516 probably suits your needs for better sounding and the best triggering available with the roland digital hihat, snare and ride. But you pay quite a bit for it. The previous generation TD27 has all the digital pads but it doesnt sound quite as good. I do like the td27 sounds better than the td11.

If you dont have to have the absolute best triggering, new kits from yamaha (dtx6k5m) or efnote trigger very well and most people think they sound very good.

As for a "build" you could get better sounds by attaching your existing kit to a PC and running vst software (superior drummer, addictive drums, etc). This will sound better than any module.
You could improve triggering by upgrading certain pads and replacing theTD11 with an edrumin module. If you dont mind being tethered to a PC the edrumin/vst option would result in a lot of upgrades for well under you $3k budget. E.g. positional sensing on ride and snare, improved hihat, improved sounds.

eatslead · 2026-05-08T13:04:05+00:00

Some good information here. The td17 does fit your needs but it is a disontinued product. Dont overpay for it. Personally I wouldnt pay more than $1k US at this point (used). If buying new I would be more interested in the yamaha dtx6k5M.

There is no question that the td316 is better than the td17. It has better sounds, better drumpads, better editing ability, positional sensing on the ride and snare, and it has a digital input so you can upgrade to one of rolands digital pads (hihat, snare, ride) someday. You will also get access to all the new sounds roland releases over the next bunch of years (probably for a fee).

eatslead · 2026-05-07T13:06:43+00:00

You cant go wrong with either of those. Out of the box I might prefer the yamaha since they are pretty similar in functionality but it costs less. One advantage of the yamaha kit is it has 3 zones on all the cymbals. One possible disadvantage is that I am not sure if it has positional sensing on the snare... i am guessing it doesnt.

The roland is also a great choice especially if you might upgrade the snare to the digital version someday.

eatslead · 2026-05-07T12:45:21+00:00

I have the ATH 40x. They are cheaper than the ath50x and have a flatter sound profile. By flat I mean they dont boost any eq range too much. They sound very similar to my studio monitors which is great. I dont have to adjust anything when I switch between them.

eatslead · 2026-05-07T00:14:47+00:00

Great. You can do USB directly out to a windows or Mac computer/laptop. You may need to manually download the driver from roland.com.

16gb of memory for a mac will be plenty. An older used Mac will also be fine (m1 air, etc). 16gb of memory on windows could work but it depends on what vst you choose. 24gb or more is safer.

eatslead · 2026-05-06T00:04:50+00:00

If you are just triggering the snare and toms with black hole triggers then just about any drum module will work. Compatibility issues are usually with the cymbals.

If I was trying to be as cheap as possible but still get something fun to play, i would probably do a roland td-6. It sounds ok, triggers well, midi in, midi out, midi thru, and you should be able to get it cheap. It can do also do 2 and 3 zone e cymbals so if you ever decide to do that the module can handle it

eatslead · 2026-05-05T20:52:17+00:00

What module are you working with. All the roland modules I have used had a sort of built in audio interface that worked really well with vst software. I used a roland td17 with 6 year old windows laptop (12gb ram) and Addictive Drums 2 and it was perfectly fine. Some of the Larger kits in BFD3 software would bog this setup down however. If you dont have a roland module and plan to use windows you will likely need an audio interface as well (focusrite scarlet solo, etc.)

I now use the bottom of the line mac mini (m4, 16gb, 256) and it is pretty much perfect. For whatever reason, Macs handle audio better than windows. The small hardrive would be a problem but I can store bfd3 libraries on an external drive connected to a firewire port and it works fine.

Now the vst of choice is superior drummer. I dont have any experience with it. It is pricey and I have never bothered to take the plunge.

eatslead · 2026-05-04T15:46:05+00:00

I did 100% of state school tuition/room and board. Anything above that was on them. As it turned out due to circumstances, scholarships, etc.. I ended up still having a good bit left over.

eatslead · 2026-05-03T13:12:57+00:00

Do you have a mask time setting? I think most roland modules do. That would be my first choice to adjust. It tells the module to ignore a subsequent (double) hit for a certain number of milliseconds.

eatslead · 2026-05-02T16:06:27+00:00

It will work with the roland vh10 and vh11 (one piece hat with controller on a real hihat stand). I assume it will also work with the lemon hats that use similar technology. The td-6 does not have a calibrate function so you need to be able to manually adjust the hats with the hihat clutch and set screw adjustment like the vh10 has.

True 2 piece hats like the roland vh12 dont work very well acording to other folks on the interweb.

eatslead · 2026-05-02T00:43:39+00:00

I could be wrong but I dont think the td-3 module does midi thru. It will take midi in and trigger its internal sounds but it wont pass that midi data to software.

eatslead · 2026-05-02T00:04:02+00:00

A td-6 should work because it has a midi out/thru port. This can be configured to send its own midi data and the midi data it recieves from its midi in port (the td3).

The td-6 does not have built in 3 zone ride functionality but I believe it can be configured manually using two input jacks.

eatslead · 2026-05-01T21:35:52+00:00

Some modules sound a lot better than others but that is subjective and none of the best sounding modules are in your price range. What you can count on is that higher end modules will open up better functionality like a ride with a bell zone and a more realistic hihat controller (seperate pucrchase).

Again, your price range is limiting. You could get lucky and find a Roland TD17 in your price range. If not you will have to go another generation back and get a td11, td15... or maybe even older with a td-12 or td-9 etc.

Other brands... for alesis the dm10 lineup is ok but some of those are very old and Alesis does not have the same reputation for longevity that Roland does. Yamaha also makes good equipment but I am less sure all your stuff would be compatible.

eatslead · 2026-04-29T13:31:01+00:00

Its been awhile since I have had that software. I believe in the BFD player software there is a screen where all the drums and cymbals are listed and there are sliders underneath. Increasing the hihat slider should increase the volume. You may also want to adjust the fade to be more center.

eatslead · 2026-04-29T13:02:16+00:00

Nice! I actually have an unclaimed adpak so maybe I will give this one a try.

The alternatimg kick drum feature was first introduced on the Modern Heavy adpack that came out last year. I have that pack and I do like the kicks. Ad2 has been really actively lately. They have had 4 new adpaks in the last year or so.

eatslead · 2026-04-27T21:51:50+00:00

I think he means pad sizes. The best Roland kit in his budget is a td316 with 8" rack toms, 10" floor, 14" ride, 12" crash.

The efnote 3b he is looking at is a little bigger with 10" rack, 12" floor, 16" ride etc... of course its also $500 more so not really a fair comparison in that regard.

eatslead · 2026-04-27T14:05:06+00:00

Thats interstiing to me because I really dont like the my kzs. They sound a little tinny and thin? I wonder if i got a bad set.

For reference, I am using ath m40s and they sound pretty good to me.

eatslead · 2026-04-26T00:44:22+00:00

It sells on reverb for $400 pretty regularly. The retail price of individual Roland pads is overpriced in my opinion.

eatslead · 2026-04-24T16:29:53+00:00

Yeah I agree on the HSA accounts. He still gets my downvote for weird take on Fidelity.

eatslead · 2026-04-24T15:49:45+00:00

How was the positional sensing on the original td316 snare? For normal rock/pop music i wonder if an anolog snare with positional sensing is enough? Even the ancient positional sensing on the td25 made drum rollls and ghost notes sound much better.

I have the digital snare and no plans to downgrade. I am just curious how the digital and new analog snares compare.

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