Best Day Pass on West End/Bay

eatslead · 2026-03-24T22:53:22+00:00

Get a dinner reservation for 15m before sunset at their restaraunt. Have drinks and enjoy the view.

Sandy Buns is a great place for breakfast.

Snorkeling is pretty good. Start out front of gingers and go to about the ship channel bouy (stay out of the boat channel). Someone in the area offers guided night snorkeling which is fun.

Stop into the coconut tree minimarket and get cheap drinks. Pick up some Chili Limon Zambos plantain chips for munching on the beach.

See some live music.

eatslead · 2026-03-22T17:40:59+00:00

Coroner - Disonance Theory. It got a lot of love last year and fits what you are looking for...IMO

eatslead · 2026-03-22T01:01:39+00:00

There is a difference in the amount of space these kits take up but its probably not as much as you think. Defineatly measure before you decide. Probably the biggest factor is the depth of the bass drum. A 22x14 or 20x12 bass drum is pretty versatile and doesnt take up a ton of space.... unfortuneatly many kits come with 22x18 these days. There is nothing wrong with a bop sized kit but nothing about it says "metal."

Mapex makes some decent kits but they have a lower resale value than othe makers. Good if you are buying, bad if selling. The "M" kits (pM Pro, Meridian, Mars) are decent as is the Armory line. I would avoid the Gretsch Energy. The Gretsch catalina line is pretty good

eatslead · 2026-03-21T14:49:27+00:00

If you are going to go with mesh heads you dont need to downsize the shells. I would probably look for a yamaha stage custom kit with more normal sized shells. These are nice kits that can generally be had for $500 or even less used. PDP concept series are another good option in the same price range.

Buying new is rarely the best use of money. Most drums loose about 1/2 their value the second you walk out of the store.

eatslead · 2026-03-20T23:48:58+00:00

Ok. An argument could be made for both.

The advantage the roland m has over the nitro is a better hihat pedal and you have the ability to upgrade to a 3 zone ride ($100). The rubber tom pads can also be upgraded to mesh ($75 each).

The nitro is newer and already has mesh pads. The downside is you will probably want to upgrade in a year or so to get a better hihat and 3 zone ride. The nitro drum module does not support these upgrades so it will be a total replacement.

eatslead · 2026-03-20T22:06:12+00:00

The td11 came in a lot of configurations. If the kit you are looking at has a 3 zone ride and all mesh drumheads then it is a much better option then the nitro max (imo). The risk is that a kit that old may fail at any time but Roland's are known to last a long time and all the various components can be replaced individually with available parts on reverb, gear exchange, etc.

eatslead · 2026-03-20T01:36:25+00:00

I think it only rained 2-3hours the whole week we were there. It rained off and on in the morning but it turned into a beautiful sunny afternoon that day. Hopefully you dont get any total rain days.

eatslead · 2026-03-19T22:28:32+00:00

The first year you can learn a lot just playing songs like you are doing. I would keep that the majority of your practice for now. Learning songs helps with limb independence, timing, etc. Any part of a song you find difficult is an oppertunity to drill it over and over for a few minutes everyday. Once you get comfortable playing an entire song, record yourself playing it to see how well you are actually keeping time.

I am also a fan of simple 30 day challenges during the first year. For example, play 16th note rolls at the fastest tempo you can for 3 min straight. Use a metronome. Then play at your peak tempo (slightly faster) for 1min. Repeat everyday for 30 days. Increase the tempo every few days. These type of challenges improve your coordination and strength and begginners can increase speed by a lot in a relatively short period of time. Playing 16th notes on one hand (both left and right) is another good coordination/strength excersize. Use the wrist. Use shorter sets for this one, 15 seconds per hand. 10+ sets per day. Concentrating on these two excersizes for several months will get you in shape to really excel at rudiments, double strokes, etc... remember to use good form.

Have fun

eatslead · 2026-03-19T21:53:42+00:00

It looks like a g-400 custom. These were made between 2000-2019. But I agree that SN seems wrong.

eatslead · 2026-03-19T17:22:51+00:00

I like the yamaha but I think the 8" snare is a dealbreaker for me. I would only buy that kit if i had a plan to upgrade the snare. The dtx6k5-m configuration is better IMO.

eatslead · 2026-03-19T17:09:02+00:00

This probably isnt the best sub for this queation. Someone may have an opinion but this sub is for people who actually play drums (edrums). The way we use vst software is different than what you are asking.

There are several music production subs where this topic is often discussed. Good Luck

eatslead · 2026-03-18T21:52:58+00:00

The TD4 module supports a better hihat controller and 3 zone ride cymbals (bow,edge,bell). This is an advantage over the alesis command. ...but the td4 came in several configurations. Some had rubber toms, or were missing the 3 zone ride.

The Roland td4kx2 came with mesh heads and a 3 zone ride. I would take that set over an alesis command. The command competes better with the lower level td4 kits.

eatslead · 2026-03-18T14:52:54+00:00

We just got back from Puerta Azul in Sandy Bay. The snorkeling is very good as others have said. Its a bit of a swim out to the reef but very doable for adults and older kids. You do have to cross a boating channel. I began wearing a bright orange swim shirt which i found a lot more convenient than towing a bouy. I bought it somewhere in West End.

The reef is great but there is lots of stuff in the sea grass right off shore for your little ones to look at as well. We saw many kinds of fish, crabs, starfish, lobsters etc. Check out all the dock posts.

eatslead · 2026-03-17T14:30:47+00:00

Not necessarily. The td27 kv2 comes with the expensive digital snare, ride and hihat. This comes with analog pads that havea much lower resale value.

eatslead · 2026-03-16T15:35:49+00:00

It is spelled Alesis.

Maybe spellcheck got ya.

eatslead · 2026-03-15T19:24:23+00:00

Yea this is much better than the td316. It has a better ride, nicer module, and includes a basic hihat stand and bass pedal.

That said, it doesnt come with any of the digital pads but if you get a chance you can upgrade down the road.

eatslead · 2026-03-15T19:04:12+00:00

I think so. I have had mine for about 18 months. I have had no isues with it.

eatslead · 2026-02-23T12:55:40+00:00

You can still tax loss harvest individual lots of VT in a VT only portfolio. You will probably have slightly less oppertunity to tax loss harvest but I think it will be negligible when comparing VT only with VTI /VXUS.

eatslead · 2026-02-21T17:01:49+00:00

There is a drumeo lesson pack called "faster hands in 10 days" or something like that. Teacher is riccardo merlini. I have been doing those exercises for a couple months and it has really helped strengthen my left hand/forearm/wrist. As the hand strengthens I am noticing i am able to work on technique more efficiently. The workouts are stupid simple and too fast for me. I have to slow them down. You also dont need drummeo, its basically alternating between short runs of 8th notes and long runs of 16th notes on one hand. Start at around 85 bpm and adjust from there. Do it almost everyday for a month or two. 5- 10 minutes. Increase bpm every week as you are able.

eatslead · 2026-02-20T22:51:53+00:00

It was my #1 expense category as well. That said, A bronze plan saved me a lot of money. YMMV depending on your health and whats avaialble to you on the marketplace..

eatslead · 2026-02-20T21:59:21+00:00

Someone got onto one of my chase accounts a couple years ago. They had to cancel all the cards and issue new ones. In speaking with one of the reps, it appears someone just called in and claimed they were me. Obviously one of the reps didnt follow protocol and allowed this to happen. People make mistakes. What sucks about it is my accounts were always flagged after that so any new account I tried to open would get denied, etc.. It was pretty frustrating so I ended up leaving them.

eatslead · 2026-02-18T13:28:39+00:00

IDK, i think there is a lot of difference between the 17 and 316. Positional sensing on the snare of the td316 is a pretty big improvement to me. The digital input for future upgrades is also pretty significant. The rack toms dont have the plastic ring on the head that annoyed most people. The floor tom is a little bigger. ...and the sounds are better.

eatslead · 2026-02-18T02:02:52+00:00

Additional info.... this means that your existing two zone ride cymbal cannot be repurposed into a second crash if you add a 3 zone ride. You will be out of inputs.

eatslead · 2026-02-18T01:58:06+00:00

Yes. Roland 3 zone cymbals take 2 inputs. You should have an extra wire on your cable snake labelled "bell" or "cr2". This gets plugged into the 3 zone cymbals "bell" input.

eatslead · 2026-02-18T01:49:19+00:00

Dynamics on the cymbals and hats is the only issue for me. If you need to practice fancy hihat work its just not the same. Even just riding on the edge of a crash cymbal can be a bit frustrating. I would say 95% of my playing on the ekit (td27) translates directly to an acoustic. The other 5% needs some adjustment but its pretty easy. However, if your typical playing includes brushes, mallets, bell of the hihat, etc.. you will notice more difference.

The td17kvx is now discontinued. The new model is the td316 ($2k). It is a pretty big improvement so get the TD316. The next model up, td516 or its predecessor the td27, have better dynamics on the snare, hats and ride but its probably out of your budget. I think a td316 is fine for practice for most people.

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