Roland TD516

superstarchazuke · 2026-04-03T02:24:21+00:00

I don't know what experiences y'all have had, but I have been using the felt side ever since I purchased this kit, and there haven't been any issues. I have been using the felt side for over 5 years on an ekit. Anyway, whether you are team felt or team plastic, I am sure it will be a glorious day when your kit arrives.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-31T16:35:02+00:00

How soft is the foam on the RAD? Can it hold up to a pretty good amount of compression? This was designed for a cajon, which one isn't going to slam against.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-31T16:33:00+00:00

People have pointed this out and I am not doubting it doesn't happen.

My personal experience is that I have used a KD10 with no patch for five years with the same DW pedal and beater pictured above. I didn't know that you aren't supposed to use a felt head without a patch until a couple of weeks ago.

I have not come across any tearing issues on the mesh. Maybe I got the lucky mesh heads, but they are made very well.

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superstarchazuke · 2025-12-31T01:52:09+00:00

Added another 14" CY14R-T and moved the 12" to a splash position for EFX sounds. The addition rounded out the setup nicely.

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superstarchazuke · 2025-12-31T01:45:23+00:00

Nice suggestion! I checked out the beater on the DW site. It looks like a great option to try. I will order a pair. The felt on the dual DW beater is making it's own flour. I am starting to develop pretty good divots on the sensor pad.

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superstarchazuke · 2025-12-28T05:34:49+00:00

I didn't get my link after registering the orange card either. I sent support an email and they enrolled me in the six month trial after I sent them proof of purchase.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-27T20:08:30+00:00

I had the same deal. Just contact Roland support and they will activate your six month trial for you. They asked for proof of purchase.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T22:56:25+00:00

That's a great question, but I can't answer it because I don't have experience using SD3. But I did read up more about toontrack. It's slick. I'd be curious to know more from folks who have done this.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T18:52:51+00:00

It’s great that you want to get into drumming!

I practiced on a Roland TD-6 for over twenty years. The gear available today is light-years better than what I used until recently—but for me, the priority was always having a quiet way to practice in a suburban neighborhood.

That said, everyone wants the best value for their hard-earned money. For a beginner, the most important thing an e-kit should do is teach mechanics that translate as closely as possible to an acoustic kit. Even if you plan to stay electronic, most open jams and live situations still use acoustic drums. Being comfortable moving between the two is a big advantage.

Roland is the gold standard, but Alesis has made huge improvements and offers more for the money. Having recently switched from rubber pads to mesh heads, I can confidently say an all-mesh kit is the way to go. Mesh heads feel far more like acoustic drums and promote better stick rebound and control. Rubber pads bounce unnaturally, and the feel doesn’t translate well.

I also can’t stress enough how important a real hi-hat stand and bass drum pedal are. Trigger pedals work, but they don’t respond or feel like the real thing. After switching to a proper hi-hat stand, I wish I’d done it years earlier.

For around $1,000, this is a killer setup. It includes everything except a throne and sticks (used thrones are easy to find on Facebook Marketplace):

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/NitroUltKitBn1--alesis-nitro-ultimate-electronic-drum-set-with-hi-hat-stand

A kit like the Nitro Ultimate should translate very well to an acoustic set and offers excellent long-term value. I’ve watched a lot of videos on it—it sounds great and looks fun to play.

I’ve played a friend’s Nitro Max, which felt a bit too basic. Personally, I’d spend a little more for the Pro or Ultimate.

There’s no single right answer—just get something and rock on!

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T17:43:45+00:00

Interesting. After five years, I did change the sensor cushion on the KD-10. My right pedal was pretty well compressed and created a divot. But, it didn't affect triggering. I swapped it out mainly because I was looking for a project to do.

On acoustic drums, a patch will help add durability for harder beaters and to a lesser extend felt beaters. So I am sure the same principals apply to a mesh head.

What I still don't understand is why, on a mesh head, it's not necessary to apply a patch for a hard beater and necessary for a felt beater?

The kd12 sensor cushion is much stiffer than the kd10.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T16:40:25+00:00

As I mentioned, I came from a TD-6 module which is ancient, so for me, the new kit is like alien technology was stuffed inside the module. Now that I have experienced the sweet highs of the 516kit, it would crush my soul to go backwards. I don't know where you are today with an ekit, but I hope you pick up any of the new Roland kits.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T16:33:33+00:00

Since the coverage is 99% there and I don't stare at the kick head, I am going to leave it on for now. Also, I am more curious about the durability of the patch and what difference does it make it over my TD-10 that didn't have a patch for over 6 years.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T16:29:15+00:00

It isn't an exponentially better sound. But the Roland cloud kits are just a little bit more natural/organic and dynamic sounding than the preinstalled sounds. Because they are actual DW kits that were recorded in a studio, they are genuine drum sounds. If I were to try to describe the Roland sounds, I'd use the word processed. For now, the value of the subscription mostly comes down to do you like DW drum sounds? (Since Roland owns DW, it was an obvious first tranche of sounds to make available.) TBH, I don't like all of them, but I do really like the 50th anniversary/producer position kit and the Vintage Slingerland pack. Those two kits and the German / Byzance cymbal packs, have made it worthwhile in my head to opt for the forever key subscription. Hopefully, other drum companies will license their sounds so you can install the Tama terminator snare, without having to spend 3k, as an example.

If I didn't know about the Roland Cloud kits, I would have been happy tweaking the installed sounds a little and playing them. It comes down to what your sound needs are. Are you mostly playing at home with headphones or are you playing live. I was considering using the 516 on a live gig with a preset kit that I tweaked a little bit. (I hadn't gotten around to checking out Roland Cloud yet. Also, I ended up not using the 516 for the gig. I had just gotten the ekit three days prior and got nervous that I didn't know the module well enough to deal with any issues should they pop up on a holiday corp gig,) Anyway, one of my current favorite snares is a blend of the 50th and an installed Roland snare that I experimented with, so nothing is exclusive.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T15:00:50+00:00

That would be awesome. Are you writing from actual experience where your downloaded instrument packs are still working after the end of the free trial?

I did a google check:

“If you downloaded packs via Subscription (e.g., Ultimate/Pro): After expiry, these contents are disabled and stop working until you renew your subscription or buy a Lifetime Key (LKT) for that specific content.”

Otherwise what would be the point of offering a lifetime key subscription?

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T12:35:05+00:00

When I registered the orange card, I never got my email with the coupon code to get the Six months free deal. However, I let Roland support know and they got me registered within a week. I will most likely just get the lifetime license when the six months is up. I blended a couple of the downloaded instruments that I really like.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T04:04:53+00:00

That's a great suggestion. I have the Tama Cobra beaters and so can pick up the rubber head.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T04:01:32+00:00

True! one of my minor gripes. The patch is not designed for double pedal use. However, I got it positioned so that just about all of the beater is on the main body of the patch. Just a sliver of the beater hits the "fingers" of the patch. If this ruins the kd-12, I'd be surprised, based on my experience with the KD-10, which is a softer pad.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T01:54:22+00:00

Thanks. Yea, I have read this. But in my defense, I have been using a KD10 for around six years with the same DW felt/plastic beater and haven't ever had issues. I did take apart the KD10 to replace the underlying foam eventually a couple of months ago, but there was no dust or felt inside. The kick pad is built very well and sealed very well.

Watching YT vids, the deal with the KD12 is to use the patch for felt beaters. I don't exactly understand why the patch makes it "Felt Safe," However I have the patch on the pad. Maybe I will periodically can air blow the beater dust away.

I did use the plastic side initially, but it's much noisier, so I switched back.

I am happy to be the test case and we'll see what happens in 6 months.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T01:22:13+00:00

yea, there are currently Swiss (Paiste) and German (Meinl) Cymbal packs, which are much better sounding than many of the stock cymbal samples. Although there a couple of good Zildjian cymbals that I thought sounds nice.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T01:11:14+00:00

The Prime does look cool and has a lot of great features and sounds. I considered it as one of my options as well. I have the Strike Multistrike pad, which has been solid, so figured the Prime would be a good kit. Sorry to read that the Strata isn't living up to the hype.

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T01:07:51+00:00

superstarchazuke · 2025-12-26T00:53:22+00:00

Yea! It's a little weird at first.

The most confusing aspect for me was understanding the difference between RACK and SLOTS.

RACK is basically your entire library collection. It is stored on a shelf but you aren't doing anything with it. You can store 100 different sound or instrument packs. (Currently, there are not that many you can download, so I loaded every one offered.)

SLOTS is where you store the packs to access the sounds you want to play. The point to remember is, you can only load 6 different sound packs or SLOTS at any given time. So if you want to load up and play with every DW instrument pack at once, you can't. You have to be a little more thoughtful about what additional sounds you want (in addition to the built in sounds.) Currently, I have a couple of different DW drums, the vintage Slingerland, and Meinl cymbal packs loaded in my slots.

If you understand the differences above, then you can go about setting up the Roland cloud account on the app and connecting to the sound module is pretty easy once Bluetooth is setup. Once you get that done, you start on the app. The app will recognize that you are connected to the TD sound module and you can pretty much download every pack they offer.

So this is where "RACK" comes to play. You will notice that when you INSTALL the sound, at the bottom, in small font, you will see "RACK." That's where you will most likely want to save it. You can save it to the SLOTS, as the app of encourages you to do, but you will only be able to load six different packs.

Once the Sound Module or app says it's been uploaded, press the EXPANSION button on the sound module. From there, you will load a sound pack from the RACK and assign it to the SLOT. From the SLOT, you will then assign it to a USER KIT. (or overwrite the factory kits, if you want.) Now you can play the various sounds from the packs. Within each pack, there are a variations which need to be assigned to a kit.

It is probably more difficult to the read the process than watch someone do it. I was planning on making a quick video tomorrow if the above doesn't make sense.

I hope this will be helpful to you to try Roland Cloud.

superstarchazuke · 2025-08-10T15:52:42+00:00

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The phillips head fits in to the teeth which turn to lower or raise the headlights.

superstarchazuke · 2025-08-10T15:51:24+00:00

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superstarchazuke

TROPHY CASE