Yeah. Get the Roland system with a TD10 brain. It's a sweet thing. It may be a little more expensive than you were figuring but hey who puts a price limit on their sound?

I have a Roland TD-8 brain and a set of Pintech pads. The pads are pretty good, but I 've had some trouble with them. However, I recommend the TD-8 over the TD-10 100%. It has almost as many features for about a half the price. The V-club you mentioned comes with a TD-5 I think, which has a lot less options, but might be ok for what you want to do.

And if you just need an aux input, you could always buy a cheap ($50) mixer and mix the headphones yourself. I'd say get the best kit you can, and worry about monitors later.

However, the Yamaha kit you are referring to seems like a deal do me. Just keep in mind that electric drums, while good for something, are no substitute for the real thing, and are not as quiet as you think. (I lived in an apartment with concrete floors and used mine without a problem, but in an older wood-construction building, the lady downstairs complained.)

I'd say that to make a good decision, you need to really know what features you want. For example, if you want to load your own samples, you need a certain brain (I think that only the DM Pro can do this right now), or drums with position sensing (snare on the TD-8, all on the TD-10 and ddrums I think). The Roland V-Drums are cool if you want to be able to really customize your sounds, but if you just need something to practice on, or are going to trigger sounds externally, they might be overkill.

Since you mentioned recording, you might want to go towards the TD-8, since I find it to sound more natural and have more customizable options than the cheaper brains.

I haven't got specs on the 8, so a quick question: How many sound outputs do those things have?

Yeah, and I just packed it up for some cleaning on the weekend. Basically a Frankenstein kit of 5 various pads (including a Roland unit with 3 edge switches plus the main 1), real hi-hats, with an Alesis D4 brain. It's over 10 years old at this point, and I just never have time to play these days.

However, I am seriously looking at the V-drums, and I'm sure just having a decent set would inspire me to practise more!

I live in a 3000sqft house and will have the set in the basement so the minimal volume of the e-drums is not a problem. My acoustic set is extensive, but I only get to use it once a week if I'm lucky. I was planning on building a studio, but with an electronic set, I can write music and practice with people home. I can record my bass and guitar silently and either record the e-drums or wait until I get a chance to play my acoustic set and record that.

I also noticed that some modules don't have a metronome. I need that. At least I can lay down a basic drum track and then overwrite it later with the acoustic set.

I'll take a look at the TD-8. It's $800. But I think I need to figure out my recording plan first. If I'm not going to record the e-drums, then the Dtxpress should be fine.

I use a Yamaha DD55 to record drums for my songs, and it works quite well.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...ase_pid/404135/

If you dont mind the form factor, its got great sound output and tons of built in effects. I plug the audio out into my M-Box and it's good to go.

Just remember that if you're planning to do any serious recording, quantity of sound outputs is important.

I don't know how many outputs the TD-8 has (haven't got the specs, which is why I posted the earlier question) but make sure it's at least 6. Trust me, if you're planning to do serious recording with the unit at any time in the future, an extra 2 outputs is worth double the money.

I run an R-8m (because I'm not a drummer) and it usually breaks down like this:

Stereo Out: Overheads (cymbals in stereo).
Mono: Kick.
Mono: Snare.
Mono: Hats.
Mono: Tom.
Mono: Tom.
Mono: Tom.

That's 8 outputs. Don't be thinking you're gonna get away with less if serious recording is involved - especially if you're recording "live" playing (sequenced you can just do two passes onto "tape" and change output assignments in between).

If you're only gonna do hobbyist stuff, then don't worry about quantity of outputs (mind, do plan for whatever the future holds - Roland gear will last you a lifetime if you treat it properly).

That's a cool device, but I do mind the form factor. I need to keep in practice for my acoustic set.

The TD-8 has L and R Master and Direct outs, for a toal of 4. It also has a headphone out, but that is chained to the others I think. Sounds like the TD-10 has eight.

But keep in mind that the TD-8 is $799, and the TD-10 is $1499, plus another $299 for the expansion card if you want to get it (this will bring it up to par with the TD-8 soundwise, since the TD-10 is older. The TD-10 then also supports cymbals with three strike zones, which the TD-8 does not). These are retail prices, ebay can probably knock a couple hundred off.

So if you need the individual outs, you might need the TD-10, but there are ways of getting around it. And since the sounds in the brain are pretty good, you might be able to get away with mixing them down to four channels in the brain (stereo plus snare and bass). Maybe not, depends on your needs.

And then there's always the option of recording your playing as midi into the computer (if you have one setup for it), and then playing back the MIDI through the brain and recording the audio it outputs. This works in theory, bu I've never actually done it. This could be done multiple times to get as many 'outs' as you need.

But it sounds like you are looking to use the edrums as a placeholder for real drums, in which case, it's not that much of an issue.

So I found the Yamaha DTXpress II set, new, for $800. It's a done deal! I've been playing around with it for a few hours and I love it! The hi-hat sounded dead, but I easily livened it up by dropping the decay down to nothing. And cross-faded a ride bell onto the ride so that if I hit it harder, I get the cymbal with the bell ride. Sweet.

I'm loving this. There are so many sounds and ways to program it. Now I just need to figure out how to hook it up to my mac.

Glad to hear that you're happy with your set. As for hooking it up to your mac, you have two choices: MIDI and audio. In either case, if you're looking at software too, it may be worth waiting a week to see how this GarageBand thing pans out. I was about to drop some money on an audio program, but I think I'll wait and see how it looks first- $29 is a lot better than $299.

Since you did get the Yamaha brain, I think you only need stereo inputs, which gives you plenty of options: USB, firewire, PCI, and then I suppose 1/8 audio input jack, depending on your Mac.

Nice! I found a set at music123.com for $999 on closeout, but I think I'm leaning to the Hart Dynamics for $359, simply because I don't think I want to drop that much at the moment. However, I plan to test drive them to see how they feel, maybe that'll convince me to go whole hog

Anyone else tried the Hart or Pintechs? Opinions? I'll most likely stick to the D4 for now if I get a set of just pads.

I like the Hart and Pintechs either with a DM5 or DM Pro. The pads are not the same feel as Rolands which turns some people off. My problem with the Rolands is they make your technique better than it is. You'll be flying double stroke rolls around the toms in no time then go back to the acoustic kit and suddenly that 16" floor tom is not quite as responsive as you were hoping.

Can't wait for NAMM next week!

Great, that's the kind of info I'm looking for, thanks!
There's a place near my work called "Just Drums," I should wander by later in the week and take 'em for a drive.

The DM5 brain is out of the question for me because it doesn't have an aux input. I liked the Hart, but their Prodigy set didn't have the features of the DTXpressII. The DTX set has a 3-zone snare and one of the cymbals is 2-zone. Plus the hart comes with the DM5 - I know you can buy just the pad set, but I didn't want to look around for a separate module.

If you have a Guitar Center near you, that's their price. Probably because Yamaha is coming out with their DTXpressIII set.

Couldn't agree more. All mesh pads that I've tried (Roland, Pintech, one other I can't remember the name of) suffered from this.

The Yamaha kits mentioned here use rubber pads, so they are immune to this problem. The really high end Yamaha uses real drum heards I think, but I could be wrong about that.

Here's some dirt on the Prodigy kit. Looks like it's made from practice pads, which is not a bad thing, but you could probably do it yourself for less since they are single trigger anyhow.