Midtown A to E conversion

[Ehrin]

Hello fellow PDFers. I recently got a new Midtown kit to have something for smaller gigs where I don't feel comfortable taking my Masters bop kit. (You all know where I'm talking about... That gig where the waiter/waitress has to balance trays over your kit to get past the bar...) Anywho, after very little deliberation (because Pearl always rocks) I picked up a new Midtown kit. It sounds good and is really easy to transport but now I have ANOTHER kit sitting in my drum room taking up space so I decided to do something creative with it when I don't need it. I have converted it to an electric drumset. I put on some Remo Silent Stroke heads, added some Roland RT30 triggers, added a Roland VH11 hat, CY12 cymbal, and CY13 ride and hooked everything up to an old Roland TD12 I aquired and vóila, instant (ok, 20 minute) electronic drumset. I now have a nice silent kit for some late night practicing as well as a decent electronic kit that triggers a lot better than I was expecting. I may have to pick up a Mimic Pro when it comes out and have a real high end e-kit on the cheap. I don't have any pictures right now (my wife said she would kill me if I posted a pic of my drum room in it's current state) but as soon as I can stop drumming and start cleaning I'll take some and post them here. Currently, my only complaint is that the lugs on the snare keep backing out. Thats nothing a quick trip to Lowe's for some lock nuts won't fix so I'm not going to worry too much. If anyone is interested in this or another type of A to E conversion feel free to give me a shout.

[wsgnst]

How to you feel this triggers compared to a basic Roland mesh pad? Is the performance good enough that you would ever play out with it, or strictly practice only?

[Drumming-4-Life]

How to you feel this triggers compared to a basic Roland mesh pad? Is the performance good enough that you would ever play out with it, or strictly practice only?

I've played both kinds of e-drums, factory produced, and home-grown with added triggers. They both work, and both respond to your playing, but the newest Roland pads with mesh heads play so accurately, with such realistic sensitivity... they are hard to parallel, and nearly impossible to beat.

[Ehrin]

How to you feel this triggers compared to a basic Roland mesh pad? Is the performance good enough that you would ever play out with it, or strictly practice only?

I'd say every but as good. You don't get positional sensing on the snare and I did have a little double triggering on the snare so I had to increase my mask time to 2ms. That just means no buzz rolls for me... I'm hoping the lug locks will help as I think I'm compressing the rim and it's snapping back up to hit the tension rod causing the double trigger. The 2ms mask time isn't a deal breaker to play out though.

[Ehrin]

Here's a quick shot I took with my cell phone. I've converted my kit back to acoustic for the time being so I've put the conversion in a back burner.

[SebA90]

Great to see someone else has seen the benefits of using a Midtown for an A to E conversion! I think the sizes are perfect for this and pair well with the 12-15" Roland cymbal pads. I've done the same with my Midtown which I built just over a year ago, and haven't looked back!



If anyone is interested, I have done a write-up of how I built the kit and set it up with my Roland TD-11:
https://medium.com/sebdrums/how-to-b...t-f47aac24e016

[RushDrums24]

Great to see someone else has seen the benefits of using a Midtown for an A to E conversion! I think the sizes are perfect for this and pair well with the 12-15" Roland cymbal pads. I've done the same with my Midtown which I built just over a year ago, and haven't looked back!



If anyone is interested, I have done a write-up of how I built the kit and set it up with my Roland TD-11:
https://medium.com/sebdrums/how-to-b...t-f47aac24e016

Great article there. If you find the plastic BD patch makes noise, i'd reccomend the Evans cloth ones. Really good conversion though.

[SebA90]

Great article there. If you find the plastic BD patch makes noise, i'd reccomend the Evans cloth ones. Really good conversion though.

Thanks for the tip, I think I have a spare cloth one in my cupboard so will try that out!