HEY YO everybody out here looking at this post. i am terribly troubled. i started drumming some time this year and i am ready to have a drum set. But the problem is i don know which ones to get. I saw an electronic one at ranking sports and music which costs 1000k ++. but after reading some of the posts, they say that it would do harm to your drumming. BUT, i live in a HDB. so i cant really get a acoustic right? personally, i have the urge of getting an acoustic but i don know whether shd i. so pro-drummers pls state your stand. and i will think over it. rmb, i am in a HDB!! thanks
HELP!! acoustic VS electronic (in HBD)
- Thread starter alston_79
- Start date
Schtauffen
New member
I'm not a pro myself, I own an electronic drums (Yamaha DTXplorer) and I stay in HDB as well. Do read more, some is not enough.
IMO, get an acoustic drumset, a more cheaper choice if you want to do all the dynamics on the drumkit. Imagine a 300-400 dollars entry level set you can do almost anything on any other acoustic kits (different sounds though but as a practice kit for amateurs like me, who cares =x) I can't do ALOT of sounds like cymbal chokes, and even the rimshot on my DTXplorer without changing the pads (minimum 100 for a single pad upgrade)
Honestly, at the end of the day, it boils down to your neighbours/family. Some can play as much as they want and yet nobody says anything. Eric aka RudimentalDrummer, play within the "legal timeslot" and controlling his drumming, still kena complain by one stupid neighbour until I duno what to say.
IMO, get an acoustic drumset, a more cheaper choice if you want to do all the dynamics on the drumkit. Imagine a 300-400 dollars entry level set you can do almost anything on any other acoustic kits (different sounds though but as a practice kit for amateurs like me, who cares =x) I can't do ALOT of sounds like cymbal chokes, and even the rimshot on my DTXplorer without changing the pads (minimum 100 for a single pad upgrade)
Honestly, at the end of the day, it boils down to your neighbours/family. Some can play as much as they want and yet nobody says anything. Eric aka RudimentalDrummer, play within the "legal timeslot" and controlling his drumming, still kena complain by one stupid neighbour until I duno what to say.
Last edited:
wantondoodle
New member
i am in the same boat (or house) as alston. need to find an option to drum without complaints even though i am not staying in hdb. the problem is, the only free time i have to practise is late at night. so e-kit is my best bet?
Schtauffen
New member
If you stay at a location where nobody stays BELOW you, I suppose an acoustic muffled RD-styled should be fine, since I never seen/hear it first-hand. E-kit or not, vibrations from the kick pedal might make quite abit of noise for those in the room in the lower level.
I haven't gotten any complaints yet though for those times I played my e-drums in the living room after like 1am. Even after I moved it to my room, I do play the pedal like 11pm, 12am? Maybe the carpet did the trick (later find out nobody sleeps in the space below my room HAHA! =x)
I haven't gotten any complaints yet though for those times I played my e-drums in the living room after like 1am. Even after I moved it to my room, I do play the pedal like 11pm, 12am? Maybe the carpet did the trick (later find out nobody sleeps in the space below my room HAHA! =x)
wantondoodle
New member
yup, you're right, its prob the vibrations thats gonna set people off. or maybe they'd think i'm getting lucky...at 120bpm 
suffer no more!
i would recommend getting an acoustic set, muffling it and sound-proofing your room.
i have a 6-piece gretsch catalina maple (big mistake because the bass drum is huge and boomy and maple resonates a lot) with sabian hh cymbals in my room which i play very often. when i first started out i got one complaint from some kiasu mother who said her kid couldn't study. but i was really playing very loudly at 11am. anyways, i bought 3 x 2x1.5m acoustic foam from Martin Electronics (Burlington Square, opposite Sim Lim Square) and padded up the walls of my room using 3M mounting tape. that did wonders. you should try. you can't even hear the echo of your voice in the room haha.
next step was muffling my bass drum. cut up and stuffed an exercise mat with two towels into the thing and tightened the tuning. that cut the booming. lastly, i got Gibraltar tuning felt from my man Lim at Music Theme (Peninsula) and put two on my 16" floor tom and one on the 14" one and two on the snare.
oh and do yourself a favour and get air conditioning, esp with all the acoustic foam, your room's gonna Cook!
i was using an old school yamaha DTX before i got my gretsch one. couldn't stand the feel of the thing. seriously, if you're gonna invest in an electronic drumset, you're paying mostly for the brain, which contains the cool triggers and sequencers and stuff. it'd be a waste of money if you just get it for the sake of cutting noise. yeah hope you find this useful because i totally empathise with your problem. damned hdb buildings with intolerant neighbours!
i would recommend getting an acoustic set, muffling it and sound-proofing your room.
i have a 6-piece gretsch catalina maple (big mistake because the bass drum is huge and boomy and maple resonates a lot) with sabian hh cymbals in my room which i play very often. when i first started out i got one complaint from some kiasu mother who said her kid couldn't study. but i was really playing very loudly at 11am. anyways, i bought 3 x 2x1.5m acoustic foam from Martin Electronics (Burlington Square, opposite Sim Lim Square) and padded up the walls of my room using 3M mounting tape. that did wonders. you should try. you can't even hear the echo of your voice in the room haha.
next step was muffling my bass drum. cut up and stuffed an exercise mat with two towels into the thing and tightened the tuning. that cut the booming. lastly, i got Gibraltar tuning felt from my man Lim at Music Theme (Peninsula) and put two on my 16" floor tom and one on the 14" one and two on the snare.
oh and do yourself a favour and get air conditioning, esp with all the acoustic foam, your room's gonna Cook!
i was using an old school yamaha DTX before i got my gretsch one. couldn't stand the feel of the thing. seriously, if you're gonna invest in an electronic drumset, you're paying mostly for the brain, which contains the cool triggers and sequencers and stuff. it'd be a waste of money if you just get it for the sake of cutting noise. yeah hope you find this useful because i totally empathise with your problem. damned hdb buildings with intolerant neighbours!
i really think u should get an acoustic drumset rather than the elctronic one..
yes, it is kindda noisy and will irritate ur neighbours but in the end, an acoustic set is still better than an electrinic set..furthermore, an acoustic drumset is generally cheaper than electronic..playing an acoustic ser feels more 'real'..about the noise, try muffling ur set and soundproofing you room...
for more info, you could go to WIKIPEDIA for more pros and cons on acoustic/electronic
and YOUTUBE for tips to soundproofing your room..
hope u make a wise decision!
yes, it is kindda noisy and will irritate ur neighbours but in the end, an acoustic set is still better than an electrinic set..furthermore, an acoustic drumset is generally cheaper than electronic..playing an acoustic ser feels more 'real'..about the noise, try muffling ur set and soundproofing you room...
for more info, you could go to WIKIPEDIA for more pros and cons on acoustic/electronic
and YOUTUBE for tips to soundproofing your room..
hope u make a wise decision!
mynickisDP
New member
Hello there.
I am exactly in the same situation as you, TS. The only difference is that I wasn't so smart enough than to ask in music forums online for help. Therefore I went through the entire process. I got an electronic kit with amps (Yamaha DTXplorer), then switched to an acoustic kit (Pearl RT) halfway.
In my opinion, if you need a drumset for home practice, an acoustic set wins hands down. Not only is there a huge price difference (my 2nd hand Pearl RT @ $450, compared to Yahama DTX @ $1k+), an electronic set does not measure up to the real feel of an acoustic drumset. When I had my electronic set, all I knew about drums was to turn on the power, pre-select a kit and song and drum away. However, upon switching to the acoustic set, I understood the drums so much more. I learnt how to tweak the height of the toms, hi-hat, cymbals etc, and also more importantly, tuning the drum set. As a drummer, knowledge of the workings of a drum set is critical as you would someday need to tweak the sets to find your own desired formation. Add in the ability to rim-shot and side-stick with the acoustic snare as compared to the electronic one in my case and the acoustic seems so much more customizable.
Also, when I had my Yahama DTXplorer for about 1 year+, I was never comfortable using an acoustic set when jamming with my friends. Yes, you might say that the electronic set mimics the acoustic one, but nevertheless the feel is different and I felt uneasy playing the acoustic drums as I was so used to my DTX.
With regards to the loud sound being produced by an acoustic set, I purposefully purchased a 2nd hand Pearl RT due to the RT being known as a great "HDB" set due to it's design and yet versatile enough to be used for gigs. Throw in an additional couple of Pearl drum muffle skins on top if needed and you have a set with decent, quieter sounding yet with the complete feel of an acoustic drum. If that is not enough, purchase some Hot Rod sticks to bring down the sound level even more. As the main problem of the acoustic set is also the loud snare, throw in towels or small pillows into your snare drum to reduce the high frequency and loud sound it produces as well. Personally, only my bass drum is using the Pearl drum muffles, whilst my snare has towels in it. The rest are Remo Weathertone(?) skins with Remo O rings. I also have a Zildjian ZHT 20" Medium Ride and Paiste 101 crash (lousy i know
) attached to my set as well. With regards to noise level I have not come across any complaints from neighbours so far.
The reason for me typing such a long post is that I hope others will be able to benefit from my experience. Do not spend the extra $1k plus like me and end up selling it away and buying an acoustic set.
I hope this has helped some of you with the same problem I faced. And the above are all just my opinions, please do not flame me if you do not agree with the stuff I say.
Keep drumming!
DP
I am exactly in the same situation as you, TS. The only difference is that I wasn't so smart enough than to ask in music forums online for help. Therefore I went through the entire process. I got an electronic kit with amps (Yamaha DTXplorer), then switched to an acoustic kit (Pearl RT) halfway.
In my opinion, if you need a drumset for home practice, an acoustic set wins hands down. Not only is there a huge price difference (my 2nd hand Pearl RT @ $450, compared to Yahama DTX @ $1k+), an electronic set does not measure up to the real feel of an acoustic drumset. When I had my electronic set, all I knew about drums was to turn on the power, pre-select a kit and song and drum away. However, upon switching to the acoustic set, I understood the drums so much more. I learnt how to tweak the height of the toms, hi-hat, cymbals etc, and also more importantly, tuning the drum set. As a drummer, knowledge of the workings of a drum set is critical as you would someday need to tweak the sets to find your own desired formation. Add in the ability to rim-shot and side-stick with the acoustic snare as compared to the electronic one in my case and the acoustic seems so much more customizable.
Also, when I had my Yahama DTXplorer for about 1 year+, I was never comfortable using an acoustic set when jamming with my friends. Yes, you might say that the electronic set mimics the acoustic one, but nevertheless the feel is different and I felt uneasy playing the acoustic drums as I was so used to my DTX.
With regards to the loud sound being produced by an acoustic set, I purposefully purchased a 2nd hand Pearl RT due to the RT being known as a great "HDB" set due to it's design and yet versatile enough to be used for gigs. Throw in an additional couple of Pearl drum muffle skins on top if needed and you have a set with decent, quieter sounding yet with the complete feel of an acoustic drum. If that is not enough, purchase some Hot Rod sticks to bring down the sound level even more. As the main problem of the acoustic set is also the loud snare, throw in towels or small pillows into your snare drum to reduce the high frequency and loud sound it produces as well. Personally, only my bass drum is using the Pearl drum muffles, whilst my snare has towels in it. The rest are Remo Weathertone(?) skins with Remo O rings. I also have a Zildjian ZHT 20" Medium Ride and Paiste 101 crash (lousy i know
) attached to my set as well. With regards to noise level I have not come across any complaints from neighbours so far. The reason for me typing such a long post is that I hope others will be able to benefit from my experience. Do not spend the extra $1k plus like me
and end up selling it away and buying an acoustic set.I hope this has helped some of you with the same problem I faced. And the above are all just my opinions, please do not flame me if you do not agree with the stuff I say.
Keep drumming!
DP
tpiledriver
New member
thanks for the info man.
drum hard!!
drum hard!!
lester_music
New member
I just agree what you guys commented is right..
By the way, bencan, how much roughly did the foam cost you?
By the way, bencan, how much roughly did the foam cost you?
Try a roland, that will change your views for electronic drums.
