Buying a drum kit.
Acoustic or Electric.
Before buying a drum kit, it is essential to decide what will fit best with your current situation and needs. We will have a look at both Acoustic and Electric drum kits and hopefully, help you with your decision.
Acoustic Drum Kit Features
The Good
- Much more control of the sound you are creating
- Unless playing in a live venue, no mics will be needed.
- More control of how and where you can place your setup
- Easy to replace broken parts
- Lots of different company's to choose from.
The Bad
- Volume is the big one here. If you have neighbours or anybody close by who could be disturbed by your playing, this could be a big problem.
- You will need to keep your drum kit tuned to stop it sounding horrible.
- Deafness, you will need to use proper ear protection to make sure you don't damage your hearing. Very important!
- Takes up more room than an electric kit.
Electric Drum Kit
The Good
- Volume! The ability to put your headphones on and practice is massive. If you have neighbours and don’t want to do their head in. Electric drums are far quieter. If you would like to annoy them, you can plug into a big speaker, double win.
- Smaller size, Electric drums typically take up less room than acoustic drums.
- Easy for basic recording projects.
- No tuning needed. (I despise tuning drums)
The Bad
- Can be tricky to fine tune them the way you want.
- Sticks react differently on electric drum kits than on acoustic drum kits. With some of the less expensive electronic drum kits, there is no option to change this.
- Sound quality on cheaper electric drum kits may not be as high as acoustic drum kit of the same value.
- Less durable in a gigging situation. One rogue pint thrown could be the end.
- More to go wrong. Because it is electric and has software and cables, there is more potential for things to stop working.
New vs Second Hand?
Unless you desperately want a brand new kit, I would alway check out what is available second hand. You can get some real bargains and get higher quality, for a much cheaper price then buying new.
Conclusion
Ultimately you need to think about your situation and what works best for you and the people you live with and close to. There is no point having an acoustic drum kit if you can’t play it because of other people getting annoyed. Both electric and acoustic drums are great options, and whatever you choose I’m sure you will love them.