VTech 80-196700 VID-80-196700-A01 Zoo Jamz Stompin' Fun Drums

Product Information

Adjust the snare stand to the correct height. Some drummers tilt their snare drums whilst other drummers prefer the surface of the snare drum to be parallel to the floor- this is something to experiment with. In terms of snare height, keep the rim of the drum about the width of your fist higher than your thighs. This means when you hit rim shots on the snare you will not hit your legs too! If the snare drum is too high it can cause your elbows to be raised uncomfortably, leading to tension, which in turn leads to poor drumming technique.

Attach the bass drum to the bass drum pedal by carefully moving it into position behind the pedal. Set up the snare stand and position in between the two pedals. Mount the toms, set up the cymbal stands and add the cymbals. Investing in a drum kit is a step to take when you have played the drums for a while and you’re confident that you are going to continue in the long term. In this article we’re going to talk about methods for practice which are silent or near-silent, help develop your drumming skills, and require little or no equipment.The input where you can plug in an external audio device (such as a phone or MP3 player) into the drum module.

VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology. You might want to use your drum module to trigger sounds in a digital audio workstation (DAW) with VST. Perhaps the most difficult part of starting to look for an electronic drum kit is knowing what you actually need from your e-kit. What do you want it to be able to do? All the features listed in the specifications might all sound very nice, but do you really need them? Or will a cheaper drum kit with fewer features do the job you want it to do? Understanding the specs Every zone equals a sound that can be assigned to the pad. So one zone is one sound. Dual zone means there can be 2 separate sounds. 3 zones (or triple zone) means 3 sounds can be triggered from different areas of the pad. The majority of drum learners are very committed to their lessons and because the drum kit is taught one-to-one, it unfortunately means there is a limit to the number of lessons that can run simultaneously at the most popular times of day. A dictionary definition of ergonomic is “…to do with minimising physical effort or discomfort and maximising efficiency”. For us to play drums ergonomically we’ve got to consider our own bodies and make the physical setup of the drum kit fit as best we can.

Now put the pedals where your feet are. If you’re setting up a right-handed/right-footed drum kit the bass drum pedal will be under your right foot and the hi hat pedal will be under your left foot. If you use a double bass drum pedal the additional pedal can be positioned after the rest of the kit has been put in place. Remember, at this point there should only be two pedals set in position – no drums, no cymbals – just you and a bass drum pedal and a hi hat stand! The floor tom should be about the same height as the snare – so adjust the floor tom legs to make the surface of the floor tom the same height as the snare skin. You might want to angle the floor tom so it slopes towards you slightly.

If you are new to the world of e-drum kits, the details in the technical specifications can be a bit confusing. For example, the meaning of terms like “trigger zones” might not be immediately obvious. And it doesn’t help that one manufacturer might call a feature by one name and the next manufacturer calls it by a different name! This is another setting inside the drum module. Your drum module interprets your drum hits based on the sensitivity settings. If you turn up the sensitivity, your soft hits will register as harder hits. When the sound triggered is very loud when hit in the centre of the drum pad, versus a hit with the same force at the edge being very quiet. Drum kits require space to set them up and you also need to have friendly neighbours (or live far enough away from them that they don’t mind the noise).The time from hitting the drum, to the time the sound is heard. Latency is measured in milliseconds. There is always a tiny amount of delay – due to the time it takes sound to travel from its source to the listener’s ears. With electronics, there’s the time it takes the electrical signal to travel down the wire, be processed, and then the resulting sound to reach the ears. The human brain is able to compensate for some latency, and most electronic drum kits fall within that acceptable range. Latency becomes more of a problem if you are layering up multiple processes, for example using your e-kit to trigger external samples or recording to a computer. If recording yourself is a priority, then you will need to investigate latency and ways to mitigate it. Beatboxing is the act of making percussive sounds with your mouth. You don’t need to be a vocal gymnast to try beatboxing, just remember one of our favourite sayings: “ If You Can Say It, You Can Play It“. Verbalising rhythm is a very important part of internalising rhythm. Hire a drum studio A setting in the drum module so you can set a limit on how hard you have to hit the pad before the module registers it. This is useful to combat false triggers and cross-talk. Tuning a drum kit is a slightly more complex process where you may require someone to help you the first few times you try it. Some lessons with a professional teacher are advisable. Electronic drum kits One recording of one sound (as opposed to Multi-Layered Samples). A one-shot sample is a basic sound which doesn’t change in sonic qualities depending how a pad is hit, apart from the velocity.