For any guitarists trying drums, the TD-25KV rocks!!!

[romanianreaper]

I'm a guitarist by heart but dabble in bass and have dabbled on drums in the past. Years ago I had a lower mid-range Roland that was one of those with the rubber pads. It was ok for playing and fun to learn drums but nothing fancy.

A few days ago I got a Roland TD-25KV with the mesh pads. Fantastic kit! It obviously isn't a real drum set so you are not hitting "skins" but for mesh it is pretty damn impressive. There are only a handful of kits (15) with additional spots for kits you can create yourself but they sound really good right out of the box. Additionally, there are some things you can tweak but it is kept very simple.

I know some folks want a ton of drum kits, ability to tweak every single thing, etc. In my opinion, this drum kit is for guitarists that want to learn but want a decent sounding kit, newbies to drums, and folks that don't want an entry kit but want something that is a great price and sounds good.

Obviously this is a guitar forum but I wanted to mention this because alot of us might need drums for recording purposes or just want to try another instrument. Like I said, very limited kits and options but sounds great. I have been having a blast with my limited expertise.

 

[PBGas]

It is a great kit! My 10 year old son started playing drums 3 years ago and he takes regular lessons and plays all the time. I had orignally got him a used kit off of our local sale list up here. He loved it for several years but he told me he got tired of playing and making so much noise in the house, especially in the morning when he likes to practice. I sold the kit and got him this same kit. He totally loves it now. Puts the headphones on and goes! I got him a double bass pedal and he is really loving that as well. When he wants to make some noise, i bought him a nice Yorkville drum monitor that sounds great as well. The great thing is that I have now started playing and really love it as well!

 

[romanianreaper]

It is a great kit! My 10 year old son started playing drums 3 years ago and he takes regular lessons and plays all the time. I had orignally got him a used kit off of our local sale list up here. He loved it for several years but he told me he got tired of playing and making so much noise in the house, especially in the morning when he likes to practice. I sold the kit and got him this same kit. He totally loves it now. Puts the headphones on and goes! I got him a double bass pedal and he is really loving that as well. When he wants to make some noise, i bought him a nice Yorkville drum monitor that sounds great as well. The great thing is that I have now started playing and really love it as well!

Awesome!! Funny you started playing as well too. Just couldn't resist seeing it sitting there.

I went to Guitar Center today and went to the drum section. I'm barely in that part obviously. I think they could see I was clueless. I told them I know my guitars but this is a whole new thing.

 

[amiller]

I’ve got the TD-25KV and yes, it rocks. Here’s a little tip for you. You can use it as a controller to trigger Superior Drummer, Steven Slate, BFD or any other drum software you’ve got loaded in your DAW. In other words, you don’t have to use the on board drums if you’re looking to play actual sampled drums in real time.

 

[JTyson]

This^^
We are running SD3 on our VDrums for recording via midi and it is massive sounding through our mains. 1500 watts to the FR253-HR EAW mains and 1500 watts to a 18" Sub
As crushing as it is to use live, its even better for recording. We do use live cymbals for recording though.

 

[romanianreaper]

This^^
We are running SD3 on our VDrums for recording via midi and it is massive sounding through our mains. 1500 watts to the FR253-HR EAW mains and 1500 watts to a 18" Sub
As crushing as it is to use live, its even better for recording. We do use live cymbals for recording though.

Wow!!!! That is awesome!!

 

[romanianreaper]

I’ve got the TD-25KV and yes, it rocks. Here’s a little tip for you. You can use it as a controller to trigger Superior Drummer, Steven Slate, BFD or any other drum software you’ve got loaded in your DAW. In other words, you don’t have to use the on board drums if you’re looking to play actual sampled drums in real time.

Cool, thanks and good to know! I actually have a few drum packs I use for EZDrummer 2 now.

Let me ask you, so how do you hook up everything? Is it basically a USB B cable to computer, downloaded Roland software for TD-25KV, and then just finding it in my DAW? I use Reaper for recording. Thanks!

 

[amiller]

I’ve got the TD-25KV and yes, it rocks. Here’s a little tip for you. You can use it as a controller to trigger Superior Drummer, Steven Slate, BFD or any other drum software you’ve got loaded in your DAW. In other words, you don’t have to use the on board drums if you’re looking to play actual sampled drums in real time.

Cool, thanks and good to know! I actually have a few drum packs I use for EZDrummer 2 now.

Let me ask you, so how do you hook up everything? Is it basically a USB B cable to computer, downloaded Roland software for TD-25KV, and then just finding it in my DAW? I use Reaper for recording. Thanks!

You almost have it. TD-25KV -> USB -> DAW -> Superior Drummer 3. Superior Drummer 3 has preset drum mapping’s included for a whole bunch of different e-drums. Within my DAW, I simply selected the TD-25KV as a controller and pointed it to Superior Drummer and I selected the Roland vdrums preset in Superior as my drum mapping...hit play and go. I’m currently using Sonar as my recording software so I can’t really be specific about other recording software configurations. By the way, Cakewalk/Sonar is out of business. When I finish my current project I’ll need to move to a different package...probably Cubase Pro.

 

[JerEvil]

I was looking at the Alesis Strike Pro kits. Will have to give these a look too.

 

[romanianreaper]

I was looking at the Alesis Strike Pro kits. Will have to give these a look too.

You should check out the comparison video some guy does on Youtube. There is a drum channel this guy does and he does a comparison with Roland and Alesis. Seems like people like both but in his opinion, the bigger pads on the Alesis are great but likes the sounds of the Roland a bit more. I'm sure it is personal preference though.

 

[romanianreaper]

I’ve got the TD-25KV and yes, it rocks. Here’s a little tip for you. You can use it as a controller to trigger Superior Drummer, Steven Slate, BFD or any other drum software you’ve got loaded in your DAW. In other words, you don’t have to use the on board drums if you’re looking to play actual sampled drums in real time.

Cool, thanks and good to know! I actually have a few drum packs I use for EZDrummer 2 now.

Let me ask you, so how do you hook up everything? Is it basically a USB B cable to computer, downloaded Roland software for TD-25KV, and then just finding it in my DAW? I use Reaper for recording. Thanks!

You almost have it. TD-25KV -> USB -> DAW -> Superior Drummer 3. Superior Drummer 3 has preset drum mapping’s included for a whole bunch of different e-drums. Within my DAW, I simply selected the TD-25KV as a controller and pointed it to Superior Drummer and I selected the Roland vdrums preset in Superior as my drum mapping...hit play and go. I’m currently using Sonar as my recording software so I can’t really be specific about other recording software configurations. By the way, Cakewalk/Sonar is out of business. When I finish my current project I’ll need to move to a different package...probably Cubase Pro.

I used to have Superior Drummer 3 but was for an older version of Windows.

 

[romanianreaper]

You almost have it. TD-25KV -> USB -> DAW -> Superior Drummer 3. Superior Drummer 3 has preset drum mapping’s included for a whole bunch of different e-drums. Within my DAW, I simply selected the TD-25KV as a controller and pointed it to Superior Drummer and I selected the Roland vdrums preset in Superior as my drum mapping...hit play and go. I’m currently using Sonar as my recording software so I can’t really be specific about other recording software configurations. By the way, Cakewalk/Sonar is out of business. When I finish my current project I’ll need to move to a different package...probably Cubase Pro.

*UPDATE* Disregard below. I got it working. MIDI was turned off in my DAW. LOL!

I was upstairs playing today and have at least one thing straight. If I am just using my computer by itself, I can hear music from the computer going into the TD-25KV and into the headphones, so I did something right. At least it is communicating.

I'm not a big technical geek with stuff like this but I imagine that I probably have to get Reaper to recognize the TD-25KV like I do when using my Axe-FX II. I have to actually select it as a source. I'll have to give that a try. If my computer sounds were getting to the TD-25KV, I'm sure it is an easy fix.

It is amazing. I got my drumset on Friday and I'm already picking up on things, jamming to drumless tracks, etc. This drumset is an absolute blast. There is one setting that is great for jamming on "Sad But True". Big Ass, heavy drums with reverb and sounds like cannons going off. LOL!

 

[PBGas]

It is a great kit! My 10 year old son started playing drums 3 years ago and he takes regular lessons and plays all the time. I had orignally got him a used kit off of our local sale list up here. He loved it for several years but he told me he got tired of playing and making so much noise in the house, especially in the morning when he likes to practice. I sold the kit and got him this same kit. He totally loves it now. Puts the headphones on and goes! I got him a double bass pedal and he is really loving that as well. When he wants to make some noise, i bought him a nice Yorkville drum monitor that sounds great as well. The great thing is that I have now started playing and really love it as well!

Awesome!! Funny you started playing as well too. Just couldn't resist seeing it sitting there.

I went to Guitar Center today and went to the drum section. I'm barely in that part obviously. I think they could see I was clueless. I told them I know my guitars but this is a whole new thing.

Totally and exactly true! Nothing more fun than to double bass and roll some beats!!!!!!
The funny thing is that I know some drummers who are worse gear heads then us!!!!

 

[romanianreaper]

Totally and exactly true! Nothing more fun than to double bass and roll some beats!!!!!!
The funny thing is that I know some drummers who are worse gear heads then us!!!!

LOL! Yeah, think about their hell. We freak out about a guitar and they have all of these drums with heads and different cymbals, etc., etc.