For a proper amplification of electronic drums (e-drums) a powerful sound system is needed. And with powerful I don’t mean hundreds of watts, good for smoking your ears. No, more important is the ability of the sound system to handle the signals from an e-drum properly.
E-drums generate very strong signals with trancients. Trancients are ‘sounds’ without a recognizable frequency or tone, such as the buzzing of a snare drum, or the hit (attack) from a drumstick on the plastic head. Amplifiers and loudspeakers must be able to handle those trancients without distortion. In addition, an e-drum produces a wide field of frequencies, from deep basses to treble from a bright sounding snare or splash cymbal.
What does watt tell?
When manufacturers sum up the specs of their sound system, they only talk about the number of watts. For instance 2 x 200 watts or 2 x 400 watts. But these figures don’t reveal the actual output of the sound system. It’s important to know how many watts (power) the system needs to convert electrical energy into acoustic energy (sound). If a large part of the power disappears into heat, then we have nothing. A more useful indication of a sound system’s capacity therefor is the Sound Pressure Level (SPL). The SPL is determined by placing a microphone at 1 meter from a loudspeaker, which receives the electrical energy of only 1 watt. The yield of the output is given in decibels (dB).
A value of 80dB/1W/1M means that the measured SPL is 80 decibels at 1 watt at 1 meter. Some amplifiers (amps) need 200 watts of power to do this. Others 400 watts. There are loudspeakers with a high return, which don’t need a powerful amp. And there are loudspeakers with a low return, even when driven by a 500 watt amp. So the SPL tells us how efficient a sound system transforms energy into sound.
Most cheap sound systems do have a moderate SPL. As well as cheap sounding loudspeakers and dubious electronic parts. Now have a look at this diagram …
Number of Watts Output
200 watt 120 decibels
400 watt 123 decibels
800 watt 126 decibels
1600 watt 129 decibels
What we see, is that doubling the number of watts only increases the SPL with 3 decibel. It is therefor impossible to say that a soundsystem of 400 watts will be good enough for electronic drums. We always need more information.
Requirements
A good sound system for electronic drums should have …
- Enough headroom (capacity) for handling incoming signals without distortion
- Enough SPL to transform energy into sound
- Separte loudspeakers for the low (middle) and high frequencies. The size of the bass speaker (a 12, 15 or 18 inch woofer) doesn’t tell us much about its capability to handle the lower tones. The SPL and freqyency range do.
- The tweeter (a horn shaped loudspeaker for high frequencies) should have a 1,75 inch coil. The coil is not the horn you look at, but the round magnetic thing behind it. In general, a coil from 1 inch screams the snares and cymbals too much. A larger coil will provice more beautiful higher tones
- Two amps (bi amping) for handling the low and high frequencies separately. Handling the lower tones requires other strenghts from an amp than handling the high frequencies
- Enough and separate inputs for the kick drum, tomtoms (prefer stereo), hi-hat and cymbals. A mixer is prefered.
- A built in limiter or compressor.
A bass guitar combo isn’t suitable for playing e-drums on high volumes, since it’s made for bass guitars and not for drums. A home (cinema) sound system will be blown up as well, when pumping up the volume.
Sound systems
For electronic drums different types of sound systems can be useful.
Keyboard combo
- Benefits: compact // speakers and amplifier in one housing // can easily be found in shops and on internet, new and second hand
- Disadvantages: mostly mono // when one of the parts is damaged, the whole system is useless // limited number of inputs
- Attention: watch the SPL and frequency range of the loudspeakers
- Tip: Roland KC-880 combo, some old Peavey keyboard combo’s
E-drum combo
- Back in the 1980s Simmons (SDC 200), Peavey (ED 300) and Tama made special combos for e-drums. Today the new Simmons (DA 200S, DA50), Alesis (TransActive drummer) and Roland (PM-10, TDA-700) have them
- Benefits: special made for electronic drums // compact // the Alesis even has an Ipod docking station (…)
- Disadvantages: same as with keyboard combos.
- Attention: both the Alesis and Simmons combos are suitable for low volume use. The Roland TDA-700 can handle more and will be a decent monitor in live situations.
E-drum sound systems
- Roland (PM-3, PM-30) and Yamaha (MS100DR, MS50DR) offer special sound systems for e-drums. They consist of 1 woofer with built-in amp(s) and 2 satelite loudspeakers
- Benefits: special made for electronic drums // quite compact // affordable
- Disadvantages: good enough for low volume home practicing, not for live use // some systems have few inputs
Powered speaker
- A compact plastic housing with 2 loudspeakers and 1 or 2 built-in amps
- Benefits: quite compact // affordable
- Disadvantages: same as with combo // some of them sometimes overheat
- Attention: watch the SPL and frequency range of the loudspeakers
- Tip: Mackie SRM 450 and JBL EON G2 or the new EON series
PA system
- Separate mixing console, amplifiers, cross over and loud speakers
- Benefits: powerful // good sound // parts can be assembled separately
- Disadvantages: not compact at all // quite or very expensive
In ear monitoring (IEM)
- Mini loudspeakers for in your ears
- Benefits: monitoring is possible at low volume // no need to carry around sound systems // IEM reduces dangerous sound levels // leave amplification to where it belongs: with the professional sound guys
- Disadvantages: good IEM’s are expensive // with some systems the lower frequencies are missed
- Attention: IEM requires a good mixing console with enough AUX canals, a (wired or wireless) Belt Pack and – last but not least - good In Ear monitors. In general the expensive systems are the best, although prices decrease. In Ears with a 2 or 3 way ‘speaker’ system are capable of producing enough low frequencies. Some of the universal IEM’s can be updated with custom made sleeves, which penetrate your ears deeper. These sleeves will provide more low end than any foam or plastic tip ever will do. Full custom made IEM’s are even better sounding and more comfortable to wear. Sometimes a drummer wants to add extra low vibrations by using a Butt Kick of Bass Shaker (a speaker for mounting below the drummmers throne which will give vibrations)
