I think I might be the first person to actually own both the Acquarian in-head and on-head triggers, so I thought I would write a concise review.
The in-head are a standard mylar head with 3 layers with the FSR built into one of the drum head layers. They trigger nice but they are LOUD. Even with a mesh reso head and the drum filled with stuffing it has a loud thwack. This is not for quite practice or apartment/townhouse dwellers. I would not recommend these to anyone unless they are gigging live and are looking for a very precise drum trigger. These would be excellent in an environment where the band is loud. If it is a restaurant or small venue forget it. The drum would easily be heard in the crowd. Feel wise they are identical to an acoustic head. Sensitivity is better than any electronic drum head that I have played on. I have owned Roland mesh, Yamaha rubber, Yamaha silicon, and Pearl Tru-Tracs. There is zero x-talk, hot spots, or double triggering. There was a YouTube video that stated the lifespan of the in-head was 40 hours. They stated that 40 hour lifetime was for metal drummers who were using them on tour. I don't know how often touring metal drummers change their heads, but I don't think that is beyond the reasonable life of mylar head. For a home user, the head may last for years. I really haven't ever worn out heads because I am not a heavy hitter. I change them ever couple of years at most.
The on-head are a foam/silicon type pad that sits on your standard drum head. The pad sits about an inch above the rim. These pads are pretty much silent - a lot quieter than standard rubber or mesh heads. They feel great. It is my opinion they are a cross between the Yamaha silicon and a soft rubber practice pad. It has a very nice rebound without the "wet spongy" feel that some use to describe the Yamaha pad or the trampoline bounce that the mesh produces. Definitely easier on the wrist than rubber. To me, these trigger better than the in-head with improved sensitivity and zero x-talk and double triggering. They also are more rigid so I assume they will last longer than the in-head heads. I thought the pad sitting above the rim would be quirky but I didn't notice it a bit when playing. I simply lowered my drum to compensate and went about the groove. As far as longevity, these should last for years or decades. There isn’t any flex like the in-head so I assume these will be very long lasting.
In summary, the Aquarian on-head pads are the best e-drum surface that I have ever played. I give them a 5 star rating. The in-head are excellent triggers too but due to noise I give them a 3 star rating. If you are gigging in a large venue, I would give them a 5 star rating. However, you can put a neoprene drum mute on top of the in-head and it makes it very quite and still triggers great. If you are a heaver hitter, you may need to plan on replacement in-heads but I think you will be fine with the on-head.
Chris
Nice write-up and thanks for sharing. Out of interest, which module/modules did you test with and how much trigger setting tweaking was required. And did the same settings work for both the inHead and onHead?
Allan
Hey Allan,
I have used the in-head with the Yamaha DTX900 and the 2box. The on-heads just became available so I have only tried them on the 2box. I have the on-heads set as "kick1" normal with a gain of 1 or 2 and the threshold set at 20 I believe. The in-head requires a bit more juice on the gain. I think that is mainly due to the audible noise of the head. I have to make it louder so I don't hear the thwack thwack through my headphones. I was blown away when I first got the in-head. I bought the on-heads simply because the in-heads are only available in 14" right now and I was hating the Pearl Tru-Tracs. Simply put it was necessity. I wasn't fond of the idea of having the pad sitting above the rim. However, I am glad I bought them. I definitely like the on-head over the in-head. The feel of it is perfect to me and it is really, really quite. I am going to sell my in-head and replace it with another on-head. Are you planning on a review of these in digital drummer?
Hi CS,
I have been planning a review for over two years! I got a bit of a run-around from Aquarian which was going send out some trial heads via the Australian distributor, then direct, then via some third party - then ... silence.
However, I am hoping to meet with them at NAMM next week and get this sorted. I know Mario is keen to see this happening and I keep getting readers asking when they'll be able to read a review.
Thanks again for sharing your experiences.
Allan
Yeah, thanks. Having something quieter than a Roland mesh head would be great, at least in my house...
Is it possible to use the onHead without the inBox? The drumit 5 allows adjustment of the pad's gain, doesn't it?
this on head looks cool. Maybe a perfect fit for my a 2 e side snare project that has been rolling around in my cranium
Quote from: Talk Show Host on January 26, 2014, 03:50:53 PM
Is it possible to use the onHead without the inBox? The drumit 5 allows adjustment of the pad's gain, doesn't it?
nope..from what I understand....the inbox provides the correct power that the FSR needs to function
Hi there I'm leaning towards getting a 2box module, and most likely one of the inhead or onhead. They have a onhead package that should be available 2 purchase like early February. http://www.fullcompass.com/product/442777.html
In this kit they have a kick drum, was wondering If any one has any idea how this kick drum pad would stay in place. My drummer also wonders if the thickness of the kickpad would be a problem with his kick drum is set up. It seems you would have to make alot of adjustments to your kick drum in order to get this to work, so that it wouldn't messup your technique. Anyone got any good guesses on how well this kickdrum trigger might work?
I can't comment on the kick pad. I am using the Pearl Tru-Trac on the base drum and it triggers and feels nice. You might want to consider that as an option.
This is great to hear a full review from someone that's actually using the In-Head. We're going to be adding that product to the site soon and feed back was needed.
Scott
I got a in head for the snare to test out the tech. I must say the accuracy is rather nice compared to the old tech of piezo, that my drummer couldn't stand. The piezo was horrible, at miss triggering. I didn't have a 2 box module yet, so we hooked it up the old crappy sounding dm5, that hasn't been used much in years. It triggered amazing with that old dm5, but ofcourse the samples still were not so great. In fact my drummer buddy didn't even mess with any of the settings in the dm5 at all, cause it just worked with what ever settings he previously had for the ddrum triggers. The next day he went down, and messed with the various settings in the dm5 and actually made it worse, so i believe he went back to what was set when he first tried in the dm5, pre adjustments.
I'm curious to know why you can't recommend the kick drum, and why this pearl true track is that much better in your opinion. I've read that according to the reasons aquarian didn't make a in head was that it was two accurate, but that was only becuase most drummers are lazy, and accidentally hit the head to much accidentally. It seems to me that if this was the case it could make you a better drummer so you can work on not being sloppy with your play. My drummer says he is not a lazy kick drummer anymore, but will see.
I am glad my review was helpful and you pulled the trigger on the in-head. Words don't do these Aquarian heads justice until they are played and compared to the "old school" technology like piezo. They track perfectly with no hotspots or mis-triggering. They are essentially flawless in my opinion. Sorry you are having issues with the module, but once you get a better module connected I am sure your drummer will be smiling ear to ear. I have them sounding perfect on my 2box module now after I did a a factory reset on the module. As far as the kick, I have never tried the Aquarian kick. I am happy with my Pearl but I didn't mean to say or imply that it was better than the Aquarian kick.
Well he didn't have any problems till he started tweaking, but yeah I got a 2box and some on head for 4 toms, kick, and snare coming along with 4 2box ride/cymbals. I'll also be getting three single or two zones cymbals for the toms rims inputs. So it should be interesting to find out how the kick on head pad works out. I hope it tracks great, but I'm not so sure how its going to work on the kick drum. I got a picture of a the onhead kick and it has a slot in it. Am i right in thinking this slot goes on the side that faces you? https://lh5.ggpht.com/HNIRuCkwTzBoI3Qd8MpwUzAr9rKxx_Z5MC_C18-vbkoS1j9RXfkv0Z-NkhPVHXn6s1e_=s108
I dunno how it mounts but it appears to me that raised surface is where the beater heads would strike. Let me know how you like it. I am anxiously awaiting your review.
Is there any rim-trigger for x-stick or rimshots on the snare using the on-head?
No, there isn't any way to cross stick because the pad sits above the rim. You would have to get a dedicated trigger and mount it somewhere else for rim shots.
I just purchased this and will let you know how it works out with the on-head snare.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Electronic-drum-trigger-10-bar-pad-edrum-acoustic-percussion-accessory-BeatBar-/221362531709?pt=US_Drums&hash=item338a3c2d7d
We reviewed the BeatBar and found it to be a reliable aux trigger. Since it mounts to the hoop, using it with an onHead should avoid crosstalk, so this may be one of the best solution out there.
Quote from: digitalDrummer on February 15, 2014, 12:48:19 AM
We reviewed the BeatBar and found it to be a reliable aux trigger. Since it mounts to the hoop, using it with an onHead should avoid crosstalk, so this may be one of the best solution out there.
That is great news. I am hoping it sits just high enough over the on-head to allow a side rim shot. I will post pics and a review once I get it.
First early impression of the onhead kick is that I'm pretty positive it's not a fsr tech. It looks to be most likely piezo, because it didn't come with a inbox, which would be consistent with the other kick trigger they have. The drum pad consist of 1/2" rubber backing, which i think is also behind the central trigger zone, which is stiffer then the outer perimeter foam. I can't confirm this, though as you would have to tare the on head apart. On top, and around of the central trigger is really soft foam that's similar to bed foam. The entire thickness of both the rubber and soft foam layer is 1 1/2 inches thick. The drum pedal had to be moved back as far as you could get it, which wound up being about 1 inch. So you pretty much loose about a half inch in travel of your beater, which seems pretty important to my drummer. I have a idea for a extender for the pedal, that I'm hoping a metal fabricating buddy of ours would make for us. The feel of the rebound seems very identical to a normal kick drum, that doesn't have the on head on it. Note i accidentally ripped the outer soft foam on the rim fastener, and the little semi soft rubber holder's that come with the onhead kick to prevent it from coming out were easy to put on, but almost unnecessary, since the soft foam kept the trigger in the drum rim really good. The wire that comes out of the top of the trigger is kind of placed in a stupid spot, as it should be coming out of the front through the soft foam so it isn't in the way of that foam being all the way back against the kick drum head, but his isn't much a problem though, because the foam is not that stiff.
Csnow you wouldn't happen to know how long the 9 volt batteries last in the inbox's would you? I think having one die on you at a show or something would be quite the pain the ass considering there isn't no light for when the battery is getting low on the exterior of the housing. I think it is odd that they didn't make the battery accessible from an exterior door.
Well hooked up the cables to at least the snare and the kick drum. I still need to make some more stereo /balanced cables for the rest or get some stereo to 2/ mono y splitters. Got the kick drum hooked up, we didn't do anything settings wise in the 2box module (all settings are just stock currently), and didn't notice any miss triggers, or double triggers. Seems to work ten times better then i expected, considering the bass is not fsr. I think do to the fact that the trigger is right behind the bass head. Did you have to dial in the pearl true track trigger pads when you got them csnow. Probably should get a big cab next to the drum set and crank it up loud to see if the kick has triggering issues some day.
Do you place the on head on top of the rim over a Mylar or mesh head or no batter herald? I gotta get a better picture, can't really see it all in the pics I have seen
Well there are alot of video's on youtube if you search them there. The on heads go just inside the rim and sit on the head mylar mesh or normal. Josh had normal drum heads that the on head sit on. I found out today that you can't just use hosa y send and return y splitter cables, that are single male stereo to dual male mono for the splitting of the snare, from the rim input, so i ordered some single male stereo to dual stereo hosa y cables, and will be returning the others. When i plugged the cable in i only got a signal if i pushed it in partial of the way.
Ok got a update on the onhead kick, seems josh (drummer) thinks the on head is to bouncy, and says he can't seem to get going fast enough with the technique he uses (flat foot technique). He also said he liked the fsr bounce more, and wishes he could get that same bounce on his kick drum. Now he is trying to concoct some way to use one of the smaller fsr snare heads with a old snare he has, and come up with some crazy mounting scheme (I'm not doing that poop ha! How does the pearl true track bounce compare to the fsr snare/tom bounce? Does anyone suspect that maybe the fsr tech might not be so durable, and can't take the pounding from a kick drum?
Just got a 12" onhead today. I was trying it out with roland td4 brain. I like feel and response. It seems to be more "even" and controlled in its responsiveness to playing dynamics than my pdx8 mesh head. Hard to really say but the onhead with a linear response curve feels very close to my roland pdx8 mesh pad with a log1 response curve.
I love the size and feel of the head.
I'm a bit dissapointed in the threshold. Very light taps don't trigger so very quiet rolls and rebounds get missed. I got my pdx8 so that its threshold is very low so it captures very subtle stick rebounds and rolls. While I may not really use this when really playing it really makes the kit seem responsive and alive when noodling around.
I wonder if there's some way to lower the threshold on the onhead? (the threshold on my td4 brain is at its lowest value). Does anyone else find the threshold too high?
cheers!
Gord
Just following up on my own comments about onhead threshold. I made some adjustments that improved it. Increasing the gain on the inbox from min to about 1/8 turn and turning down the sensitivity on the td4 makes the onhead trigger on lighter taps. Also increasing the scan time to 2ms helps as well and setting the drum type to CY-5.
If you record the onhead output directly to an audio track you can see that it does pickup even the lightest taps. I suspect that the drum brain treats these as noise and ignores them. A drum brain designed specifically for the FSR type of signal might overcome this limitation.
So this is pretty good product but not dramatically better than a piezo/mesh head. Definitely less stick rebound which would be good for people who find mesh heads too rebound unnaturally bouncy. Really nice feel.
I haven't tried larger mesh pads like the 2box or pintech. I'm really curious how they compare...
I suppose it depends on how light of hits your trying to achieve. I suspect your going really light, but from what i found, the ghost note tricks my drummer does, seems to be pretty happy with what the onhead technology has been able to achieve, with making it almost a now tweeking involved solution for getting ghost notes, and no double triggering. He told me after it that he used to spend hours trying to get his ddrum red shot pro trigger to work on the mesh heads properly. He got so frustrated that he pretty much gave up on electronic drum set tech all together, cause buying a roland system was just to expensive. I (the guitarist) decided that i needed to play with this new trigger/ 2box stuff, so that recording would be less edit intensive in the daw, and hopefully that will be the case. So far I'm pretty happy with both technologies.
Yes, I'm talking about going super light taps here. Like I said its more a perception thing where your drums seem less responsive if you can audibly hear the tap on head but no sound is generated. Seems to get light ghost notes fine but light rolls is a bit problematic.
Josh my drummer thought the kick drum pad was to bouncy, but that's cause he is a metal drummer and needs it tight relatively hard surface to get it to bounce back faster for speed purposes. So I'm currently looking to sell the onhead kick drum pad on ebay. I have a auction up if your interested on trying it out. I think the starting bid is something like $69 at the moment, and no one has bid on it since i put it up. I thought the triggering was relatively good. I didn't notice any miss triggers, but my drummer was complaining about it when he got up going relatively fast. I only heard it miss trigger like once, and it was super tight to the note (kick), that I'm guessing no one would notice. I also didn't realize there was different settings in the 2box brain that would help prevent miss triggering on speed drums, but i never did try it with the onhead pad.
Does anybody know or has experimented with using the on head with an ipad and garage band? This is an idea I'd like to do with the on head as my practice pad.