Drum Pads or Triggers?

by Sean Bryan
(Hawkes Bay. NZ)

I currently play drums in a covers band and my Pearl kit is fully miked up through our PA. I would like have different sounds for my kit so I brought some ddrum triggers and started using my Roland TD7 for my Kick drum.

This is good but what is the best way to be able to select different tom & snare sounds or sampled sounds. Should I just use the module for this and also Mic up or is there a new bit of gear out there that does it all?

should I have pads to the side of my Kit? Do people use a mix of acoustic and sampled or is this too hard.

Bit confused on what the best thing to do. There must be other drummers out there that have tried different setups and found what works well and is simple to setup many thanks for your help.

ANSWER

Hi, Sean--

Maybe the easiest thing to do would be to use triggers and mesh heads on your acoustic drum kit.
I would think that having pads AND your acoustic kit would be cumbersome.

The mesh heads would allow you to retain the feel of acoustic drums while using triggers to allow you to get a variety of sounds.

You should be able to get a decent "acoustic" sound with your triggers, but you might want to update your sound module.

The people at Musician's Friend should be able to help you. There is a large selection of mesh heads to choose from.

Hot Buys - Drums and Percussion

Hope this gives you some ideas!

Lynne