How Much Do Electronic Drum Kits Cost?

Series Summary

The drum is probably the oldest musical instrument known to man; yet over thousands of years, its basic design has not changed much. Drums were perhaps first created from the primal idea of mimicking the human heartbeat, yet today percussion music has developed into a technical, complex arrangement of beats and grooves. What has changed are the materials and sound production technology of modern drum kits.

A new school of drum kits hit the market over 30 years ago, forever changing the face of percussion: the electronic drum. With drummers all of a sudden having the flexibility and range of sound of say…a guitar player, they found a new world of sound, new songs and new approaches to playing.

In this free drumming video series, learn tips and techniques on using electronic drums. Our expert will show you the basic trigger system of the v-drums, how the brain works, how to make your own kit and store it in memory, sound output options, playing electronic drums live, how to practice on v-drums, how to setup the kit, and a few other important tips for musicians new to the electronic drums.

Video Transcript

"Welcome to Expert Village I'm Steve Blank your electronic drum coach here to demonstrate what we can do with electronic drums. How much do electronic drums cost? Electronic drums range anywhere from $1,000 many thousands of dollars my kit cost $4,000 ten years ago. The screen here I'm showing the various sounds that are loaded on my kit unlike an acoustic kit which we will look at drums and symbols, when your looking at electronic kits your looking at the controller. That's all the wired that hook into that's what we're looking at here on the screen, controllers can contain anywhere from 500-2,000 different sounds. I got close to a thousand sounds on mind check different kits that might be the sounds that you need on the 500 sound kit and that would let you save a lot of money. You might even find that kit used electronic drums and symbols have wires and connections inside that eventually break or fail. The symbols or symbol pads that I use I know how to repair and clip 12 actually demonstrate on this repair when these drums ware out and it's expensive to have someone else repair them. I really like to use the symbol pads I have, have 2 different sounds so you have a crash and a splash right next to each other. Symbols also come mounted in the center which give them the ability to swing many connections may also become important so get a controller with a midi in and out. I use midi out for my solo show my kit has 10" drums so I need a larger stand with smaller drum pads you can probably use a smaller stand. Kits come with there own stand or rack but you could build your own kit one piece at a time. One final note about cost is you might be considering electronic verses acoustic in which that case just keep in mind you still would have to buy microphones for your acoustic drums, the electronic drums you just wire right into the PA."