Creative Ways to Incorporate Electronic Drums into Your Setup

Acoustic drums are awesome, but electronic drums are awesome, too! In my opinion, the modern drummer or percussionist — indeed, the modern musician in general — should try to avoid falling into the false dichotomy that one is preferable to the other. There are things acoustic drums can do that electronic drums can’t, and vice versa. For this article, let’s explore unique things that electronic drums bring to the table and how they can enhance your setup, whether you’re a drummer, band, solo performer, or DJ.

Layering Electronic Sounds with Acoustic SoundsTriggering Loops, Beats & Backing Track PlaybackControl Other InstrumentsTrigger Effects for Other MusiciansActivate & Control Light ShowsAdd Energy to DJ Sets

Layering Electronic Sounds with Acoustic Sounds

Guitarists, bassists, keyboardists, and other electric instrumentalists are all intimately familiar with the effectiveness of layering instruments and effects to create unique sounds. This technique has long been available for drummers as well. Still, it’s arguably not as widespread in live settings (though modern studio productions often layer acoustic drums with other drum samples).

If you’ve never experimented with layering before, then the good news is that there’s no need to rush out and buy a brand-new electronic drum set if you have an acoustic drum set. Instead, drum triggers are handy devices that attach to the hoops of your acoustic drums. They sense you striking your acoustic drum and send a signal to a trigger module, usually via a 1/4-inch TRS cable. Inside the trigger module, you have many different sounds available, from deep, sub-bass kick drums to handclaps and tambourines for layering with your acoustic snare drum. Simply run the output of the trigger module to any speaker or PA system, and you’ll be able to hear your acoustic drum’s sound plus the electronic sound you’ve chosen inside the trigger module. This technique is great for the studio, sound design, and enhancing the sound of lesser acoustic kits for live gigs. Trigger modules also usually contain an onboard metronome, the output of which can be routed to the headphone out so that only the drummer can hear it during shows. This can help the band as a whole play together.

Combining a Roland TM-2 drum trigger module with a Roland RT-30K kick drum trigger and a Roland RT-30HR dual zone trigger is an excellent, cost-effective way to get started layering your kick and snare drum sounds. For percussionists, the Roland ELCajon EC-10 electronic layered cajon deserves a mention.  

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Triggering Loops, Beats & Backing Track Playback

The term “one-man band” may conjure up images of a guitarist who is also a singer and plays harmonica on a harp rack (à la Neil Young) or perhaps even a circus performer, complete with a bass drum and cymbals on their back. Thankfully, contemporary solo performers have many more lumbar-friendly options for generating complete orchestrations and walls of sound than our vaudevillian ancestors did. For example, products like drum machines and samplers have some great onboard sounds already installed and are some of the easiest ways to trigger your own custom loops, beats, backing tracks, soundscapes, and more. Any audio file makes a potential candidate for being loaded onto a sampler and then getting triggered live — different samplers will have different requirements for file types, bit depths, and sample rates, though.

While you could try to play backing tracks from a laptop in a live setting, having a dedicated piece of hardware for this task is usually more stable and reliable than a computer, which has the potential to crash, lag, run out of battery life, start updating, play unwanted notification sounds from apps and messages, and more. Plus, while I guess you could hit a computer keyboard with drumsticks, I wouldn’t recommend it! Here are some of my favorite drum machines and samplers: The Nord 3P Modeling Percussion Synthesizer multi-pad, which is unmatched for creating unique drum sounds. The Roland SPD-SX sampling percussion pad has long been one of the best percussion pad samplers on the market, and the latest Roland SPD-SX Pro sampling pad is awesome to play and look at. Studio “finger drummers” will find lots to love about both the Akai Professional MPC One Plus standalone sampler and sequencer and the Native Instruments Maschine MK3 production and performance system with Komplete Select. And, for the singer / acoustic guitarist who wants some rhythmic accompaniment for their solo gigs, there’s even a drum machine stompbox courtesy of the Singular Sound BeatBuddy.

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Control Other Instruments

Keyboards get all of the glory when it comes to MIDI controllers, but using an electronic drum set or a drum machine to manipulate other instruments via MIDI is also a lot of fun. I own a Moog Sound Studio 3 that I enjoy playing with my Roland TD-30 V-Drums set (it’s an older model, but you can check out the latest Roland V-drums here). The Moog Studio 3 includes the Moog Mother-32 semi-modular Eurorack analog synthesizer and step sequencer, which features a standard 5-pin MIDI in connection, and the Moog Subharmonicon semi-modular polyrhythmic analog synthesizer, which has a 3-1/2mm MIDI in connection. The Moog DFAM semi-modular Eurorack analog percussion synthesizer on the Moog Studio 3 doesn’t have MIDI; however, it (and other Eurorack modules) can still be controlled with MIDI via a MIDI/CV converter, such as this 16-output Erica Synths Mutant Brain. If you don’t understand CV (control voltage), then check out our excellent YouTube video below.

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You can patch these three synths together to create melodies, bass lines, and harmonies! This configuration opens amazing creative compositional possibilities for drummers because any groove you play now has the potential to instantly become a full song. Plus, the analog circuitry of these Moog synths means that all patches will be different. Patching everything together may not be practical for a live setting, but that’s where our aforementioned samplers can come into play. You could patch a synth configuration that you liked, record each synth’s mono out onto a track in your DAW, and bounce each track individually or consolidate them all into a single track. Then, upload them onto your sampler of choice with either each individual track on its own pad for gradual song building, or use the consolidated track on one pad for an instant, fully fleshed backing track.

Trigger Effects for Other Musicians

From the nightingale song in Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome to Ashlee Simpson’s Saturday Night Live debacle, drummers and percussionists have a long history of triggering tracks, sounds, and effects for their ensembles. Another way we can get involved is to trigger effects for individual musicians. Imagine you’re in a rock band with a charismatic lead singer who likes to run around the stage a lot and get the crowd involved. There are excellent vocal effects processors available for adding reverb, distortion, and more to vocals, yet these processors are still relatively immobile. They’ll either need to stay on the floor if in pedal form or be mounted to a mic stand. This means that if the singer needs to trigger these effects themselves, then they may be less mobile and energetic than they would like to be. However, many of these vocal effects processors also have MIDI input, such as this TC-Helicon Perform-VE. By using this MIDI in with the MIDI out on electronic drums and then mapping accordingly, the drummer (or keyboardist or anyone with MIDI out) can trigger the singer’s vocal effects, thus freeing the singer up to do what they do best.

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Activate & Control Light Shows 

Many folks don’t realize that electronic drums or any other MIDI controller can control stage lighting rigs. Many of them have options for switching scenes with audio triggers, though this can be unpredictable due to the dynamic nature of music. If your lights don’t need to change or act in any particular sequence, then being triggered by audio is probably OK. Still, using MIDI in conjunction with another protocol called DMX (Digital Multiplexing) is preferable for more precise control. DMX is essentially the lighting version of MIDI. And, just like MIDI controllers, we also have DMX controllers. Things can get interesting when you use MIDI to control the sequence of a DMX controller. You can also use your DAW and DMX to sync lighting to your live show, as Sweetwater’s Mitch Gallagher demonstrates in this “How to Sync Lighting to Your Live Show” YouTube video.

Getting in-depth with how MIDI and DMX can work together is beyond the scope of this article, but Sweetwater already has some great resources. Check them out below!

Easy Tips for Integrating DMX Lighting into Your Performance

Stage Lighting 101, Part 1: Understanding the Basics

Stage Lighting 101, Part 2: Understanding DMX

DMX Lighting | A Musician’s Guide to Stage Lighting

Lighting Essentials for the Gigging Musician

All-in-One Lighting Rigs for DJs

Add Energy to DJ Sets

Decks, tables, wheels, plates — whatever you call them — DJ controllers are a hot-ticket item. Using samples and mash-ups to create high-energy live shows that make everyone want to dance is a DJ’s bread and butter. So, given the physical nature and inherent movement required of drumming, the two are perfect for each other. Of course, bouncing between parts of a sample or making that bass drop is quickly done via any DJ controller. Still, by using the MIDI assign function inside software such as the Serato DJ Pro or the Native Instruments Traktor Pro 3, you can assign those functions to a secondary MIDI controller, such as a drum module. Smacking a drum pad with a stick is much more dynamic and visually appealing than pressing a button, so using electronic drums in this way can add a ton of energy to your DJ sets.

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Ready to Add to Your Toolbox?

Electronic drums, percussion pads, and MIDI devices are flexible pieces of gear. Though digital devices may have a stereotype of being lifeless or unmusical, I hope this article has demonstrated that they can give you the keys to an entire kingdom of musical expression. However, whether it’s MIDI mapping, DMX, or Sys Ex data, learning how to use these devices effectively requires a learning curve, and some study is necessary. Luckily, our Sweetwater Sales Engineers are fluent in all things related to electronic drums, keyboards, and MIDI. So, if you ever have any questions about MIDI or how electronic drums can add value and quality of life to your setup, then please don’t hesitate to call your Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700
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