Electronic Drum Kits

Compact and easy to play, these Electronic Drum Kits are great for both practising and live performance, providing functionality and features for beginners and intermediate players alike. These electric drum sets are designed to be folded down easily for simplified transport and storage with custom telescopic frames. This allows a comfortable drumming experience for performers of all ages, these kits are superb for beginners to get acquainted with the world of percussion.

Buy Electric Drum Sets

This entire category has a lot of different options for your consideration inclusive of dual-zone, velocity-sensitive drum pads. Also, choke-able cymbals made from a highly durable silica rubber and heavy-duty, chain-driven foot pedals for both hi-hats and kick drums. Many electronic drum kits come with their own stool, sticks and headphones, in the event you already own this equipment you’ll find some more affordable listings with these items omitted.

If you're looking for something on the higher end of the scale, there’s a wide variety of high-performance electric drum sets. They offer mesh head pads, which emulate the dynamics of an actual snare drum skin, those with more drumming experience may prefer this detail to a regular pad. The use of mesh heads allow acoustic drum style key tightening for adjustable tensions that determine the individuals playing style.

All of our electric drum sets feature variations of the excellent Commander Module, you can find the specs of each module attached to the kits specific product page. The larger kits expand on this, the Command 500 module provides 358 drum voicings, 29 preset kits and fully recordable MIDI input and output for use with production DAWs. Our best selling kits are the Carlsbro CSD 130 and the Carlsbro ROCK 50 kids electronic drum kit, the latter built specifically for us!

How do Electric Drum Kits work?

The playing surfaces of electronic drum sets consist of pads, cymbals and foot controls all operated as velocity-sensitive digital switches or triggers. The signal they produce when struck is sent to the kits command module which converts it to the assigned sound. The velocity-sensitive trigger system allows the pads to recognise the force they are struck with, which the module interprets giving the assigned note a loud or soft dynamic expression.

This can also include choking which is the method of muting cymbals by hand, halting their resonance with your fingers. The command module then outputs the dynamic signals as expressive digital MIDI audio for headphones, amplifiers or music production workstations. Disturbance to neighbours will be little to none due to the kits muted aspect, heard only via headphones unless plugged into an amplifier or other speaker system.

On the base models, the pads are soft and durable silica rubber material which was selected through rigorous playtesting by professional drummers. This material was chosen to give the best mix of playability and stick response, whilst not requiring the maintenance and tuning of a traditional acoustic kit. The higher-spec models utilise mesh heads on the snare and tom pads, which have fully tension adjustable fabric.

Are Electronic Drum Kits suitable for live work?

Absolutely and even the base models such as the Carlsbro CSD130 are perfectly capable of performing in a live environment. However, the higher spec models are better suited to regular live work as they provide enhanced playing dynamics and the folding frames are reinforced to be more tour friendly. Using an electronic drum kit actually gives you far greater control of levels and volume as the sound is easily routed through a mixing desk and PA systems.

MIDI is a powerful tool in audio creation and allows you to use the drum kits pads as triggers for controlling other MIDI software or instruments. MIDI input gives you the option of utilising the commander modules drum sounds directly into computer software, or for external triggering. Once you’ve recorded a drum part into your DAW you can quantise the MIDI instances so they’re all in time, you can also add drum fills by hand this way.

The pads and cymbals are lightweight and each attaches securely to the frame using the same twisting method as the rest of the system. For convenience, the pads and frame can be loosened and folded down whilst remaining attached, halving the setup time and making the kit easy to store and transport. All of the electronic drum kits we supply are incredible for beginner and intermediate drummers who are taking their first steps into becoming a professional musician.

Additional tips and tricks for beginner drummers

New drummers should research some free online drum lessons for the following drum related subjects, stick positioning, basic beats and rudiments. Websites such as YouTube will likely have hundreds of these tutorials at your disposal but the main ingredient in learning an instrument like the Carlsbro CSD130 is patience. Learning any instrument to a respectable level takes time, you will get frustrated and occasionally want to give up but to get better you must practise.

Once you have learned the basics and can hold a patterned rhythm, it’s wise to make a small playlist of some of your favourite pop songs. Pop music tends to have very simplistic drum beats and you can use this method to practise your timekeeping and start getting a feel for groove and drum fills. Your first session playing along to existing music won’t be played perfectly but that’s OK, the more you practise the tighter your playing will be.

Once you’ve got to grips with playing your electric drums you can start to look into more advanced techniques such as flams, rim shots and different time signatures. These methods will improve your playing and overall understanding of percussion if and when you translate your new skills to an acoustic kit. Good drummers understand dynamic, meaning drum kits, in general, should be played with feel and not hit as hard as possible for the duration of every song.