Adding triggers to your drum kit is an easy way to not only change up the sounds of your drums but also lift your creativity as a player to new levels. Hearing sounds come off your kit that are not normally there will make you think differently about your playing. If you ever get to the point where you are a little bored and looking for some new inspiration, just add a couple of triggers on your kit, and a whole new world will open up.
This article is specifically about adding triggers to your acoustic drums. You can of course add pads around your kit, foot controllers like hi-hat or electric kick drum pedals, even multi-pads like Roland’s SPD-SX. But when you hit those pads, you will only hear the sounds dedicated to those pads from your sound source. By adding triggers directly to your acoustic drums, you will be hearing a hybrid of acoustic and electric sounds, which can be super fun, so let’s get into it!
Drum triggers have been around for a long time now. As far back as the late 1980s, triggers were being used in heavier music to help make the kick drum cut through loud distorted guitars. Plus drummers were playing faster and faster beats on their kick drums, either with two kick drums or a double-kick pedal. Triggering a kick drum sound helped the player not have to play as hard, because the sound coming from the sound source was at a more consistent level — loud! From that point onward, companies have been elevating the technology and making it way easier to get the hybrid drum setup of your dreams.
There are a number of different drum triggers out there, and they all work by picking up the vibration of the drum you are hitting and sending that signal to a sound source in order to hear the sound. One of the easiest triggers to use is the Pintech RS-5. This little gem sticks onto your drumhead or your drum shell. The piezo pickup is actually free-floating in its small round housing so it can be attached in different places. They are cool because they are small and stay out of the way. They can also be reused again and again. Most other triggers have the typical look of attaching to the rim of your drum, but they essentially work the same way. The part that picks up the vibrations of the drum just barely touches the drumhead.
The Roland RT-30H, Yamaha DT-50S, ddrum Chrome Elite, and ddrum Pro Acoustic are just a few of the rim-mounted trigger options we have here at Sweetwater. For mounting a trigger to your kick drum, you will need to get the version that can do that. They work the same way, but the housing is made to accommodate a kick drum hoop. Another trigger worth mentioning here is Sensory Percussion. They look similar to the others and attach to the drum rims or kick drum hoop, but nothing is touching the drumhead. You stick a tiny piece of metal directly underneath the sensor, and it triggers from that.
The key component for using triggers on your kit is that you need to have a sound source. Triggers themselves do not make sounds, with one exception, the Roland RT-MicS Mic Trigger Processor. It is a very cool piece with sounds built in — definitely worth checking out. Other than that, you need a sound module with some trigger inputs like the Roland TM-1 or TM-2 or the Yamaha EAD10 or DTX502. Even the Alesis Strike MultiPad, the Roland Octapad or SPD-SX, and the Yamaha DTX-MULTI 12 have trigger inputs. For the Sensory Percussion triggers, you need some sort of recording interface and their proprietary software. In addition to the sounds on all of these modules, you can use your own custom sounds either by loading them directly into the modules or via MIDI.
This is just a short list of products you can use to trigger sounds on your acoustic drums. With triggers, some dedicated electronic pads, and a good sound source, you can be playing in the hybrid drum world in no time. Don’t be afraid of the price of admission either. There are plenty of ways to get started that don’t cost an arm and a leg. Just dive on in; you’ll be glad you did.
To find out more about drum triggers, drum pads, or triggered drum sounds, contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700.
