5Ws+1H: What It's About: Electric drum sets have pros, cons to acoustic kits

Feb. 15—While electric drums offer some benefits to percussionists, acoustic kits give musicians a different experience.

Jeffrey Jones, owner of the Muskogee and Tahlequah branches of Zomac School of Music, said that from a professional drummer's standpoint, acoustic drums offer a better feel and more dynamic control.

"The best part about an acoustic drum set is the cymbals," Jones said. "There are several different areas you can hit on the cymbals. The dynamics you can get on and the feel the electric cymbals have aren't even close to feeling as good as a real cymbal or sounding as good as a real cymbal."

Jones said electric drum kit cymbals are not programmed to produce only one sound; they often feature the main crash and the sound made when hitting the bell. These sounds can be made on those two zones, but Jones said the comparison is not even close to what can be achieved with a real cymbal.

When it comes to electric drums, Jones said, they do have some benefits, such as volume control. For example, if a person lives in a dorm room, apartment, or other area where noise must be kept to a minimum, Jones said the volume can be lowered by plugging into an amp or a set of headphones. While most professional musicians do not perform with electric drum sets, Jones said aficionados of genres like dance, hip hop, or rap prefer to emulate the sounds with the machine.

"It's good for certain things, but for most things the acoustics sound better, they look a lot better, and they feel way better when you're playing them," Jones said.

Another difference in the kits can be the size and price, with the electric drum kits just being more compact. When it comes to the pricing, Jones said the electric sets, which become outdated quickly, usually cost more than acoustic sets. If an issue takes place with the electrical side of the drum kit, Jones said it can be hard to replace the set or fix the problem.

Even though electric drums offers the drummer a way to practice with less noise, Jones said he has noticed some of his students have trouble controlling their dynamics once they start playing on an acoustic set. The electric drum sets have a tendency to prevent players from learning how to lightly tap the cymbals or the drum heads.

"They'll just beat the smack out of the drums or they'll play really soft," Jones said. "They're used to just turning the volume to whatever they want to play and not having to actually play that volume."