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Drum amp/PA speaker advice please

I

indus

pfm Member
Hi
I hope it's alright to post this here? I'm hoping that there are some musicians on the forum.

Hi
My 12 year old son has the Roland td17 kv digital drum set up. He usually plays through his headphones, he is a beginner.
He wants to start 'jamming' with his brother who plays the electric guitar. We have a guitar amp but not a drum amp.

Can anybody recommend me a drum amp please? Preferably under £250 if possible.
It has to be something that is in stock and that I can get within a couple of days.

Or should I be looking at a PA speaker instead?


Thank you
 
Roland do floor wedges for their TD drum kits starting at £250 IIRC. You'd need 2 of course if you wanted stereo:
https://www.roland.com/uk/categories/amplifiers/percussion_amplifiers/

Yamaha also do drum kit speakers, IIRC their entry level consists of a 10" sub woofer and two satellites that can be clamped onto the frame of the drum kit. My brother has this system but the sub craps out too early on when cranked:

https://europe.yamaha.com/en/produc...ms/el_drums/monitor_amps/ms45dr/features.html

I decided it was "better the devil I knew", and I repurposed a pair of Bose 301 Series II speakers and a Cambridge Audio A1 Integrated Amp. Cost me nothing (apart from the price of 2 foam surrounds) as I already had the gear in the cupboard. The speakers appear to be coping fine and they sound great with plenty of gut-punch from the kick drum, however I haven't been brave enough to crank it to "wake the neighbours" volumes.

If your son plays loud then you definitely want to be looking at pro/PA speakers with large woofers and high excursion and power handling capability, like the Roland floor wedge or the monitors @cjarchez suggests.
 
indus said:
Or should I be looking at a PA speaker instead?
Click to expand...

I think that a powered PA speaker should work with the signal from the electronic drums head unit. I don't know what comes in at or under budget in your country, perhaps something from Yamaha or ...cough... Behringer? This is something that could be repurposed later if they ever get in bands, they'd have the start of a small PA system.

Another option would be a small mixer into headphones, so they could both share headphone mixes and hear each other without disturbing others in the house.
 
cjarchez said:
You want to be, ideally, looking at keyboard amps. If you have any music stores near you ask if they have any end of range or good trade ins in your price range.
If new look for the biggest driver possible, partnered to powerful amp like the following;

https://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pro_mon_a12.htm?sid=b6cd485ed343deb029782a425fe69e44

https://www.thomann.de/intl/th/laney_ah150.htm

Both of those are available from GAK (Brighton) and Andertons (Guildford).
Click to expand...

Thank you, a couple of questions as I don't play an instrument so am clueless in these matters.
The amp in your first link has xlr input but my son's drum kit has jack type connections for outputs. Do I just buy a cable that is jack on one end and xlr on the other?
The Lanthey is a 'hub' and seems to have a lot of other functions which I'm not sure I need? In which case am I better with the first option as I'll just be paying for better sound/more power?

Thanks.
ToTo Man said:
Roland do floor wedges for their TD drum kits starting at £250 IIRC. You'd need 2 of course if you wanted stereo:
https://www.roland.com/uk/categories/amplifiers/percussion_amplifiers/

Yamaha also do drum kit speakers, IIRC their entry level consists of a 10" sub woofer and two satellites that can be clamped onto the frame of the drum kit. My brother has this system but the sub craps out too early on when cranked:

https://europe.yamaha.com/en/produc...ms/el_drums/monitor_amps/ms45dr/features.html

I decided it was "better the devil I knew", and I repurposed a pair of Bose 301 Series II speakers and a Cambridge Audio A1 Integrated Amp. Cost me nothing (apart from the price of 2 foam surrounds) as I already had the gear in the cupboard. The speakers appear to be coping fine and they sound great with plenty of gut-punch from the kick drum, however I haven't been brave enough to crank it to "wake the neighbours" volumes.

If your son plays loud then you definitely want to be looking at pro/PA speakers with large woofers and high excursion and power handling capability, like the Roland floor wedge or the monitors @cjarchez suggests.
Click to expand...

Thanks. When I bought the drum kit I'm pretty sure I listened to the pm100 and it sounded pretty pants to be honest. It seemed to be lacking any dynamic range of any kind.

Yank said:
I think that a powered PA speaker should work with the signal from the electronic drums head unit. I don't know what comes in at or under budget in your country, perhaps something from Yamaha or ...cough... Behringer? This is something that could be repurposed later if they ever get in bands, they'd have the start of a small PA system.

Another option would be a small mixer into headphones, so they could both share headphone mixes and hear each other without disturbing others in the house.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yes, a mixer for practicing would be good. In fact I think the drum kit allows that already. But I would actually like to hear them play, as a non musician I really appreciate hearing people play live music.
 
An Alto TS 312 or 315 should do all that you want, will be available to buy online and will come in at around your budget. They’re budget powered PA speakers but perform well for the money. Lots of DJs and pub bands on a budget use them as their main PA, so it’ll cope just fine as a drum monitor.

Alternatively, look for a used RCF 712, that will go very loud and punch hard... no chance of finding a new one in budget but if you’re lucky, you might find a single used one in budget. I use them as fold back monitors on big stages and as main PA in small to medium sized pubs, they never break a sweat.
 
We've had a few big active PA speakers and some of them sound quite good. If you can find a decent one I reckon it might do. My son has a Roland electric drum kit, I'll ask him.
 
linnfomaniac83 said:
An Alto TS 312 or 315 should do all that you want, will be available to buy online and will come in at around your budget. They’re budget powered PA speakers but perform well for the money. Lots of DJs and pub bands on a budget use them as their main PA, so it’ll cope just fine as a drum monitor.

Alternatively, look for a used RCF 712, that will go very loud and punch hard... no chance of finding a new one in budget but if you’re lucky, you might find a single used one in budget. I use them as fold back monitors on big stages and as main PA in small to medium sized pubs, they never break a sweat.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that looks nice, is just in budget and is in stock.
My son's kit has main jack output and a midi output, would it all connect up ok?

https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/active-f...MIroGL66Cs6QIVCevtCh0p2gZYEAUYAyABEgK4X_D_BwE
 
linnfomaniac83 said:
Yes, it has a Jack/XLR combi input, so you can connect a simple jack lead between the left output on the drum kit and the speaker. Usually, the left output will give a mono signal if nothing is connected to the right output.
Click to expand...


Thank you.
Do you think I might be able to get away with something lower in the Aldo line up? Even the 312 is advertised as being suitable for 'large scale audiences'!
For now we are talking about practicing in the house.
Appreciate your help.
 
indus said:
Thank you.
Do you think I might be able to get away with something lower in the Aldo line up? Even the 312 is advertised as being suitable for 'large scale audiences'!
For now we are talking about practicing in the house.
Appreciate your help.
Click to expand...
Yes you could, I hadn’t realised that there was a TX lineup, they appear to essentially be the earlier TS2 series. I’d probably still go for a 12”, TX212 look perfect for the job.

https://www.gear4music.com/Active_PA_Speakers/Alto.html
 
Thank you all.
I have ordered the Alto TS 312, probably far more than I actually need.
I was reading the specs of the TX line up and the frequency response wasn't as low as the TS range.
Probably makes zero difference for my needs but I just couldn't help myself:D
 
indus said:
Thank you all.
I have ordered the Alto TS 312, probably far more than I actually need.
I was reading the specs of the TX line up and the frequency response wasn't as low as the TS range.
Probably makes zero difference for my needs but I just couldn't help myself:D
Click to expand...

Even if it has capabilities that are surplus to present needs, it'll be that much longer before it becomes obsolescent.
 
cooky1257 said:
max 131dB/1m, he'll be deaf in a day without ear protection....
Click to expand...
Just keep the gain level down on the back of the speaker. There will be plenty of head room, very unlikely that he’s ever going to push the bass driver beyond it’s excursion limits in a domestic setting, you’d push the neighbours beyond their limits long before.:D
 
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