If you’ve never set up an electronic drum kit before, putting everything in the right place can easily become overwhelming. There are dozens of components to worry about, and setting them up incorrectly could stop the kit from working.
Here’s a quick guide to help you out.
All the components of an electronic drum kit will come packaged in boxes when you buy it. The first thing you need to do is unbox everything and lay all the parts out neatly so that you know where they are.
An electronic drum kit will include the following components:
Lay all of those parts out into separate spaces on the floor so that you have a sense of organisation.
The rack should be your first thing to construct, as everything gets set up onto it. You’ll find a set of arms and legs in your boxes.
Take all of those and connect them together so that the rack is standing up on its own. Most electronic drum kits have 3-sided racks.
You’re going to need to choose how high or low the three bars are positioned, but you can wait until the next step to do all the fine-tuning. Just find an assumed position for each bar at this point.
You should also attach the cymbal arms to the rack bars.
Now that your rack is set up, you can place all the drum and cymbal pads onto it. We’d suggest starting with the cymbal pads, as they’ll be easy to place on the boom arms.
Your snare drum pad will most likely need to be positioned on the left arm of your drum rack. Some electronic drum kits will also include a shorter arm for the snare to attach to.
Your rack toms will go on the middle arm of your drum rack, and the floor tom will go on the right one.
Once all your drums and cymbals are placed, you should angle them so that they feel comfortable to play. Flat angles are always the best, but a slight angle in each pad is fine too. Just don’t angle them too much.
The drum module usually has a dedicated place on the right or left with most modern electronic drum kits. It should have an attachable clamp that can lock onto the arm.
Place it so that it’s easy to reach, as you’ll be using it a lot when you sit at your electronic kit.
Each pad needs to have a cable that connects from it to the drum module. Now is the time to connect those cables. Make sure that they don’t look messy when your kit is set up.
A great idea is to tie them to the drum rack so that they’re out of the way. Many high-end electronic kits have a feature that allows you to tie them there.
Once your kit is set up, you need to have something to hear everything you play with. If you have a set of headphones, you can simply plug them into the drum module and place them over your ears.
If you have an amplifier, you’ll need to place it somewhere near the drum kit and then run a jack-to-jack cable from the amp to the drum module. Once you’ve done that, you can turn the amp on and hear everything you play coming through it.
Setting an electronic drum kit up is almost as straightforward as setting an acoustic one up. The only tricky part is setting all the cables up. Cables can often make the drum kit very messy, so make sure to keep them looking neat and tidy.
If your electronic drum kit never came with a bass drum, you’ll need to buy one of those separately. Just make sure that you’re not using a felt beater with a mesh pad, as those tend to break mesh pads over time.
Drum Teacher
Brett Clur has a Drum Performance Diploma from Trinity College London has been playing drums for over 20 years. He is passionate about advanced concepts and uses his years of experience to teach his students about them. While he is a full-time drum teacher, he is also working on growing a YouTube channel where shares his insights. You can see him playing there, or on Instagram where he posts daily videos.
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