Drum Model Guide

[Project_Mercy]

Feb 20th Note - The SL

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30903

So it appears the SL is visually the same as the QM. It could have better electronics on it, or something different in the sensor cage, made from different plastic, or have different head pad material, but mechanically it looks similar.

Opening

In my continuing attempt to remove the black magic from Rockband, this is my guide to the two drum models as I've seen them. (I own both, as I picked up multiple boxes) I will include statements on modifications I've heard or seen in pictures. I will also try to include a section on mods.

There are two models of drums that seem to be floating around with some volume. The QM and the EL lines. There are also two versions of the kick pedal. I reference them as Version 1 and Version 2. I have no idea which drum version came first. It's possible we've always had both versions in the boxes. Version 2 of the kick pedal has definitely come after version 1.

QM vs EL

I'm adding this section in first to try to explain things.

Both sets have some advantages and disadvantages. Your play still will determine which works better for you. Also each set has a different tendency, and just because you have one or the other doesn’t mean it’s exactly like this

QM

The QM is generally extremely sensitive. Even the smallest tap will set it off. The rebound on the pads seem to stay more consistent through play. They seem to break less, and the blue and yellow pads don’t appear to crack as easily as on the EL. The QM on fast rolls generally does poorly. Because the sensors are so sensitive, as the force of your hit increases, the sensors cease to register, or will register double and triple hits (due to lack of sensor damping). Sskitzzo has confirmed the drums in his video “broken drum pad”, were the QM model because they exhibits all of these tendencies.

EL

The EL isn’t nearly as sensitive. It takes more of an actual hit to set it off. The available travel on the pads is greater and seems to deteriorate through play. The yellow and blue pads seem especially prone to cracking and denting, while I suspect the red and green pads still live longer than the QM versions. Fast rolls are a lot easier on the EL, because the sensor is damped. Unfortunately this also means that you’re hitting it harder, generally leading to dented heads. It also has a tendency to occasionally not register a hit, making FCs sometimes difficult on this model.


Kick Pedal

As mentioned above, there are two versions of the kick pedal. From a cursory inspection, it's hard to tell the difference. Please ignore the little metal tabs screwed to he side of the Version 1 Pedal. That's a reinforcement I had to do to stop a fracture.

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_mercy/Pedal_Top.jpg

The only major differences comes from the side and underneath. The hinge pin is thicker in version 2 (which you really can't see from these shots, and it seemed foolish to waste the bandwidth for a shot of it). By looking at this underside you can see that the orange pedal guide is shaped differently. Primarily because the magnet in the pedal has been moved and adjusted (it's been moved down so it's closer to the switch).

There are two extra reinforcement ribs in the bottom of the V2 pedal that run from the pivot pin towards the orange pedal guide. This appears to be the extent of the reinforcement changes in the V2 pedal.

Because of the changes in the magnet position of the sensor, it changes when the kick pedal decides to register a kick. Additionally, it provide some slack so that by shimming the orange pedal guide, you can adjust the position of the magnet, thereby adjusting when your kick pedal registers. I adjusted mine up so that it doesn't register a kick till the bumpers touch the pedal.

There's some minor differences in the sensor enclosure, including where the screws are to open it up (in version 1 they're beneath the rubber cushions, making them difficult to access, as the cushions are glued down.

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_mercy/Pedal_Side.jpg

In closing on the kick pedals, I encourage you to cable tie the pedal to the pipe if you're not removing it often (when I break the stand down I just leave the pedal on the pipe.) It still slides back and forth, but it keeps the pedal from shifting or hoping if you get too exuberant with your foot. You can see this pictured in the picture in the last post on mods with my Woodrock pedal.

Pedal Fatigue

The foot pedal isn't rigid. Even in the best of times it will flex with use. As you compress the pedal you push down in some point on the pedal. During this compression or decompression a force from the spring is pushing up to the pedal. If your foot's point of pressure isn't directly over the spring, that means the pedal is flexing at the point between your foot's contact position, and the spring's position.

When the pedal reaches the bottom of its throw, it will stop from the rubber bumpers at the top, and the pivot pin at the bottom. The pedal will flex between those two points, and your foot's contact position. Consequently, if your foot isn't directly over the bumpers at this point, the pedal will flex.

Both of these cause fatigue of the pedal. Obviously you can't move your foot to perfectly counteract the loads of the pedal. My suggestion is the play over the bumpers, as your unconscious mind will push with enough force to compress the spring quickly, and the force when the bumpers stop that is usually a lot harsher.

Also, putting any pressure on your heel on the pedal (like trying to readjust your sitting position with weight on your feet) will pretty well snap that pedal like a twig.

Determining which model you have

And while you can pop the pad heads off and see easily, doing may be a warranty issue, so there's easier (and less invasive) ways to do it. There's a serial number stamped on the outside of the drum.

In the case of the EL model, the serial number is stamped on the plastic tab on the underside of the drums that covers the connection between the red and yellow pads (as indicated by the red arrow).

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_m...alNum_Back.jpg


In the case of the QM model, the serial number is stamped into the plastic on the underside of the drums beneath the d-pad (again, as indicated by the red arrow).

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_m..._SerialNum.jpg

You will also notice that the wells the rubber plugs sit in, in the inside pads, are accessible on the QM model from the bottom as opposed to being closed off in the EL.

[Project_Mercy]

Explanation of the drum

The drum we play on doesn't work like a real drum, though it does try to simulate it. It has two primary components. The first is the part where it senses contact. The second is the part where it attempts to simulate the characteristics of a drum.

The sensing contact part is actually the simplest. There is a piezoelectric sensor attached to the drum head. This sensor will produce a voltage signal when compressed. Consequently, they attached a metal sheet to it and spring loaded it to the pad head. When the head vibrates, it will compress this assembly and produce a signal. This means that movement of the pad head is irrelevant to the sensor (Beyond the vibrations of the head itself). You could take the pad head completely off the frame, epoxy it to a concrete block, and still play it. It would play like crap, but the sensor would work fine (until it broke.. which would probably be a lot quicker than otherwise in this scenario).

Here's an interesting thread where someone scopes the piezo's output based on different hits.

When you strike a normal drum head, the head compresses and produces a sound, then the head attempts to return to its natural state of rest and probably will vibrate up and down until this happens (it rebounds). The Rockband head is (sort of) hard plastic. It doesn't really flex like a normal drum head, and its elasticity and restitution are all but nil. Consequently, the whole pad head will move up and down on the rubber plugs. The compression and rebound of the pad are based primarily on the foam wedges underneath he head. Were you to remove this foam, the pad would move up and down (the amount depends on which model you have, because the rubber plugs are different) freely and have no rebound. As this foam becomes tired through age or use (as they heat up) its coefficient of restitution decreases and the pad becomes sloppy, as well as causing the shock of the stick hit to be taken up by something else, which will either be the pad head, the rubber plug, the sensor cage on whatever is below it, or possibly a plastic extrusion/stop on the QM heads. None of these cases is very good. All of them (besides possibly the rubber plug) will likely result in your pad heads becoming dented or cracked.

QM Model of Drums

The QM appears to have been the second model of drums.

The QM shares the trait with the EL in that the red and green pad frames are the same and the yellow and blue pad frames are the same, but they are not equivalent. Conversely, the pad heads are all the same. What I don't know, is if the sensors in these pads are the same. In the QM model I have, the color of the shielding on the sensor leads are all the same. On the EL they differ and are coded with the pad color. Considering how damaged my EL sensors are (due to playing) there's no way to know if any differences in the sensors is just a result of damage or a different model. The sensors in my QM and the sensors in my EL are different though. The QM sensors are more sensitive to hits.


QM Red/Green Pad and my Lexicon

This is the Green pad on the QM. It's the same as the red pad.

First thing is I'm going to reference the terms I'm using for the parts in the drum. I have no idea if these are right, but as long as you know what I'm talking about, it doesn't matter if I call an apple an orange.

Pad: The whole drum if you were to cut it away from the rest of the drum assembly. Includes that drum's frame and that drum's head, and everything inside.

Drum Frame: The lower part of the drum assembly that the head floats in.

Pad Head: The top part of the drum assembly that floats in the drum frame that you strike.

Rubber Plugs: The 4 rubber pieces attached to the bottom of the pad head that hold the head to the frame and act as guides to head motion. In some cases they may act in part of the compression/rebound stroke. These plugs are held on by plastic collars screwed to the pad. So if one were to pop off for some reason, you could unscrew the collar, replace the plug, and screw the collar back on.

Sensor Cage: The assembly in the middle/bottom of the pad head that houses the piezoelectric sensor used to register the pad hit, and the various parts to assist in mounting and damping this sensor.

Lower Bumper: Donut-shaped foam on the EL model at the center/bottom of the frame


On with the show,

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_m...M_GreenPad.jpg


This is the green pad on the QM.

You will note that the frame is flat, and contains no foam. There are three small extrusions from the frame about 1/4" high. One is pointed out by the red arrow on the left, but there's one for each quarter of the pad, with the exception of the quarter where there's a mate to this extruded from the pad head itself. (Note, this means the red and green heads can only mount one way to this frame). I'm not sure what these are for, because at full compression the rubber plug mounts will hit long before these reach anything. They're also not lined up with the head foam, thereby precluding them to act as some sort of preload on the foam. Feel free to offer suggestions. Maybe they're the proverbial appendix from some other design.

On the pad head there are the 4 rubber plugs & collars at the major compass points on the head. There are also 4 foam wedges glued to the head radially, between the plugs, with a sheet of plastic over them (I assume to distribute the load on the foam). As mentioned in the drum overview above, the foam is the primary spring for the pad head (ideally at least), and the primary damper for head vibrations. There is also the mate to the lower extrusions, except this one is longer (about 1/2"). This is pointed too by the red arrow on the right. Were you to compress the pad by hand, you will find that this is the first hard item to touch. Consequently, this piece forms the limit of compression for the pad. Were the pad to be hit with enough force to fully compress it, the pad head would flex between where you hit it and this point, or if you hit it near it, probably just dent. These cease to exist in the EL, and the sensor cage takes up this job in addition to there being foam under it to pad this from happening. For the pad head to see full compression though would require some rather hamfisted playing. I suspect the head would dent or crack long before this happened. It would have been nice to see some foam under it though.

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_mercy/QM_Sensor.jpg

This is the QM sensor cage. It consists of an orange bar screwed to the pad head (#3). Beneath it is a spring with a rubber bumper at the end of it and the sensor(#1). The sensor rides on top of a thin (~1/32") elastic disc between it and the pad head (#2). There should be 1 such disk in the outside (red/green) pads and 2 of them in the inside (yellow/blue) pads. The spring is about at half compression when the orange bar is fully screwed down. Yes, this picture does suck.

Increasing the thickness of the rubber pad damper (in this case by increasing the # of pads) increases damping on the sensor. This not only increases the damping on the sensor (making it respond quicker to hits) it also seems to increase decoupling between the sensor and the pad head, making it less likely to respond to subsequent hits. It will also decrease sensitivity. So there's a fine line between "discs are good" and "discs are bad". The one disc on the outside pad appears to be insufficent to me though.

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_mercy/QM_BluePad.jpg

This is the QM blue pad's frame. The head isn't pictured, because it's exactly the same as the green pad (except possibly the sensor inside it, as mentioned above). You (hopefully) will notice that there is an additional shelf here. It sits almost flush with the posts that the rubber plugs fit into. This means that at full compression of the pad, the pad head would be roughly flush with the shelf, were it not to be stopped by something. Again, we have that 1/2" rubber extrusion on the pad head, and you will note that the cut-out in the picture (at the 9 o'clock position) is wider, allowing the plastic stop to clear the shelf. Again this means the pad head will only fit on (correctly) one way. In this case though, the plastic extrusion isn't taking the full brunt of full compression. While you might notice a recess in the center for the sensor cage, Were you to push the head to full compression from the center, the sensor cage will hit the bottom before the plastic extrusion/stop will hit. It would have been nice if this well had been deepened somewhat and a thin mid-density foam pad (like what the EL bumpers are made off, only 1/16") had been added into this space to reduce stress on the sensor cage.

QM yellow and blue pads that see full compression are just going to fail. Which leads us into the EL pads.

[Project_Mercy]

EL Model of Drums

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_m...L_GreenPad.jpg

This is the green pad on the EL. Yes, again, the picture kind of sucks.

On the left you have the pad frame. You will notice the foam is in the frame this time. You will also notice the inclusion of the foam bumper in the middle/bottom of the frame, as well as some foam discs over the foam wedges. The plastic sheeting that spread the load of the foam is now gone (I'm not sure why. I would rather it be there, especially with the foam disc taking up any of the noise from it). The foam discs seem to only take up some of the slack in the pad head. They don't exist in the yellow and blue pads, and removal of them doesn't effect rebound at all. They appear to just act as a way for the head to keep contact with the lower foam for head vibration damping purposes. There are no plastic extrusions/stops in the frame or on the head. The foam bumper and the sensor cage design appear to do this in this model

On the pad head, the plugs are slightly longer (increasing the head's available travel) The foam is gone, the extrusion/stop is gone, and the sensor cage has gone through some radical design. These heads can be mounted to the pad in any direction.

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_mercy/EL_Sensor.jpg

Here you can see the changes in the sensor. The pad head itself now has a thin layer of foam film added to it (#3) This seems to have taken the place of the rubber pads, though the layer of the film is equivelent between inside and outside pads. In addition, a foam damper (donut) is taped over the sensor. When the spring mount is screwed down to the pad head, it doesn't tension this foam. The adhesive strip is all that holds the foam to the sensor. Consequently, the foam isn't really tensioning the sensor, it just acts as a damper. There is now a lighter spring with a rubber cap over it. This spring goes through the center of the foam damper to tension the sensor as before, The spring rate is considerably lighter. Again, I suspect that adds to the difference in sensitivity and longevity of the EL sensors. Finally, you will notice that the spring mount is now round, shorter, and slightly sturdier. This is because the sensor cage now becomes the hard stop for this pad now.

Item of note: Unlike the QM drums, where the heads were exactly the same between the inside and outside pads (outside of the ring color and rubber discs). the Sensor Cage's spring mount has a longer extrusion in the case of the inside pads. This is because the lower bumper is deeper in the inside pads, due to a change in that shelf. Which segways into;

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_mercy/EL_BluePad.jpg

The EL's blue pad. You will note the shelf is back, and they took better advantage of the depth of the inside pads. As mentioned above, the sensor cage is deeper on the inside pads, so the actual distance when the pad is at rest between the bottom of the sensor cage and the foam bumper is roughly the same (I just measured the difference in depth, I haven't actually tried to measure it once it was mounted). Unfortunately, the foam in these pads are thinner and less dense due to the shelf. That means that the rebound on these pads is limited compared to the outside pads. It also means there's a decrease in total head damping. It also means that the lower bumper has to take a lot more abuse. Which leads us into the another issue.

The one glaring eyesore here is a plastic disc they added to the lower bumper (as pointed too by the red arrow, note this disc has been removed from the top of the bumper). I'm not sure why they thought this was a good idea, but it greatly increases the spring rate of the lower bumper, considering the sensor cage now has to compress the whole foam disc instead of just the tiny circle it otherwise would. This causes an issue where the pad head itself flexes instead of the foam causing the inside heads on the EL to crack or dent depending on where you hit them. To make matters worse, since the travel of the head is reduced, the the foam weaker, the inside pads are more prone to actually hit this stop. Were this plastic piece to be peeled off, it would likely increase the life span of the inside pads, as would some slightly thicker foam.

[Project_Mercy]

Additions and Modifications

Keep in mind, you will have to make your own personal choices as to what you do to your drums in regards to how that will effect your ability to take advantage of your warranty. In some cases (such as adding pads to the top of the heads) you can do so without any blemish or any chance of threat. In other cases (taping, sensor mods, etc) you may be voiding your warranty. It's up to you to determine what risk you're willing to accept.

Foot Pedal Swaps

Some people have removed the foot pedal and swapped in something else for it. This removes the threat of your pedal cracking, and allows you to adjust your foot position to something more comfortable and efficient for playing faster.

The most famous of these being the woodrock pedal (which I also have, and love to death).

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_m...l_Woodrock.jpg
Note, this isn't a stock pedal, I added grip tape to it. Also the brown stuff is rubber from the bottom of the Chuck Taylor’s I play in (that's how grippy that tape is).

Anyway, I'm sure there's plenty of standalone pedal replacements out there. I saw someone mill one out of aluminum a few days ago, that was also pretty awesome. All you need to do is to make something that will fit into the pivot point at the bottom of the pedal, and hold the magnet in the proper position to register a "kick" when you have the pedal compressed. Having bump stops on it also will probably help you.

Foot Pedal Reinforcements

As opposed to replacing the whole pedal, some people have instead chosen to reinforce the stock pedal. Assuming the reinforcement is stiff, this is equally as useful to stop the pedal from cracking as the pedal replacement. I'll have to dig up the pics later, but there's plenty of people making covers that glue, tape, bolt, or screw on to the top of your stock pedal. This can be as complicated as a plate cut (or formed) perfectly to fit over the pedal, or as simple as a bunch of disposeable pens wrapped with packing tape.

Again, it's your personal choice if you want to do this or do the full pedal replacement. Assuming the reinforcement flexes less than the Rockband pedal, it should be sufficent to keep it from cracking.

Two Pedals / Double Bass Pedal

Almost all of the true double bass hits in the game have been merged into a single bass kick. That doesn't mean that some of the drummers out there don't have a wicked fast kick. Some people have grown used to having a double bass pedal, and would like the same in Rockband. Visually speaking, when you see a mono phono jack as the connection the crafty person puts 1 and 1 together and goes for 2. Unfortunately you only get 1 in this case, because Rockband rocks the proverbial new math. Two Rockband bass pedals and a mono phono splitter is insufficient to make a true double bass pedal.

The Rockband pedal is extremely simple. When you depress the pedal, at a certain point the magnetic switch in the pedal is thrown and a circuit is completed between the tip and shield of the mono phono jack. This is not a momentary switch. That means if you keep the pedal down, the circuit continues to stay completed.

Consequently, if you do the 2 pedals + splitter method, if one of your feet is down and you kick with the other foot it won't register another kick. Why? Because the circuit has already been completed by the other pedal. It hasn't seen that connection break yet, so it assumes (correctly) you still have your foot depressed.

If you wanted to let up on your primary foot and kick with your other you could do that.. but at that point you might as well just kick with your primary foot again, thereby removing the need for the double pedal.

This isn't to say you couldn't wire something up pretty easily that would allow you to do this. I'll leave this to your own artifice. I'm mostly trying to keep this limited to making use of the Rockband peripherals, not additions you can make to the kit (Otherwise we could talk about using a real DB Pedal on a real Bass Trigger, or rigging up your own pedals, etc).

Elastic Head Pads

There are different reasons people are adding things to the top of their drum pads. The 3 primary factors in this are quieting the pads down, increasing the rebound on the pads, and protecting the pad head/sensors from damage.

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_m...M_Neoprene.jpg

This picture shows my QM set with neoprene rubber pads on it.

In the case of elastic pads (Gum Rubber, Neoprene Rubber, Latex Rubber, etc) you're getting a mix of all three. All the pads you will find will be a balancing act damping, rebound, and protection.

If you want my opinions on the pads, check out the Drum Pad Material Super Test. One option for ordering these is http://www.drumpadsinc.com/ another is http://www.mcmaster.com//

Damping Head Pads

=note to self, find picture of foam/felt pads=

Damping pads on the other hand are primarily about quieting sounds. Generally these are made of some sort of foam material. Either styrene foam (craft foam), or neoprene foam rubber (mouse pads). Your rebound will deteriorate from these pads (given the same input force), but it's mostly about damping the shock. As a result, these style pads reduce the sensitivity of your drums more than the elastic pads, but will likely result in a quieter hit (given equivalent thickness, mounting, etc)

Damping Mods

This includes tape mod and sock mod. I started a lengthy explanation of the tape mod, but the tape mod has been updated to the sock mod, so there's no real point on explaining how to tweak it.

If you would like more info on the sock mod, check out this thread.

Preload/Jounce Mods



Sensor Mods

I'll flush this out later. For now this means penny/tinfoil mod, or anything to do with stuffing crap or removing crap from the sensor cage.


Closing

Feel free to provide suggestions to add to this (though I have a 4 image limit, so I’ll have to link to your post. If you feel that I'm off on anything here, feel free to argue with me, though I've done by best to experiment with them so far, so I generally have a reason why I think things are the way they are. Then again I'm a software engineer, not a ME, so I'm sure someone will correct me at some point. If you do so politely I will update my post with your info.

[STALEYLIVES]

Great guide. Thanks for putting the work in to provide this info and for taking the time to provide some nice pics. One thing though: I think there are actually 3 drum sets out there. The QM, EL, and a "revised" EL model with the added cushioning on the foam wedges inside the drum frame. That is the EL model I have. It has four penny sized circular rubber cushions that are attached to the four foam wedges. I can only confirm that this is present in the red and green pads, since I have yet to take off my blue and yellow pads. They may be different too. Just giving you a heads up. Again, great guide and thanks for doing it.

One other thing: Do you recommend putting some SOFT foam on the rubber stop in the drum frame? Would this add more cushioning to parts and add more rebound? What do you recommend as far as sensor mods and whatnot? Give us more!!!!

[Project_Mercy]

Originally Posted by STALEYLIVES

I can only confirm that this is present in the red and green pads, since I have yet to take off my blue and yellow pads.

I mention those. If you look at the picture of the EL green pad, you can see them. They don't exist on the inside pads.

Originally Posted by STALEYLIVES

One other thing: Do you recommend putting some SOFT foam on the rubber stop in the drum frame? Would this add more cushioning to parts and add more rebound? What do you recommend as far as sensor mods and whatnot? Give us more!!!!

Well, if you're going to void your warranty, and you have an EL model, my only suggestion is to remove the plastic disks over the bumpers on the inside pads. Otherwise, I suggest you put some THIN elastic pads on the top of the pad heads. I personaly think 1/8" is too thick for the EL, but I'll be experimenting with that soon.

Then again, I think voiding your warranty at this point in the game is a bad idea.

I'm pretty anti sensor mod. The only ones that I think make sense are possibly the tinfoil mods on the QM, due to the spring being stiffer, and there being no foam film between the pad head and the sensor.

My stance on the sensor mods in relationship to the EL is, once you need them, your set is already broken. So either minimize it from happening (by using elastic or damping pads), or RMA the set.

[STALEYLIVES]

My bad. The green EL pad pic didn't load for me for some reason the first time I viewed this thread. There are EL models without those rubber discs. Don't know if they are early EL models or what.

So putting any cushioning in the center rubber bumper like in the Daskonstruct mod won't do much to increase sensitivity or longevity of the kit?? I'm not gonna mess around with my kit too much, since it works perfectly. I'm only interested in methods that may prolong the life of my kit.

[Project_Mercy]

The extra discs on the EL pads don't really do anything. Like I said, at best all they do is take some slack out of the initial pad hit/keep them quiet.

As for the rest of the stuff, just wait till I flush out the rest of the mod section. I'll explain it then. You can make your own determination after that.

Maybe i'll do it tomorrow at lunch. Depends on how busy I am.

[Stevenam81]

Originally Posted by Project_Mercy

http://home.earthlink.net/~project_mercy/QM_Sensor.jpg

This is the QM sensor cage. It consists of an orange bar screwed to the pad head (#3). Beneath it is a spring with a rubber bumper at the end of it and the sensor(#1). In this case, the sensor sits flush to the pad head(#2), and is held in place by the spring. The spring is about at half compression when the orange bar is fully scewed down. Yes, this picture does suck.

On my QM model, there is a rubber pad that goes between the sensor and the head. I can't tell but it might be stuck to your sensor in that pic. I know when I first pulled my sensor out the thin rubber pad was stuck to it. It isn't glued or anything. It just has a tendency to stick to it. When doing the penny mod, this is the piece people replace with a penny. I used foil but I left the rubber piece where it goes and placed a penny sized piece of foil between the sensor and the orange (#3) piece. It fixed my set. I had been using the tape. Doing this gave me the same result.

Great guide. I found it odd that you think the QM was first. I think the opposite. Probably because I received the EL at launch. All of the pads missed random hits and I could barely get a combo over 40 going. I could not get above 3 stars on anything. My EL set came with the "version 1" pedal. When I requested a replacement I received the QM. It came with the "version 2" pedal. I compared the two sets and I found the QM to be superior in design. Of course I didn't take all of the heads off. I only compared the insides of the red drum on each kit. You do make a good case. I guess what will determine this will be finding out which model people are getting for their replacements now. I requested mine a few days after launch so I can't count that. I have heard from others that both designs shipped at launch. It doesn't make sense to me why there were two designs at launch. You would think they would have decided on one design. It seems like maybe they made a newer design halfway into production and didn't want to waste the first gen kits already produced. You can't tell me they weren't a little too well prepared for sending out the replacements. It's pretty obvious they knew they would be getting lots of requests.

[Project_Mercy]

There's no rubber pad in my pic. I wish there was one. The sensor being dead on the pad is a bad idea. If it weren't for me having those meaty neoprene pads on the top of it, I'm sure I'd have destroyed the sensor by now.

I feel the EL is superior due to the fact that I can take EL parts to make the QM better, but not vice-versa; and if you sit down and look at all the glaring failures in the QM, most are addressed in the EL. I also found the EL to play better as a whole, on expert, though I think the reverse would be true on a lower difficulty, due to the fact that the EL responds less to limited input. I think the EL's biggest issue is that, while it plays well for the style a lot of the expert drummers use, the pad heads won't take that stress for a while. The QM on the other hand just poops out if you play it that hard, so you're forced to adopt some kid-glove method of playing it, which doesn't really work all that well.

If you go read Sskitzzo's post, he comments on his distasted for the QM, and the short longevity of the EL, and I'd have to say I agree with him, and for the reasons detailed in the breakdown above.

As an example, by adding the damping donut from an EL into the QM sensor cage, it improves its ability to handle a roll without impeeding sensativity on slower parts (as opposed to some of the other mods which improve one by deteriorating another)

I'm surprised to hear someone else stick up for the QM though. I've stuck up for it a few times, but the more I play with it, the more I think the EL is better in the long run (even though I can mod a QM to be pretty decent).


ELs and QMs exist in boxes from as old as Nov 27th. There's no way they redesigned, retooled, and manufactured enough to get there. One of them must have been made a while back, and they decided to push it out.

I expect something is more ilkely that they made the QMs, found out that they sucked, retooled for the ELs, but had such a supply crunch that they started pushing out QMs in the RMAs and the post-release boxes.

I'm sure when you RMA a drum set, they just attempt to remanufacture it for the next guy. I can't see them tossing whole drum controllers. So, I expect RMAing a set doesn't get you a "new model". It just gets you whatever's in the last set of remanufacturered drums. It's like russian roulette.