It’s been since April 2009 since I 1st tore open the dozens of boxes containing pieces of my long awaited Simmons SD9K Electronic Drums [1] (see previous post Mother Effin’ Drums!), so I decided it’s probably about time I did a review. Also, seeing a lot of searches for information on this particular drum kit are directed to this site from mentions in my previous posts, I figured I should at least provide a service and give back some solid feedback. In a blatant attempt to attract more seekers of SD9K [2] information to this site, I’ll be mentioning the Simmons SD9K Electronic Drums [3] as many times as will be tastefully acceptable to the reader (I’ll even keep count for you).

Disclaimer: Even though I can get away with playing some decent drums to keep a beat, I in no way consider myself a drummer. Spreading my self thin through all of my little projects doesn’t really lend me the time to focus on the mastery of one particular instrument, so I lack the creativity and discipline to roll with those who are, by nature and hard work, drummers. I can probably impress a room full of non musicians with my current skill level, but any experienced drummer would probably cringe at the sound of my sloppiness and tempo monstrosities.

One thing I do have to say is that I was able to take to the basics of drums immediately and to that I credit my many years of having to think like a drummer while programming drums for all of my music. With this background I was able to skip the beginner phase and work on tightening coordination developing the skill.

Reasons for buying: My primary means of creating drum tracks for my songs is through drum programming, however, when I wanted to physically work out some beats I would use a Yamaha DD55 digital kit. Although this compact 7 piece kit (with foot pedals) is good for practice it is by no means a practical drum kit suitable for real play. For my studio I needed something more powerful that could be used for recording and rehearsal and of course drummer friendly.

An acoustic kit would be not be practical for my use, because I mostly work on music at night and there is no volume control without having to spend thousands of dollars on complete sound proofing for the studio. The ideal setup for me would be an electronic kit, which would not only offer control over volume, but also give me the diversity of sounds that I would need for customization. With an acoustic kit you get one sound, albeit a great natural sound, but in order to customize it you would have to shell out lots of cash acquiring the pieces that create the sound you want. An electronic kit gives you the option of changing sound with the turn of a dial and make more accurate adjustments in the general mix.

Having an electronic kit also allows for direct plug in through MIDI, which ideally is what I was looking for. There are digital attachments for acoustic drums now and they even make electronic cymbals, but again price is the issue here. What fit my needs perfectly and fell into the right price range of $999 (down from $1600) was theSimmons SD9K Electronic Drums [4].

Purchasing: Dropping a grand plus on instruments isn’t something I do all the time (oh, but I wish I could), so I opted for the poor man’s route of the lay-a-way plan. The kit was on sale at Guitar Center, which means no matter how long it took me to pay it off, it would still be at sale price. As with most, the Simmons SD9K Electronic Drum kit [5] does not come with a kick pedal(s), a throne, or a monitor for sound, so all of that had to be purchased separately. I added on the DW 7002PT Double Bass Drum Pedal, the Simmons DA50 amplifier, and there was a throne on sale for $40 that I threw in to complete the kit. The SDk9 [6] and all the fixings came up to roughly $1600.

Packaging: There were a total of 5 boxes (2 just for the Simmons SD9K Electronic Drums [7]) I had to “Tetris” into my truck, so in order to fit my kids in too. I had to take a couple of pieces out and have the wife hold one on her lap. Getting home and unpacking for setup was quite involve with each separate piece of kit (4 cymbals, 3 toms, 1 floor tom, 1 snare, 1 kick) and all it’s hardware were individually wrapped in their own boxes inside the main one.

Getting It Together: Assembly was a breeze. Everything was well marked out and pretty much idiot proof. Although I don’t normally read the direction for anything, I stayed true to the steps, because I didn’t want to screw this one up. All of the cables were color coded and most of the pieces were grouped together by size. The drum rack was unfolded and ready to receive its trimmings in less than 5 seconds. I fit all the kit pieces exactly as pictured and wrapped and secured the cables to prevent dangling (an irresistible chew toy for cats), set up the kick pedals, throne, and amplifier all in about 15-20 minutes of time.

Customization: Setting up the Simmons SD9K Electronic Drums [8] as pictured is ok for showing off the kit’s looks, but didn’t seem very practical for playing. Adjustments were easy and arranging the actually kit pieces into a more comfortable playing position was not really a problem at all. Although the 2 crash cymbals are fixed into the supporting poles of the drum rack, their individual stands allowed for some free adjustments to get them in the right spots in the right angles. I like my toms high and getting them to a comfortable position for me was no problem at all.

The only issue I had was that I wanted to swap the control module to the right side of the kit so that not only would making adjustments right handed be easier, but the USB connection would be much closer to the Mac. What was preventing this switch was that each of the color coded cables connecting each piece are at a specialized length to cut down on cord droops. If I wanted it bad enough I would have to go out and buy a whole new set of cables and rewire the kit the other way. I’ll get around to it someday.

Adjustment can be made to customize almost the entire kit, but over time just normal play will loosen up some of the clamps. You have to kind of expect that from the plastic parts and its not a big deal. The best way to fix this is to tighten them up again and get over it.

The control module has expansion ports to support either 2 more additional pieces or 1 dual triggered pad. I can see adding an additional ride cymbal on or something, so it’s nice to have that flexibility. I did add a crash trigger using a slightly damaged snare pad (more on this later).

Play: The Simmons SD9K Electronic Drums [9] pieces have a rubber surface for a good bounce back feel as if you were hitting tight drum skins. Some, like the snare, ride, and crash cymbals have multiple triggers which allow for rim shots and bell hits. The cymbals are also chokable like the real ones, so you can stop it from sounding out. The hi hat even has 3 different sounds depending on the use of the foot pedal. It all plays pretty realistically and wouldn’t take a real drummer too much time to adjust to it.

Over the months I’ve been able to use the SD9k [10] in a several different scenarios and even had an experience drummer sit down and give then a run. Alex, the drummer for Agrippa93 and an avid user of acoustic drums, has used the kit a few times during rehearsals and adapted pretty well to it.

Practice: This is where the advantages of an electronic kit really begin to shine. The control module to essential ports for me: 1) An 1/8 audio input to connect my iPod so I can practice along to some tunes and 2) The headphone jack so I can crank it as load as I want in the comfort of my own head without disturbing neighbors or the rest of the family sleeping upstairs. The only thing that would be the icing on the cake is if there was some kind of drum canceling option on the incoming iPod audio, so I can be more creative by making my own beats.

I’ve read a common complaint about practicing in stealth mode is that the kick pedal still makes quite a thump on the trigger, however some have solved this by just covering the pad with a towel, which doesn’t get in the way of triggering the sound. I haven’t tried this and don’t really think I’ll need to. My studio is far enough away from anyone else in the house that no one else is really disturbed by it.

Application: There are 2 ways I’ve recorded the SD9k [11] using my preferred DAW, Logic Pro. The 1st is direct out from the DA50 amplifier in stereo using 2 instrument cables into 2 separate audio in channels. You have your choice of 40 different kits or you can custom pick each to suite your own tastes. This technique gives a more realistic acoustic sound, however the trade off is that there is less control over the sound after it’s been recorded. All piece levels and effects have to be adjusted carefully and finally in the control module 1st, before recording. The result is a solid recording, however separating each kit pieces into separate channels for detailed treatment is not an option. This is probably adequate for a quick demo, but not for a quality CD level mix.

The 2nd and preferred way for me is through MIDI. This technique opens up endless sound possibilities limited only by your sound sample and drum kit library in your DAW. With Logic I can access kits from, ESX24 sampler , UltraBeat, iDrum, or even introduce some of my own sampled kits into one of these. Once recorded, editing opens up greatly in contrast to the stereo audio mentioned above, starting with easily adding or subtracting hits in the piano roll. Each kit piece can be separated into it’s own channel where it can be treated with it’s own adjustments to EQ, compression, volume, and velocity. It does take time to individually assign each trigger (in some cases 2 per trigger pad) from the SD9k [12] to a MIDI note, but in the end it’s way worth the trouble.

Customer Service: Wear and tear is inevitable, especially the way I pound the crap out of my kit. On my snare I wore out the rim trigger, so I emailed Simmons support and all they wanted was the part number and they shipped me out a brand new snare with no questions asked. They didn’t even want the old piece back. In fact I incorporated the broken one back into my kit using just the single trigger as an additional 1 dimensional crash cymbal. I’ve since beat the shit out of my right crash cymbal to a point where the sound cuts off as if it were choked. There’s also a rattle of sorts inside that can’t be all that good either. Again, the part was replaced within a week with no problems or questions at all.

Conclusion: The Simmons SD9K Electronic Drum kit [13] is a sturdy and reliable set that has fulfilled my needs as a music writer and producer. For it’s price range, it’s probably the best on the market, however it’s no top of the food chain, $70oo Roland TD-20SX V-Pro Electronic Drum Set, but it is a workhorse and does what its supposed to. I’ve never used the kit for live performances, but I can’t see any reason it couldn’t be practical for that. I’m sure you could just plug it directly to the PA through 2 channels for stereo sound. If you’re at Guitar Center take some time and sit down at the kit and give it a try.