Hybrid drumming is on the rise, with everyone from bedroom drummers to session pros taking advantage. It’s easy to see why, as it combines electronic and acoustic percussion together into one do-it-all set-up.

Aside from the vast sound possibilities on offer, a Hybrid drum kit is a great way to give budget gear a sonic boost, and to deliver a consistent, custom sound in the studio or on-stage.

You’re probably here because you’ve been hearing about this Hybrid thing and feel it might benefit you as a drummer, right? Well, you’ve come to the right place, as we have all the insight you’ll need.

There’s a lot to think about when you first take the plunge with Hybrid. First, you need to decide what you want to achieve with your expanded setup, and that’s before having to invest in the right gear, understand how it works and then play it effectively. We understand this can be a minefield, but with a little help you’ll soon be ready to start exploring with confidence.

We’re regularly asked the same questions by puzzled drummers. If like them you’re searching for answers but don’t know where to start, let us fill in the blanks with everything you ever wanted to know about Hybrid drumming…

What is Hybrid drumming and where did it come from?

In a nutshell, Hybrid drumming is about incorporating electronic percussion technology into an acoustic drum kit, to enhance, layer and expand your sonic palette. Hybrid gives drummers the best of both worlds: the stage-ready looks and raw power of acoustic drums blended seamlessly with the versatility and convenience of electronic percussion.

An acoustic drum set becomes Hybrid as soon as a single electronic element is added. This could be as simple as incorporating a trigger pad hooked up to a trigger module like the Roland TM-1, and configured to play a sound (could be a sample, a loop or a track) when the pad is struck.

Alternatively, you could try mounting drum triggers directly to your acoustic drums and layering a clap sound over your snare to create a dancey vibe, or enhancing your kick drum with a punchy sample. These basic Hybrid examples can be achieved with little technical knowledge or financial commitment, and the results are instantly gratifying; how you harness the technology beyond this is up to you.

Hybrid drumming isn’t a new concept. From the ’70s onwards pioneering players like Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa), through to Tommy Lee (Mötley Crüe) and Danny Carey (Tool) famously experimented with cutting-edge trigger technology to create new and exciting sounds behind the kit, while DJs and live pop acts further blurred the lines between the roles of acoustic and electronic drums.

With trailblazers like Michael Schack and Craig Blundell continuing to push the boundaries, and as the technology becomes increasingly powerful, accessible and portable, Hybrid is empowering drummers and giving their playing a modern edge.

What do I need to get started with Hybrid?

Before you fill your shopping basket with loads of shiny gear, it’s important to first figure out what you want to achieve with your music and the role that Hybrid could play in helping you achieve this. For example, will you be enhancing, layering or expanding your sound, or a combination of all three?

Secondly, it’s worth considering how your requirements might evolve as you delve deeper into Hybrid. It’s therefore wise to make informed, future-proof purchases, like buying a module with more trigger inputs than you might initially need. When sketching out your Hybrid rig you first need to decide on the best sound source for you, whether that’s a trigger module or sampling pad. Ask yourself a few questions: how many trigger inputs will I need (or, how many pads or triggers do I want to connect)? Will I be using my own samples? Could the built-in trigger pads of the SPD-SX be beneficial? These valid questions will help you select a sound source that caters to your specific requirements.

Next, it’s time to select the best way to play your sounds. Knowing whether you want to enhance, layer or expand your sound (or combinations of these) will make it easier to choose the right trigger type for the job. Perhaps it makes most sense to play your one-shot samples using a trigger pedal on the floor, or keep things close-quarters with a Bar Trigger attached to the rim of your snare drum? Maybe you need a trigger fixed directly to your kick drum for layering or enhancing the acoustic sound? The good news is that there’s a solution for every scenario.

What is a drum trigger?

The word ‘trigger’ used to refer to an acoustic drum trigger, but as technology and hardware have evolved, ‘trigger’ now means any method of playing an electronic sound. Acoustic drum triggers are essential tools for enhancing and layering your acoustic drum sound. This type of trigger attaches directly to the rim of an acoustic drum and houses a sensor that makes contact with the drum head. When the drum head is struck, the trigger converts the vibration to an electronic signal which it sends to the connected sound source in order to play the selected sound.

Some advanced acoustic triggers, such as the Roland RT-30HR, support independent head and rim triggering, enabling you to play two separate electronic sounds with the same drum. ‘Trigger’ also refers to any electronic trigger pedal or pad, best for expanding the available sound options within your Hybrid drum kit. You will find a huge range of options for every positioning and playing scenario, including the KT-10 bass drum pedal and KD-7 bass drum pad, the BT-1 Bar Trigger, a wide range of mesh and rubber drum pads, and the SPD::ONE percussion pad series.

What’s the difference between a drum module and a trigger module?

If you already own a V-Drums electronic drum kit you will be familiar with the drum module and its capabilities. These so-called ‘brains’ come ready-loaded with a multitude of velocity sensitive V-Drums sounds featuring multiple sample layers, plus clever acoustic drum behavior modeling to give drummers a more realistic playing experience. This would be perfect if you want to play acoustic drum and percussion sounds, with a full dynamic range (like a cymbal swell or a dynamic snare roll) and you want to edit the tuning, damping, sustain and processing of the drum sound, just as you would with an acoustic instrument.

The main job of a trigger module is to play back one-shot samples which are velocity sensitive, but not multi-layered. The sample could be a drum sound, but could also be a vocal sample, a guitar riff or a melodic loop. The TM-6 PRO trigger module is the exception to this rule, offering hundreds of dynamic, expressive, velocity-sensitive sounds, in addition to sample playback and layering functionality, giving the best of both worlds between a V-Drums module and a Trigger Module. It’s a powerful tool for Hybrid drummers needing an artillery of expressive sounds at their fingertips.

Where can I get samples from?

The one thing Hybrid drummers will never be short on is high-quality and royalty free samples, loops and one-shots… you just need to know where to look.

For starters, whichever Roland drum or trigger module you choose for your Hybrid setup, it will come ready-loaded with a number of pro samples ready to play straight from the box. There are plenty of online libraries (such as MusicRadar and SampleFocus) to be mined for their huge selections of sounds. Dig deep enough and you’ll uncover audio gold, from bombastic classic rock snare samples and dancefloor-filling ’80s kick drums, to quirky glitches and effects.

Got a gig on the horizon? Did you know you can perform with the original drum sounds from your band’s latest album using your Hybrid setup? Simply export the individual WAVE hits from the recording session, import them into your module and assign them to your triggers ready to be layered over your acoustic drums or played via a separate pad.

Are Roland modules and pads designed to work with other brands?

Roland modules are purpose-built to work with Roland triggers, ensuring they’re ready to plug and play straight from the box. As such, our recommendation is to always use Roland pads and triggers with a Roland module for guaranteed compatibility and reliability. That said, all Roland trigger pads connect via stereo trigger cables (with the exception of the USB-connected digital pads of the TD-50 series), so pads by a different brand that use the same connection method should work to trigger sounds. If you’re crossing the streams, do approach with caution as non-Roland pads aren’t set up to work out of the box with Roland modules; they may require advanced tweaking of sensitivity, threshold, scan time, x-talk and other parameters before they work seamlessly.

How can I monitor/hear a Hybrid setup?

Being able to hear both the acoustic drums and electronic sounds of your Hybrid setup is essential, so it’s important to pay attention to monitoring, whether you’re at home, in the studio or playing a gig. Monitoring at home is as simple as popping on a pair of headphones. We’d recommend on-ear types to avoid excessive bleed from your acoustic drums, but quality in-ear headphones can be just as effective. Your acoustic drums will still be heard under the headphones, leaving you to adjust the volume of your electronic sounds and dial in the perfect mix.

Alternatively, you could try a dedicated monitor speaker such as the high-resolution PM-200 to amplify and mix your Hybrid sounds without headphones.

If you’re recording your Hybrid setup in the studio and your acoustic kit is mic’ed, the best monitoring approach is to send both your acoustic and electronic sound through to the audio interface and listen back to a combined mix through your headphones.

You have a couple of options on stage, too: your Hybrid sound will be sent to the mixing desk, which can be played back either through stage monitors or through in-ear monitors if the sound engineer has created a dedicated monitor feed for you. Not only will you hear a great mix of your Hybrid sounds that will also make you perform better, but your audience will get a kick out of your enhanced drum sound.

How can I mount Roland pads and triggers to my acoustic drum kit?

From positioning a single pad just where you want it, to creating a custom, labyrinthine array of acoustic drums, pads and triggers, you’ll find there’s a neat mounting solution for every Hybrid scenario imaginable. Roland pads are generally compatible with all L-rod-type mounts from major drum manufacturers, ranging from 8-12.5mm (⅜-½ inch), so you should have no trouble finding the right mounts for the job. In fact, you probably already have something appropriate kicking around in your hardware case.

Some Roland V-pads – including the PDX-100 and PD-108-BC – are compatible with Pearl-type mount systems, making positioning even easier, while the discrete and versatile BT-1 can be mounted directly to the edge of any drum rim, or elsewhere on your kit via a handy rod mount. If you’d prefer to avoid clutter, Roland also offer a number of discrete floor-mountable options such as the TM-1, SPD::ONE and KT-10 kick drum pedal.

Can I replace the heads of my acoustic drums with mesh heads?

Our mesh heads fit in just the same way as standard Mylar acoustic drum heads, sitting over the edge of the drum shell, beneath a rim that is held in place by a series of tension rods. It is possible to do a straight swap from acoustic to mesh heads such as the Roland PowerPly MH2, but once installed you will not get any acoustic sound from the drum.

Going down this route can be great for quiet practice. However, it’s only when you add a trigger connected to a trigger module that you can use the drum to play electronic sounds. If you’re looking to augment your acoustic drums further, the Roland KD-220 or KD-180 kick drum triggers retain the look and feel of real acoustic bass drums, but again will produce a purely electronic sound when combined with a trigger module.

Do I have to play differently to use a Hybrid setup?

Not particularly. Your main adjustment will be to the placement of any new electronic gear, but this is no different to adding a new cymbal or an auxiliary snare drum to your setup. Mesh-headed trigger pads like the PDX-8 are designed to replicate the feel of traditional Mylar acoustic drum heads, so you can go ahead and use all the same techniques. Rubber pads are slightly less-forgiving, so you may need a little time to acclimatize to moving between mesh, rubber and Mylar.

Whether you’re a hard or soft hitter, there’s no need to alter the velocity at which you play the pads. If you find that triggers or pads make a sound when you strike other drums close by, this is called cross-talk and is a common problem that’s similar to a snare wire resonating when you hit a tom. Tweaking your module’s trigger threshold settings should resolve this and ensure sounds trigger every time you need them, and never when you don’t.

I hear multiple sounds triggering even though I’m only playing the drum once.

This is a problem known as re-triggering. This issue is easily resolved by increasing your trigger module’s re-trigger cancel value until the re-triggering no longer occurs.

Hybrid Across Music Genres

Hybrid drums have become part of the mainstream of modern drumming. The benefits of hybrid drums extend across all music genres—you’ll be surprised how much your standard rock or metal kit can be improved by introducing some easy-to-use hybrid components.