Drums And Cymbals

Roto Toms

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Help! What instruments can be used to substitute timpanis?!?

I have heard of Roto toms, but more details would be nice.

Roto-toms might work if you can find big enough ones that will play low enough. Most Roto-toms I've seen are higher pitch than Timpani. Basically, you spin a roto-tom to tighten (raise) or loosen (lower the pitch) - they can be tuned on the fly like Timpani. I've just never seen nor heard one that can go low enough.

Here's the Roto-Tom fan site
http://www.rototomdrums.com/ There are always Roto-Toms for sale on eBay- what you'll need to find out is how low the ones you're looking at can go.

I think you'd be much better off with some kind of inexpensive digital drums - for less than two used Roto-toms you can get something that will sample an actual Tympani and thus sound exactly like what you want. To use sampled digital percussion you need 3 things

- A digital "sample" of the sound you want to play
- A way to "trigger" the sound - could be a Drum Pad that you hit with a stick or with your hand... or could be something else (a keyboard key... even your laptop)
- An amplifier to make it loud enough to hear.

A good digital rig will sound exactly like real timpani because it's a recording of a timp.

You don't say what you're doing wtih this - but if it's for an occasional addition to a rock band or something (Panic At the Disco sort of thing) - digital will be plenty good enough and a lot less hassle than carting actual timpani around.

There are too many models and controllers to list here - but here's an Alesis model that gives you 4 pads and is only $99.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PercPad/

It supports MIDI so it could trigger any other sound source - if you don't like the built-in sounds you can load up other ones or use it to "play" sampled sounds you have on a computer or some other source. Of course you'd need an amplifier but you could probably beg or borrow... almost anything would work there, you could run it through somebody's stereo or even an old Boom Box if you needed to.

I'm NOT saying this is the one to buy - I was just looking for something cheap for you - under $100. There is a ton of this kind of stuff out there, this is just a starting point.

PS - with MIDI and digital samples, you don't even need a controller/pad that you strike - you could use a really inexpensive Keyboard controller - or even a key on a laptop computer to trigger the sound. If somebody has an iPhone or an iPad -you could use that for both the sound source and the trigger/pad. A regular Keyboard controller would automatically play the sampled sounds IN TUNE -that's a big plus - Timps are all about the tuning. Here's a cheap keyboard MIDI controller - you'd need a sound source/software - this is just a way to trigger it. This one uses an iPod / iPhone as the sound source (you have to download the right software app from the AppStore. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SynthST25/

I'm just thinking that instead of something that sort of sounds like a Timp - you could have exactly what you
Good luck

More selections for Roto Toms from eBay!

« Previous12Next »

Help! What instruments can be used to substitute timpanis?!?

I have heard of Roto toms, but more details would be nice.

Roto-toms might work if you can find big enough ones that will play low enough. Most Roto-toms I've seen are higher pitch than Timpani. Basically, you spin a roto-tom to tighten (raise) or loosen (lower the pitch) - they can be tuned on the fly like Timpani. I've just never seen nor heard one that can go low enough.

Here's the Roto-Tom fan site
http://www.rototomdrums.com/ There are always Roto-Toms for sale on eBay- what you'll need to find out is how low the ones you're looking at can go.

I think you'd be much better off with some kind of inexpensive digital drums - for less than two used Roto-toms you can get something that will sample an actual Tympani and thus sound exactly like what you want. To use sampled digital percussion you need 3 things

- A digital "sample" of the sound you want to play
- A way to "trigger" the sound - could be a drum pad that you hit with a stick or with your hand... or could be something else (a keyboard key... even your laptop)
- An amplifier to make it loud enough to hear.

A good digital rig will sound exactly like real timpani because it's a recording of a timp.

You don't say what you're doing wtih this - but if it's for an occasional addition to a rock band or something (Panic At the Disco sort of thing) - digital will be plenty good enough and a lot less hassle than carting actual timpani around.

There are too many models and controllers to list here - but here's an Alesis model that gives you 4 pads and is only $99.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PercPad/

It supports MIDI so it could trigger any other sound source - if you don't like the built-in sounds you can load up other ones or use it to "play" sampled sounds you have on a computer or some other source. Of course you'd need an amplifier but you could probably beg or borrow... almost anything would work there, you could run it through somebody's stereo or even an old Boom Box if you needed to.

I'm NOT saying this is the one to buy - I was just looking for something cheap for you - under $100. There is a ton of this kind of stuff out there, this is just a starting point.

PS - with MIDI and digital samples, you don't even need a controller/pad that you strike - you could use a really inexpensive Keyboard controller - or even a key on a laptop computer to trigger the sound. If somebody has an iPhone or an iPad -you could use that for both the sound source and the trigger/pad. A regular Keyboard controller would automatically play the sampled sounds IN TUNE -that's a big plus - Timps are all about the tuning. Here's a cheap keyboard MIDI controller - you'd need a sound source/software - this is just a way to trigger it. This one uses an iPod / iPhone as the sound source (you have to download the right software app from the AppStore. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SynthST25/

I'm just thinking that instead of something that sort of sounds like a Timp - you could have exactly what you
Good luck

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