Roland TD-6KS - Expansion Capabilities?

jameshopkins · Newbie Alert Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Posts: 3

Hi there,

I'm seriosuly considering purchasing a TD-6KS from Germany and would just like to confirm with people how many additional input triggers it has? I would like to add an extra tom and 2 extra cymbals - is this possible on the TD-6?

Kind Regards

James

kuniggety · Guest

This is something that I just recently looked into for myself, although I have a Yamaha DTXpress III. Sometimes it doesn't even matter if it has any open ports or not Smile

I'll explain why. Most of the inputs are stereo inputs on the modules. However, most people are playing with single trigger toms... which doesn't require stereo. You can actually take a stereo y splitter adapter and hook up two pads to the same input and program the the left and right channels for the input for the two different pads. Obviously this wouldn't be good for the snare because you'd lose the ability to do rimshots but most people don't exactly do rim shots (or even have multiple trigger) tom pads. The same thing for your cymbal inputs. I bet the ride cymbal input is stereo input even though you only need a mono signal for it. The crashes normally have multiple triggers built into them and so you don't want to divide up a crash's input.

Guest · Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:15 am Post subject:

Sounds like a great idea, thanks. The toms that will come with it are dual trigger, and have the capability of rimshots too, but I can always upgrade the module when I want rimshots.

I found an image of the back of the td-6 module - would you be kind enough to take a look at it and see if what you suggest can work - I'm just depsperate to get the kit but I want to check this first.

http://i6.ebayimg.com/03/i/07/b9/86/99_12.JPG

Kind Regards

James

Guest · Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:16 am Post subject:

Does this mean with your idea of single inputs for the toms, that they still have dynamics to them, or is this lost?

kuniggety · Tiger Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 870 Location: Okinawa

I took a peak at the TD-6 Owner's manual. It actually straight up says in there to do what I just suggested. Two of the tom inputs, 2 and 3, and dually named as tom 2/aux and tom 3/4. You use the stereo y splitter like I suggested for expansion.

No, you do not lose the dynamics. The left and right channels are normally used for the two triggers, main trigger and rim shot trigger (which you would use in the snare). If you only use the main trigger, you still have all of the dynamics you would normally have by striking the pad.

Guest · Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:23 am Post subject:

Thanks very much for your help

I'll take a closer look at the manual later on this afternoon - out of interest, how many add-ons do you think I can have if i was to use your method?

Cheers

James

kuniggety · Tiger Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 870 Location: Okinawa

I'm not sure if the kit comes with one or two crashes, but there's inputs for 2 crashes... so cymbal wise, you could have total: hi-hat, ride, and 2 crashes. You have your snare and kick. Then you have the 3 toms. For some reason the manually only says something about using 2 of the tom inputs with the y splitter... maybe the module only lets you seperately program the two channels for only those two inputs. So anyways, you could either add 2 more toms on top of it or another tom and a splashor anything along those lines.. You can wind up with a decently sized kit.

doomanizer · Lion King Joined: 10 Jul 2005 Posts: 1157

I have the module and EVERY (except maybe the bass drum) input is stereo. You can split and attach two pads to any given input. Set those to different sounds and you're set.
_________________
Getting shot in the face sucks almost as much as My Chemical Romance. Almost.

kuniggety · Tiger Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 870 Location: Okinawa

I would've figured they would've all been stereo but I didn't see it say that anywhere in the manual and so didn't say that. I thought that weird because my Yamaha module, every input is stereo.

Justin3172 · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 1:34 pm Post subject:

You guys are all forgetting that you can get the Roland TMC-6 and add 5 more imputs to your modules without having to split any of the imputs. They go for about $200. They also work as a midi interface, so you can hook it up to your computer, or link you module to another instrument that utilizes midi.
_________________
Böhse Onkelz!!!

smokingun · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 2:18 am Post subject:

If you split the channel to add another crash, wouldn't it still sound the same? How do you go about adding a different crash sound to it then? Cheers!

Guest · Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 10:27 am Post subject:

if you split them how do you avoid it coming out heavily panned l and r in the output of the module?

i tried doing this but then the sounds pan hard left and right.

i mean i like the sounds of beatles recordings where the drums are panned all strange

but im working on a project like this:

woozyfly.
com
/girlinacoma

so its unacceptable.