Superior Drummer triggering with Roland e-drums

Quote from MOCMunkeh

is the general consensus that triggering a plugin like SD3 or SSD from e-drums the best way to go?
I personally hate the Roland drum sounds and would rather spend more money to get the best possible sound!

It will provide the best possible sound quality IF that library does provide the sound that you are looking for. However you need a quality Notebook + Interface and have more possibilities of failure in a live situation.

The alternative would be to get rid of the TD-25 module and replace it with a used 2BOX module. You should have some coin left this way for your monitoring solution. I have all the sounds from all Superior and EZDrummer Expansions, BDF, Slate and other samplers converted and ready to use, probably like 250 high quality snare drums, most of them with over 40 velocity layers, while most Roland modules only have 3 or 4 velocity layers.

Till's answer is excellent.

Quote from tylerhb

... and have more possibilities of failure in a live situation

I agree with this ... and I probably should have mentioned that before.
On the positive side though, your drummer doesn't have to worry much about "backup" solution because the TD25 in itself already is a good enough backup in case laptop/interface fail for some reason. And I think the sounds from the TD25 are "good enough" for a live gig. The only major downside of the TD25 is its outputs ... only a Stereo Main Out, no individual groups of instruments that you can send to FOH. As a backup certainly better than nothing but not a FOH engineer's wet dream either.

Money matters to most of us so it's not a crime to start "small" and then slowly extend on what you have over time. Like for example go for a single DXR15 first These speakers are damn loud and while I do understand that a second one will provide even better feel of sitting behind a real drumkit, a single one might just do fine for a start. Look out for deals! You mentioned Thomann so if you're located in Germany, look for Soundland, they still have a DXR15 for 649 Euros instead of the 785 Euros Thomann asks for right now.
Going with a single one first at the above mentioned price will save you roughly 920 Euros and this is enough to buy the interface and Superior Drummer 3. Maybe you'll find a little extra budget for the laptop soon and you're all set .... and add a second DXR15 a bit later.

Quote from MOCMunkeh

would the Focusrite 18i20 be the right one for me?

Yes, it has enough outputs for the "groups" plus the personal monitoring.

Quote from MOCMunkeh

is there a similar rack mountable interface that ticks all the boxes that would be cheaper?

Of course there is. Can't tell you though what these interfaces' software mixers and routing capabilities allow. But there are interfaces from Behringer or Tascam in the 250 - 300 Euros range.
For example the Behringer UMC1820 might be fine for your purposes and currently costs 298 Euros at Thomann

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
I can't tell you at all if any of these "cheaper" interfaces have software mixer control, sophisticated routing and mix busses etc. Also I can't tell you anything about their capabilities regarding low latency (small buffer settings). I just never had any of these interfaces. So PLEASE check thoroughly before buying!

Quote from MOCMunkeh

from what i have read from you guys to send to FOH in groups/individual im going to need a fair few outs on the interface and also i will need outs for monitoring (possibly)...

I assume you've already scratched your head trying to figure out the "ideal" number of outs you'll need for your situation, MM. Hopefully I can help a little:

If you have 10 outputs

1 for kick
1 for snare
1 for hat
1 for miscellaneous percussion such as cowbell or whatever

2 for all cymbals / overheads
2 for all toms
2 for monitoring

If you have 8 outputs

1 for kick
1 for snare
1 for hat
1 for monitoring

2 for all cymbals / overheads
2 for all toms

For stereo PA systems, pan the stereo groups 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock or whatever prevents certain elements, like a crash or floor tom, from appearing exclusively on one side (through a single PA stack). This can be judged by ear out FOH.

As opposed to Monkey_Man, I highly recommend not to go stereo for any of the "groups of instruments" in a live situation. Make sure your SD3 kit has all instruments panned center, go 1 output for each group, even for toms and overheads.
This would be 5 outputs so far.
Add 1 or 2 for your monitor(s) and you're fine.

Also make your backup kit on the TD25 mono and be prepared to send one of its 2 outputs to FOH and the other one to your monitor(s). It's always a good idea to be prepared.

Obviously if the PA's running in mono, I agree, and your suggestions are spot-on IMHO, Martin.

That said, I probably should have pointed out that I wouldn't pan those groups fully across the stereo field. IOW, the toms, for instance, could be panned (in SD3) 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock. In fact, thanks to you I'll edit that post now.

For the OP's benefit:
We don't want the floor tom, for example, appearing over to one side of the audience only; it'd be too-much for them, and besides, they wouldn't hear the highest tom in that situation. It might also overload a PA stack with this "unexpected" burden's being routed exclusively to one side. A little bit of stereo spread, either programmed in SD3 or defined by the FOH mixer's bringing the hard-left-and-right-panned channels of a given group in towards the centre (to 10 and 2, for example), will help bring a bit of life and believability to the drums as the cymbals and toms are struck to the left and right sides of the kit... in theory. You could always compare this setup with mono (just bring those pan knobs on the desk to the centre) and make a judgement for yourself.

That's just my preference if stereo is available; no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater IMHO, and the same goes for guitar / keys and so on. I smidgen of off-centre panning, paying homage to the side of stage any particular musician is standing, shouldn't hurt too-much... IMHO.

Thank you Martin for bringing this up, mate.

ok, to extend a little on the stereo vs. mono topic ...
If there's no limit in outputs available, of course you can go for "some" stereo. As Monkey_Man already stated you better not go full width. But keep in mind that this opens yet another can of worms due to the fact that the audience has another perspective on the drums than the drummer. So what's left for the drummer should be right for the audience and vice versa.
I would highly recommend to stay away from this adventure at least for a while. The entire "eDrums live" adventure is challenge enough even without stereo. Go simple and solid. The "little bit of stereo" doesn't add considerable benefit to the audience experience and just complicates things.

There've always been two schools of thought on drum panning since stereo arrived - the drummer's-perspective and audience-perspective ones; engineers tend to stick with the one they prefer.

I'm a drummer's-perspective man myself, but as Martin points out, when programming the kits you'll have to put the hat of the other school on when panning the toms and cymbals; it's a simple matter of inversion, really.

That said, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves, as Martin suggested, 'cause right now the OP just needs to try to get things up-and-running.

Plenty of food for thought for you here, Munkeh, and probably a lot more than you bargained for, but the thread's not going anywhere, so your Kemper Krew™ will be ready-and-willing any time you require more info. Good luck, man!

My 39 years experience of playing bass and guitar along with electronic drummers has always been the same.The drums aren't loud enough!. Its hard to get your groove on
sometimes when you cant hear the sharpness of the hi hats,the boom of the bass drum.Very loud monitoring is essential. Acoustic drums have extreme transients Having said all that I would love to play with someone who has SD3 pumping out,it sounds so good.

I think the key to overcoming the shortcomings you speak of, niloc, besides super-loud foldback, is...

In-ear monitoring. It's not for everyone 'though.