The default gears in an electronic drum kit are enough for a start but not so enough as your skills grow. Over time, you may want to add a few or many cymbals to your electronic drums.
The added cymbals may help you to produce more variety with your music. Or, the added cymbals could be used for an easy reach and ergonomic setup.
Regardless of the reason, this is not an easy feast. This inspired me to write this complete guide on how to add cymbals to electronic drums.
5 Easy Ways to Add Cymbals to Electronic Drums
The methods suggested below will allow you to add from a couple of more cymbals to a dozen ones. Depending on your need, you can use any trick given below. Just go through this entire article on how to add cymbals to electronic drums and pick a method that suits you the most. Here you are:
Use MIDI Input
MIDI input is the savior here. Unless you use a computer and editing software for your beats, these inputs remain free. You can use the available MIDI inputs to attach additional cymbals via a cable.
Bear in mind that if you use MIDI inputs for additional cymbals, you will not be able to attach your kit to a PC or laptop. This can be done with additional split cables though.
Leverage the Existing Drum Module
Modern drum modules come with several input slots. These input slots are quite versatile. you can add more cymbals to your electronic drums using the slots.
Bear in mind that the additional input slots are fixed. If you utilized them to add more cymbals to your electronic drum kit, you can not add more drum pads to the kit. If that is the case, use the next method on this list.
Use an Additional Drum Module
The extra slots of a drum module allows you to add slave modules as well. This slave module comes with several input slots of its own. Thus, you can add even dozens of cymbals to your electronic drum kit using the hierarchy.
This way, you do not have to choose between cymbals and drum pads. You can use one module for adding more cymbals and another one for adding more drum pads to your kit.
Use a Y Connector
Y connectors sort of help you to add more cymbals to your electronic drums. The Y connector creates two instances of one input. This way, you can attach two cymbals into one input.
Bear in mind that, with Y connectors, the drum module will process sound from only one cymbal at a time. Thus, the additional cymbal is for you to reach out easily instead of for variety in your beats.
Fake it Until You Make it With EZdrummer2
Almost every drummer admires the helping hand software like EZdrummer2 offers. The software helps you to merge, tweak, and fine-tune multiple sounds and create a final beat.
You can insert more cymbal sounds into your music without having more cymbals in your electronic drum kit. You can use the software library or create your own notes using the software settings.
Bear in mind, this is a tricky method though. You need to have a bit of technical knack to make this method work.
What’s Next
You are well equipped with all the knowledge about how to add cymbals to electronic drums. You can start with any method based on the supplies available to you.
The method works regardless of cymbals type. You can add many crash cymbals or many ride cymbals or both. You can even add additional hi-hat using the methods. Over to you. Thanks.