Upgrade to a Yamaha EAD10 drum/mic module worth it?

I love my EAD10.
Been using it for about 5 years now. Mostly for personal monitoring & online lessons. I have used it live a couple times, again in a personal monitoring capacity. Just having it fed to my IEM's for better control on the mix in my ears. I know some people that have fed it to FOH as well, however I don't have much experience with it that way.

I decided to go with the wider pedal board and build a full rig.
So I ordered several items, expecting to set it up end of the week.

Here is a longer (live stream) video of the EAD10 with some useful info:

Starting to build the rig:



One thing to keep in mind is that the pedalboard (likely guitar pedals in general?) has a reversed polarity (negative center, postive outside) so for the EAD and mixer you need a reverse cable.
As the board came with only one, I had to solder another. No big deal, but check before plugging in or the gear could be fried.



So the rig is ready to use for band practice today!
I just have to set up a music stand, put the rig on it, plug in 1 power cable, the EAD mic and my IEM's.

I left some space below the EAD for a smartphone so I can run LiveBPM.
I'll shorten / tidy up some cables and we're finished.

eric_B said:

I decided to use the EAD10 for band practice today and it worked great (obviously I'm a lefty - and don't pay attention to the rehearsal room's crappy cymbals):

View attachment 158524

Some thoughts:

• A music stand would work quite well to put the EAD10 / mixer / tablet pedal board rig on.
• The tablet needs to be closest to me, so on the left of the board.
• I had more trouble installing the mic module of the EAD10 on the kickdrum of the Pearl kit because of the grooves in the hoop:

View attachment 158525

Yamaha does provide pads to fill up the gaps but I hadn't brought them.​

So I 'MacGyvered' some pads from stuff in my drum utility bag and the mic stayed put without problems.​

• Because not all instruments were going into the main mixer, I would not get a full mix send. So I didn't use my isolating custom IEM's but a set of Shure SE215. Combining the live bleeding of the SE215 with the sound picked up by the EAD10 mics, it provided me enough feedback to hear everyone.
  Usually at band practice I just wear earprotection so don't use IEMs anyway.
• The band was excited about the EAD10 as well, they hadn't seen it before and are looking forward to trying it out next gig.
  One of their previous drummers always brought a full set of mics, stands, cables, a big mixer, etc and needed at least an additional half hour to set everything up.
  So they like this simple setup a lot better.

So, time to start building the pedal board rig!

Click to expand...

Your kit is spread out pretty wide , you like it that way ?

Houndog1964 said:

Your kit is spread out pretty wide , you like it that way ?

Click to expand...

Is it? Maybe. However, it's not my kit but the one in the rehearsal room.
I have to set it up lefty every time and don't spend a lot of time on it.

This is my home studio Renown, it is setup closer (although the wide angle might not show it):

So I used the rig for practice this afternoon and it worked great!
I have Songbook Pro set up on the tablet with the setlists, getting a 10 second click count-in (only to my IEM's).

The EAD10 also is great for quick recordings: just press the recorder button and record, done in 2 seconds!
Awesome for checking later or listening back on the spot.

So if anyone's still interested in this project, it is finished!

So far, I've been very satisfied with the (fairly) cheap Harley Benton 'Spaceship' powered pedal board, the padded bag is nice as well:



There are 3 cables needed to set up the rig: 1) power cable 2) AB cable for the EAD mic/sensor module 3) headphone cable - I'm using a body pack with volume control and a pair of Shure SE215 IEM's.
The TRS-XLR cable is optional, for using an additional trigger.



The rig in the bag, ready to take to rehearsals or gigs.
All cables connecting the tablet, EAD, mixer and power are nicely tucked away and tied with tiewraps and some tape.
I used velcro to tape the EAD sensor mic to the board, same for the additional trigger and a drumkey - always handy to have nearby.



The rig set up for action. I added an old iPhone running BeatMirror for keeping track of the tempo while playing (similar to LiveBPM):



The additional T-drum trigger on the snare. I have to try out if added triggered sounds to the snare are useful for the music I play.
In any case I've ordered a trigger bar (like the Roland BT-1) which clips on the outside of the snare so I can add sounds without interfering with the snare.



So I guess that kind of closes this thread, time to start using the rig!

I use it with a 10 channel mixer and then out to house board. Both are velcroed inside a computer bag. It works well but keep the bass amp away from it.

As one who spoke highly of the EAD10 after your initial post, I'm glad to hear that you're happy with the results.

Clarifying what i wrote above. I bought a 10 channel BOSS EQ Pedal not a mixer.

Received the trigger bar:





Apparently the EAD10 is kind of a niche product but one that can be quite useful.
Maybe this thread can be equally useful for some people in the future.
And maybe V2 will appear on day. If so, I'm curious what it will offer.

Continuing my monologue, I replaced the 2 straights cables to the tablet with angled ones.
There was some stress on the cables, pulling the connectors. This is much better:



I also got a U shaped USB C connector so the USB cable doesn't stick out at the top:



At the bottom of the rig I attached a USB hub so I can keep the tablet and iPhone connected and still have some free ports available.

I think that's about as much I can do to make the rig as clean and simple to use as possible:

Better picture of the USB U shape connector and hub:

I decided to do another upgrade: although the bag isn't bad, it has no hard sides and therefore offers little impact protection should it fall or something drop onto it.
Also considering it is a 1K rig by now, I thought it deserved better protection so I got the hardcase:





Ready to use for the upcoming gig next Sunday!

Looks great! I've enjoyed reading the progress you've made in putting this set-up together. I'm curious if you've tried adding a second microphone to the EAD10 using the small mixer? There are times when I think it would be helpful to have an additional mic on my kit but I don't want to invest in a mixer for my EAD10 until I know if it will work. Just curious.

charliedrummer said:

Looks great! I've enjoyed reading the progress you've made in putting this set-up together. I'm curious if you've tried adding a second microphone to the EAD10 using the small mixer? There are times when I think it would be helpful to have an additional mic on my kit but I don't want to invest in a mixer for my EAD10 until I know if it will work. Just curious.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

I was tossing around with this idea to capture more sound of the rest of the band, will give it a try at next band rehearsal:



At home, I did try pointing it at the kit but it (obviously) is close to the rack toms so those are loud and it doesn't really work as an overhead mic.
More as a wurst mic, in an unusual position.

For the interested people: there is an active UAD10 user group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3551649494856296/