Should You Buy the Yamaha EAD50?
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I recently made a video on the EAD10, and I said this.
https://youtu.be/mF1c0iF5L1g?si=HA8n73Ex0jkYnx--&t=888
And then I saw this video from my friends over at Into Music with the genius that is Simon Edgoose saying this:
https://youtu.be/njvDr5CjwtU?si=tmtU8d1MGT1_S-Bn&t=44
Specs
Let’s run through the specs of this as it is kind of ridiculous what they’ve made (in a good way!).
Hardware
The obvious thing first - it’s bigger than the original and comes with what looks like a cowbell as the microphone.
It’s not a cowbell please don’t hit it.
This microphone unit is called the DSU50, which you can get another one and use it as an overhead which is pretty cool.
So same simplicity as the EAD10 with just the brain and mic, but now expandable which I like.
DSU50
Speaking of cowbell, let’s look at it because it’s a little different than the original.
The original had the two jack outputs, the trigger on the bottom and is subtle on the kick.
One thing straight away to look out for is that I know some people had issues with fitting this onto their kick if they have their kit setup in certain ways. If you’re someone with that issue, the new one looks like you’ll definitely have that again.
The good news is that the new one looks like it’s built to be used as an overhead whereas the first was not, so that’s a plus.
With that, on the new unit itself you have the normal built in trigger, a trigger input, and a 5-pin XLR for the microphones. It’s not often you see a stereo XLR, pretty cool! It also means you can buy this separately and use directly into a mixer without the EAD50 brain.
It sits a little higher than the old one by the looks of it. I presume this is to get a better input from the kit as it puts the microphones closer to the things it's recording.
The last feature I wanted to point out that's pretty amazing, and aimed at teachers, is that you can use a talkback feature. So rather than having a separate microphone, you can push a button, connect a footswitch or a trigger etc, and it'll raise the gain so you can just talk into it. That's a really cool detail.
Brain
Right. The brain. This is remarkably crazy and I have some thoughts. Some good. Some bad.
This is noticeably bigger than the EAD10, but the benefit to that is you no longer need any other product to use it as an IEM mixer, recorder, things like that.
The obvious feature is that they've made most of the module physical. So on the EAD10, a lot of features are underneath button combinations and menu settings. The EAD50 looks like it's mostly controlled up front using switches.
The back has an insane amount of inputs and outputs compared to the EAD10. So for example, the thing I'm most excited about is that you can set this up, use both triggers and microphone inputs, record a multitrack output with it, use it as your normal IEM mixer, and control all of that separately.
This has fixed most of the issues I had with the EAD10.
My favourite bit of all of this, is that you can also have the monitor input from the sound guy which I think is an underrated feature.
So you can send your drums, at a level you like, to you. Have the sound person send you your monitor feed back via XLR, put this into the EAD50, and then record all of this as multitrack. Ridiculous (in a good way).
Now that means you don't have to bring a separate mixer or anything like that, it's all controlled in the brain which is absurd.
The bad things
I that's all the good and the main features I'm excited about. Let's talk about the bad.
I don't like the 'gimmicks' in any of the EAD units.
Bare with me on this, as this is absolutely a 'me' problem, not anyone else.
All of those weird, whacky sounds on the EAD10 were fun, but the majority of people just used that compressed EAD10 sound. This worked amazingly for Yamaha as drummers immediately recognised that sound as their product. Genius!
In some of the demos, the EAD50 has the 'filter' option, different drum sounds, etc. The problem is, is that you'll still be able to hear the acoustic drums in-person if you're using it live, making most of those effects obsolete.
Using it for recording is a different world that I probably won't use it for due to the nature of the gigs and work I do, so it'd be amazing for that, in it's defence.
Therefore it has all of these sounds and features I'm just never going to use.
Now that isn't a problem by any means, especially as people who do use them will absolutely benefit from it. But I would have loved to have seen it with plugin features like EQs, Compressors (not the EAD10 compressor), more complicated reverbs. Basically leaning into what you would do if you were mixing drums for a recording with microphones so the EAD50 turns into an incredibly powerful DAW in a box.
I'm aware what I'm saying involved a lot of computing power and engineering which is definitely easier said than done, but it has been done. Especially when you look at the guitar amp modelling world with things like Neural DSP and Line 6 (also made by Yamaha).
If drums had their own 'modelling' world where we could import EQs, microphone types, room sounds, etc. I think it would be incredible.
Price
The big one, price.
Right now, my go-to drum shops here in the UK currently have it for pre-order at £99. This is a deposit, not the final price (sadly).
From what I've heard, it's looking like it's going to be around the £1,500 mark ($2,000) which is a sizeable investment for something like this.
This is interesting, and I've spoken to many people about this and seen heard opinions.
Some are like nah, just buy a mic pack and an audio interface - Shoutout Jordan.
Others are like yeah, it makes sense.
I'm on the latter end, I think it makes sense.
If you're wanting this but don't want to spend that much, get an EAD10. Especially if you don't 'need' the features, you just 'want' the features.
Me, for example, when I used the EAD10 in a gig in a previous video one of my big problems was only having a stereo output. This fixes that issue completely by having separate outputs.
Similarly to inputs. There are many gigs I do with an X32 rack based in-ear split that means the band I'm playing with have a consistent mix on every gig. On a festival, I don't have time to mic up a full kit and send it to me, especially if it's a house kit. The EAD50 now means I can chuck the Cowbell on the bass drum, maybe as an overhead too, chuck some triggers on, and now I can send multiple outputs to my desk. Suddenly it makes micing up a drum kit ridiculously fast.
Final Thoughts - Should You Buy One?
Overall, this is an interesting product that answers a lot of the problems I had with the EAD10 (thanks Yamaha!).
It's difficult not to see this as a replacement, but as an addition to the line up.
I love shiny new things, but I'm also aware you can just go an buy the EAD10. I think what I'd also love is a small update to the EAD10 too, just to bridge that gap slightly between the two units.
As a heads up, all of this is taken from what I can find right now, the day after it was announced, so keep an eye out for more in-depth details coming when people get their hands on the unit.