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It sounds like a good option for you would be a hybrid kit, which is how I have my club kit set up. Mine is a mini Tama Cocktail Jam with Remo SilentStroke heads. When I have it set up for “acoustic” playing, I use a set of Zildjian LV80 low-volume cymbals with it. I was really happy with how much this felt and sounded like a “real” drum set – I was able to play with with a lot more nuance than I had ever been able to use on an electric kit with rubber pads for drums and cymbals. And I could play this in an apartment, which was my initial motivation for going down this route.

When I’m using it in a hybrid setup, I use Sensory Percussion triggers. They’re really cool and sound incredible but are an investment in time, money, and setup – requires a laptop, audio interface, training the sensors, etc. If you want something simpler/cheaper/more plug-and-play, I would use more generic triggers like the Red Shot triggers from ddrum. I use two Sunhouse triggers and one Redshot trigger on my hybrid kit. I then I have a multipad that works like the ‘brains’ of the rig (an SPD-30 in my case). I plug the bass drum trigger in there, use the pads for hihats/other sounds, and use the SP triggers via the computer for the rest. You could get pretty much any small multipad for that as long as it has inputs for triggers and an input for a hihat controller. Not all of them do, so definitely pay attention to the jacks on the back. Electronic hihat controllers are still different than real hihats (as you’ve noticed), but that should suffice for recording MIDI or triggering a drum library from your computer.

Essentially you’d have two main setups this way: “acoustic mode” with the low-volume cymbals for practicing touch and feel, then swapping out the cymbals for the multipad in “electronic mode” to get clean MIDI recordings. “Electronic” mode would still have most of what you want feel wise, with a compromise on cymbals for ease of recording.

Hope this helps!

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