Are Drum Triggers Cheating?

If you’ve spent any time in online drumming communities or music production forums, you’ve probably encountered the heated debate: Are drum triggers cheating? Some critics claim triggers help drummers play faster or execute patterns they couldn’t otherwise perform. Others argue that triggers represent an inauthentic shortcut that undermines “real” drumming.

The truth is far more nuanced and far more interesting.

A Brief History of Drum Triggers

Drum triggers have been part of the music landscape for far longer than most people realize. The technology emerged in the early 1970s, with artists like Graeme Edge of The Moody Blues experimenting with electronic drum pads, and Carl Palmer using triggers on his iconic two-ton steel drum kit to fire off Moog synthesizer sounds.

Perhaps drummers felt a need to keep up with the use of drum machines being used in recording studio. In fact, the first pop song to use a drum machine was Robin Gibb’s “Saved by the Bell” recording, which reached #2 in Britain in 1969. And, of course, by the late 1970s and early 1980s, drum machines exploded onto the scene with their perfect, processed consistency. Artists like Prince (Controversy and 1999 in 1981 and 1982, respectively) and Billy Idol (Rebel Yell in 1983) embraced drums machines like LM-1, LinnDrum, and Roland TR-808 to create new sonic landscapes that influenced an entire generation of musicians and producers. This shift in popular music inspired many acoustic drummers to pursue similar sonic characteristics (the consistency, the clarity, the precise attack) from their traditional kits.

Enter drum triggers as a practical solution.

The 1980s-90s Trigger Revolution

Speaking from personal experience in the late 80s and early 90s, many of us drummers picked up units like the Alesis D4 and DM5, using drum triggers from ddrum or KAT Percussion’s KST-1 to fire off sounds from acoustic kits. We definitely weren’t trying to cheat. We were trying to achieve that polished, professional studio sound that had become the standard in recorded music and we didn’t have the recording gear (mics, preamps, mixing desks, let alone the rooms) to make it happen any other way.

And, by this time, many established and respected artists were incorporating triggers into their setups, making them a legitimate and increasingly necessary tool for serious drummers who were either recording, performing or luckily doing both.

Why Triggers Became Essential

The hard rock and heavy metal genres present a most compelling case study for drum triggers. As double bass drumming became faster and more intricate in the late 80s and early 90s, recording technology struggled to capture the clarity, impact, and attack these patterns demanded.

Sure, legendary drummers like Dave Lombardo from Slayer proved it could be done without triggers. His technique was monstrous, and those classic 1980s Slayer albums document his complete mastery. But listen closely to his double bass runs (“Angel of Death” from 1986’s Reign in Blood being a prime example): they sound like an acoustic kit played incredibly fast. While compression, EQ and transient shapers MAY have helped, they lacked the distinctive “clickety-clack” and absolute perfection that preprocessed trigger samples would provide. Dave just was an absolute master who could swing with absolute ferocity double bass runs like no one else. It would be hard to imagine how those classic records would have sounded with sample enhancement from triggers. But, that’s a discussion for another day (or, a follow-up article).

One of the most famous presets on the Alesis DM5 module was Kick #8 “SpeedMtl”. That sample alone would define the drum sound of the genre. If you know that preset, that clicky, “And Justice for All”-type attack kick drum sound, then you know its place late 80s death and extreme metal.

The Engineering Challenge

Albums like Metallica’s “And Justice for All” achieved their signature kick drum sound through impeccable engineering technique, not triggers. Producer Flemming Rasmussen and engineer Steve Thompson spent countless hours with microphone placement, gate settings, compression chains, and EQ to capture Lars Ulrich’s lightning-fast double bass patterns with that characteristic click and definition.

But here’s the reality: achieving that sound required world-class studio facilities, experienced engineers who knew exactly what they were doing, expensive outboard gear, and—most importantly—significant studio time (and perhaps even significant recording budgets). For every successful capture like “And Justice for All,” there were countless recordings where fast double bass drumming simply turned into an undefined, muddy rumble that disappeared in the mix (we’ll not provide any examples of those).

The technical challenges were substantial. When the bass drums are firing rapidly—think 200+ BPM sixteenth notes—the drum head doesn’t have time to fully recover between hits. This creates a compressed, sustained tone rather than distinct, articulate attacks. Traditional dynamic microphones inside the kick drum would capture this physical reality: a wall of low-end information without clear transient definition.

Engineers could address this through aggressive gating (cutting off the sustain between hits), extreme EQ (boosting the beater attack frequencies around 3-5kHz while controlling the sub-frequencies), and careful compression. But this required both expertise and the right equipment. And even then, results varied wildly depending on the drummer’s consistency, the specific drums being used, tuning, beater choice, and dozens of other variables.

For touring bands trying to replicate their studio sound live, the challenges were even more challenging. Different venues, varying acoustics, unfamiliar sound systems, and limited soundcheck time made it nearly impossible to consistently achieve that studio-quality kick drum clarity night after night.

Drum triggers offered a practical solution that democratized access to professional-quality drum sounds. Instead of requiring a world-class studio, a skilled engineer, and expensive processing chains, triggers provided consistent low-end control and articulation regardless of venue, equipment, or budget. This allowed drummers to push the genre into new territory with more intricate and faster bass drum patterns, knowing their performance would translate clearly to the audience.

Artists like Vinnie Paul (starting with Pantera’s 1991 Cowboys from Hell and through the rest of the catalog), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater’s 1992 Images and Words – that definitely used an Alesis DM5!)), and even bands like Alice In Chains on their debut “Facelift” (again, DM5, let us know if we’re wrong) employed triggers not to cheat or compensate for technical limitations, but to achieve specific sonic goals and maintain recording quality in both studio and live contexts. These were deliberate artistic choices made by accomplished musicians who understood that the tool serving the music mattered more than purist ideology about how drum sounds “should” be captured.

So, in short, if you wanted to “keep up” with the big boy bands and their records, you had to get on board with drum triggers in those early 90s years.

But, Back to the Question: Do Triggers Enable Impossible Playing (“Cheating”)?

Let’s get this out of the way right now.

No, drum triggers do not allow drummers to play patterns they couldn’t already execute.

Here’s our take on why many people who think otherwise are wrong:

1. You Still Have to Hit the Drum

A trigger is simply a transducer that converts a physical drum hit into an electronic signal, which then fires a sample from a drum module or sampler. The drummer still needs good timing, control, and technique. The trigger doesn’t add notes or create patterns that aren’t actually being played with the drummer’s hands and feet.

2. Triggers Can Actually Make Bad Playing Sound Worse

If a drummer has sloppy timing or poor technique, especially in double bass work, triggers will actually magnify these flaws. That weaker left-foot note? It’ll come through weak and sloppy, now magnified and impossible to hide. In many ways, triggers forced drummers to improve their technique and develop more consistent power across both feet as well as their hands.

3. Triggers Have Thresholds

Unlike a microphone that captures everything, triggers are indiscriminate. If you don’t hit the drum hard enough to cross the threshold, the trigger won’t fire. Period. And, if you hit too hard with no dynamics, you’ll get the same maximum velocity drum sample firing off constantly (machine-gun effect, anyone?) There’s no wiggle room. Using drum triggers actually demands more precision and articulation from drummers, not less.

4. Triggers Solve a Sound Problem, Not a Playing Problem

When a bass drum is being hammered away at 200 BPM in sixteenth notes, you’re likely going to get a muddy wall of sound with an acoustic kit and traditional miking (unless you’re Dave Lombardo, of course). The physical limitations of the drum itself create the problem: the beater is hitting the head again before it fully rebounds, creating a compressed, sustained tone rather than the distinct, punchy attacks that the music demands.

This isn’t a limitation of the drummer’s ability. It’s pure physics. Even a perfectly executed performance with flawless technique and consistency will suffer from this acoustic reality when playing at extreme speeds. The microphone faithfully captures what’s actually happening: a low-frequency blur where individual notes blend together. Triggers solve this by bypassing the acoustic limitations entirely. Each physical strike, regardless of how quickly it follows the previous one, fires a discrete, pre-captured sample with perfect attack characteristics. This allows individual hits to cut through dense mixes with clarity and definition, which is especially crucial in heavy, guitar-saturated music where multiple instruments are competing for the same frequency ranges.

Consider a typical metal mix: you’ve got heavily distorted rhythm guitars (often double or quad-tracked), bass guitar, vocals, and cymbals all creating a wall of sound. Without clear, articulate kick drum hits, the entire rhythmic foundation disappears into mush. Triggers ensure that the drummer’s patterns—which they’re playing perfectly—are actually heard by the listener.

This is fundamentally a recording and mixing solution, not a performance enhancement. The drummer is still executing every note; the trigger simply ensures their performance translates effectively in the final mix. It’s no different than using a direct box for bass guitar instead of relying solely on a miked amplifier—you’re capturing the performance through the most effective technical means available.

The Guitar Pedal Comparison

Would you accuse a guitarist of cheating for using a wah pedal, chorus effect, or overdrive? Of course not.

Think of drum triggers as analogous to a guitarist’s effects pedals. A distortion pedal doesn’t make someone a better guitarist. It shapes their tone and allows them to express themselves in ways appropriate for their music. A delay pedal doesn’t play notes for the guitarist; it processes the notes they’re already playing.

Let’s take this comparison further. Would you accuse Eddie Van Halen of “cheating” because he used a MXR Phase 90 phaser on “Eruption,” or say The Edge from U2 isn’t a “real guitarist” because his signature sound relies heavily on VOX AC30 and EHX Memory Man delay pedals? No one in their right mind would. We’ve always accepted these effects were integral to their artistic voice and musical expression.

Yet somehow, drummers using triggers face this exact criticism regularly when it comes to drum triggers.

Consider the evolution of guitar tone itself. When electric guitarists first started using amplifier distortion in the 1950s and 60s, purists claimed it was “cheating” or “not real guitar playing.” When fuzz pedals emerged, critics said the same thing. When digital effects processors became mainstream in the 1980s, the debate erupted again. Looking back, these objections seem ridiculous. We now understand these were simply tools that expanded the sonic palette available to musicians.

The parallel is exact with drum triggers. Just as a guitarist might use:

A compressor pedal to even out their dynamics and sustain notes longer than physically possible with fingers alone
An octave pedal to add frequencies that aren’t coming from their actual playing
A reverb pedal to simulate playing in spaces they’re not actually in
A noise gate to eliminate unwanted sounds and create impossibly clean silence between notes

Similarly, drummers use triggers to shape, enhance, and optimize the sounds their physical performance creates. In both cases, the musician must still execute the performance. The effects process what’s being played, they don’t play it for you.

Here’s another angle: Would you criticize a bassist for using a DI box instead of only miking their amp? Would you claim a keyboardist is “cheating” by using sampled piano sounds instead of only playing acoustic pianos? Would you say a vocalist using studio compression and reverb isn’t a “real singer”?

Of course not. We all understand that these are production choices that serve the music. Triggers deserve the same recognition. They’re simply another tool in the modern musician’s arsenal for translating their artistic vision into recorded or amplified sound.

The guitar pedal comparison reveals the double standard at play. When guitarists process their signal, we call it tone-shaping and artistic expression. When drummers do essentially the same thing with triggers, critics call it cheating. The only difference is our cultural familiarity with one technology versus the other. Drum triggers, like guitar effect pedals, are tools that shape sound and serve artistic vision.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Real-World Applications: Why Drummers Use Triggers

Consistency on the Road

Drummers like Vinnie Paul worked with companies like ddrum to develop trigger systems that allowed them to bring studio-captured sounds on tour. When you’re playing different venues every night with varying acoustics and sound systems, triggers provide consistency that would be impossible to achieve with traditional miking alone.

Matching Studio Productions

As pop and dance music increasingly featured drum machines, live performers needed ways to recreate those sounds authentically. There’s simply no way to emulate a drum machine’s sound with only acoustic drums and microphones. Triggers became essential for maintaining sonic continuity between recorded and live performances.

Genre-Specific Demands

Modern metal, progressive rock, and electronic-influenced genres often require sounds that are physically impossible to achieve with acoustic drums alone—not in terms of playing ability, but in terms of sonic characteristics. Triggers aren’t a shortcut; they’re a necessity for producing the music these genres demand.

What About Drum Replacement? (That’s Different)

Here’s an important distinction: Live triggering is very different from post-performance drum replacement and beat quantization in the studio.

When we talk about triggers being “not cheating,” we’re specifically discussing the real-time triggering of samples based on actual played notes, whether live or in the studio during tracking. This requires actual performance ability.

Drum replacement software that corrects timing, adds notes that weren’t played, or quantizes performances to the grid? That’s where debate about “Is Using Drum Triggers Cheating?” have merit. Drum trigger CAN be used for such purposes. But that’s a topic for another article. Let’s leave the whole question of MISUSING drum triggers for such deception alone and out of this piece for now and save it it for a follow-up blog piece.

The Bottom Line: Musical Tools for Musical Purposes

Drum triggers are not cheating. They are:

Problem solvers that address practical recording and performance challenges
Musical tools that allow drummers to achieve specific sonic goals
Consistency providers for live performance and touring
Creative instruments that expand the drummer’s sonic palette

Nothing you can do with triggers couldn’t theoretically be done with acoustic drums. The difference is in the sound quality, consistency, and practicality of achieving those results.

The Final Verdict

The “drum triggers are cheating” debate usually comes from non-drummers who don’t understand the technology or its musical purpose. Professional drummers and producers recognize triggers for what they are: valuable tools that serve specific artistic and practical purposes.

From Graham Edge and Carl Palmer in the 1970s to Vinnie Paul, Mike Portnoy, and countless modern drummers you know and love today, triggers have been creative and musical decisions made by amazing players pushing their genres forward.

So the next time someone claims triggers are cheating, you can confidently explain the reality: triggers are just another tool in the drummer’s arsenal, no different from a guitarist’s pedal board or a keyboardist’s patches. When used as they should be, drum triggers serve the music and don’t replace the musician.

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