Electronic Drums

Paul King · From: Gainesville, Texas, USA

There is a topic about live or canned drums on this forum. How do you guys and gals feel about electronic drums? I have played music a few times where electronic drums were used. I remember a pastor at a church I attended would always say the drums were too loud and the drummer was not even playing. His son eventually went to electronic drums because of volume saying he could not hear his singing. They worked great in his situation but I have met many people who do not care for them. Just curious about your opinions.

Darvin Willhoite · From: Roxton, Tx. USA

Paul, we used Roland electronic drums in our church for about 5 years. They sounded OK (not great) and the levels were easy to control, but they didn't hold up very well. I had to replace sensors in the pads quite often and the snare rim had to be replaced about once a year.

The drummers never liked them, so about a year and a half ago, we remodeled our stage and built a plexiglass drum enclosure and put acoustic drums in it. The drummers are much happier and the sound is much better. At the same time, we went to Aviom individual monitor mixer systems for the band and that is working well too. Some of us use in-ear monitors, some use headphones, and we use powered hotspot monitors on the keyboard and organ.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

Mark Eaton · Posted 7 Jun 2006 12:25 pm

I have been around a couple of really strong drummers, one in my church band, and another in a loose aggregation part time band, that really like them.

I don't know about the wear factor in their case, but I haven't heard any complaints. They sure are nice for softer, more acoustic driven songs, and they seem just fine on the louder stuff.

Roland isn't giving those V-Drums away, that's for sure. The sets with which I'm familiar exceed $4K.

One guy plays his through a Roland 100 watt keyboard amp, and they sound good to my non-drummer ear.

We just started several weeks ago with Aviom. It seems to be sort of a love/hate relationship so far, but we are getting the kinks worked out a bit more each week.

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Mark

[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 07 June 2006 at 01:28 PM.]

Ron Sodos · From: San Antonio, Texas USA

I did a gig with a very strong band last week. It was the first time i worked with totally electronic drums. I didn't like them at all. As they say out here in the west "no juevos". It had wierd tone, no kick drum feel at all. The symbols sounded contrived. They all thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread. The guy said he has been playing that way for 3 years. I would much rather be in a band with a real drum set.......

[This message was edited by Ron Sodos on 07 June 2006 at 01:34 PM.]

Leslie Ehrlich · From: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Are you thinking about electronically generated drum sounds or sampled drum sounds? I think sampled drum sounds are closer to the real thing.

Darvin Willhoite · From: Roxton, Tx. USA

I believe the Roland V-drums use sampled drum sounds. And you are correct Mark, they are expensive. We sold our old ones for around $2000, I think we paid around $3000 for them slightly used.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

All drum sets would sound better without cymbals, IMHO. Whoever decided that a cymbal was a musical sound anyway? They sound like noise to me. Most complaints about drum volume are really about cymbals.

I prefer hand drums to electronic drums. They solve the volume problem, are very sensitive and actually sound good.

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Mark Eaton · Posted 8 Jun 2006 8:59 am

I think cymbals are abused in the same way distortion and overdrive are abused in the electric guitar family. If one has no sense of subtlety, then cymbals can annoy the listener pretty rapidly.

When my wife and I last Sunday saw Bill Frisell with Greg Leisz on PSG and lap steel at Yoshi's in Oakland, we were as impressed with drummer Kenny Wollensen as the other members of the quartet. He really knows how to use the cymbals judiciously, and the effect was very good.

One of the guys I mentioned above that is a fine drummer and owns Roland V-drums, is also like b0b, an Information Technology kind of guy, and one of those "bluetooth enabled" fellas. My point is that along with being a good drummer with quality chops and a long history of playing, his "techie" background seems to sort of predispose him to getting the most out the Roland set.

I don't think it's a prerequisite at all, but having that sort of mental outlook and playing an electronic set for some reason makes for a more seamless transition from an acoustic set to an electric set.

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Mark

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Mark wrote:

Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

One thing to keep in mind about using drum pads with samples live is that they are only going to sound as good as number 1 the sound system they arebeing amplified with and the actual drum module that they are using. I have worked on stage with a drummer that triggered samples with an alesis pad kit and used an alesis D-5 (I think) for the samples and for his sound system he used a Peavey 12 channel stereo board with 4-15 inch speakers just for our on stage monitors and of course a signal was sent to the PA for the crowd.

Well before he got the great amp setup he had a small 6 channel mono pa head with 2-12 inch monitors for him to monitor thru as well as for us to get the drum mix on stage and you guys are right it was atrocious.

Well he soon realized the same thing so he invested in the stereo rig and with the right placement of the 2 sets of stereo speakers it really sounded better on stage than any real acoustic drums had ever sounded to me.

The kick was right there along with the snare and he had the right mix on all the cymbals it sounded like you were in a recording studio with great stereo separation.

I forgot to mention that the 4 speakers were for the band only he used an in the ear surround sound monitor system that really sounded great I know he let me listen to it.

The band leader could send as much or as little to the mains without the drummer even knowing or caring and as for the rest of us on stage we could control our 2 speakers that were filling our side the way we liked. Me and the steel player were on the right side so we got 2 speakers in stereo for our drum monitors and the bass player and the fiddle player were on the left side and they got the same setup with their own control over loudness and mix as did we. The lead singer got the best of both sides and if anything bothered him he would ask us to fix our side for him but after standing up in front a few times he got a heck of a great almost surround sounding kit being in the sweet spot of all 4 speakers and they were not pointed in his direction so they never wore him out if anything he would run some of the drums thru the house monitors so he really got a great drum sound.

I guess you would have had to be there to appreciate the sound and I know after reading this post it even sounds like to me that we had wall to wall drums but it wasn't that way at all being that we could control the volume of our own stereo side fills along with with everyone else on the stage.

To conclude you're not going to believe this but I usually am the one that complains the most about to much volume from the drums and I always tell every one that it's the drummers fault that the band is so loud.

So with that being said anytime the band leader or club owner would complain of our volume we would grab the master volume of our drum side fills and bring them down and I can testify that unless you are an ego idiot you will not play louder than the drums it just doesn't seem natural just as it does seem natural to bring your volume up with the drummer when he gets into the music and I know you all will agree with that.

Just my take on drum pads and samples not to be confused with using drum samples in my studio thats a whole other story.

Bob

Dick Wood · From: Springtown Texas, USA

We had a problem with a heavy hitting drummer several years ago and he finally bought electronic drums in an effort to work with us.

I personally thought they sounded great through our sound system. No onstage noise and you could get the exact mix you wanted in the monitors.

It was great while it lasted.He sold them saying he hated the triggers because they made him feel he was playing out of time.

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Cops aren't paid much so I steel at night.

Rich Weiss · From: Woodland Hills, CA, USA

I've had this unit for about 3 years. I use it on all my recordings. It's mainly used by hip-hop guys, and a lot of DJs use it live.

I love this unit, and it functions as the nerve-center for my recording setup.

The first thing I did was sample Steve Gadd's drum kit. It's just amazing, and you can add swing, or even program it so it's not so perfect sounding.

But it cost a lot and it takes a long time to really learn it well. It's an MPC1000 by Akai.
http://www.futureproducers.com/article.php/id/34

Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

Back in the 90's I had a band with two drummers. One played a regular acoustic set and the other played electric drums. The acoustic guy was a beater type and the electric drum guy was a finesse type. I'll have to admit they worked well together and had a terrific sound. Unfortunately the cost was a little too much for club owners so I had to pare it down to one, but it was fun while it lasted.

Tony Palmer · From: St Augustine,FL

Love the Roland V drums!
The drummer really kicked butt with them but used real cymbals, so it was the best of both worlds.

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