Electronic drums

[joe Norman]

Any E-Drummers here? I have recently jumped into the E-drumming world.....I now have a Roland TD-10 Expanded kit. I had always been die hard acoustic, but a guitar player I've played with in smooth jazz situations suggested that I should look into it for sound/volume control and space constraints in smaller venues. I had no idea the technology was at this stage! Absolutely remarkable!

So....if any e-drummers here, lets talk! I have TONS to learn about this area of drumming.

Ya'll have a great day!!

[Danny Garrett]

From experience live and in the studio V Drums are a good tool with excellent sound samples. Live applications however didn't work for me. There wasn't enough "body to the sound" just comming off a play back system (amps) to to satisfy me. If I got enough head room then I'm back at the volume problem again and wearing head phones all night wasn't my bag. I use in ear now anyway but the feel with E drums for the rest of the band wasn't enough. As for the the bounce or rebound I found it too unrealistic. I would suggest taking the sensitivity way down so you have to work the pads more like an accoustic kit. I have also experienced technique loss for accoustics due to the "exaggerated" bounce you get from the pad surface. I totally understand the volume and venue issues but be sure you play your accoustics as much as you can so not to hurt your accoustic chops. For me it was a lot of money for results I couldn't justify. That's just me. By the way it's still 127 on the dynamic curve and that's not realistic either.
Good luck with it,
Danny Garrett

[Mark Robison]

I'm new here - just joined and happy to have a forum and a way to connect with other local musicians!

I have an a classic Tama Artstar series acoustic drum kit - the Cordia wood version that I ordered brand new in 1982. It is a great kit with a really big sound. It was designed with a lot of input from Neil Peart of Rush. It is a beautiful set and very LOUD! Consequently, it has a way of overpowering the stage volume and is hard to use in anything other than a pretty large, high-volume situation - which I don't do very often anymore.

These days when I am gigging, I prefer to play an older Roland V-Stage set with a TD-8 sound module. I have dumped all the V-cymbals in favor of Zildjian A-Custom and Mastersound HH's.

Depending on the venue, I like to add an acoustic snare drum, too, but often I settle for the V-snare - again because I can precisely control the sound and stage volume.

I have played this rig for live gigs for years and love it. The biggest complaint that I have heard (and made myself) is that the drummer needs to really be able to hear (and feel) himself on-stage - I fixed that by using an amp rig on-stage - I have a Mackie 1202 mixer feeding a Mackie (self-powered) single 15" subwoofer with a built-in active crossover. The high-pass line goes to an SRM-450 full-range powered speaker system that sits on top of the subwoofer. I set the entire rig right beside me on stage, with the sub pointed at me! Since there are two channels out of the Mackie mixer, the second channel goes to the house PA. If needed, I can mic the cymbals myself and send the feed to the house only. I get a great sound that feels like I am in a studio and it is completely controllable - I can go very low-volume and never sacrifice the sound or the feel, and I can kick ass with some great rock and roll drum sounds that very few live sound guys can get without a lot of processing gear and huge talent. A footswitch on the floor next to the hi-hat lets me change kit sounds to get a jazz kit sound, or pop, or rock - or a kit with timbales and percussion items... I love my V-drums and the other band members like being able to play at low stage volumes with studio drum sounds.

I'm curious about other's experiences playing live gigs with V-Drums....

- Mark