Cymbal and snare sounds

[lainchbury]

I recently demoed a TD8, and now have the intention of buying one (I can't afford a TD10), but I couldn't help feeling disinctly underwhelmed by the cymbal noises. How many of you here use cymbals from an accoustic kit on your e-drums and use the cymbal pads for effects and stuff? Or would I be strange for doing that. And how many of you have brought in an accoustic snare and moved the snare pad to a tom spot, because I really like my accoustic snare and would like to use it if possible.

Thanks
Joe

[puttenvr]

From playing techniques and sounds both the cymbals and snare drums are the weakest parts of e-drums. That's why it is not strange to keep the acoustic counterparts here. I play a hybrid kit myself and it really rocks. Also use the Roland pd-7 (which is on my snare channel) pad for effects.

[MPCman]

The ideal kit for me has an acoustic miked up snare, a triggered bass, 4 ddrum tom pads, 1 ddrum (second)snare, 2 ddrum cymbal pads(for effect sounds) and acoustic cymbals.

O and a Mackie SRM450 would be nice

[puttenvr]

Originally posted by MPCman:
The ideal kit for me has an acoustic miked up snare, a triggered bass, 4 ddrum tom pads, 1 ddrum (second)snare, 2 ddrum cymbal pads(for effect sounds) and acoustic cymbals.

Just like what I said

[Mick Wade]

My current setup is all-electronic drums and all-acoustic cymbals, and I think it's a pain in the ass. Trying to balance the two together in a live or practice situation is very difficult. My band is doing the in-ear/headphone monitoring trip, which makes it pretty much a non-issue, but that's not a luxury everyone has. If you're using conventional monitor wedges, mixing the two types causes you to overwork them and ties you too closely to them onstage. I'm going the all-electronic route for cymbals and drums. Using acoustic cymbals forces you to bring the sound of the band up to their level, which may not necessarily be desirable in all live venues. I like the idea that with electronic cymbals, the entire band can be brought up or down in proportion volume-wise. But, then again, you have to understand that you're talking to a guy that is of the possibly unpopular opinion that instrument speaker cabinets and monitor wedges are about the most obsolete pieces of equipment out there right now.....

[puttenvr]

Mick, don't get me wrong: e-cymbals would be great. But at this moment simply not all playing techniques are covered. Manufacturers do their best with three types of triggering on a ride cymbal (good Roland!) but still not like the real thing.

[Mick Wade]

If the choice were totally up to me, I'd prefer to use acoustic cymbals with the V-drums. I agree that no one's totally got it right yet with respect to electronic cymbals, but they're close enough to satisfy me. Hell, I thought just the ability to do cymbal swells was a major victory for the TD-8! I did a gig with the country band a few weeks ago in a 500-seat dancehall that had the stage built into an amphitheater-like alcove. The whole point of this type of design is to maximize unamplified acoustic sounds, which was a major consideration back in the days of the big bands and before PA systems. Needless to say, this was a very live sounding room. I was using my Paistes and the V-drums on this gig, and the problem we had was with the cymbals sounding out of balance with the drums. The three singers up front said they weren't hearing the drums in proportion with the cymbals and that the monitors couldn't be cranked up loud enough to compensate without causing feedback. They also said they found it disorienting to stand close to my drums and not hear anything I was doing. I tried using brush sticks to level it out somewhat, but those things suck on rides and hi-hats and they're also murder on technique. So I went back to using my Yamaha acoustic set with this band. If they used in-ear or headphone monitoring like I do, this would be a non-issue. But that's one of those things that some musicians seem afraid to embrace for some reason, and I'm not going to grow old waiting for them to figure it out. So my attitude is this: if I'm going to be loud (acoustics), then I want to be loud all around and the rest of the band will just have to find a way to work with it. If I'm going to be quiet (electronics), then I want to be quiet all around, and the rest of the band will have an easier time working with whatever they decide to use as a monitoring system. As much as I'd love to use a hybrid kit, I'm afraid that the venues and rehearsal spaces are going to have to be a lot bigger before that's realistic for me....

[Steveo the Devo]

My kit tends to vary from acoustic to electric and everything in between. My latest setup is acoustic cymbals, kick, snare and electric toms. The Kick and snare are also triggered electronically with the ddrum acoustic drum trigger. It does require some fiddling around but this way I get a good on stage 'presence' with the benefit of electric sounds.

[This message has been edited by Steveo the Devo (edited June 10, 2001).]

[purplehaze]

Hi,
I'm playing an acoustic set with ddrum-triggers also I use plain acoustic cymbals.
These are connected to my TD-10exp.
I put some foam in the drums so they sound very controlled.
On stage this sounds just like a real kit but not so loud.
In front of the FOH-PA you only have a little noise from the acoustic kit, and we can can use the powerfull sounds from the TD-10.
The cymbals are a little amplified to get a crisp sound on the PA.

Also I don't really need a monitoring system, but I use one anyway to hear the TD-10 sounds and to hear my vocals.
These are In-ears by the way.

Grtz. Phze

[captain54]

From what I've seen in some of the venues in my area, the way to do it with acoustic cymbals and an e-kit is all about being able to monitor stage volume...Thats the big advantage of e-drums as I see it...

The acoustic cymbals set-up need and overhead, and an isolation mike on hat...
this feeds to the house PA...

A set of Jbl eons, Mackies, or whatever, preferably with a sub, are used on stage strictly for stage monitoring of the e-drums, ....

the house mix then contains all the elements pumped out the house PA, miked acoustic cymbals, feed from the e-drums brain, vocals, keys, bass, etc....

The singers on stage were disoriented because there was no stage mix, it seems to me...small personal e-drum monitors on stage serve that purpose....