Looking at replacing my TD30 with a HandSonic HPD-20. Anyone else do this ?

[punkouter]

Here is the thing.... I only record at home.. I never need the TD30 to do anything live .. I quantize and do other tricks with the audio I record from the TD30 like speeding things up.. pasting various fills here and there.. Also I want to go back to VST Drums in my DAW so I can treat drums as a MIDI instrument and get the benefits of that rather than recording just the audio as I have been doing.

So what I am wondering is how well can you use a HandSonic to simulate a acoustic drum kit ? I assume things like drum rolls will be tough but for 95% of the drums I want which is tapping out beats do I really need a full size kit ? In situations where I cannot play the HandSonic as quick I figure I will just play it slower then speed it up in the DAW...

What do you all think ? Is there any good videos of people playing the handsonic like an acoustic kit where I close my eyes and would not hear the difference?

[electrodrummer]

I'd use something like a Yamaha Multi-12 instead. It's got both hand playing modes and stick-playing modes. Be cheaper as well.

[punkouter]

I saw that but that seems made for sticks.. I like the idea of playing with the hands.. though not sure how quick that will make my fingers tired..

Also, Is the positional sensing carried over as MIDI information ?

[punkouter]

I like the idea of playing with the hands

[mkok]

I had one with a bass drum trigger and hi hat controller but never got into it really. I think it was because the sounds were like most of Roland just too synthetic but if you can master playing on tiny pads (only the centre ones are big) then you may like it. I sold my HP15 as I didn't enjoy playing it. So if you want to use it for VSTi's then it will work but try doing double stroke rolls on tiny pads

[punkouter]

I know Ill be missing a few things but I am thinking that really I don't use those few unique scenarios that often.. and I can paste them in with existing midi files if I really need something I can't tap..

I am going to sell the TD30 but look into the MEGADRUM later.. but first I want to see how much the HandSonic can replace real drums.. in the end I just care about the end result and having a optimal way to tap in beats.. and it would save a lot of room

[jpsquared482]

The HPD-20 is not a substitute for a TD-30, but I absolutely love mine. I use it almost as much as my eKit for gigging. Once you get the hang of it, you can convince anyone it's like playing on a full eKit. The sounds are good, but not as good as the TD-30. I plan to map a kit for VST use soon. Sure, some of the pads are small, but you'll get used to it. In fact the relatively tight playing surface allows you to do things with multiple fingers that two sticks could never achieve. I use it with and FD-7 HH pedal and a KT-10 kick pedal and I can set up before the guitarists and put it away even more quickly. This totally allows me to enjoy the performances in a way I never experienced before - I get to hang out with the crowd. What a thought!

If you're just tapping in beats in a DAW, go for it. It's perfect for that. The sensitivity and dynamic range of the pads is fantastic. Really. You won't be sorry.

[thebarak]

I had a Handsonic 10 a few years ago and I only used it for drum sounds, which were not really great, too Rolandy! It was great for using fingers, thumbs and palms like a congo player to do hihat, kick and snare patterns, as in good old wooden table drumming.The thing is you can never use sticks on a Handsonic because you will eventually hit it hard enough to damage the sensors.

The Yamaha Multi-12 can be played with fingers, hands or sticks, but I did not like the mushy stick rebound. Both are lacking in good drum set sounds and both are full of percussion, international and electronic sounds that are not drum sets, and not very useful to a drumset player.

If you like the idea of playing with hands, how about getting into playing with fingers? If you can manage that then there are many good MIDI button controllers, Akai MPC Studio, Native Instruments Maschine etc.

[ThePod]

If you like playing with your hands. Zendrum!

[punkouter]

I looked into zendrum.. too expensive...

Can anyone speak to getting Handsonic mapped to Addictive Drums ? And positional sensing ?

[thebarak]

I looked into zendrum.. too expensive...

Can anyone speak to getting Handsonic mapped to Addictive Drums ? And positional sensing ?

If it is any help, I did MIDI out the Handsonic 10 to GarageBand with EZ-Drummer-Lite land the Jazz Pack loaded. This was years ago but it worked fine, including hihat functions.

[electrodrummer]

I saw that but that seems made for sticks.. I like the idea of playing with the hands..

As I said - it has "hand mode". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX8nwib2rLk

[Sequimite]

To echo jpsquared the Handsonic is perfectly fine for live performance. I've been playing with a trio using the HPD-10 and just upgraded to the HPD-20. Don't judge the sound of the 20 by listening to the 15 or 10. The sound of the 20 is MUCH better and the cymbals are Exponentially better, in fact they kill. I moved to it from acoustic drums for the simple reason that most of the stages we're playing are too small for a drum kit.

[jpsquared482]

That's an awesome gig!

[kurth83]

I'm late to this party, but I finally watched a few videos of the HPD-20, and was amazed to see it used as a micro-kit, complete with HH and kick pedals.
Nice to see Roland bringing products like this to the table. My hands are old and tired though, my wrists would never survive playing that thing, unless it can be played with a really light (like finger-light) touch.