DDrum Vs V-Pro

[towerblock]

Hi all..

I've got a DDrum 4 System one on order and was wondering if any people here had actually played both the ddrums and a V-Pro? I originally was going to buy the V-Pro, but after playing them a few times felt that they had hotspots, didn't respond at all like real drums, and the sounds while "cool" at first really were overly processed..

Anyway I don't hate them, but don't love them either. After hearing the samples in the ddrums, I ordered a set which I should have tomorrow. I also bought a DTExtreme which I have here, only opened the brain, played with it, really am not too into those sounds either...

Anyone here have anything bad to say about DDrums? I know they don't have a sequencer or onboard effects, but I'm not too impressed with either of those in the V-Pro, and would prefer using outboard gear for that...

thanks!

[jrcel]

The Ddrum is a bare bones edrum brain, which is fine if that's what you're after. You can get free sounds from thier web site, sds, which is slow as molases. Sounds like you can afford the Vdrums and a sampler, something with scsi for getting sounds onboard. You can get a used Emu ESI 32 or Akai S2000 for less than $500 these days, then just midi into it from the V Drum module, or Ddrum module. The S2000 can have 32 meg plus two 16 meg flash rom modules in it. Thats alot of spare sounds.

[This message has been edited by jrcel (edited February 18, 2001).]

[BINARY]

I would've loved to get in on this one first.





BINARY

[Dale]

Hey Towerblock,

Steve (Dale) here from Austin. I’m a little confused on something. You said in another post that you went to Mars with the intention of buying a DTX kit, but was “underwhelmed.” You also mentioned that afterwards you walked over to the V’s, played them, and liked them more the DTXtreme. Did you already have a DTXtreme on order or did you just change your mind? If so, why (I’m just curious)? Also, are you planning on using two brain modules or just returning the one you like the least?

Regarding Ddrums, I’ve never played them, but have only heard mostly good things about them. In addition to using the search function on this site, you may also want to check out www.Ddrums.com (the same great folks that brought you Vdrum.com).

BTW – Our band, The Jon Barry Project, is playing at Dan McKluskey's this Saturday 24th, from 7-11:00 PM (10,000 Research Blvd). Drop by and check out the SpaceMuffins. If you come by early (before we start), I’ll be happy to let you play them (assuming sound check is going OK). Otherwise, I’ll be happy to give you a closer look during one of our breaks. Let mw know too when you guys are playing out too as I have always been very curious about the Ddrums. I would love to see and hear one in action.

Take care, and good luck on the e-drumming quest..

Steve

[towerblock]

Originally posted by Dale:
Hey Towerblock,

Steve (Dale) here from Austin. I’m a little confused on something. You said in another post that you went to Mars with the intention of buying a DTX kit, but was “underwhelmed.” You also mentioned that afterwards you walked over to the V’s, played them, and liked them more the DTXtreme. Did you already have a DTXtreme on order or did you just change your mind? If so, why (I’m just curious)? Also, are you planning on using two brain modules or just returning the one you like the least?

Regarding Ddrums, I’ve never played them, but have only heard mostly good things about them. In addition to using the search function on this site, you may also want to check out www.Ddrums.com (the same great folks that brought you Vdrum.com).

BTW – Our band, The Jon Barry Project, is playing at Dan McKluskey's this Saturday 24th, from 7-11:00 PM (10,000 Research Blvd). Drop by and check out the SpaceMuffins. If you come by early (before we start), I’ll be happy to let you play them (assuming sound check is going OK). Otherwise, I’ll be happy to give you a closer look during one of our breaks. Let mw know too when you guys are playing out too as I have always been very curious about the Ddrums. I would love to see and hear one in action.

Take care, and good luck on the e-drumming quest..

Steve

[towerblock]

Hey Steve...

I'd love to come by and check out your setup, but I have a gig that night as well. As for the DTExtreme, I went back to MARS and played some more, and thought the pads actually had better response than the V-Drum pads for things like dbls, and buzzes, flams etc.

Anyway, since I knew they only had one kit in stock I bought it. I haven't opened anything except the brain yet as I wanted to go through the sounds in the brain before I opened the rest, in case I needed to return them. My thoughts on the sounds are that the drums sound pretty good, but I'm not too sure about the cymbals. I've only listened to the sounds playing their demo songs. What was apparent in the demos though was the machine gun effect on tom rolls, which I'm beginning to think is just a function of limited midi velocities. I played at a guys house today who has the V-Pros, and they had a terrible machine gun effect as well. We were jamming, guitar bass and drums and I got a chance to see what they would be like in a band setting and I liked em, but didn't love em. I like the V-Pros, but there was definately that machine gun effect and some lack of dynamics and sensitivity. The pads felt fine, although the hi hat pad would miss some fast single strokes once in awhile. The DTExtreme in the stores never missed any stuff that I played.

Anyway, the ddrums should be here tomorrow so I'll let you know what i think..

Originally posted by Dale:
Hey Towerblock,

Steve (Dale) here from Austin. I’m a little confused on something. You said in another post that you went to Mars with the intention of buying a DTX kit, but was “underwhelmed.” You also mentioned that afterwards you walked over to the V’s, played them, and liked them more the DTXtreme. Did you already have a DTXtreme on order or did you just change your mind? If so, why (I’m just curious)? Also, are you planning on using two brain modules or just returning the one you like the least?

Regarding Ddrums, I’ve never played them, but have only heard mostly good things about them. In addition to using the search function on this site, you may also want to check out www.Ddrums.com (the same great folks that brought you Vdrum.com).

BTW – Our band, The Jon Barry Project, is playing at Dan McKluskey's this Saturday 24th, from 7-11:00 PM (10,000 Research Blvd). Drop by and check out the SpaceMuffins. If you come by early (before we start), I’ll be happy to let you play them (assuming sound check is going OK). Otherwise, I’ll be happy to give you a closer look during one of our breaks. Let mw know too when you guys are playing out too as I have always been very curious about the Ddrums. I would love to see and hear one in action.

Take care, and good luck on the e-drumming quest..

Steve

[puttenvr]

I played both the Vdrums and ddrums and I prefer the Vdrums The ddrums just are crap ****ty <font color=ff0000>red</font> module

I am drunk again



(pssss.... please come with me to a place not so far away. It's on www.ddrums.com and you will find everything you want to know. But psssss don't tell to any other person. In that case you will become a frog my prince)

[cliff]

towerblock,
Are the Xtreme's sensitive enough to be played with brushes? I do't plan on using brushes, I'm just concerned with sensitivity.

[spark]

So I played the ddrum 4 this weekend. I had the chance to A/B it next to the V-drums ( both td-10 and td-8).

I personally love my v-drums (td-10 exp), so I am sure I carry some bias. But to me there is no comparison. I thought the ddrum sounds to be rather stinky. thin and poopy. Even when compared with the v's with no effects, amience, etc. I felt the v's had more character, and oomph than the d's.

There were some kits that I enjoyed ( like # 28 I believe it was) but overall I found myself relieved that the v's exist, and we are not stuck with this ddrum idea of an e-kit.

Just my two cents.


Spark

[towerblock]

Originally posted by feefer:
Don't go Towerblock: it's a trap! Do you really want to be Puttenvr's personal 'Prince'? Sounds like he'll have you in chains, a push-up bra, etc. before too long.
Chris

heehee...too late I've got the ddrum and looks like I'm going to keep it. The push up bra's and the chains keep getting in the way of my playing though..

[towerblock]

Spark..I'm curious about your thoughts. I played this weekend in a rehearsal where we used the V-Pros expanded, and I liked em. BUT, since having the ddrums for the last two days I'm really impressed. i will say this, the V-Pro expanded has a more expressive hi hat than the DDrum 4. Anyway what I wondered is what you were listening through when you auditioned both of these kits?

Originally posted by spark:
So I played the ddrum 4 this weekend. I had the chance to A/B it next to the V-drums ( both td-10 and td-8).

I personally love my v-drums (td-10 exp), so I am sure I carry some bias. But to me there is no comparison. I thought the ddrum sounds to be rather stinky. thin and poopy. Even when compared with the v's with no effects, amience, etc. I felt the v's had more character, and oomph than the d's.

There were some kits that I enjoyed ( like # 28 I believe it was) but overall I found myself relieved that the v's exist, and we are not stuck with this ddrum idea of an e-kit.

Just my two cents.


Spark

[spark]

I listened to the d's through a pair of sony 7509's I think. What I would do is play the d's, unplug the headphones, and plug them into the v's.

Back and forth, a/b, a/b.

Granted, the settings in the d's may have been screwed up, as the salespeople didn't seem to know nearly as much about them as they did the v's.

Also, I just listened to the mp3's of the ddrums, and had to admit they faired much better than what I heard on the demo kit ( taking in account for sound loss over the web).


Spark

[towerblock]

I guess the answer is I need both of them then...! Seriously, I've had a difficult time figuring out for sure which way to go and all I've come up with is that both products are pretty good for different things? I guess I'll prolly just keep the ddrums for now as they were only $2500, vs $3600 for a V-Pro expanded (if you can still find one)....but it sure would be nice to be able to choose either kit depending on the situation...

Originally posted by spark:
I listened to the d's through a pair of sony 7509's I think. What I would do is play the d's, unplug the headphones, and plug them into the v's.

Back and forth, a/b, a/b.

Granted, the settings in the d's may have been screwed up, as the salespeople didn't seem to know nearly as much about them as they did the v's.

Also, I just listened to the mp3's of the ddrums, and had to admit they faired much better than what I heard on the demo kit ( taking in account for sound loss over the web).


Spark