Is it the Sounds that matter?

[Alicks]

I've become a bit disgruntled with the sounds of the V-Drums recently. I've had the TD10 for about three months now and the TDW1 for one month but over the last two weeks I came to understand what all those D-Drummers mean when they say that V-Drums sound like toys. The sounds are really synthetic and they seem to lack warmth and presence.

Am I being too fussy? I want drums to sound like drums and I know that you can only expect so much but I keep thinking that maybe I should invest in a D-Drum.

Is everyone truly happy with the V-Drum sounds or is it that the convenience / dynamics / versatility is more important to most people? I know some people like a lot of extra equipment to get the sort of techno sound they like and fairplay to that but what about folks who like a natural drum sound, are you guys happy?

Flame on,
Alex.

[BINARY]

No flames, I think everyone has been discouraged like you at one point or another.

I love the vdrums, but sometimes I feel like I'm on an endless journey of musical instrument/sound reproduction purchases to try and get the sound I want.

Added to that is the frustration of creating a sound that is entirely pisser and almost perfect for what I want, and then realizing the sound coming out of my headphones is completely different than the sound coming out of my JBLs.

You could try a sampler...?

BINARY

[redman]

All I can say is been there done that. When I first got my Td-10 and then the exp card I ran into the same feelings. I've now had my Td-10exp for over a year now and take it for what it is ,does and sounds like. I've finally after two long years of converting myself from playing A's to E's , come to like E's more for what I can do with them and not worry so much about this that and the other thing. I luv my Td-10exp , sure the sounds could be better and someday I will add some ddrum stuff , and I do mean ADD
I also find that in a mix (have been doing some CAKE recording) with a band that the sounds that you and I thought where whatever ....aren't as bad as you and I thought. Some of the older members may remember a topic I posted when I was really bummed about the whole shpeel, It got quit a few reply's if I remember correctly. I got so em-bar-assed I deleted it...guess I should have left it to show you what I was going through.
It took me awhile to get used to everything E but I think I have finally got myself figured out.

Good Luck with your sound feelings



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~REDMAN~

[This message has been edited by redman (edited June 15, 2001).]

[cliff]

I may be in the minority but I really like the V sounds. They sound especially good in the "mix" of other instruments. I could never get my acoustics to blend well.

[Boingo]

Fussy? Probably. Human? No doubt about it. I hope you have plenty of cash because you're gonna need it to buy one of every E-kit on the market. You won't every be satisfied with any one system after owning it for a while. At least that's how it is if you're human. Your search for perfection will be endless.

I've had my V's for over two years. The "gee, these things aren't all that" cycle hits me about 10 times a year. I tweak a setting or just lay low for a couple days and suddenly I'm in awe of the sounds again. I go through this with my amp too. "Gee, I'm gonna sell this Peavey. No one ever raves about using a Peavey on the website (ok, Putt and maybe one or two others mention it). Next thing you know, I adjust the EQ or crank up the volume and I'm in drum heaven again. It doesn't end.

[mcconaghy]

Like the posters before me, feelings like that hit me too on a regular basis. I find myself staring at (insert random piece of equipment here) and thinking "Tomorrow I'll put you on EBay." I never do, because tomorrow I'll be totally in love with whatever I was wanting to dump again.

Lately I rediscovered my acoustics, man, are they loud, I think I'll put them on Ebay, wait, yes, no, yes, wait, maybe, yes..... :P

Stu

[This message has been edited by mcconaghy (edited June 16, 2001).]

[Alicks]

It's good to know I'm not the only one. I agree with what everyone has said. Thanks for all the advice. I will get some new sounds someday, a sampler or a synth and maybe a new module. Or I could wait for the TD 12 or D-Drum 5 but the best thing is playing and making it sound good for what it is.

[This message has been edited by Alicks (edited June 16, 2001).]

[Marc.]

Originally posted by feefer:
...Perhaps the Ddrum sytem is better for non-technically inclined types ...

Oh no, here he comes ...

[puttenvr]

Two points:

1. it's possible that you dislike the Vdrums after some time. The same happened to me. And the change of getting bored with real sounding drums is smaller in my opinion.

2. we spent too much time in listening to e-drums. When we have an acoustic drum we tune it as good as possible and then we just start to play. With e-drums we spent so much time on tweaking and listening and tweaking and listening that sooner or later you will getting bored of any sound. Perhaps we should concentrate more on playing.

If point 2 is not true, then point 1 counts

[Mikster]

The grass is always greener.......

[This message has been edited by Mikster (edited June 16, 2001).]

[Marc.]

Originally posted by feefer:
...Perhaps the Ddrum sytem is better for non-technically inclined types ...

I work in an extremely high-tech engineering R&D lab so, I consider myself pretty much a technically-inclined type. However, after a day at the office, I just wanna come home and play drums. I don't want to spend any time "getting it just right". Sure, I don't mind a small adjustment here or turn the knob a notch there, but jeezuz to heck!

Yo Rob! Y'all have anymore room for me over there? (Anyone interested in a not-so-used Monster set?)

[matts64]

Typically, I don't have issues with the acoustic sounding patches. Yeah, I too became (and become) frustrated with the sounds on the TD10. I would like to have a sampler.

When I catch myself becoming disenchanted, I usually end up trying to create different kinds of kits; mixing different patches within one kit. For example, I have one kit I created with a shaker hihat. This kit has a 909 snare and the Aux1 is set for the cruddy snare.

When I become tired of the sounds, I try to think about how can I use those sounds differently in my playing. Can I add another sound (like a machine sound or handclap) or can I play those sounds in a different pattern. For example, maybe every fourth bar on the fourth beat using the cruddy snare instead of a mega-tom fill.

The TD10 has amazing acoustic (tho not entirely lifelike) and electronic sounds. How you use them is up to you. Mix and match. Test out several unlikely combination of patches. You will find that you have stumbled on combinations that are unique to what you've previously played and will compliment your bandmates!

Just my two cents worth.

MattS

[ufotofu]

Instead of making custom kits from scratch, what I've been doing is hacking the presets on my TD-8 to suit my tastes, one by one, even the sh1tty and/or useless ones. I've done about half of them so far, and I expect to finish the rest off eventually. It's great fun, and quite the lucrative investment.

Here's the deal. When I decide to hack on a preset, the first thing I do is turn off both EQ and ambience, so I can tailor the sound for "live playing" rather than headphones (aiming for a clean, unprocessed sound). I don't actually play out, but I consider playing through the amp more enjoyable than playing through the headphones; thus all my kits are tailored for the amp (which, in a way, is the "lowest common denominator"). Next, I copy my "generic" mixer settings to the new kit (I keep a kit called "GENERIC" just for this purpose) and remove any offending patterns or oddities, just trying to zero-out the settings and bring it back to square one. Then I begin to tweak each individual sound. If the sound is useless for me (i.e. voices, weird electronic sounds, farts, etc), or if I can't achieve a good derivative of it, I replace it with something more "normal" and tweak that instead. Then I go back and tweak the mixer (I keep the faders up and don't touch them at all, relying on the digital mixer instead). When I'm done, I give the kit a meaningless but unique name (don't ask), in all-caps, to signify its tweaked state.

What I end up with usually sounds completely different than what I start with, but I guess that's the whole purpose of the exercise: To create my own custom-tailored, hopefully good-sounding kits, optimized for my SRM450. Of course they usually sound good on the headphones too, but I never, ever tweak on the headphones because that's not my goal. Sometimes I'll tweak a virgin preset on the phones, but for non-virgins, it's amp-only. None of my kits are really "completed" BTW. They're constantly changing, and hopefully getting better with each change.

So when my friend comes over with his guitar on weekends, I don't have to mess around with the settings -- I just choose one of my custom kits and go. They all sound different. And they all sound great on the amp, at least to my ears, and I suppose that's what really matters in the end. And best of all -- I've learned quite a bit about how my edrum setup works (and how edrums work in general), and how to best put them to use for my purposes.

BTW, I think it's more important to achieve a kit that sounds good as a whole than a kit with good individual sounds, i.e. each sound should be complementary of the kit as a whole. It can be difficult to achieve this, but it sure is fun trying.

[Boingo]

ufotofu:

Sounds like you got your act together. I like the use of the zero'ed out settings Generic kit. Someone posted recently complaining about having to change all the settings when they created a new kit. Your solution sounds great. I have a feeling not too many people know you can copy studio, control room and other individual settings from one kit to another. This is a good use of that feature.

[Marc.]

Practice?

Practice?

Life is too short to practice.

Just do it!

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