I apologize as this is a bit of a rant. Well, okay... it's a full-on rant!
I've been pondering whether to sell my TD-30KV kit. I stopped playing it because it just didn't motivate me in any way musically. Sonically and in terms of expressiveness, it's such a huge step backwards from my acoustic drums. The best thing to happen to my TD-30 is Tommy D's Gavin Harrison patch, which at least made the v-drums sound less boinky and toy-like. There's no preset on the TD-30 that sounds anywhere near as expressive, clean, and uncluttered as Tommy's programming work. However, shortly after that I built a portable acoustic kit and realized, once again, just how much I was missing when playing the v-drums.
I'm still pondering whether to keep my TD-30KV kit. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
Roland got it totally right with the v-piano. No boinks, bells, whiz-bangs, and whatevers. Just a solid instrument that sounds ridiculously good and hugely, organically expressive.
Rai Thistlethwayte on the Roland V-Piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chyTf8UXNQM
Contrast the v-piano with Roland's top-of-the line v-drums. The v-drums have to be some of the worst sounding drums I've ever heard. Case in point, take a listen to Tony Royster playing this TD-30 kit. This may be a $10,000 kit, but I wouldn't pay $3 for it. It makes Tony Royster sound like garbage. Bleep! Bloop! Whoosh! Boink! Slap-dash! What the heck is this? That's what we get from two (maybe three) decades of v-drum refinement? I've heard better sounding drum machines!
Roland needs to migrate the sonic level and simplicity of the v-piano to the v-drums. Get rid of all the whiz-bang sounds and model a single, great-sounding, acoustic drum kit. Imagine if a concert pianist sat down at the v-piano, pressed a key, and the instrument went "bink, boink, bloop"? Instant fail! I'm going to repeat my advice for Roland's benefit: get rid of the whiz-bang sounds on v-drums; model a single, great-sounding, acoustic drum kit; and you'll have a winner. When Roland does this, only then will drummers start to consider v-drums for serious performance.
Tony Royster on the TD-30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzCPZ7Uet_U
Ugh. The hi-hat machine guns all over the place. Ditto for the toms and snare. And, the sounds are horribly electronic, with no complexity and limited dynamic range. Please don't make me listen to that ever again. Tony is great. The v-drums? No so much so.
End rant. Sorry folks. I just needed to get that out of my system.
I've been pondering whether to sell my TD-30KV kit. I stopped playing it because it just didn't motivate me in any way musically. Sonically and in terms of expressiveness, it's such a huge step backwards from my acoustic drums. The best thing to happen to my TD-30 is Tommy D's Gavin Harrison patch, which at least made the v-drums sound less boinky and toy-like. There's no preset on the TD-30 that sounds anywhere near as expressive, clean, and uncluttered as Tommy's programming work. However, shortly after that I built a portable acoustic kit and realized, once again, just how much I was missing when playing the v-drums.
I'm still pondering whether to keep my TD-30KV kit. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
Roland got it totally right with the v-piano. No boinks, bells, whiz-bangs, and whatevers. Just a solid instrument that sounds ridiculously good and hugely, organically expressive.
Rai Thistlethwayte on the Roland V-Piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chyTf8UXNQM
Contrast the v-piano with Roland's top-of-the line v-drums. The v-drums have to be some of the worst sounding drums I've ever heard. Case in point, take a listen to Tony Royster playing this TD-30 kit. This may be a $10,000 kit, but I wouldn't pay $3 for it. It makes Tony Royster sound like garbage. Bleep! Bloop! Whoosh! Boink! Slap-dash! What the heck is this? That's what we get from two (maybe three) decades of v-drum refinement? I've heard better sounding drum machines!
Roland needs to migrate the sonic level and simplicity of the v-piano to the v-drums. Get rid of all the whiz-bang sounds and model a single, great-sounding, acoustic drum kit. Imagine if a concert pianist sat down at the v-piano, pressed a key, and the instrument went "bink, boink, bloop"? Instant fail! I'm going to repeat my advice for Roland's benefit: get rid of the whiz-bang sounds on v-drums; model a single, great-sounding, acoustic drum kit; and you'll have a winner. When Roland does this, only then will drummers start to consider v-drums for serious performance.
Tony Royster on the TD-30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzCPZ7Uet_U
Ugh. The hi-hat machine guns all over the place. Ditto for the toms and snare. And, the sounds are horribly electronic, with no complexity and limited dynamic range. Please don't make me listen to that ever again. Tony is great. The v-drums? No so much so.
End rant. Sorry folks. I just needed to get that out of my system.
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