Ambience settings for LIVE use

[Shorty]

I have my first V-drums gig on Tuesday night. Local small pub, has it's own in house PA and are fine with me using my v-drums (it's an acoustic music only venue). My current kit uses all the ambiance settings in the module. But I'm thinking of cloning the kit for a live kit and making it ambiant flat as the room will have reverb and so on.

Question is.. is that a wise move?

I am going to take my little amp with me as well and run my head phone output into it for local monitoring for me. Hopefully I will hear the other guys or this is going to be a test of my memory!

[Quazi]

Thats absolutely a wise move.
Otherwise, you'll get sort of a room within a room sound.
And another thing - try to get a sound check. Play a pattern or have someone play your drums with the band while you listen out front.
In my experience many sound guys simply don't turn V-drums up enough to balance the drum sound. Maybe its because their ears are blown or something.
Even if the drums sound great they will come across as weak and not sounding good if they aren't present enough in the mix.

[lopan]

And another thing - try to get a sound check. Play a pattern or have someone play your drums with the band while you listen out front.
In my experience many sound guys simply don't turn V-drums up enough to balance the drum sound. Maybe its because their ears are blown or something.
Even if the drums sound great they will come across as weak and not sounding good if they aren't present enough in the mix.

I couldn't agree more. Shorty, I don't know what module you're using, but what are you sending to the desk, direct outs, main, etc..? Are your band members used to playing with you and your Vdrum kit? How good are the stage monitors at the place you'll be playing? Will your band mates be able to hear you? I usually send direct outs to the desk with ambiance on 7 and 8. All of this is sent back to me through the stage monitors. The other guys can get more or less of me in their individual monitor mixes, but everyone can hear me.

Good luck with your show.

[cstoliker]

One thing I have done when using a 3rd party PA for monitoring when I do not have control of the mix is to start with your module at 50% volume and use line outs. That will give you some control of the mix..:-)

[Shorty]

Thanks for the good advice guys, wow you really know your stuff

The band are totally used to me playing v-drums. We have never rehearsed without them. It's probably worth pointing at.. that I have actually only been playing for 12 weeks, so this is going to be really interesting < look of worry >

I have a TD-9, so it's just a stereo mix into a PA. The desk then feeds into a monitor. So I will have a mix of the semi-acoustic guitar, vocals and my drums. The bass player has his own amp with enough wattage and thus no need for DI.

I will cut the ambiance back and maybe switch to a v-expression kit that I have for the module

Wish me luck guys, I am going to need it!

[Shorty]

Well it's the day before the gig. The "we won't tell anyone, just a low key thing" has failed. One of our singers told half the planet on Facebook and so the floodgates open. Looks like it's going to be a busy night tomorrow night!

I have a tapco thump coming as additional backline. I think it was needed as a quick check of the venue left me unconvinced!

One final practice tonight and then here we go. I AM NERVOUS!

['lectric drumma]

Good luck!


Stijn

[Shorty]

Thanks Stijn!

I am considerably more confident than I was about e-drum live playing thanks to this mighty forum. The advice has been really good on ambiance, kit setup and the choice of additional backline. I think I can do this

[Shorty]

Well the gig went REALLY well!

Set my standard kit with locker ambiance, setup, had a near heart attack because it sounded so good through a PA, played a rocking 40 minute set. LOVED IT.

Anyone ever questions if you can use V-drums live.. you CAN. The drummer in the band after us had a go and loved the TD-9. He was asking about price, availability and so on.

Overall, I like the control that V-drums give you (especially in a small venue). We sounded so tight, LOVED IT.

[lopan]

Glad to hear it went well!

[Tadman]

Wonderful

Shorty--

Great to hear! I had always removed the special effects and ambiance and then, at the venue, had folks play my drums and tweak from their for the local situation.

Tadman

[Shorty]

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=25170671329

Someone uploaded some naff video footage. Typically, they upload the song where there are only drums for the last 2 minutes out of a 6 minute cover! But it's there for anyone wants to watch