Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I think Phil Colins used a Hybrid once but stern followers booed him for it.

What were Howard Stern followers doing at a Phil Collins concert anyway?

My drummer has been using top of the line Roland drums for years and we get nothing but complements, especially from drummers who usually didn't know they were hearing electronics.

The point is, for a band that plays a variety of styles and sounds,
why would the drummer use an acoustic set with only one sound?

It would be like your keyboard player using a piano sound for every song, or you guitarist using an acoustic guitar all night!

What century is this?

Hi all,
I have a Traps electric kit in my little garden studio here in Sussex England.
I am still a raw beginner, but one of the things I wish my kit could do has been mentioned already: rimshots... I think they were given a different name in Yankee speak!
I am planning to fit a modified guitar pickup beside a stick on magnet on the metal rim, as my kit has mesh heads held by a fairly typical rim and we think this will produce a rimshot okay.
The other thing that lets the kit down to my mind, are the cymbals... you need to whack them pretty hard to get anything, but that's all you get, no gentle tapping right in the centre.

I would though say that the electric bass drum sound is far better, and as I use a Laney 100 bass amp with it that has an eleven channel graphic I can boost the low Hz and get a real thump from it.
I can also play the kit at a volume that a friend can strum an acoustic and sing to with no mic! (though a touch of voice amplification is good)
And on a Sunday afternoon we can practice songs with lead bass and drums while my neighbours sit and enjoy a beer in their garden undisturbed... and my studio is just a single brick thick 4" wall.
Along with these things, you can plug the kit straight into my Tascam recorder with no drum mikes or drum booth, and I will put my money on saying the future is going to be electric!
Mark..................

I will put my money on saying the future is going to be electric!
Mark..................

Mark,
Better invest in a few more nuclear power plants.

I like acoustic drums for live gigs. I do use synthesized drums for composition or noodling around at home.

Howlin'

Good morning Howlin,
I never thought I would find myself advocating the future of drums to be electric... I am someone who drives old bangers and lives in a house little changed for 150 years with a coal fired kitchen range and no central heating.
But I guess the guys strumming acoustics in the forties might have thought the Telecaster was a silly modern idea.
Now when we play guitar it matters to us to get the volume right, but drums have no volume control and I think they need one.
The snare gives a horrid ear splitting slap, and the bass drum is just a feeble tinny tap.

My disappointment with the Traps electric kit I aquired, is that I thought there would be seperate outputs from different drums, or groups of drums.
I have a Laney bass amp with graphic that I was going to give huge bass boost for the bass drum and toms; and I have a Carlsboro combo with graphic that I planned to put the snare, cowbell and cymbals through... turned out to have just one output channel so it all has to go through the Laney bass amp together, but it still works quite well.
The important bit it that master volume control: we can jam at 100 watts with a vocal PA, or 20 watts and we just sing up un-mic'd like hound-dogs!
On a warm afternoon with the neighbours in the garden we go for 20 watts, but on a wet windy night we let rip like banshees at 100 watts!

It was a good April-fools-day wheeze of Barak to send Airforce one on a low level mission across Manhatten yesterday wasn't it!
He clearly has a good creative sense of humour!

Mark...............

Good morning Howlin,

...... drums have no volume control and I think they need one......

Mark...............

Mark,
A good drummer (and I've played with a few) can play effectively at any volume without anything but good playing skills. (and, perhaps a set of brushes.)
Howlin'

Hello Howlin,
I agree with you that a good acoustic drummer has one song where he makes a big noise to keep up with the band, and a quiet ballad where he taps gently.
I am not so convinced that he can suddenly play the loud song at half the volume, because so much is a physical muscle memory and once those legs and arms get swinging I don't think it's got much of a volume control!

With the electric drums your body just does its usual thing... but you can put out 20 watts or 100 watts... just like a guitar.
Imagine needing to twang very gently or very hard to adjust your volume on a Strat?

In the UK there are pubs that have regular live music on a certain night, and people go knowing and expecting that volume of sound, and not expecting to have much conversation.
I have known pubs that want to introduce live bands, but when that wall of sound starts their locals all go out the rear exit to drink in the garden... because the band balances its volume to the acoustic drums; which are too loud on their own.
In a small pub or bar, you want (I believe) each instrument putting out around 20 watts... perhaps a little more on the bass guitar and bass drum.
Fine to go louder when the bar becomes an established place to see a band, but it will never get started if you blow the local's heads off!

Here endeth today's lesson!
Cheers to all across the pond,
Mark..............

Brushes sound different. Those lil combo sticks (slap sticks?) have a better sound & are a little quieter, but for total volume control nothing beats the electric sets, provided you have someone who is knowledgeable in their use & limitations. Look at Futureman in the Flecktones. His set is a guitar-like instrument, the "drumitar," with sampled real drum sounds, & with headphones I defy you to be able to tell the difference between his sound & a real trap kit.

Here's Futureman playing & singing with his unique instrument -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdF4pImq34I

Damn! , Phil,

Thats about the coolest performance I've seen in awhile.
Those Flecktone folk are maximum entertainers, as well as first rate players! ( got so sucked into the whole thing, that I almost forgot to listen for Future Man's electro- drumming.)

Great Vid! Definitely worth a peek. (Kinda reminded me of The Mothers of Invention meets Dave Matthews Band....only BETTER!

HJ

That was cool. But what the heck happened to that guys guitar?

Hi Pondies!
Yes I loved the music... pretty much all of it in fact; but I'm still aclimatising to the notion of the drummer standing up front on stage.
There is something about the physicallity of percussion, and seeing the arm movements, and of being a sort of engine unit at the rear.
I find when I jam with people that I subconsciously monitor the motion of the drummer to fuse perfectly with the beat... well, close as I ever get!
Staying in time just by ear takes for me more concentration and is less relaxing.

That band was a nice fusion of eastern European and Asian styles of melody; and at times greatly reminded me with the sax stuff of seventies Brit band Vandergraaf Generator.
I thought the Chinese dying goat impersonator was a little bit of a gimmicky extra, but had good moments!

So cheers at 06:40 on a bright Sussex morning, where a Lenten blackbird sings in through my open window from across the field behind my cottage... with no frost on the grass today, but quite warm and summery as if I ought to be riding off to Scotland or Cornwall soon.
Greetings to all out in the colony!
Mark.............

I bought an Alesis D4 drum module a few years ago and learned how to make my own triggers. Well, I got an idea. I've never done it but I know it would turn heads in a small bar setting. Small PA, one guy on acoustic guitar, one guy on electric with amp modeling effects pedal straight into the PA, and one guy on bass with amp modeling effects pedal straight into the PA, all with vocal mics. Run a drum module into the PA and have 6 trigger pads that set on the floor, 2 pads per guy. One guy uses his feet to play kick and snare, another does hi and low toms, and the third does closed hi hat and a crash cymbal. Wouldn't that be just the coolest show? Of course it would take a lot of practice, but would be well worth it. I could see Neanderpaul being one of those guys.

Damn! , Phil,

Thats about the coolest performance I've seen in awhile.
Those Flecktone folk are maximum entertainers, as well as first rate players! ( got so sucked into the whole thing, that I almost forgot to listen for Future Man's electro- drumming.)

Great Vid! Definitely worth a peek. (Kinda reminded me of The Mothers of Invention meets Dave Matthews Band....only BETTER!

HJ

They are all the best of the best, HJ, that's for sure! They somehow manage to get great musicians from around to world to sit in with them, too, like that throat singer, or the djimba drummer.

1st time I saw them, I wasn't prepared for the drumitar, & I kept looking for the drummer. After a bit Futureman actually did play a kick, some toms & cymbals while he still worked the drumitar over with his left hand.

Yeah - extraordinary/amazing/outstanding don't begin to describe this group of musicians - any one of them. They are all my idols, even the bassoonist...LOL

I've read many comments about what the big boy use. If i was a star musician with contracts and endorsements stacked to the ceiling i would have an acoustic set , perhaps several acoustic drums and several electronic sets. There would not be a problem disturbing the neighbors or getting the sound correct because i would have a high tech studio and live where no one would be near. I would have people handling the sound at shows, at least six semi's worth of sound equipment. I'm sure there is not many in this forum who rolls like that. But us little guys are in situations that differ from the stars. If i was a drummer, I'd drum it in the morning, I'd drum it in the evenings...... You know the rest of that song. So rather than getting a visit from Mr PoPoo and chancing a fat fine for disturbing the peace. All around it makes more sense to get a electronic set. A good set. It's like sex, it feels better when you hit it skin to skin but at might cost you more than it's worth.