The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

The only Drum I used was me

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"Saying you're an adult would make you an IM-poster." - Robbie jan 2006

I will use my robot hand for good.

Used Yamaha Motif ES sequenced drums set and a few hand fills to prove I'm not a drummer.

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THE MUSIC IS DOWN IN HERE
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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

Thanks, all--fast response! I'm taking notes before I give another listen.

To TonyM, Bryter, and others... I agree competely that electronic drums are a far-distant second for many types of music. It kills me in a way to resort to electronic kits, especially since I enjoy live drums so much. But like others here, I simply have no choice now.

I subscribe to Recording mag and like the Reader's Tapes section, in which a pro reviews readers' tunes each month. One of the most common complaints there, about electronic drums, is that the volume is too low in the mix, as if people area trying to hide the fakeness. Lesson 1: mix them loud enough to sound real, and spend enough time prorgamming them to sound decent. Lesson two: add some live cymbals, if possible, since electronic cymbals seldom come close.

Interestingly. a recent reviewer remarked about the high quality drum track in one song, produced via a drum machine--some of the best electronic drum sounds they'd ever heard. If you promise not to fall over laughing, here's the beast they mention:

http://www.music123.com/Yamaha-DD55-Dig ... ce=froogle


I'm actually looking for one in town now to audition. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for all the background on your music~

J.

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Recent AW16G fiascos: http://www.jlh.2tunes.com

On 8804, 60's Guy did the kick, rimshot snare, and (faint) hi-hat stuff as 2 tracks along with his 3 acoustic guitar tracks. I don't know what his drum machine is, but when he returns from vacation, perhaps he'll share. I did apply various eq and comp to the 2 'drum tracks', to give the kick some thump, and the rimshotsnare as much meat on its clicky bones as I could, but couldn't seperate the hi-hat to bring it up. Compromises had to be made to avoid 'pumping'.

I added real bongos and shakers. Bongos mic'd w/ an SM57. Thru a Yamaha MG-10 mixer for eq and inserting verb with a 10-yr-old Yamaha reverb/delay unit (EMP-100). Shakers (Toca eggs, 3 bucks a pair) mic'd with an ADK A-51 LDC, rest of signal processed same as bongos.

That's as real as I can get with drums in my home studio as a 1-man band type.

Not on this comp cd, but last years, I had 2 tunes with a drum machine. Yamaha RY-10, 10 yrs old. Some have been fooled.

All I'd add to this is that IMHO, a drum machine recorded well, eq'd, verb'd, delayed & comp'd right, and with some creative use of 'live' playing of the pads with as little programming as possible sounds better than someone not a drummer attempting to play real drums poorly.

Huey Lewis & The News used a lot of 'fake drums' on 'Sports' album. Can't recall for sure, been a while since I read the interview, but I think 2 tunes in particular: Heart of Rock n' Roll and I Wanna New Drug. Maybe more. Their human drummer was pissed. But his clock sucked. And money talks when there's a budget.

I certainly won't laugh,J! I bought this for my son (he's a budding drummer but doesn't have the roon for a kit) and the sounds are pretty good. I haven't recorded any yet, but through the monitors they do sound a bit tasty.

Incidentally, I'm about to purchase a second hand DM5 (Alesis). Any one here used/had/has one? Any comments?

Best

T

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I reserve the right to get very cross with inanimate objects.

trec: the drummer I played with for a decade (and am about to return to) uses one of these in conjunction with some Roland pads acting as triggers for sounds to complement his acoustic kit.

He swears by it and I have to say it's a pretty neat implementation of technology.

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"You think you are going to die...and then you don't." © Robbie Jukebox - 23rd July 2004.

[quote="Lysdexia]He swears by it and I have to say it's a pretty neat implementation of technology.[/quote]

If it's good enough for your drummer, it's good enough for me!

I've read a lot of reviews about it and all are good. The main problem with electronic/sampled drum sounds is that tonally, they don't change with velocity. From what I understand, the DM5 has gone some way to address this problem (although with my sausage fingers at the controls the volume is always 11!)

Thanks Lys

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I reserve the right to get very cross with inanimate objects.

Most people prefer a real drummer rather than an electronic machine. We use a drummer as the overall emotion and drive does not seem authentic enough for us otherwise. (But we did use a machine on one tune not on the Comp CD as it just sounded great so we kept it) We all have to work within our constraints. In the final analysis, the song itself is all that really matters.

Rich

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http://www.birdzsessions.com
Rich--BzS

While we're on the subject.. I'm just curious if anyone has used one of these. You can get them for $125-$135 all day long on e-bay.

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Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground

C'est moi. Et je connais un homme qui likes to bang it at DijonStock.

I've got proof!

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating

Yeah, Bob, that Yamaha dd55's the one that Recording mag liked (mentioned above). I've found one to audition about an hour away, so I'll get there in the coming weeks and let you know.

J.

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Recent AW16G fiascos: http://www.jlh.2tunes.com

On The Military, I used a Zoom MRT-3, and a Korg Electribe ER-1, plus additional cymbals and hand percussion.
Currently working on the studio to include a drum kit and recording space.
Rock On
DJ Bud

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Now Playing:
https://soundcloud.com/cowboys-of-scotland

Coming Soon:
Roy Batty and the Combat Models

Ok. I admit... I loved to drive the gang crazy with some impromptu bashing of that thingy .

It's lots of fun .

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Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground

Bob - I've tried that Yamaha unit, and it pretty much sucks...the SR-16 is about 100x better.

DJ, just wondering how you liked using the little MRT-3. I'll give your tune another listen tonight.

Thanks,

J.

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Recent AW16G fiascos: http://www.jlh.2tunes.com

Hi Jefree - I am using a Zoom Rhythmtrack 323 - much improved over the Boss unit I had last year. I'm happy with it, haven't really figured out all the things you can do with it yet, but it's easy to use and has lots of variations on timbre and kits etc. and after a year of experimenting with it I can still "discover" some new sound that can inspire a whole new song just by playing to that particular groove.
For what it's worth, pj.

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Count your blessings!

I just bought a 16G and discovered that it's extremely complicated. I play all my own instruments and wanted to start with adding electronic drums from my inexpensive Casio keyboard but the sound was low volume and distorted. What is the correct way to connect a keyboard of this type to the 16G? Any help would greatly be appreciated! K. Hays

hey there,
i usually just take a 1/4 inch cable out from the keyboard (or 1/8th inch adaptor if necessary) and run it into any input on the g.

have my trim at about the center position.
turn keyboard volume halfway, play see-saw from there between both units vol. levels.

of course, cheap keyboards have that distinct crackly distorto sound..and it sux but..

whatcha gunna do, eh?

try using your mouth as a drumset.
hold mic close, beatbox it, overdub all metals, hats cymbals and keep goin till ur satidfied.

or..satisfied

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http://joelbooska.wixsite.com/thevideofringe

The G has no stereo input, so you'll have to have a cable with one stereo jack on one side, and two mono's on the other. Put the stereo jack in your drum computer, put the two mono's in two inputs. On the inputs, put the preamp knobs completely down (counterclockwise). Turn the volume of the drumcomputer up until you have decent levels. If you can't get it up far enough, use the G's preamp knobs to turn it up further.

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating