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the-vu

online magazine, since 2000

Month: February 2010

A 70’s dinosaur falls into eDrums.

By Jeffrey the Barak. Before I ever had electronic drums, I spent a couple of decades carrying around large, heavy drum sets and cymbals, which could only ever be played in rented rehearsal rooms, because they naturally made very loud sounds that would never be appropriate in a normal domestic setting. As loud as real… Read More A 70’s dinosaur falls into eDrums.

February 25, 2010December 6, 2022 thebarak7 Comments
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  1. Dave Cruikshank Avatar
    Dave Cruikshank
    March 3, 2010

    Great article. I’m currently in your position of moving back to an electronic kit. I’ve had 3 back surgeries and 1 neck surgery. I can still play, but moving my Premier 5 piece kit and especially the hardware is a real pita. I once had a DrumKat 3.5 and I traded it for the premier. that was before the back went south. I still have the Premier and now an Alesis DM5 Pro Kit. It is still in the box because I want mesh heads, not the little rubber pads. But reading your blog I do miss my Kat. It was so easy to really fly around the kit with ease. I have a degree in electronics and I’m pretty computer literate, but I agree programming the Ver 3.5 was a challenge. I’d get it where I wanted it and then I’d somehow lose my setup. But it sure was compact. The other problem I had with the Kat is I’d go on an audition and they’d laugh at it. Tell me come back with a real kit and you got the gig. So that’s when I traded it for the Premier set. I did play for awhile on the Roland version of your Alesis pads. But I longed for real heads and a real drum type setup. I found the arrangement of squares to leave me wanting the semi circle of the KAT. Do you find this with the Alesis? Thanks for the article. BTW I’m 49 and really screwed myself when I traded a classic set of Red Ludwig Vistilites for the Drumkat ;( Dave

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    1. admin Avatar
      admin
      March 3, 2010

      Hi Dave.
      Yes the DrumKAT is far better than the Alesis, but that interface defeated me. You can reassign the Alesis pads to make a more sensible layout, and also stick labels on them, but it won’t stop that stupid band from poking fun at you, unless you blow them away with what you can do on the pad. That would be sweet. And mesh heads, yes they are quieter, bouncier and better, but if we can adapt from drums to tea-trays, we can also adapt to very low impact strokes on the harder rubber, or the DM5’s mylar, which brings up the speed and accuracy and cuts the noise. And you can set up your DM5 with everything very close together and level. Again, it may sometimes look like we are just sitting there, but we can play better than someone almost making it around a big drum set. With eyes closed, compact wins. Hope your back recovers.

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  2. Hartman Avatar
    Hartman
    March 11, 2010

    I hear you. I’m waiting for the big set that folds and unfolds and remembers where it was, and has no cables (Bluetooth?). Everything is too darn complicated (Except my cajon).

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  3. Jetski Avatar
    Jetski
    June 23, 2010

    As a pro acoustic/electronic drummer of over 35 years, my problem is that I am perfectly happy with my new Roland TD-20SX kit with 100 drum kits ,(I’ve been playing various e drums since the Octopad of the mid 80’s) but whenever and wherever I play it..it never fails to have the other band members tell ME what THEY think the bass drum, toms, etc. SHOULD sound like. ie: “I like those toms on that certain kit but the bass drum is weak” or “you really need to find a more cracky sounding snare”…WHAT?? I have 100 snare drums to choose from, and YOU Mr.Bass player with no effects pedals and 1 amp are telling ME that YOU don’t like MY drum sounds?? How come your bass doesn’t sound like a Ricky or a Fretless?? Are you happy stuck with just one ugly bass thuddy sound all night? Wow!” I finally lost it at church , of all places, playing the church’s Td-20 kit,and that the lead guitar player vocally made a point to me in front of all the band members- that HE didn’t like the snare sound that the PA guy already had me dial in. After switching to about 4 -5 different GREAT sounding snares, the guitar player, says “no, none of those are any good”. I immeadiatly told him, “excuse me , I just played you 5 different drum kits…how many F-ing guitars did YOU bring to church today??Just ONE?? (I wanted to say “By the way-that Strat sounds like sh*t-play a Les Paul, and oh!! make sure you have dual coil humbuckers on it or I won’t be happy either!!) Sadly, I will be jumping around from band to band until I find professional enough musicians that won’t tell me how I should “sound” on my instrument. Wouldn’t it be funny to tell a keyboard player-“Look, I know you have 50 different keyboard sounds on that thing, but just play the clavinet patch all night, I don’t really want to hear the piano, the Rhodes, organ or any other sound on that machine”…yeah-right.

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  4. Nathan Lee Avatar
    Nathan Lee
    August 12, 2010

    the best drum set that i have used is the ones that is made by Pearl,~-

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  5. replacement Avatar
    replacement
    November 18, 2010

    Thanks mate. Good website you have here. Have some more websites to direct to with more info?

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  6. Aldyund Avatar
    Aldyund
    February 20, 2011

    Hello. good site, don’t you want to share hyperlinks?

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