New Electronic Drum Kit.......

[RoyS]

I have worked in the past with a 9 piece soul band, The drummer of which used a Roland V kit (I forget which one exactly) Each ‘drum’ was available on a separate unbalanced jack which I then plugged into 10 or so channels of DI and mixed as per usual. I now find out that he seems to have downgraded to another Roland kit that only has a L&R output – and at a recent rehearsal sounded like pants (tinny & cheap)…. Does anybody have any words of wisdom regarding making this kit sound better?

 

Cheers.

 

Roy

[tomrbland]

Could you tell me what brain he is using? I have experience of various V-drums gear so might be able to shed some light on the problem. But I have never had on sound cheap and tinny. The cheaper units do sound like electronic drums rather than real ones but other than that - nothing.

[Peter F]

Does anybody have any words of wisdom regarding making this kit sound better?

 

Yes, go through all the individual sounds in the brain of the electronic kit, tweak and pick the best ones you can find.

Then spend some time making sure the balance of the individual sounds is right.

 

That's the best you can do with just a left and right output.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

[Wilflet]

Does anybody have any words of wisdom regarding making this kit sound better?

 

Yes, go through all the individual sounds in the brain of the electronic kit, tweak and pick the best ones you can find.

Then spend some time making sure the balance of the individual sounds is right.

 

That's the best you can do with just a left and right output.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

seconded- on the plus side you make a day of getting it right once and then have very little to do channel eq and dynamics wise at the gigs.

[sonicnrg]

Tell him to get the TD-20 back! What on earth made him do that?

 

I would guess he's 'downgraded' to a TD-9, as even the TD-12 has 4 outs.

[pisquee]

If he can't get the TD20 back (which would be the ideal) then you can you play with the panning, so you have kick and snare on the left output, and toms and cymbals on the right? This would give you a bit of help with mixing and eqing etc, at the expense of a stereo image.

[lightsource]

Does anybody have any words of wisdom regarding making this kit sound better?

 

Yes.... the make and model of the current Drum kit would be a good starting point.

[Stuart91]

You can also change the balance of the different parts of the kit to suit his playing style. I had someone turn up with an entry-level Roland kit, we barely had time for a line-check, and the hi-hat was overpoweringly loud compared to everything else. I think this was just the way the kit was being played. A bit of a tweak of relative volumes before the second set worked wonders. (Although the overall sound was still by no means brilliant)

[jodat2]

I've used a couple of the lower quality Roland kits before. Neither of them would sound nice through an instrument amp, however going straight through the PA gave the kit a much clearer tone.

 

As what has already been mentioned, "tweaking" the levels would definitely improve the sound quality. Some of the factory tone presets on specific drum pads are really hard to work with especially with only an overall stereo output level.

[dbuckley]

Also, most drum brains are MIDI controlled, so you can (given sufficient RTFMing) plug in a long MIDI lead to a MIDI control surface and plant it next to the mixer FOH.

[sonicnrg]

Also, most drum brains are MIDI controlled, so you can (given sufficient RTFMing) plug in a long MIDI lead to a MIDI control surface and plant it next to the mixer FOH.

 

But as the drum brains / modules convert the drum pads signals before MIDI even gets a looking I don't think that would help.

The only way it might would be to have 2 identical modules :-

the 1st translating the pad information, and sending everything out as MIDI data.

the 2nd taking the MIDI data and converting it back into audio.

[bassnote]

Also, most drum brains are MIDI controlled, so you can (given sufficient RTFMing) plug in a long MIDI lead to a MIDI control surface and plant it next to the mixer FOH.

 

But as the drum brains / modules convert the drum pads signals before MIDI even gets a looking I don't think that would help.

The only way it might would be to have 2 identical modules :-

the 1st translating the pad information, and sending everything out as MIDI data.

the 2nd taking the MIDI data and converting it back into audio.

You will probably find that if you get the cc messages right, you will be able to remote control the drummers brain just using a midi controller (for example change the volumes / panning on each individual drum) worth checking the manual about.

 

How long can you make a MIDI lead?? what length do you have to start messing with boosters?

[RoyS]

...have now discovered its a Roland TD-9 controller...

[dbuckley]

You will probably find that if you get the cc messages right, you will be able to remote control the drummers brain just using a midi controller (for example change the volumes / panning on each individual drum) worth checking the manual about.

Thats the honey.

 

How long can you make a MIDI lead?? what length do you have to start messing with boosters?

I've had midi going happily over 150 foot of mic cable...

 

Edited to add: it occurs to me that if you have a digital console with a MIDI faders function (as many (but not all) of the Yams do) then you could use that layer to control the brain, removing the need for another control surface, and giving advantages such as recall...

[greenalien]

The tinny and cheap sound you describe could be a level / impedance match somewhere in the audio chain, it would be typical of what you would get if you plugged a line-level signal into a mic input. Could be worth checking the drum module manual to check the output signal specification.