Up until now, I've always said that Roland V-drums need a lot of tweaking to work with the L1.
I think I might have been off the mark.

I sat up three L1 systems for a power trio using a set of Roland TD6s last weekend.
The drummer has not tweaked the sounds, and said he really didn't know how, he was used to using a stock kit.
To me, standing on stage, it sounded totally over-reverbed and I had my doubts about how good they would sound.
Even the kick drum had reverb...I thought "this is going to sound mushy".

Once the band started playing though, the drums blended in very nicely, they sounded like a danged CD.
Punchy, clean, sizzling, powerful. Of course the drummer was pretty darned good too, he'd have made a tin can sound good.

So...before jumping to conclusions about changing the Vdrum settings, get a good listen from the audience point of view with the whole band playing, it could make a big difference.

My band played 60's music, and I liked a dry sound, but I never heard my kit from the audience standpoint.
Maybe I was missing the boat.

This band was a power rock band and the stock kit did great...so maybe it depends on the style of music.
But it's best to really listen as an audience member before hacking up your sounds.

I just wanted to pass on this tidbit.
Every time I hear my L1s from the audience, I learn something new.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DrumrPete,

I really agree with this. The VDrums are the best-sounding, most "produced" drum sound I've ever heard or played with. My band's original format included VDrums and the game tapes were amazing.

That drummer (Rod McCarthy) later lamented "I really miss my acoustic kit", however. Now in the band's its final form, Tom Beier is happy playing "real" drums. Amplification using the L1 is almost all kick with a slight "freshening" of the top of the kit, mostly with HF. The recording of "Life of Crime" (in "at the gig...") sounds really great to me but the recording is picking up both acoustic energy of the drum kit as well as what we amplified.

It really works either way if you know what you want. I guess this (knowing what you want) alone gets you there.

I'm a closet drummer and I have to say that the Roland TD-20 has the greatest drum sounds I've ever heard. You're on the money, Drumr, about putting it in context of mixed with the band: it sounds like a CD. Plus, the little detail of being able to dial in a small amount of snare drum buzz when hitting the toms just captures it all.

I had a great experience recently. The drummer in my band started as a "toned down power drummer", but was still hitting relatively hard. The last rehearsal we made EVERYBODY turn down. He wasn't playing with brushes, but he was barely hitting the drums (in comparison with how he normally played).

By the end of a 4 hour rehearsal, everyone had comments about not being fatigued in arms, ears, or voice. And if we can pull off that level of playing on stage and then amplify it, we'll get more use out of our L1 systems.

Good stuff.

Kyle,

Great comments & great to have you back on the forum. You're making my drummer want to reconsider his VDrums.

Is that a Breedlove in your avatar?

Tom

quote:

You're making my drummer want to reconsider his VDrums

You mean he has them and hasn't tried them yet??
Unbelievable!

No, he used them last summer with his Classic & decided he didn't like them. Unfortunately he sold them.

I've also been trying to get him to try the Roland hand drum, but he's getting a great sound out of a djembe with with one of David Enke's pickups on it. I just wish it didn't have so much acoustic output!

I've been trying to get him on the forum for several months. He has some good ideas & also would be an asset to our community.

Well, I can see why he might not have liked them in context, if your music, when using a drummer, is acoustic guitar based.
E-drums aren't good for subtle nuance like you can get from acoustic instruments,
but they're nice for the wide variety of available percussion samples.
I have a real love/hate relationship with my electronics.
Love the ease of set up and smooth overall sound, hate the loss of intricacies and explosives.

That would be true, except he was playing with a power trio all last summer & not with me. You're right though, it was the nuances he missed. I would give that up, personally, to get rid of the acoustic volume onstage though. You guys are beating yourselves up with some pretty high dB's at close range.

Yeah, Tom, that's a Breedlove 12 string. Been doing solo shows with that thing and it just sounds so full.

I think V-Drums and guitar emulation devices are better when used in a full ensemble context, where nuance isn't the main concern. If I play my Line 6 stuff solo, I hear "digititis" and artifacts and all that. If I play in a band, well, I had a guy come up to me one night after I had played a Variax and PodXTLive swearing my all digital system sounded every bit as good as the $12,000 all vintage Fender system he had just purchased. Not if you play them side by side, but with 2 guitars, drums, harmonica, vocals all going on and doing the blues, who could tell?