Benny Igoe Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 Hey all - I hope I am posting in the correct forum, I am new to keyboards, and my main driver is to play drums on a keyboard (so, not a drum pad, and not drum tracks). I was looking at the Juno DS, but then I read somewhere that the drums are not the best. I would love some recommendations of keyboards with onboard or downloadable drum kits --- I really don't want to do the DAW thing. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoken6 Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 iOS app via MIDI? Cheers, Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CEB Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 I like the drums on my Kronos. But that price tag is a little extreme for just drums. An iOS app would be a nice option. 1 Quote "It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne "A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!! So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Docbop Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 What is your idea of Real Sounding drums a Jazz kit, Rock kit, Funk kit, Big Band, all those of different types of drum sounds in how sizes, tuning, amount if any muffling or open. Lots of drum libraries out there to choose from that will get you more than the defaults on a keyboard. Nothing is simple anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AROIOS Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 16 hours ago, Benny Igoe said: ... I would love some recommendations of keyboards with onboard or downloadable drum kits --- I really don't want to do the DAW thing. Cheers! Yamaha Motif family have some decent acoustic drum sounds. Roland's Dynamic Drums SRX-01 expansion board (compatible with XV, Fantom boards) is also good if you don't mind the baked-in reverb in their samples. Korg boards have historically leaned more towards processed, electronic, dance type of drum sounds. One caveat: "most natural, realistic" might not mean "best sounding". The great sounding acoustic kits we hear in records are often, if not always, heavily mixed/processed. Learning a bit of mixing techniques (compression, eq, reverb, layering) will go a long way on improving our drum sounds. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfD Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 KB with the most realistic drum sounds...😁 The Akai MPC Key 61 should have a nice variety of drum sounds. Also, MPCs allow one to import sounds and sample your own sounds too.😎 4 Quote PD "The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovernorSilver Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 Agreed with ProfD. MPC Key 61 will give you the most options for drum sounds. If you don't like the onboard drum sounds, there are seemingly endless choices of sampled drum kits you can download and install. You can use either the keys or the pads to play drums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldwin Funster Posted June 27, 2023 Share Posted June 27, 2023 NO Drums from a keyboard are so realistic that they would actually fool you unless you are a newbie to music production. That said the Roland DS drums are on par with the other drum sounds in the same price range. And Roland has several expansion packs although those lean towards the dated EDM thing. Don't dismiss the poor Roland DS based on 3rd and 4th hand opinions. Quote FunMachine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHarrell Posted June 27, 2023 Share Posted June 27, 2023 On 6/26/2023 at 10:16 AM, AROIOS said: One caveat: "most natural, realistic" might not mean "best sounding". The great sounding acoustic kits we hear in records are often, if not always, heavily mixed/processed. Learning a bit of mixing techniques (compression, eq, reverb, layering) will go a long way on improving our drum sounds. Or you could do what I did when I started creating music digitally 8 years ago: spend hundreds of dollars on drum samples and VSTs, hoping they'd give me certain kinds of sounds that were the ones I wanted, with no clue about processing or anything else (for example, if I wanted an intense distorted drum kit sound, I'd buy a VST hoping it'd have those sounds instead of, you know, applying a distortion effect to some drum samples I've already had). Much more musically satisfying this way and not a cause for regret at all! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AROIOS Posted June 28, 2023 Share Posted June 28, 2023 On 6/27/2023 at 4:07 PM, CHarrell said: Or you could do what I did when I started creating music digitally 8 years ago: spend hundreds of dollars on drum samples and VSTs, hoping they'd give me certain kinds of sounds that were the ones I wanted, with no clue about processing or anything else (for example, if I wanted an intense distorted drum kit sound, I'd buy a VST hoping it'd have those sounds instead of, you know, applying a distortion effect to some drum samples I've already had). Much more musically satisfying this way and not a cause for regret at all! 😄 I feel your pain brother (sister). It took me 20 years to realize that the big snares in records I loved (Robert Mutt Lange, Walter Afanasseff etc) had little to do with "natural" or "realistic" drums. It was also eye opening (or, mind-opening) the first time I saw Chris Lord Alge crank his snare's treble up by a whopping 12db. The amount of spicing/hyping in Pop production/mixing often looks (sounds) crazy when we compare the raw tracks to the finished products. The mix engineer and/or producer very often contribute to a huge part of the sound we hear. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHarrell Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 9 minutes ago, AROIOS said: 😄 I feel your pain brother (sister). It took me 20 years to realize that the big snares in records I loved (Robert Mutt Lange, Walter Afanasseff etc) had little to do with "natural" or "realistic" drums. It was also eye opening (or, mind-opening) the first time I saw Chris Lord Alge crank his snare's treble up by a whopping 12db. The amount of spicing/hyping in Pop production/mixing often looks (sounds) crazy when we compare the raw tracks to the finished products. The mix engineer and/or producer very often contribute to a huge part of the sound we hear. I remember in high school I was in a media production class and we were first asked to do a "scavenger hunt" of different shots to capture with the camera. One of them ended up being a sunset, and that evening had an absolutely beautiful one. I recorded it, happy that all of the elements lined up and I couldn't wait to see the footage. ...And it looked awful. It was then I started to have the idea that "natural", when it's recorded into a technological medium, doesn't look very "natural" at all, and you have to do a lot of unnatural work on it to have that effect! I think the same applies with music. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AROIOS Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 5 minutes ago, CHarrell said: ... It was then I started to have the idea that "natural", when it's recorded into a technological medium, doesn't look very "natural" at all, and you have to do a lot of unnatural work on it to have that effect! I think the same applies with music. Couldn't agree more. A friend was showing off a scenic picture yesterday and emphasized that it was "unprocessed". Little does he know that all smartphones these days apply heavy processing to the JPG files they create. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovernorSilver Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 On 6/27/2023 at 7:07 PM, CHarrell said: Or you could do what I did when I started creating music digitally 8 years ago: spend hundreds of dollars on drum samples and VSTs, hoping they'd give me certain kinds of sounds that were the ones I wanted, with no clue about processing or anything else (for example, if I wanted an intense distorted drum kit sound, I'd buy a VST hoping it'd have those sounds instead of, you know, applying a distortion effect to some drum samples I've already had). When someone says "I want natural realistic drums" they usually mean they want a nice drum sample library... at the beginning anyway. I was in a band with a friend who wanted "realistic drums" but couldn't afford the likes of Addictive Drums, Toontracks, etc. The friend did some research and eventually found a used Alesis drum machine - SR-16 I think it was. It was affordable, had decent drum samples for the money, didn't require a computer, etc. Then the friend learned that the band Suicide used a drum machine with distortion pedals, was inspired to try that approach, and was pretty happy with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrythek Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 Believe it or not, but some of the top-of-the-line arranger keyboards have excellent drums. I know Korg has drums with natural room sound blended in, as does Yamaha. No doubt there are others. It’s worth a look, but the boards are not cheap… Jerry 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoken6 Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 5 hours ago, GovernorSilver said: used Alesis drum machine - SR-16 I think it was What a classic that is. I bought one in my teens with my brother. It was still being manufactured (or at least sold new) until quite recently. Cheers, Mike. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovernorSilver Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 15 hours ago, jerrythek said: Believe it or not, but some of the top-of-the-line arranger keyboards have excellent drums. I know Korg has drums with natural room sound blended in, as does Yamaha. No doubt there are others. It’s worth a look, but the boards are not cheap… Jerry I didn't believe it until I heard it. 😎 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrythek Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 3 hours ago, GovernorSilver said: I didn't believe it until I heard it. 😎 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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