Small Studio Drum Set?

[Dave The Rave]

I just spent the better part of the evening at the local Guitar Center trying out drums with one of my sons. I plan to purchase a set for my home studio that mainly he will play (I'm sure I'll get a go too).

 

I like the Roland V-Drum sets a lot. Especially the headphones capability. I really don't care too much about the sounds as I have plenty of kits available in my Kurz 2600/Roland/E-Mu modules. I'm assuming that I can take midi out of the V-Drum controller and put it into my current setup directly to control drums there.

 

I'm looking for advice on quality and utility. Do any of you have experience using these V-Drum sets in a small studio at all? Are there any significant drawbacks to them? Would I be better off with an ordinary acoustic set of drums mic'ed up or triggering my midi sets via some kind of interface module?

 

The V-Drum Session (Studio?) set looks and feels the best - it should do at $4.5K!! I don't think I'm ready to spend that much on drums just yet though.

 

The V-Drum Stage set seems to be a good compromise between quality and price to me, at $2.5K (still a lot of money really!).

 

The smaller sets and Yamaha stuff didn't seem to be up to snuff IMO. Frinstance, they did not seem have a rim shot trigger on the snare and the pads didn't feel right.

 

Any thoughts/ideas/opinions on home studio drums for use with my keys/modules/Cubase VST setup? All input welcome.

 

Cheers,

DTR

[Dave The Rave]

How rude of me....I forgot to introduce myself first.

 

Hi!

 

I recently joined the forum after a friend told me about it. I have mainly been sticking to the keyboard forum, since that's my main thing. i have some drum questions, so here I am....

 

I have been making music for years and years, but only just recently got my home studio together. I plan on laying down some demo tracks pretty soon, but my biggest problem is drums - I'm not a drummer at all, and find it difficult to program decent sounding rhythms. My son is a drummer-in-training, so I'm hoping he'll be able to fill the percussion section role pretty soon.

 

Cheers for now,

DTR

(Dave's the name, Rave is not my musical genre, it's what I do a lot - rant and rave!)

[DC]

Say Dave,

 

I primarily hang out at the guitar forum but come here too. I've got a small Ludwig kit from the 60s that I bang on and will be experimenting recording soon. There's nothing like the real thing (read that V-drum thread).

 

On most of our original recordings I use a Roland SPD-8 pad to play the drum parts. Also have an Alesis D-4 for the sounds. Drums are one of the first instruments I played growing up, but I ended up beind a career guitar/bass/vocal guy. My chops aren't so great on real drums, but I'm pretty solid on pads. The Roland is like an octapad deal with footpedal and maybe it's the pads being close together, but I can play in time on that thing. Still working on my 'real drum' chops, but a pad thingy might work out well for you writing drum parts.

 

I'd say your son would be much happier in the long run with a 'real' set of drums to learn on. For the cost of the V-drums, you could get a nice set of real drums and a pad controller to trigger your synths.

[Dwarf]

Hi Dave,

It all depends. I've tried out the V-drums in a store and really liked them - the feel is very nice to play on. If volume is a consideration then the V-drums are probably your best bet, especially since you have a bunch of sound sources you can use to augment the stock sounds. Plus you don't have to worry about micing them (think of the money you'll save on mics).

 

On the other hand, nothing beats the feel of real drums. The subtle variety of sounds you can get from a real snare drum is amazing (could be a bad thing depending on your point of view). Of course, you're kinda limited to whatever sounds you can physically get from the kit - you can't switch between an 18" kick and a 26" kick unless you actually have one of each available. But the sounds will be better (provided you tune the drums well and mic them properly) and you won't get that machine quality you hear on a lot of samples.

 

Maybe you should win the lottery and get both

 

--

Rob

[Blue Strat]

I'd say that acoustic drums would be a good thing. They're cheaper than the V-drums, and you can always add triggers to adapt it to midi technology. I seem to remember seeing some triggers from ddrum in Musician's Friend that mount on the rim of the drum, by removing one of the tensioning screws, putting the trigger on, and replacing the screw.

 

The down side is that you have to tune the acoustic drums. I'm not sure if you have to do this with V-drums, but I wouldn't think so from what I've seen of them.

[djarrett]

Hey, Dave:

Bluestrats suggestion is actually my setup. Acoustic drums with ddrum triggers and a ddrum4 custom. I have hundreds of drumset sound choices, and can send out live with an electronic/acoustic mix.

The triggers have become much more accurate in the last few years.

Less false triggering.

 

Hope this does not add to your confusion!

DJ

[Jazzman]

All of the folks have good ideas here, but if you plan on tracking, V-drums are cool to use. I plan on getting a set soon myself for the studio.

 

I have a real set of drums but I also have them miked too. One thing cool about V-Drums is that you can set an upper volume limit to the set, so when recording you can guaranty pretty much how loud it will get. Practice is also cool. The electronic sound module that comes with the set have pre-recorded tunes that you can play along with without getting frustrated. They are just loops of a whole group with-out the drummer. Different styles of music and tempos.

 

I like real sets myself, but for studio work without buying a bunch of mics, and a large mixer to combine the sound with it would be great. Now the cost for V-Drums are up there, so you need to think about it. My whole set in the studio is miked, so I have taken the time to place the mics for the proper reproduction. It takes time to do with trial and mostly error. With V-Drums no problem.

 

Actually DJ has a cool set up with the triggers, something I would like to do myself in the near future.

 

Well.. Just my 2 cents worth to throw into the mix.

 

Jazzman

[where02190]

Nothing beats the real thing, although for keeping the neighbors from lobbing in grenades, the V-drums are about the best going IMHO.

 

We have several kits here, so choices aren't a problem. Often we'll trigger samples to augment recorded kick and snares too. Best of both worlds.

 

Hope this is helpful.

[RABid]

For a small studio it is dependant on how much experience you have tuning drums and setting up microphones. It is also very easy to record V-drum parts to MIDI and fix any little errors that may occur in a session without having to record the track again. For the past few years I have settled on a Roland SP-11 kit in my apartment. I miss having a real drum set, but I had to make due. This week I picked up a TD-8 and a PD120 with a snare stand to merge with the SP11 kit. Now I feel that I am in drum heaven. My priority was a good feeling VDrum as my snare so I went with the biggest and best. I hate banging on hard rubber. Cymbal pads have improved greatly in the past year. With judicious cross-fade programming of ride cymbals you can get great realism. Compared to sampled drums the V-Drum/SP11 hi-hat control blows samplers away. I have Battery, DR008, and a few gig of drum samples. I will use those mostly for toms and crash cymbals. I cannot see any sample replacing the snare or hi-hat from the VDrums, not without loosing realism.

 

So bottom line I guess my suggestion is go with a low end VDrum kit, but expand it with a PD120 and snare drum stand. This is probably the best solution is a small studio. With the $1000 you save you can pick up a used kit if you want some real drums later on.

 

Robert