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Combining Acoustic Drums & Electronic Drums


prblack

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Hi

 

Our band's drummer has just purchased a Roland TD-7 kit for our rehearsals and so she can practice our material at home. She also has an acoustic kit that she would like to use live. What would be the best method of combining the two kits? Thanks for your help.

 

prblack :)

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I am not a drummer, so I can't provide much practical advice I'm afraid.

 

However, I would suggest that you look at some examples of some well known drummers who have/are doing this such as;

 

Neil Peart of Rush. Check out the video "Rush in Rio". He has a full set of acoustic drums and electronic drums on stage with him.

 

Alan White of Yes. You can see some of his kit in "Keys to Ascension" and "9012 Live". Alan White has some pads incorprated into his acoustic set.

 

Bill Bruford - "Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe"

Bill Bruford has electronic drums mixed in with his acoustic set. I think he uses the same set-up with King Crimson, so you could also try some of their live DVDs ("Deja Vroom" is the only one I've watched)

 

Futureman - If you want to see something really "out there" check out Bela Fleck and the Flecktone's "Live at the Quick". All the guys in this band are cutting edge musicans.

 

She will need either a monitor feed or a drum capable amplifer so that she can hear her set live.

 

Hope this has been some help.

 

Cheers

Nothing is as it seems but everything is exactly what it is - B. Banzai

 

Life is what happens while you are busy playing in bands.

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The best answer I could give is to be creative. There are a multitude of ways to combine acoustics and electronics. It depends on the needs of the music, aesthetic preference, ergonomics, and exactly what kind of sound is desired.

 

For example: Cymbals are still hard to do with samples, and besides, the electronic ones look ugly. Also, a kick drum is such a standard visual element, you may want to keep it. So you could go for having an acoustic kick drum, maybe an acoustic snare, real cymbals, but have all electronic toms. This is just one possibility. It all comes down to being creative and using what works best and looks good on stage... oh, and making the band happy too! (I've had bass players *hate* the idea of an electronic kick drum - so ask the band what's working and what's not.)

Just for the record.
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When I incorporate electronics with accoustics, I tend to use only a couple of pads - one next to the hi-hat (where drummers often use a 2nd snare such as a Piccalo) and then one or two adjacent to the mounted toms.

 

I normally use electroins more for percussion accents (such as congaa, timbales, cowbells, etc -rather than trying to reproduce accoustics sounds (which my accoustic kit already provides)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree with all above. Combining them does not mean having the pads emulate acoustic toms or cymbals. They don't quite anyway. Use them more for alternate sounds. Another popular addition to an acoustic kit is a multipad (PAD8, DrumKat, etc) next to the highhat for multiple alternate/percussion sounds. Just a thought.

 

Jay

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