V Drums with Superior Drummer

[TD77]

Anyone using Roland V Drums and triggering superior drummer or ez drummer for their library of sounds? If so what are your thoughts and experience versus using a keyboard. Thinking of grabbing a roland set for this purpose and feel it may be a more effective workflow into Logic. From what I have seen on youtube it looks like a good option to get drums down and can save a lot of time. Thanks

 

[secondwindow]

Anyone using Roland V Drums and triggering superior drummer or ez drummer for their library of sounds? If so what are your thoughts and experience versus using a keyboard. Thinking of grabbing a roland set for this purpose and feel it may be a more effective workflow into Logic. From what I have seen on youtube it looks like a good option to get drums down and can save a lot of time. Thanks

I've liked using e-drums, and Superior Drummer or BFD, a lot for putting down basic beats for songwriting and demos. I just record the MIDI so I can "reamp" later.

Beyond the basics, my skills aren't up to playing what I'd want for final tracks. If I were a great drummer, then I'd do it all myself with a V-drum set.

 

[levipeto]

Anyone using Roland V Drums and triggering superior drummer or ez drummer for their library of sounds? If so what are your thoughts and experience versus using a keyboard. Thinking of grabbing a roland set for this purpose and feel it may be a more effective workflow into Logic. From what I have seen on youtube it looks like a good option to get drums down and can save a lot of time. Thanks

Yes! It's awesome!! Do it!

 

[TD77]

Lol. Really contemplating.

 

[Chewie5150]

Just saw your thread today. I took the plunge back in the summer. I'm not a drummer at all. I have EZ drummer and SD3 and in the past used midi keyboard to finger drum decently in conjunction with programming in midi. For added fun decided to pick up a Roland TD-17KVX to learn and work on putting down basic beats as starting point. It's a lot of fun. I say do it if you have the space and interest

 

[Rock Chalk]

Just saw your thread today. I took the plunge back in the summer. I'm not a drummer at all. I have EZ drummer and SD3 and in the past used midi keyboard to finger drum decently in conjunction with programming in midi. For added fun decided to pick up a Roland TD-17KVX to learn and work on putting down basic beats as starting point. It's a lot of fun. I say do it if you have the space and interest

Damn....those are kind of high dollar, but it sure looks like fun!

 

[marsonic]

I'm not a drummer, and I don't do that for anything that I do, but..

Even years and years ago, some of the drummers I knew IRL really liked vDrums (or similar) largely for the same reasons that we like modelers - more control over the sounds themselves, easy editing/config, changing sounds after the fact (assuming you capture dry and "re-amp"), quiet practice, etc.. The only serious complaints I heard even in mid-2000s had to do with hi-hats and rimshots.

I haven't heard the rimshot complaint in a while, but I guess it would really depend on the sample pack you use.

And, apparently, Roland recently came out with a hi-hat controller that actually works like a hi-hat and is waaaaay closer. It's expensive....just the hi-hat costs over a grand. But, apparently, it's to the point that even really picky drummers can use the same techniques they use on a real one and get the sounds they want.

Personally....if I were setting up a more complete "music room" and certainly if I were setting up an actual home studio capable of recording...what I've heard at least heavily implies that a $5,000 or so vDrum kit is probably worth investing in, especially compared to a $5,000 normal kit and the thousands worth of mics and pres and even more on a good-sounding live room it would take to record it.

Obviously YMMV. But, if you're recording at home....

If you're just doing scratch tracks and plan on going to a "real" studio to record drums...it's probably not worth the cost compared to more basic pads.

But...it does seem like it's to the point that you can get what you want "at home" for a lot less money between modelers, vDrums, and some vocal shields. It's still different. But, a lot of people like the "raw" recordings from a basic space, low-end equipment, etc.. It seems like this stuff gives a very different set of trade-offs that are probably perfect for a lot of projects.

My bet would be that the band performing together and getting the performance all at once with clean recordings is worth more than the kit maybe sounding a bit better if the cost is recording it separately.

 

[Chewie5150]

If you're just putting together something for more hobby use you don't need to drops serious cash...but to get into 'decent' quality edrums there is a certain threshold of money you need to spend. That's a bit subjective. actual drummers who have learned on acoustic sets will be far more selective/picky about things. Like the above post mentions the newest Roland hi hat improved a long held gripe about the lack of sensitivity on the hi hat. For me something like that isn't critical. So how much do you spend? (also buy used!) what range of kits would be good? check out this guy's youtube channel, he has a lot of good vids comparing kit ranges discussing features/price points. Here's an example:

 

[Dave Merrill]

As counterpoint...

I've finger drummed for years for fun, long before I had anything electronic to trigger with it. Think I'm actually pretty good if a bit inconsistent, wouldn't want to gig that though.

I picked up a collection of Trap Kat stuff some years ago, and a Roland Pad8.

I sucked, so bad, no fun. Sold it all, happy about it.

YMMV of course, hope it does, but that's how it was for me.

 

[dpeterson]

I've got an Akai pad to tap stuff in, but nothing is as good as an ekit (have a hodge podge roland mesh kit) to get the midi in quick and easily. I'm half way decent on drums, i'll go bang out a few bars and then clean it up (the lars method).

 

[DJD100]

We trigger Slate 5.5 drum sounds via an old Roland TD-20 V-Drums live and in the studio, though we use the V-Drum cymbals live for reliable choking etc. Works fine as our drummer has learned it well (I use the keyboard/mouse when I program drums).

The Pearl Mimic Pro Drum Percussion Sound Module Powered by Slate would be the logical upgrade for Slate users.

 

[marsonic]

If you're just putting together something for more hobby use you don't need to drops serious cash...but to get into 'decent' quality edrums there is a certain threshold of money you need to spend. That's a bit subjective. actual drummers who have learned on acoustic sets will be far more selective/picky about things. Like the above post mentions the newest Roland hi hat improved a long held gripe about the lack of sensitivity on the hi hat. For me something like that isn't critical. So how much do you spend? (also buy used!) what range of kits would be good? check out this guy's youtube channel, he has a lot of good vids comparing kit ranges discussing features/price points. Here's an example:

Awesome advice.

Also, somehow, I just had a flashback I didn't remember at first...

When I worked at the (high-end) studio, I ran live sound for practice sessions (it was one of the things we did) for a band that used vDrums plus a hi-hat with an sm57 on it (everything before the stage box was the band's live rig).

It worked really well, and at least in a live-sound context, it was crazy easy to mix. The first time they came in to rent the space, sound check for the whole kit took like 5 minutes. And most of that was looking up patch numbers I'll never remember for the (hardware) delay/reverb unit that I thought would sound cool on the (too dry) snare sound he sent me.

IIRC, he was using the vDrums to trigger something in Logic. After the first one, he put a reverb or something on the snare channel in his laptop and subsequent sound checks took about a minute for the whole kit....literally just a few quarter notes for input levels and move on.

There's a lot of value in that as far as I'm concerned.