E-drums: could they be a common thing for small bands gigs?

[metropolis_4]

Man I’m with you, I love big amps and loud drums, but two of our most frequently played venues cut out live bands this year and only do acoustic singer songwriter stuff and DJs now because of the volume issues.

I don’t see this as an issue that impacts touring bands in clubs so much as your local working band. That rate at which it’s happening locally concerns me.


It was sarcasm man, my apologies. I’d recommend putting me on ignore for your own sake. It’s probably not gonna get better.




I guess I’ll have to edit that post for folks who have their sarcasm detectors calibrated a bit differently than mine.

@Orvillain and I must have been smoking the same stuff.


Just to be clear, I’m not imposing a requirement to use an electronic kit. I would argue that the industry is naturally moving towards imposing volume constraints though, and that drums are the most frequent offender there. Electronic drums are one of several possible solutions. There’s obviously continued innovation needed in that space.

Nah, I’m not ignoring anyone and I’m not holding any grudges. But I am gonna call out BS when I see it

As for the need for continued innovation: when at least half of what you play on acoustic drums isn’t even possible on e drums it’s a good sign the technology isn’t there yet.

 

[metropolis_4]

Oh, and as for the convenience thing, they leave the kit all connected, and 3-4 guys carry it right out to the trailer intact.

How convenient, it only takes a team of 4 guys to carry it to its trailer!

 

[TSJMajesty]

How convenient, it only takes a team of 4 guys to carry it to its trailer!

I get the sarcasm, but like I said, they run their own sound, so yes, they have a trailer for all that equipment. And it's a 5-piece band, so there's always enough people to make that 3 minute trip. Leaving it completely set up saves a ton of time.

 

[spawnofthesith]

I’ve been racking my brain but I can’t think of a time I’ve -ever- seen an eKit being used across any genre live…. Local or National… unless it was disguised as a real kit and i was just oblivious

Oh wait my youth band at church when I was a teenager used an ekit I guess


I did stream a show the other night, when the Disco Biscuits perform under the name Tractorbeam it’s an ekit but the point of tractorbeam is pure electronic. Normally billed shows it’s always real drums


Of course this is all anecdotal but it’s more than enough for me to feel pretty confident that claims that “e drums are what the industry is inevitably moving towards” is a bit of a delusional statement

 

[DrewJD82]

If you actually care about how the band sounds out in the audience

Then you wouldn't subject them to electronic drums that simply don't sound anything close to realistic to anyone who has ever picked up a drum stick.

What's crazy to me is that two of my past drummers hit the things like they wanted to break them, metal guys just wailing the piss out of them and I still never had an issue getting my vocals through a PA system, whether it was a nice PA or a shit PA in a VFW hall.

Like this dude, Dan (RIP), this guy hit hard as shit, there's a mic in his kick and everything else is coming off the stage, no problem hearing my mouth all over the place and that's a dive bar in a small town in Massachusetts, definitely not a decent PA.



Here's a better example- the PA is below the balcony where this video is being shot from, it used to sound like shit up there until they added speakers and hung them from the ceiling. The floor audience could hear my vocals just fine, but you can hear the drums booming around because Brian is a literal maniac and was artificially fired up that night. There's a verse/chorus here, I'm barely singing that verse above speaking volume and then I belt out of the chorus, while I'm about 18" from either cymbal on the kit while Brian's beating the shit out of it.



If the vocals sound like shit it's because I was shitty singer then.

I dunno what kind of music ya'll are playing but if you're dealing with drummers as loud as those guys or louder, I don't think the kit is the issue.

 

[DrewJD82]

I’ve been racking my brain but I can’t think of a time I’ve -ever- seen an eKit being used across any genre live…. Local or National… unless it was disguised as a real kit and i was just oblivious

Oh wait my youth band at church when I was a teenager used an ekit I guess


I did stream a show the other night, when the Disco Biscuits perform under the name Tractorbeam it’s an ekit but the point of tractorbeam is pure electronic. Normally billed shows it’s always real drums


Of course this is all anecdotal but it’s more than enough for me to feel pretty confident that claims that “e drums are what the industry is inevitably moving towards” is a bit of a delusional statement

 

[ragingplatypi]

I disagree.
You can easily record or amplify a drum kit in a very natural way.

I've done that many times with jazz combos.

I’ll relent on that. Jazz is a different beast from rock.

 

[spawnofthesith]

There’s obviously a whole fuck bucket of things that go into recording drums but I find it to be one of the most important aspects of the recording process. To each their own but personally I could never get on board with releasing my bands material with sampled drums


On our last EP we actually opted to change things up and invested all our “budget” on going to a real studio to record the drums (The Blasting Room in Ft. Collins owned by descendants/black flags drummer)

And then self tracked bass/guitar and did all the mixing/mastering ourselves as well (big shout out to my bass player who took on the mixing tasks, the drum files we got from the studio were a scary monolith of tracks )

Honestly super happy with those results and probably how I’d want to proceed in the future. It would also be nice to experiment with outsourcing the mix/master too but that’s obviously more money and our bass player did a pretty good job imo

 

[EOengineer]

Just curious who in this thread is actually using electronic kits in their projects?

 

[Elf]

Interesting results if you Google “major music acts that are triggering drum samples live?”

 

[EOengineer]

Interesting results if you Google “major music acts that are triggering drum samples live?”

Yeah Pantera was triggering kick and snare all the way back in the 90s. I think that’s more sample reinforcement though instead of wholesale samples live. Kind of apples and oranges.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Yeah Pantera was triggering kick and snare all the way back in the 90s. I think that’s more sample reinforcement though instead of wholesale samples live. Kind of apples and oranges.

I think Vinny escalated the triggers more and more over the years


I have a friends band that opened up for hell yeah at one point… the drummer got the chance to play Vinny’s kit all triggered up (as far as I can recall he stated that the entire kit was triggered)…. He said it was kind of awesome and powerful feeling but also he couldn’t personally jive with that type of dynamic loss full tkme

 

[FuzzyAce]

The other thing that would make sense in drum-land is more options for quieter acoustic drums. Basically the 30w 1x12 drum kit.

So like an acoustic kit loaded with EL84s?
I'm listening...

 

[FuzzyAce]

95dB is nothing. That's insane.

Mhm. I've farted louder than that.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Mhm. I've farted louder than that.

Clips!!

 

[EOengineer]

I think Vinny escalated the triggers more and more over the years


I have a friends band that opened up for hell yeah at one point… the drummer got the chance to play Vinny’s kit all triggered up (as far as I can recall he stated that the entire kit was triggered)…. He said it was kind of awesome and powerful feeling but also he couldn’t personally jive with that type of dynamic loss full tkme

Yeah the loss of dynamics is a double edged sword. Obviously as you lose dynamics you gain consistency from a FOH/mix perspective, which is what I suspect drove the sample usage anyway.

Fortunately a lot of rock and metal doesn’t intend to sound natural, so it works in that environment. Definitely less so for jazz, classical, etc.

 

[FuzzyAce]

To each their own but personally I could never get on board with releasing my bands material with sampled drums

I get what you're saying, but in reality tons of really great albums - released over many years and years - have used sampled drums. Either as a replacement or for stacking purposes. Most people have no idea it is a sample though, and that's the important thing (unless you want it obvious).

 

[ragingplatypi]

So like an acoustic kit loaded with EL84s?
I'm listening...

They actually make heads and cymbals that are designed to be quieter, but they’re not very popular.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Clips!!

The SPL killed the mic! Sorry.

 

[DLC86]

Mhm. I've farted louder than that.

That's how you move some air!