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

[TSJMajesty]

TD 50's

That's what my old band has.

 

[metropolis_4]

I think most guitarists would rather solve “the problems WITH drummers” primarily by eliminating the need to have one in your band.

Maybe if all you guys treated your drummers better and didn’t gripe about acoustic drums so much you could get a real drummer and then you wouldn’t be stuck with the losers you seem to be dealing with

 

[OneEng]

Cost a pretty penny . There is always something new though. 7 series now!

 

[EOengineer]

Maybe if all you guys treated your drummers better and didn’t gripe about acoustic drums so much you could get a real drummer and then you wouldn’t be stuck with the losers you seem to be dealing with

Hey this guy is defending drummers!

 

[[Nathan]]

Wow, all of a sudden a stock standard drum kit is too loud. I must have missed the memo on when drummers need to adapt to ekits or perish, oh wait it hasn’t happened anywhere except this thread from a handful of people, phew!

It’s all genre dependant but from high school to jamming to rehearsal to gigging a traditional drum kit has never been a problem. I’m all for edrums if the drummer wants to do it for their own reasons, you do you man… but to suggest that’s where things are heading or bust, nah.

And yea I’ve also heard the super expensive recent ekits are massively bridging the gap with feel and performance. The Roland VAD 716 acoustic ekit is $12,700 AUD. Maybe in 10 to 20 years when the price massively goes down for this kind of tech it’ll become more commonplace, but right now it’s a crazy penny to drop for the best performance you can buy today stuff.

As a side note I really enjoyed that clip Leon shared, when someone embraces pads like that it’s such a great vibe, I also looked up some other artists who I thought might use ekits but they just straight up use drum machines and other synths which also get the job done for those genres.

 

[EOengineer]

Wow, all of a sudden a stock standard drum kit is too loud. I must have missed the memo on when drummers need to adapt to ekits or perish, oh wait it hasn’t happened anywhere except this thread from a handful of people, phew!

You’ve never heard someone say drums are too loud?

 

[[Nathan]]

You’ve never heard someone say drums are too loud?

Loud is relative to different people. As someone in the band I’d just wear plugs or iems, if it’s the crowd or foh point of view they can mix accordingly. Never had an issue with acoustic drum bleed being too loud for a venue mix. For even the smallest 50 person punk club venues it just comes with the turf of seeing a grungy live band. For a regular couple hundred stage setup the distance is fine. It also amplified by the sound guy over the PA to be…. louder.

You can also ask the drummer not to go OP 100% on the kit if it’s insanely loud. I don’t even want to say “dial it down”, more… hey man can you not go full caveman it’s a bit loud in here.

 

[EOengineer]

Loud is relative to different people. As someone in the band I’d just wear plugs or iems, if it’s the crowd or foh point of view they can mix accordingly. Never had an issue with acoustic drum bleed being too loud for a venue

I’m not really sure what to say here other than my experiences have been very different, particularly in the smaller > 100 capacity venues.

Larger stages with seasoned live sound guys handle things better, but unfortunately that’s not every gig.

YMMV, I guess.

 

[HotRats]

Loud is relative to different people. As someone in the band I’d just wear plugs or iems, if it’s the crowd or foh point of view they can mix accordingly. Never had an issue with acoustic drum bleed being too loud for a venue mix. For even the smallest 50 person punk club venues it just comes with the turf of seeing a grungy live band. For a regular couple hundred stage setup the distance is fine. It also amplified by the sound guy over the PA to be…. louder.

You can also ask the drummer not to go OP 100% on the kit if it’s insanely loud. I don’t even want to say “dial it down”, more… hey man can you not go full caveman it’s a bit loud in here.

I agree with you, but we have to admit that drums, like any other acoustic instrument, can't be played at different volumes without affecting their tone. In other words, they need to be played with the right amount of energy to produce the right sound.

In a rock band, drums have to be hit hard, unless you want to sound like a pussy.

There's a certain amount of "loud" you just can't avoid with acoustic drums in a rock setting. That's just how it is. It's the beauty of it.
Quiet rock bands with acoustic drums simply don’t exist in reality. And yes, the volume level that a rock band puts out can definitely be a problem for some venues.

My answer to the volume issue isn’t to ask the band to turn it down, but to stop hiring rock bands in the first place, if live music is the main attraction.

 

[Piing]

 

[Orvillain]

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 would argue that the industry is naturally moving towards imposing volume constraints though

And honestly, we need to start pushing back against it. The only reason venues are doing that is because of noise complaints. They get noise complaints because developers are buying up loads of real estate, building prison tower flats above and around the venues, moving in a ton of people and making shit tons of money off them by charging the not only the mortgate money, but also the monthly service charges, and then these fucking IDIOTS who move right next door to a rock venue that has been there for 30 odd years, suddenly start making noise complaints and try to get the venue shut down.

And yeah, that might be a bit political, but it is what is happening in London and all across the UK. They're killing community for the corporate interests. Noise level restrictions are 100% part of that. There's nothing natural about it - it is all part of a devious plot.

 

[EOengineer]

And honestly, we need to start pushing back against it. The only reason venues are doing that is because of noise complaints. They get noise complaints because developers are buying up loads of real estate, building prison tower flats above and around the venues, moving in a ton of people and making shit tons of money off them by charging the not only the mortgate money, but also the monthly service charges, and then these fucking IDIOTS who move right next door to a rock venue that has been there for 30 odd years, suddenly start making noise complaints and try to get the venue shut down.

And yeah, that might be a bit political, but it is what is happening in London and all across the UK. They're killing community for the corporate interests. Noise level restrictions are 100% part of that. There's nothing natural about it - it is all part of a devious plot.

You’re preaching to the choir. We have similar issues over here in the United States of Cheeseburgers.

 

[[Nathan]]

And honestly, we need to start pushing back against it. The only reason venues are doing that is because of noise complaints. They get noise complaints because developers are buying up loads of real estate, building prison tower flats above and around the venues, moving in a ton of people and making shit tons of money off them by charging the not only the mortgate money, but also the monthly service charges, and then these fucking IDIOTS who move right next door to a rock venue that has been there for 30 odd years, suddenly start making noise complaints and try to get the venue shut down.

And yeah, that might be a bit political, but it is what is happening in London and all across the UK. They're killing community for the corporate interests. Noise level restrictions are 100% part of that. There's nothing natural about it - it is all part of a devious plot.

That is scarily accurate to Sydney as well. Most of the venues of yesteryear have already closed here. Not really much left to salvage cause the damage is done.

My answer to the volume issue isn’t to ask the band to turn it down, but to stop hiring rock bands in the first place, if live music is the main attraction.

Gross, that’s on you man

 

[Orvillain]

That is scarily accurate to Sydney as well. Most of the venues of yesteryear have already closed here. Not really much left to salvage cause the damage is done.

It's a worldwide plan to create a global government with no borders, no culture, and no fun!! Eat your NGO provided insect slop, and enjoy your AI matrix cubicle!!

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

Yeah I have done. When I left inMusic they took the Strata Prime off me, so now I need to figure out a new e-kit at some point. I do need one. Because I write a lot with one, and it really helps speed up songwriting. Instead of having to program drums note-by-note, I can just jump on a kit and play.

A good portion of bands that use acoustic drums can't get the vocals over the mix. The kind of music my band plays and that people come to hear has lots of vocals. I won't subject them to the crap sound of a band like that as it doesn't sound realistic like the album as the mix is totally wacked and no one wants to go out and listen to cymbals and snare all night.

You've made this point about vocalists needing to cut through a lot. But did you ever stop to think that maybe those vocalists have shit technique?

 

[EOengineer]

It's a worldwide plan to create a global government with no borders, no culture, and no fun!! Eat your NGO provided insect slop, and enjoy your AI matrix cubicle!!

I doubt anyone’s going to force you to stop eating the paint chips you’ve been eating all these years.

Yeah I have done. When I left inMusic they took the Strata Prime off me, so now I need to figure out a new e-kit at some point. I do need one. Because I write a lot with one, and it really helps speed up songwriting. Instead of having to program drums note-by-note, I can just jump on a kit and play.

That sucks you lost your kit. This might help take some of the sting out of getting something up and running. I use it and it’s worked well for me going on 5 years now.

Audiofront - eDRUMin

www.audiofront.net

 

[Orvillain]

I doubt anyone’s going to force you to stop eating the paint chips you’ve been eating all these years.

 

[HotRats]

Gross, that’s on you man

Low volume rock and roll is gross, man.

 

[2112]

Tangential to this discussion, one big development over the last decade or so here in Perth with smaller and medium size venues is most of them having in-house backline that's (mostly) well looked after and maintained. Bands bring heads & drum breakables and they walk in to a mic'd up kit & cabs more or less ready to go. The venue then isn't dealing with wildly varying noise levels from night to night. Makes things so much easier and sound so much more consistent than the days of every band dragging in their full backline.

One of our drummer's students invited us down to one of his first gigs, a "plug and play" style open mic night that runs 8 bands back to back with decent backline and a good in house sound engineer. Free entry, lineup mostly young/new bands. I went not expecting much at all but it was HEAVING with people, mostly under 25, at a "good loud" level. 4 different guitar amps to choose from mic'd and ready to go (Rockerverb, DSL, Hot Rod Deluxe, AC15), 2 bass amps and a solid acoustic kit. It's a great "learn on the job" experience for new bands and it's filling a pretty vital gap in the local live music scene AND the development of good gig habits/etiquette for the musos.

 

[DLC86]

Can someone post an example of an e-kit being used in a live setting where it doesn't very clearly sound like an e-kit? I was able to post one in a pro setting where it stated my case against the use of them, surely there has to be some kind of evidence they're capable of doing what I'm being told in here.

Not exactly a live setting, but due to this thread I started watching vids on the latest edrums offerings and I have to say I'm quite impressed by the latest hi-end roland, it seems they fixed a lot of issues on playability and sound variance of the previous generations.

But the price is quite impressive too (10000€ on Thomann)

 

[molul]

And honestly, we need to start pushing back against it. The only reason venues are doing that is because of noise complaints. They get noise complaints because developers are buying up loads of real estate, building prison tower flats above and around the venues, moving in a ton of people and making shit tons of money off them by charging the not only the mortgate money, but also the monthly service charges, and then these fucking IDIOTS who move right next door to a rock venue that has been there for 30 odd years, suddenly start making noise complaints and try to get the venue shut down.

And yeah, that might be a bit political, but it is what is happening in London and all across the UK. They're killing community for the corporate interests. Noise level restrictions are 100% part of that. There's nothing natural about it - it is all part of a devious plot.

I see it's not only happening in Spain, although from all places in the world, I wouldn't have expected UK and especially London to suffer from the same disease. Shit...

That opens an entirely different discussion, but it's pretty frustrating how "the system" seems to be moving to not letting the music easily come "from the people" (as in "from a network of venues in every town where artists can easily play and gather some fandom") as before, but from either TV talent contests of from whatever person becomes viral and therefore can be monetized. It doesn't matter if your band is great. In most cases, if you want to be listened to, you have to spend some big money on Youtube or Meta ads.

I see the number of bands going lower every year, as Instagram and TikTok have stablished the "hey, look what I can do ON MY OWN" thing. I mean bands who write their own music, not tribute bands (which are increasing because that's apparently the only way to earn some money nowadays).