Not sure how much jazz you listen to, but of all types of music, jazz is undoubtedly the best for hearing the complexity of the sounds of a drum set. You really hear the decay of the the cymbals, the depth of the drums, the minor nuances that an ekit simply cannot deliver on. For example, no ekit can properly give the sound of brushes on a drum head, ór when you press the tip of the stick on the head and hit the stick with the other (whatever that's called, Art Blakey did it a lot).
I love jazz, I love my ekit, but those two are simply incompatible...
Yamaha DTX 500 module
Anatolian Kappadokia 14" Rock High Hats
Sabian El Sabor 20" Ride
Zildjian A 18" Crash Ride
Istanbul Agop 16" Trash Hit
1950's Zildjian 14" Splash/light crash
Istanbul 8" Splash (pre 1997)
Mapex Black Panther Steel Piccolo
1965 Premier 3 piece 10, 16, 22
I see what you mean, but there's no reason jazz couldn't be expanded to include e-kits. All music including jazz should evolve. Modern jazz has lots of stuff that would have been strange to early century jazz players. Lead guitar (including distortion), synth's etc etc...
all the best...
For small venue/Acoustic gigs I use a DTX502 Module with 2 tom pads and a kick pad, 60's A Zildjian paper thin hats, and a Gretsch 5.5x10 snare with a zero ring and a bar napkin and duct tape muffler.
Back in the late 80s when I was playing gigs in Vegas and Laughlin there were a few bands that were playing e-kits . The sound guys loved them ... the audience hated them . Back then e-drums were still in their infancy and you only got drum sounds .. you had to use real cymbals with them . I was playing a Tama Artstar kit in piano black . We would end our set and I would haul my kit off and the next guy would be setting up his e-kit a you could hear the people moan and start to leave .
Fast forward to the early 90s and I was on the road with a e-kit . I had a separate pad interface (MIDI KITI) and separate sound modules (Proteus Procussion , Simmons SDS-7) and pads made by LP . We played to sequenced tracks . We had the sequencer midied to the MIDI KITI and it would change the drum patches for me automatically for each song . Sometimes it would even change the snare/kick drum sounds for me during the songs , so I could have the tight snare during verses and a huge one on the choruses and then back again . I even came up with my own snare drum patches on the module . It took a lot of time setting it up that way , it could be a nightmare if you didn't get it right . But there was a lot of down time on the road so ...why not explore the possibilities with a state of the art set up like that . But after a while I began to miss the acoustics . So I sold the entire set up to a studio and went back to the Tamas .
I had a Yamaha e-kit for a while too when I was living in an apartment . But once I got my house it went out the door .
It's up to me to control the dynamics on the drums , keep the volume in check . I use the same set up on all my gigs . I don't pad anything down or look for low volume anything in my equipment . If it's a gig I have to keep the volume down on ...then I just play quiet . I would never again play an e-kit in a live situation . Been there , done that , not for me anymore . If I see an e-kit on stage I turn around and walk out .
But ..that's just me .
Rudy .
Exactly.............
I gigged with top-line Yamaha edrums from 1988 until 1998. It was for the convenience and for the audiences we played for (private parties - no clubs), they didn't care.
We did however run them through a very good monster PA with plenty of headroom and reverb.............they did sound awesome.
All that said, I have zero interest in anything like that today.
I love my old vintage acoustic stuff.
Gretsch USA & Zildjian(What Else Would I Ever Need ?)
My latest A/E kit. I love these things.
I was playing in a very small church and no matter what we did, everyone said the acoustic drums were too loud (I think mainly because they were transitioning from traditional hymns to contemporary music). I went out and bought a Roland TD-11 for volume control and to save valuable stage space. With current e-kits, there are so many settings that allow you to dial it in to sound as natural as possible depending on your sound system and the room you are in. I actually dialed it I to sound pretty awesome. I will say there is definitely no substitute for an acoustic kit, in both feel and sound. As for a backup at a gig, I might suggest a Cajon and a splash cymbal.
Yes. All of the guitar players I've ever played with at paid gigs always brought a spare guitar in case strings break. I bring a back up snare drum and pedal. Our bass player hauled a spare amp head and he had to use it once at a paid gig since his primary rig died on stage. Our PA guy has a back up mixer and pre-amp in his truck. If I were to rely on putting all my eggs in one basket and just brought an e-kit with no back module, in my opinion, that's risky.
Nope . The guitar player brings another guitar but it's in drop tuning . Other than that ...nope .
We play a lot and all of us do this for a living . I do carry a spare spring for the pedal and some cymbal cups and wing nuts . But I have never taken a spare snare drum . Never have I had anything break on me in all the years I have been playing . That's because I'm on top of my stuff always . Before the gig I check my gear before I load it .
Rudy .
Back in the '80's I played a gig on a hybrid kit with Tama e-kit pads and real Zildjian cymbals. First set, I had issues with the Tama drum module cutting out to the FOH board. I lost the entire ekit and had only cymbals. Shear panic struck. Long story short, I chased the problem down to the 1/4" output cable from the module to the FOH board and wiggled the cable around until I had a stable connection. I dodged a major bullet.
If I were to rely solely on an ekit again, I'll take a second module as a back up and haul my own amp and speakers like this:
Or go hybrid:
Last edited by late8; 03-11-2016 at 01:15 PM.
Yep. With ya on that. Electronic stuff is a complete gamble, at least for me. I've had way more problems with guitars, amps, cables, etc...than ever with acoustic drums. I mean I hardly ever even break a stick much less a head or something like a bass pedal spring.
all the best...
I make a living operating TV broadcast equipment but I'm not an electrician so I can't fix things. I must rely upon operating systems that have redundant back up equipment until a real electrical engineer shows up to fix what's broke. 40 hours a week, M-F, I expect something to fail and most of the time, things work as they should but if something should fail, I have a long list of things I need to check before calling in the "troops".
Yea heard of Murphy's law . Other things have gone wrong at a gig . Things like the person who we were supposed to be backing up not showing up to their high profile gig and having to cover it ourselves . Talk about being booed and having things thrown at us .
Then there was the time we were on our way to a small mining town to play a wedding and the guy driving the truck with the gear in it rolled the thing three times when he tried to make the cut off at a high rate of speed . We went back for them and he and the trumpet player were ok . My drums were scattered all over that desert ! We gathered the stuff and still made the gig with half the P.A. and a bagned up bass and horn player . I had fiber cases back then and my equipment was fine .
When I was using a full e-kit and playing along to sequencers sometimes the power level would drop on stage when the big ac units would come on . Everything would get distorted and you could hear the jump in the click as the sequencer would start speeding up and slowing down . All we did was stop at the end of the song and power the sequencer up again while the girls bantered with the audience . No one had any idea but us that we were having problems .
I guess I've been lucky . And when it happened to other drummers while I was there I was quick to offer my stuff as back up so they could finish their gig .
Rudy .
We have a bunch of electronic kits at work and all though they are fun they will never be more than that to me.
But... we are moving and currently for the next year we will be living in a duplex while we wait for our new house. So I will be picking up an electronic kit to add to my collection so I can keep playing.. I'm excited and not all at the same time lol
I don't know how much you get to play around with the ekits at work, but given the number of set you already have, I think you'll enjoy making different set ups on your ekit, and being able to move between them with the push of a button
My thing is that you never hear an acoustic guitar player complain that electric guitars aren't the same, so why do drummers do that? Furthermore, imagine if someone here were to say, "akits, you know, just not as good as ekits cause you can't completely change your sound like you can with an ekit..."
I'm in love with the idea of owning an e-kit. Nothing to do with noise issues or anything like that. I'm free to play my drums most anytime I want. I just think they'd be nice to add to the sound pallet. There are some at the place where I jam on Monday nights.
I have one major bugaboo however. I simply have had the worst luck in the world with all things electronic!!! (I thank my lucky stars every day that my lap top even boots up) There is nothing on a real drum set that I can't repair myself with the commonest of tools, but when electonic stuff fails, it's done!
Not only that, but the power supply on our island is tentative at best. I can literally see the lights dim and brighten. This would probably be bad for sensitive equipment and shorten its life.
all the best...
Over the years I have learned to really respect the use of electronics. Today's e-drums are so much superior than previous models. I am even in the process of converting to using electronics as a primary sound source and hybrid.
Take a look at Drum-Tec. Their drums are absolutely incredible and run perfectly with the TD30 and Superior Drummer.
DW, Zildjian, Vic Firth, Remo
http://www.reverbnation.com/jonpnorris
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