V-drums or not?

J

juststartingout

New member
I am looking to adding drums to my studio and I know very little about them (never played them). I would like to learn to play, not to gig, but to fill in some of my songs. I currently play guitar, bass and keyboards. From my perspective, I like the options that v-drums offer, but I know with guitars, that sims are not the same as the real thing. A couple of questions:

1. What would be better to learn on?

2. What are the drawbacks to v-drum setup vs. a small drum set?

3. What would you recomend in v-drums or would you stear me away from them?
 
V Drums

V Drums are a great tool. You might have an easier time learning on a real set however, the options that V drums give are amazing. You can record with making virtually no sound, but beware all electronic cymbals are a bit fake sounding. You may want to mix the V drums with rreal cymbals. That would sound great. I am pro V drum, and i like my acoustic kits as well, i suggest one of Rolands higher end kits with the responsive drum heads, rather than the hard rubber, or plastic pads. If you are new to drums this also eliminates the pains that go with recording an acoustic set, and beleive me there are many. Hope this helps. Also on that note, another thing that you can do is buy an acoustic drumset and put triggers on it, that way you have the best of both worlds as well.
 
Oh yeah...

I played with a friend recently that purchased a set of V-drums.

I was blown away. Nothing short of baaaaaaaad...
 
If you're gonna learn, learn on a real drumset! There are many disadvantages to learning on an electric, namely because of what the electric can't do, anyway, my advice would be to get a real drumset. For most applications, a properly tuned halfway decent drumset with a good engineer will sound loads better than an electric setup, but if you are not so good with the micing and stuff then I guess V-drums would be the best choice.
 
I own and use Roland V-Drums. I also own several very good accoustic drum kits (Maple & Birch). I record in my own project studio and have been a session drummer for various local studios over the years. I have played and recorded on dozens of different accoustic and electronic kits over a course of 35 plus years. The only reason I share this is to qualify my opinions.

Electronic drums can be a great tool and can be very useful in a studio application. I don't particularly like them in live application (but that does not appear to be your need). However, they will never replace accoustic drums - just as synths have never completely replaced pianos and e. guitars have not replaced accoustic guitars.

It is better to learn to play on real drums, to master the verious techniques and dynamics that e-drums can't truly capture. However, you need to practise alot (as with any instrument) - and that can be a problem with real drums (cause they're loud as hell). You can practise e-drums at midnight and no one is the wiser.

The problem with recording real drums involves tuning, accoustics, proper types of wood in the drums (cheap drums can only sound so good - no matter how you tune them), etc. etc. I can be very hard to get good recorded sounds. E-drums are very easy to record - but the cymbal sounds tend to be a weak point.

I think often for a home studio the advantages of e-drums outweigh the negatives - but we each have our own opinions.

Electronic pros:

1. You can record drums with very little room sound (ideal for home studios - in particular those late night sessions).
2. You don't need several microphones(and a large multi channel mixer) to record e-drums
3. You don't need an accoustically friendly room to record e-drums
4. You can record the MIDI performance and then assign the drum sounds later in the project (after you know what snare sound you need etc.)
5. Unlimited number of sounds
6. Can get good sounds with limited understanding of drum tuning, accoustics, etc.

Electronic cons:

1. No electronic kit will ever provide the complete warmth or dynamics of real drums.
2. Electonic cymbal sounds are very lacking and given the complexity of sampling the dynamics and decay of real cymbals, I doubt e-cymbals will ever be acceptable.

Accoustic pros:

1. More accurate sounds
2. More warmth
3. More response to playing dynamics
4. Real cymbals are much better sounding

Accoustic cons:

1. Need for accoustically friendly space
2. Need for "larger space" (both for the kit and for the ambiance)
3. More limited sound options
4. There is a certain skill needed to properly tune, play and record real drums
5. Need for mics, pres, channels, etc.
 
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