Hello, (sorry for this long post , but this topic definitely pertains to me)
You bring up the neverending issue that our band has since we do not have a drummer.
It makes it really difficult for live situations because when recording, the programmed drums are mixed in the way that they sound good in the mix, but live is very difficult to match up correct volumes of the drums with with the other instruments.
Different drum tracks are louder than others and even when I try to match up volumes it never seems to be ok. It is really difficult because I am singing and playing guitar while also trying to deal with the drums. We run the drums through a Barbetta amp:
http://www.barbetta.com/Live/Sona_32/sona_32.html
Which is an excellent amp, but the only thing is that the volume controls are on the back and they are extremely sensitive to the lightest touch of the controls (moving it a hair makes it much louder) which makes it hard to get the desired volume with ease.
I have tried having the drums put through the PA and having the soundguy adjust the volume which hasn't worked out too well since they are not familiar with our style and they often put it too loud and it is also difficult for us since the drum sounds are coming out of the PA speakers which are in front of us and feels seperate from what we are trying to perform as a connected whole.
One time a soundguy put the drums back at me in the floor monitors and all I heard was blaring drums to my face... and he didn't even know he was doing it... I had to tell him to lower them from the floor monitors. (that's when I said...ok never again!!! I don't want the soundguy to control the drum volume from the PA!)
Today we went to a rehearsal studio and it's always the same issue... the drums never sound consistent within each song, and they are making me crazy! We thought maybe it's because we are playing the drums too loud, so we tried keeping them low, but to no avail. Some songs sound great with them, but not all of them do.
Feeling helpless... options we came up with:
- Get a drummer of course, but it's hard to just find one...
- I was thinking that maybe the reason it isn't working out on some songs is because the drums that were programmed were made to try to emulate real drums. I think we need to use a drum sound that emphasized the fact (in a taseful waw) that we "DO NOT" have a drummer. Instead of trying to make a machine try to sound like a machine, let the machine sound like a machine.
So this is the current way that we are going to try to work this situation... make new backing drum tracks that sound electronic, but minimal to back us up, but have our live instruments and vocals to be the forefront.
Brahmb,
I'm also a teacher (grades k-5). I play the guitar and work with mostly the younger children. I sing songs to help develop their literacy skills (letter sounds, rhyming etc.) I travel to different classes (I don't have my own classroom). If I did I would like to add other instrumentation. I've brought a drum machine to some classes and hooked it up to a boombox, they like it a lot, especially the older ones for rap style. And then me with the acoustic guitar... it's an interesting mix.
We also have a chorus teacher who uses a roland arranger keyboard.
http://www.homestead.com/va7_roland/files/va76.htm
He adds different rhythms and used different sounds and it's done in realtime with this kind of keyboard (arpegiator really cool). I think it's excellent for what he's using it for. He has control over what it's doing while he's playing. If it was pre-recorded and played, he wouldn't be able to adjust to the children singing an extra chorus here or there. You should check one out.
evt