Roland V drums and dynamics

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Are they capable of dynamics, or is every hit the same volume? I'm looking into getting the V-pro set, the one that's around $2700. I haven't had time to head to a store and try some out, but I"ve heard good things about them. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris
 
Yes...

The V-Drums are very cool indeed, good dynamics, good feel. Yamaha have just released the DTXtreme, which consists of pads with real drum heads, so check them out as well.....

I have the Yamaha DTX (rubber pads), and these are incredible too - go Edrum - it's worth it big style...!
 
I think all electric drums are capable of dynamics now.
You can hit them hard or soft and they'll sound like you hit them hard or soft.
I've got the alesis dmpro elec. kit, similar to the Roland V-drums, and i'm glad I got them instead of an accoustic kit.
Basically, anything good that you've heard about electric kits is true, and almost anything bad you've heard about them would only apply to the old electric kits, in my opinion.
Hope this helped.
 
Yeah, the VDrums are amazing. I got a demo at a music store and couldn't believe what they could do. You can choke a cymbol...I don't know how that works, but you can. My only problem with any electronic drum is that they still have a tough time with rolls...it still sounds like a machine. But it's getting better all the time!
 
I have the Hart Dynamics StudioBX kit (very similar to the Alesis DMPro, since the trigger pads are actually OEM'ed for Alesis by Hart), and I use it with the Roland TD10 (+TDW-1 Expander) and an Alesis DM5 as the sound modules. They are both very good, and I really like the Hart/Alesis trigger pads a great deal better than the Roland pads (which are significantly more fragile, in my opinion).

I played the previous generation of Roland E-drums (the TD-7s) with the rubber pads, and loathed them- and broke a lot of pads. The only thing that saved E-drumming for me was the advent of the mesh head pads, and the Hart cymbal triggers. The crashes and splashes are spring mounted on Aquarian mounts, and move as you strike them, so that you can "play through" the bow of the cymbal (and yes, chokeable versions are available!). I never could get used to hitting a crash cymbal that felt like a rock.

All of the E-drum modules these days can be tuned to provide a remarkably fine sense of dynamics: the trigger parameters are very widely variable, and with some care you can make them very nearly as responsive as an acoustic drum for dynamics, rapid retriggers such as scratch rolls, and so on. It is possible to avoid the "machinegun" trigger quantization problems, with a little care. The downside is that these units generally come with a "one-size-fits-all" trigger setup (or a totally screwed up setup, if they are a music store floor demo...). This means that your initial e-drumming outing will probably be disappointing: it takes time to really dial them in to fit _your_ individual style and technique, just like it takes time to position a microphone to get a good snare sound. However, once you do, you have a very viable instrument.

If you do decide to get a kit with the TD10 (like the V-Pro), I highly recommend springing for the TDW-1 also: it has much improved sounds, especially for the cymbals and kick, and it makes the trigger hardware much, *much* easier to tune...

One other important resource for V-Drum info: http://www.vdrums.com

I've been posting over there under a different name for a couple of years now, and there is a lot of setup and technical info available there.

Bottom line for me? E-drums will never replace my acoustics, but having said that: my acoustics haven't been out of their cases since I bought the e-kit.

Better yet, the cops haven't shown up on a noise complaint since I bought it, either! (;-)
 
I think that the bottom line with the VDrums or any electronic drum is the same as any piece of gear...they're a tool. The quality of the work depends in part on the quality of the tool, but maybe even more so on the skills of the person using it. Go check out some some though...you've got nothing to lose.

By the way, I think it's important to note that I am not a drummer. I can't comment on how they "feel", only on how I thought they sounded any time I've heard them.
 
Thanks for the help

Went and beat on both the V-custom set and the V-pro. Damn, they sound sooooo good! The bigger pads on the V-pro are definitely a plus, and I'm leaning toward that set. I also found out that they TD-10 has 8 outputs, so if I ever upgrade from my 4-track, I could tweak each individual pad. Whoo hoo!! Gosh, if I get these, I'm afraid I'll never leave the house!! The only thing that didn't win me over were the cymbals, but they were better than I thought they would be. Once again, thanks for the help, and if I get it, I imagine it'll take me a month of playing with it to figure out all the things I can do with it! Maybe I'll start by putting the snare in the bathroom with a condenser mike...

Chris
 
There's nothing whatsoever that says that you can't mix and match hardware, once you do get that kit (if that is what you end up doing). The Roland rack hardware is pretty much interchangeable with Gibraltar, and you could easily grab a couple of Pearl rack-style cymbal arms and some of the Hart cymbal pads, and relegate the rubber Roland pads to other percussion tasks- preferably where they won't get hit very hard, because they are fairly fragile.

I personally find playing the rubber pads in the cymbal positions to be completely evil: unnatural motions, and outright painful for the fingers and wrists. That's just me, though, and other people don't mind them at all. CMiller has it exactly right: the kit is a tool, and you need to tailor it for what your brain and muscles *need* in order to make it a transparent instrument for your music.

Get it, play it for a while, and then start attacking the things that piss you off about it, one at a time.

About that "month of playing": allow yourself about 6 months. Seriously: the first tweeks will come quickly, but the final fine tuning will take much longer. I'd been playing my acoustics for well over 20 years, and I wasn't satisfied with my E-kit until I could close my eyes and play it with the same feels and muscle memory: with a trigger everywhere I had always had an acoustic cymbal or drum. I _hate_ swinging at empty air... That took some significant time, especially in the trigger setups- but the effort has been well worth it. Once I had that basic requirement filfilled, then I could add more capabilities and make use of them...

One other thing: make sure that you don't get yourself an undersized rig. If you're used to playing a kit with 5 or 6 cymbals, you may come to find having only 3 (two crashes and a ride) to be somewhat limiting and monochromatic. I rapidly ran out of inputs on the TD10, which is why I ended up with the DM5 also: the basic kit sounds come from the TD10, and several extra cymbals and all the percussion sounds come from the DM5. I think that I'm using 20 of the 24 possible triggers in that combination now, with 6 coming from a Hart Multipad I added, 7 cymbal triggers, and several Pintech Nimrods and Hart Hammers snuck down between the main drum pads like the black keys on a keyboard (hey, sometimes you just *gotta have* timbales without having to stomp on the "patch change" footswitch, right?). I ought to post pictures...

Your mileage may vary, though. Hope that helps.
 
Pintech

I think Pintech has a set that's as good as V-Drums, but it's cheaper and they sell it w/o the module, so you can pick what you want, even the cheap Alesis DM 5. Also it comes with cheap trigger bars for cymbals and hats, so you can also get whatever cymbals you want (I like the Yamaha with separate bell for ride) and still use these triggers for percussion.
 
I own the V-Pros and have spent much time learning to get good sounds and dynamics out of them. Yes you can get very good dynamics and yes you can choke the cymbals (although it is not as easy as I would like). Since I work in a drum shop and record in various studios useing E-drums I've had hands on with Roland, Hart, Alesis, Pintech, Yamaha, Simmons and other pre-MIDI E-Drums (no hands on with D-Drums).

In my humble, but relatively informed opinion, the TD10 (Roland) provides the most control over sounds (with built in compression and effects), but the learning curve is higher. The Alesis modules (in particular the DM Pro) provide better sounds right out of the box - and don't require tweaking like the Roland. Although I am very satisfied with the Roland pads, the Pintech pads are my preferred choice - both for price and feel (as stated they seem to work with all the sound modules). However, Pintech does not have the distribution that Roland and Yamaha have.

Since MIDI modules normally have MIDI in,out & thru , you can use the MIDI in to use an additional multi-trigger device. I use a drum KAT (provides ten trigger surfaces). One particular thing I like about the TD10, it actually has a percussion template, which allows me to triggers various percussion sounds with limited programming. By the way, Hart has a 6 surface pad that works great and is very inexpensive.

My least preferred E-drums are Yamaha (I do like their accustic kits). I strongly dislike the "new" Yamaha DTExtreme. The pads feel terrible and are so loud you can't tell if the module sounds good unless you max the volume (forget about recording with any live mics). It's like playing the Remo practise pads. Whoever did the R&D on this unit really dropped the ball!!

If I was in the market for new E-Drums (won't happen soon - too much invested in the V-Drums) I would get an Alesis DM Pro module, Pintech pads and likely a Gibraltar rack. No matter what you get, I really think E-Drums are a no brainer for recording. To get as good of a sound, you would need $2,000 worth of drums/cymbals/percussion, another $2,000 in mics, 8-12 channel mixer, several compressors, effects units, a decent sounding room and highly tolerant neighbors/family.

Forgive me wordiness, but I thought I have valid info to share.
 
Mikeh, I was going to start a new topic, but maybe I'll just ask you. I'm looking at Alesis DM PRO kit. I can get it for only $500 more than the Yamaha DTXtreme and I figure that's a better deal, considering the V-Drum-like pads, chokeable crash and ride with bell and likely a better module. I mainly need them for silent practice, but easy recording is tempting, too. I've seen the Pintech pad set, but it would be slightly more expensive than buying the Alesis set (if I bought Pintech + Alesis DM Pro and Pintech's set doesn't have as good of a cymbals). What do you think about them (Alesis kit)? I started taking drum lessons and I need to practice my double-strokes and such, so I need a realistic feel. I know they're not the same as acoustic, but I have no choice at this point - neighbors.
 
Hey, Gear Junky

As I indicated I'm a fan of the Alesis modules and the DM-Pro is a monster module. The pads on the Alesis DM-Pro kit are made by Hart and in my opinion are pretty good. I think both the pads and the module are better than the DTXtreme. I would think you would be very satisfied with the Alesis kit.

I've had a chance to play the Yamaha kit for a total of 4 hours (a little here and there at the store where I work) - the more I play it the less I like it. The Yamaha pads are VERY loud and the sounds on the module are not as good as the Alesis (again - opinion). I really try not to bad mouth any companies gear, (I love gear) and Yamaha makes a lot of really good stuff - but I can't make myself like the DTXtreme.

By the way, the V-Drum pros are being discontinued - since Roland has come out with two new kits - (the new "top of the line" Studio kit is coming in at $4,000 plus) - which means you may be able to buy the discontinued V-Pros in the $3000-$3200 range. I just got a chance the try the new Roland E-Cymbals - all I can say is WOW!!!!.
 
Thanks, Mikeh. I really have my heart set on Alesis now. Even though they discountinue V-Pros, it's still too much for that set, IMHO. The new sets are cool, though again - EXPENSIVE. The new V-Cymbals are good, it's about time! Those stupid round pads embarassed V-Drums, and other companies had more realistic cymbals for a while. I especially like the separate bell trigger on Yamahas and Alesis and the choke-circuit. That's so much better than hitting on the edge of a rubber pad for bell sound.

I share your views of Yamaha. I respect the company, but rubber sets just don't make sense to me.
 
Got my V-Drums Monday, yay!

I ended up getting the V-pro set for $3000 from Ebay. Gosh, these things do rock. I'm still not a fan of the cymbals though. I've been pretty happy playing around on the preset patterns so far, and haven't taken the time to make my own set yet. Now all I need to do is get the old 4 track working again, and I'm set.

Thanks,

Chris
 
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