Standard levels?

[Krystof01]

Hi,
As you may see from another post, I own a DM5. As I'm not a drummer primarily. Is there any standard(ish) guide to volumes for different pads/sounds.

ie. what volume would you assign to the following, relative to eachother (0-99 Possible):
-Kick
-Snare
-Toms
-Cymbals
-Hat(open/closed)

And also how would you pan them (0-3 left or right possible). How would you pan the snare/kick and hat?, how would you pan the toms together? Also the toms. I have the possibility of 12 pads, so I have on a general set, 1 kick, 1 snare, 1 hat, 1 ride, 4 toms and, 3 cymbals (1 trigger currently unavailable-see other post).

Thanks for any input,
Krystof.

 

[mikeh]

Obviously, the snare/kick/hihat is the primary rhythm pulse - all other sounds are accents - as such the volumes need to reflect that.

I normally have my volume for kick and snare at about 90 (+/- 5 to allow for the sounds being used, etc.) at 90 I have just a little room to tweak up. The kick should be a little lower than the snare (the kick should add an attack to the bass guitar sound)

Hi-Hat is normally maxed at 99 (since the hats sound don't cut thru the mix well). Cymbals are at about 60-70 (cymbals should be very subtle accents not obscene distractions).

Toms are normally at about 75-80 (give or take). Again toms are accents, not primary sounds.

Re: paning - if I recall, the Alesis series go from -3 to +3 for a total of 7 pan positions.

I always pan snare dead center (12:00). Although common practise dictates kick and hi-hat should also be dead center - I actuallly like to put hi-hat at 11:00 for slight seperation from the snare.

On kick drum I also pan just slightly off center (11:00) and then pan bass guitar slightly off center to the other side (1:00) - this gives a very slight seperation to allow the two low end sounds their own space.

On toms I also pan from high (10:00) to low (2:00). I don't think drums should be panned hard right and left, since they are the foundation and have to provide a solid base. The only percussion sounds that maybe could be panned hard would be cabassa, claves or other "colors" which are not part of the primary rhythm.

Doesn't the DM5 only have 4 outs? That limits your panning. I have a D4 (don't use it as much anymore), but I normally had to send kick to main left, snare/hi-hat to main right, toms to aux left and right (from -3 through +3) and then cymbals/percussion to whatever made sense.

 

[Krystof01]

Yes the DM5 has to main outs and two aux outs.

One more question. You can tune the pads -4 to +3. Should you generally set the kit up to the same level?

I'll try and also get a digital camera so I can take a picture of my electronic kit I custom made. It has 12 pads; snare 12 inch, 5 8 inch toms, 1 12 inch floor tom, a ride cymbal, two crash cymbals and a kick drum. All are fully velocity sensitive and of course I can assign different voices to each pad. I operate the kick drum with a normal bass drum pedal, the hit hat is semi-movable and I use a sustain pedal for the footswitch of the hit hat so I can have it open, closed or held (play it without hitting it). Prehaps the best feature is the ride and crash cymbals are fully movable like real cymbals. The whole thing cost me around £120 ($180 approx.). That's less than I spent on the second hand DM5 I'm triggering.

Thanks for the information mikeh.