I use the DM5 (w/Drum Tech pads) and most of the drums sound good; MOST people cannot tell the difference because so many artist use them these days in their recordings. The cymbals are tricky. A fill here or there well mixed, your ok. To do lavish cymbal, well you might as well give up. The worst ones are the crashes. The high hat sounds fine as long as the drummer does not over work them. The rides are good all day long because they naturally decay quicker than the others. Toms and kicks sound great. Like the high hat, snares sound better when played with fairly a straight rhythm.
Electronic drums has it's advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages can go without saying (Limited Dynamics). On the upside, they are VERY flexible. They are quick to setup - no mic'ing involved. Can be recorded to disk via MIDI; in turn saves HD space, frees audio tracks, easy to fix timing, insert and delete drum hits, multiple drum sets and combinations, and best of all is that you can change the drum sound to something that is more suitable to the recording during mixdown.
My goal is to get real cymbals & a snare, then trigger the remaining drums. I hear that works very well. Any other ideas?
