tip #4 is SO true ! I used to adjust my drums by playing them alone, and as soon as I tried to play over a song, I realize that all cymbals are always too loud. I understand how it may be confusing, because when you play a drum at home, a real drum, the cymbals are SOOOOO LOUD and we get used to that. But when you listen to music , especially when you listen to hard rock and metal, the cymbals are mostly sitting low in the mix. Great vid, keep up ! You're a reference for e-drums informations !
Just played out for the first time with my TD17, it was a nightmare. I never thought the badass drums I heard in my headphones, could sound so bad coming out of a top notch PA system. Soundman, my band, wanted to kill me. Couldn’t wait for the night to be over. This video is real- it takes many hours of adjustments, and preparation to bring your e-kit out on stage.
We tried my son's Roland TD17KVX2 for our church praise and worship and during practice we could not make it to sound good and just didn't have much time and give up, so had to go back to using our acoustic drums. Will need to revisit again and spend hours on how. We are all volunteering to serve our church and are no expert. We like the sound of the toms from the edrums but the snare to our taste was loud and kind a harsh. We also don't have a subwoofer so i feel like it lacks the deep bass the acoustic kick drum has.
ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO, THANK YOU JUSTIN, REALLY THESE INFORMATIONS HAS TO BE PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC DRUM MANUFACTURER, BUT THANKS GOD WE HAVE YOUR CHANNEL TO LEARN AND LEARN. THANKS AGAIN.
Thanks so much for the time you dedicate to your channel. Really helped me in determining my purchase. Bought the Roland TD11KV 's with double kicks now I watching your software reviews ...keep up the great job! !! Frankie P
Up the hihat. 8) Show up early to the gig, do do a sound check and by all means keep it simple. Bring back up cables and stretch. The first time I played live with an electronic drumset I pulled the muscles in and around my shoulder blade.
Loaded all my VST samples (EZ Drummer, 2 Addictive drums 2) into my Strike Pro. Best of both worlds. Used SDSE software for the conversion. Beats relying on a laptop live.
I'm using combos of drums from the VSTs and the module. (Usually the hihats from the module everything else from VST) But not having any issues with the 200mb limit. The load times make playing multiple kits live interesting though. Have to plan the setlists out ahead to allow for slow loading kits. The SDSE software combined with the ability to load multi velocity samples have made this module incredible.
Sir, thank you so much for doing what you do as a veteran, drummer and learning about electronic drums and nothing short of a miracle for me. But that mind about life Sound, is it tract to use direct passive or active? Just a thought thank you.
Even if you want to connect all your individual outputs, sometimes small venues don't have enough channels. A small digital mixer (or even analog if you can afford it) that can be controlled wirelessly (like the Behringer X18) can give you AND your sound guy perfect control over your mix. If you already have a computer and use MIDI to play a good drum VST, several decent DAW's can output the drums on separate audio channels. I've even heard Mainstage can do it, but I'm not a Mac person. You'd need an audio interface that can handle that many channels, like the Scarlett 18i20.
Excellent video..most E-drums are professionally recorded drum sets and don't need to be adjusted in the module. Leave it to the sound man, if he or she as any experience at all they will get the right sound for your band. The drums sets in the module are named rock, country, jazz etc for a reason. If you play country use the country sets if you play rock use the rock sets.
Dude I can't wait till my Alesis Strike pro arrives! I'm taking everything you're saying into account to get the best sound possible. "The"go to source for easy to understand information on E-Drums!!!
Hi great info !! Question hope you can answer . I’m playing a live Gig for the 1st time with electric kit. Do I run left and right into a DI box or should I come off the headphones Jack with a stereo cable to the DI ? Kinda lost on best option.
Re compression. The setting of compression of a major factor. It's common to have a fast attack and fast release. But in my experience a 30ms or so attack with a 150-200ms release give it a nice slap and bring out the tone. Where to set threashold is a factor too, not too low, I can only recommend but best to start at 0db and slowly lower it until you get to the sweet spot. Ratio is another factor. I usually set mine at about 3:1 as a good staring point. This is a very ball park summarisation.
8:45 Most probably you won't need a DI Box, because it's not about a quarter inch jack, but you're looking for a "balanced" output - it's possible with a TRS jack. You will need a jack to XLR cable then.
Obviously one can use a DI box to make the connection. My point was that with a balanced output there is only a need for a right cable, like in this diagram: www.neumann-kh-line.com/klein-hummel/globals.nsf/resources/balanced_xlr_xlr_and_trs_xlr_1.jpg/$File/balanced_xlr_xlr_and_trs_xlr_1.jpg
Do i need to use DI box if ill do edrum to audio interface to ipad(for garageband) to drum amp/pa system? Or can I just use a headphone jack to quarter inch converter
You reference “high end” and “low end” drum modules. Can you draw the line of where that difference is? Would a td17 or td27 or td25 fall on one side or the other?
What would your advice be for 'Panning'? I either read or was told to move all the pads to the center for live playing. Because the manuals suggest to dial in pan to its relative position... I imagine for the headphone experience.
I really depends, I do like a little bit of panning for headphones, but the audiance doesn't really care about the snare coming out of the left speaker and the ride coming out of the right cymbal. So I usually don't bother.
How do you get around latency using VST’s live? Seems running a signal into a DAW then back out through IEM’s would introduce some latency. Are you sending MIDI to the PC for the VST/front of house, and then a separate direct feed from your module for IEM’s/monitoring?
Depends on the DAW that you are using. Most DAWS (short for digital work station like ProTools, Logic etc) Have low latency mode or you can tweak the parameters to make the sound have less latency. Just goggle or TH-cam how to get low latency while using your vsts or daw good luck my guy. ✌🏽
I’ve been an Acoustic drummer for last 35 years and had one Yamaha drum-set that was sub $1000 but sum sounds were kewl . Which drum sets would u recommend for a jazz and funk and rock player ? I want best feel with best sound . I don’t need large pads or electric drums that look acoustic sets . I want to know,what electric set has best feel . And best sounds for jazz funk and rock ?
First of all, thank you for your videos, I found those really helpful. I have a couple of questions: I can’t open mike luke’s TH-cam link, could be blocked from Italy or mobile app? can you list some more useful video resources about eq electronic drum for live? I’m about to get my Roland tm6-pro and I will use it on a hybrid drum live, and I would like to be prepare before going on stage, ready to work with the sound man. Tm6pro has 4 direct out and I was thinking to provide those to the sound man at least separated for kick and snare, then one with toms and another with cymbals (actually only hi/hat because other cymbals I leave those in acustic).
I use the Roland TR7 Electronic drum kit and I perform from medium to large clubs. What volume settings should My Toms, Cymbals ETC, ETC be? And the whole DRUM KIT. HOLLY STARR LAFALCE
Or if you use a VST and laptop, I just use a 1/8" to 1/4" cable from my laptop's headphone port to my drum amp. Works great, and you don't need to EQ anything. Just a thought.
Oh I LOVE this video! However, at 8:20 you mention that with these 2 methods you cannot monitor with headphones... but the USB Radial DOES have a headphones jack/knob, so I'm not sure I understand why you say that this solution would not allow monitoring and that an audio interface would be required? Please clarify....
I've done it once in a video. I connected a guitar pedal and had lots of fun messing around with different effects. The only downside is that they tend to be mono from what I understand
hi... nice tips... a question, I normally play alone with backing tracks and I've been mixing both backing track and drums inside the module. Then I send the signal srtaight into my small PA (which doesn't have anything but a couple of inputs)... I'm actually thinking about buying a 6 channel mixing console to have better control over my levels DURING the gig... do you think it's a good investment? or i should just stick to the in-the-box mixing... thx very much
Love the channel. I'm currently playing a dtx 700 at church and the sounds are not great. How much latency were you getting when you run a vst through the laptop sound card? And what audio interface do you recommend that has low latency?
I use the direct outs of my TD30 on stage for this exact reason of the sound tech being able to adjust from his end and leave all the faders on the module at 0
Hey man! Thank you for this video. You have answered the question that I've been trying to ask all over the internet when it comes to playing off of VSTs. One more thing I can consider is the 1/8" to 1/4" adapter that goes into my laptop's headphone jack on one end, and the other goes to the 1/4" cable to the DI box right?
If I am playing live with out using a laptop can I just connect my drum module to the sound board? Do I have to buy a PCI direct box? I have a Roland TD 11.
Last night I saw a concert where the drummer or sound guy didn't have enough highs in the EQ and it made the snare sound like it came from an 80s keyboard. It was so bad that the drums were all but drowned out by the rest of the band it also probably didn't help that it was a low end drum set.
I've looked everywhere for a video to see someone using the foot switch input on the back pant. Your Td30 has it the Td50 has it. Is it useful? Or is it like a third nipple?
Hi 65 drums... i'm using yamaha dtx402k. My problem is, why if i connect direct from module to headphone it will sound a bit echo (no good sound). If i use splitter, the drum sounds better. I already change the setting (on module) from mono to stereo and stereo to mono. Still the same. Why? Thanks...
3ms of latency is around the time sound wave needs to pass a 1 meter distance in the air (like for example between a real kick drum and your ears). You need a good interface and CPU/RAM to get low latency. I can't get below 3 ms with NI Komplete Audio 6, because there is no option for 32 samples in 96 khz driver (like in Scarlett - 2.74ms), but I run it on PC Windows, not on a Mac.
the various points you make all ring true. Both electric and acoustic drums can sound dreadful in live mixes - mainly down to bad choices regarding quite basic electro-acoustic principles and not the equipment itself..
5:27 So, I would actually provide individual channels to a live sound guy, because I have also done sound and I know the sound guy wants control over it. So I want to provide as much control to the sound guy as possible. Think about it. An acoustic set will have 1 mic per drum, and two or 3 overheads depending on size. Maybe more (i.e. some sound guys want 2 mics on snare and 2 on kick). Your lazy ass just wants to give him all those crammed into one channel (two if stereo)??? No no no no no no no. Find a way to give him all the channels separately. He will respect, if not love, you.
Lies Section: The Radial USB box DOES have a headphone jack, so you can monitor your playing.
tip #4 is SO true ! I used to adjust my drums by playing them alone, and as soon as I tried to play over a song, I realize that all cymbals are always too loud. I understand how it may be confusing, because when you play a drum at home, a real drum, the cymbals are SOOOOO LOUD and we get used to that. But when you listen to music , especially when you listen to hard rock and metal, the cymbals are mostly sitting low in the mix. Great vid, keep up ! You're a reference for e-drums informations !
Just played out for the first time with my TD17, it was a nightmare. I never thought the badass drums I heard in my headphones, could sound so bad coming out of a top notch PA system. Soundman, my band, wanted to kill me. Couldn’t wait for the night to be over. This video is real- it takes many hours of adjustments, and preparation to bring your e-kit out on stage.
We tried my son's Roland TD17KVX2 for our church praise and worship and during practice we could not make it to sound good and just didn't have much time and give up, so had to go back to using our acoustic drums. Will need to revisit again and spend hours on how. We are all volunteering to serve our church and are no expert. We like the sound of the toms from the edrums but the snare to our taste was loud and kind a harsh. We also don't have a subwoofer so i feel like it lacks the deep bass the acoustic kick drum has.
hey dude. jusy saying i always look forward to seeing your next video
Thanks dude!
ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO, THANK YOU JUSTIN, REALLY THESE INFORMATIONS HAS TO BE PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC DRUM MANUFACTURER, BUT THANKS GOD WE HAVE YOUR CHANNEL TO LEARN AND LEARN. THANKS AGAIN.
Thanks so much for the time you dedicate to your channel. Really helped me in determining my purchase.
Bought the Roland TD11KV 's with double kicks now I watching your software reviews ...keep up the great job! !!
Frankie P
Up the hihat. 8) Show up early to the gig, do do a sound check and by all means keep it simple. Bring back up cables and stretch. The first time I played live with an electronic drumset I pulled the muscles in and around my shoulder blade.
Showing up early helps you fix nearly any problem
another informative video, Justin! cheers!
thanks john :)
Peavey XR 6000 mixer amp is a tube amp that loves edrums. 6 inputs with amazing Eq use 15 in speakers.
Loaded all my VST samples (EZ Drummer, 2 Addictive drums 2) into my Strike Pro.
Best of both worlds.
Used SDSE software for the conversion. Beats relying on a laptop live.
You aren't running into that 200 MB limit on the strike module?
I'm using combos of drums from the VSTs and the module. (Usually the hihats from the module everything else from VST) But not having any issues with the 200mb limit.
The load times make playing multiple kits live interesting though. Have to plan the setlists out ahead to allow for slow loading kits.
The SDSE software combined with the ability to load multi velocity samples have made this module incredible.
Sir, thank you so much for doing what you do as a veteran, drummer and learning about electronic drums and nothing short of a miracle for me. But that mind about life Sound, is it tract to use direct passive or active? Just a thought thank you.
Even if you want to connect all your individual outputs, sometimes small venues don't have enough channels. A small digital mixer (or even analog if you can afford it) that can be controlled wirelessly (like the Behringer X18) can give you AND your sound guy perfect control over your mix. If you already have a computer and use MIDI to play a good drum VST, several decent DAW's can output the drums on separate audio channels. I've even heard Mainstage can do it, but I'm not a Mac person. You'd need an audio interface that can handle that many channels, like the Scarlett 18i20.
Hi Justin, do you have any tips for playing edrums for church? It doesn’t really sound good when sending it to the PA!
Excellent video..most E-drums are professionally recorded drum sets and don't need to be adjusted in the module. Leave it to the sound man, if he or she as any experience at all they will get the right sound for your band. The drums sets in the module are named rock, country, jazz etc for a reason. If you play country use the country sets if you play rock use the rock sets.
Dude I can't wait till my Alesis Strike pro arrives! I'm taking everything you're saying into account to get the best sound possible. "The"go to source for easy to understand information on E-Drums!!!
Hey congrats man! Hope you like the set, and thanks :)
Hi great info !! Question hope you can answer . I’m playing a live Gig for the 1st time with electric kit. Do I run left and right into a DI box or should I come off the headphones Jack with a stereo cable to the DI ? Kinda lost on best option.
Re compression. The setting of compression of a major factor. It's common to have a fast attack and fast release. But in my experience a 30ms or so attack with a 150-200ms release give it a nice slap and bring out the tone. Where to set threashold is a factor too, not too low, I can only recommend but best to start at 0db and slowly lower it until you get to the sweet spot. Ratio is another factor. I usually set mine at about 3:1 as a good staring point. This is a very ball park summarisation.
Oh and once you've set the compression, if you have make up gain setting, add 3db to it (if you're going with a 3:1 ratio)
Good tips
8:45 Most probably you won't need a DI Box, because it's not about a quarter inch jack, but you're looking for a "balanced" output - it's possible with a TRS jack. You will need a jack to XLR cable then.
True, It's just that everywhere I play, the cable snake only has XLR inputs. So I HAVE to use a DI box.
Obviously one can use a DI box to make the connection. My point was that with a balanced output there is only a need for a right cable, like in this diagram: www.neumann-kh-line.com/klein-hummel/globals.nsf/resources/balanced_xlr_xlr_and_trs_xlr_1.jpg/$File/balanced_xlr_xlr_and_trs_xlr_1.jpg
Do i need to use DI box if ill do edrum to audio interface to ipad(for garageband) to drum amp/pa system? Or can I just use a headphone jack to quarter inch converter
Great Advice.... As always... ;)
Thanks :)
You reference “high end” and “low end” drum modules. Can you draw the line of where that difference is? Would a td17 or td27 or td25 fall on one side or the other?
What would your advice be for 'Panning'? I either read or was told to move all the pads to the center for live playing. Because the manuals suggest to dial in pan to its relative position... I imagine for the headphone experience.
I really depends, I do like a little bit of panning for headphones, but the audiance doesn't really care about the snare coming out of the left speaker and the ride coming out of the right cymbal. So I usually don't bother.
Hey I have Alessi DM10 MKII PRO is this a good high in module, or should I do something more like VST? I will be using this to play out at gigs!
How do you get around latency using VST’s live? Seems running a signal into a DAW then back out through IEM’s would introduce some latency. Are you sending MIDI to the PC for the VST/front of house, and then a separate direct feed from your module for IEM’s/monitoring?
Depends on the DAW that you are using. Most DAWS (short for digital work station like ProTools, Logic etc) Have low latency mode or you can tweak the parameters to make the sound have less latency. Just goggle or TH-cam how to get low latency while using your vsts or daw good luck my guy. ✌🏽
I’ve been an Acoustic drummer for last 35 years and had one Yamaha drum-set that was sub $1000 but sum sounds were kewl . Which drum sets would u recommend for a jazz and funk and rock player ? I want best feel with best sound . I don’t need large pads or electric drums that look acoustic sets . I want to know,what electric set has best feel . And best sounds for jazz funk and rock ?
First of all, thank you for your videos, I found those really helpful. I have a couple of questions: I can’t open mike luke’s TH-cam link, could be blocked from Italy or mobile app? can you list some more useful video resources about eq electronic drum for live? I’m about to get my Roland tm6-pro and I will use it on a hybrid drum live, and I would like to be prepare before going on stage, ready to work with the sound man. Tm6pro has 4 direct out and I was thinking to provide those to the sound man at least separated for kick and snare, then one with toms and another with cymbals (actually only hi/hat because other cymbals I leave those in acustic).
Thanks so much, this video is fantaastic. Heads up that the links to EQ and Compression (Mike Luke) are now broken.
I’ve just bought a Pearl e/merge, can I use Addictive Drums / Stephen Slate etc?
Nice video.. Its really helpful.. I'm thinkin on using a drum sample like addictive drums, what do you think is the best to use?
Really depends, but addictive drums is a VERY good choice for most
65 Drums niice thankss for the reply!
I use the Roland TR7 Electronic drum kit and I perform from medium to large clubs.
What volume settings should My Toms, Cymbals ETC, ETC be? And the whole
DRUM KIT. HOLLY STARR LAFALCE
Or if you use a VST and laptop, I just use a 1/8" to 1/4" cable from my laptop's headphone port to my drum amp. Works great, and you don't need to EQ anything. Just a thought.
Thank you!
can you make a video of the best edrum set for 2000 dollars?
I'll keep that in mind
Oh I LOVE this video! However, at 8:20 you mention that with these 2 methods you cannot monitor with headphones... but the USB Radial DOES have a headphones jack/knob, so I'm not sure I understand why you say that this solution would not allow monitoring and that an audio interface would be required? Please clarify....
+Alain Patry You're absolutely right, not sure what I was thinking
Could you use a (guitar style) compressor pedal ‘in-line’, or would it be unsuitable.
I've done it once in a video. I connected a guitar pedal and had lots of fun messing around with different effects. The only downside is that they tend to be mono from what I understand
Great advice! A tool is only as good as the operator will run it!
:)
Give us more on the strike pro kit!!!???
Your vids are da bomb
Thanks man :) it's in the plans
hi... nice tips... a question, I normally play alone with backing tracks and I've been mixing both backing track and drums inside the module. Then I send the signal srtaight into my small PA (which doesn't have anything but a couple of inputs)... I'm actually thinking about buying a 6 channel mixing console to have better control over my levels DURING the gig... do you think it's a good investment? or i should just stick to the in-the-box mixing... thx very much
Love the channel. I'm currently playing a dtx 700 at church and the sounds are not great. How much latency were you getting when you run a vst through the laptop sound card? And what audio interface do you recommend that has low latency?
The Pearl Mimic is pretty much a VST without the danger of module to computer glitches.
yup good summery
I use the direct outs of my TD30 on stage for this exact reason of the sound tech being able to adjust from his end and leave all the faders on the module at 0
That's the best way, I just don't have the cables for that. And most of the places I go don't have 8 quarter inch inputs on the cable snake.
Yeah my cable snake is quarter inch (for the module) to xlr (female I think from memory)
Hey man! Thank you for this video. You have answered the question that I've been trying to ask all over the internet when it comes to playing off of VSTs. One more thing I can consider is the 1/8" to 1/4" adapter that goes into my laptop's headphone jack on one end, and the other goes to the 1/4" cable to the DI box right?
yup
“Chill out on the ...cymbal department”😂😂🤣🤣. My brother’s telecaster obliterates the ride cymbal 😠 so it indeed becomes white noise.
roland amp pm 200 or a pa system? and which pa system? thanks. 2 pm 200 are 1k
If I am playing live with out using a laptop can I just connect my drum module to the sound board? Do I have to buy a PCI direct box? I have a Roland TD 11.
I have a question, are you able to play your own music like stuff you spotify or TH-cam to your edrum set?
yup anything on your phone or computer you can pump through the drum module
Last night I saw a concert where the drummer or sound guy didn't have enough highs in the EQ and it made the snare sound like it came from an 80s keyboard. It was so bad that the drums were all but drowned out by the rest of the band it also probably didn't help that it was a low end drum set.
+NLind ouch :/ Bad EQ is the death of any drumset
this may be another video, but what drum software do you find triggers the best, out of the box, from the TD-30?
I've looked everywhere for a video to see someone using the foot switch input on the back pant. Your Td30 has it the Td50 has it. Is it useful? Or is it like a third nipple?
I don't generally use it, but it's useful depending on the situation
How bad is the latency if I go alesis I/O to SSD5 thru a radial USB Pro,To use as a live gig setup?
I'm fixing to get a set of Roland td3 drums that doesn't have a snare drum. What will be a good option to use as a snare drum?
Any Roland rubber pad. They are on ebay for like $35
65 Drums I thought about converting my acoustic snare. As well as an alesis 12 in mesh pad.
Hi 65 drums... i'm using yamaha dtx402k. My problem is, why if i connect direct from module to headphone it will sound a bit echo (no good sound). If i use splitter, the drum sounds better. I already change the setting (on module) from mono to stereo and stereo to mono. Still the same. Why?
Thanks...
I haven't used any vsts yet is it possible to get the same latency as a module if not I don't wanna go that route if it doesn't feel right
I'm told it's possible if you buy a good audio interface, I don't own one, so I can't confirm this as fact.
3ms of latency is around the time sound wave needs to pass a 1 meter distance in the air (like for example between a real kick drum and your ears). You need a good interface and CPU/RAM to get low latency. I can't get below 3 ms with NI Komplete Audio 6, because there is no option for 32 samples in 96 khz driver (like in Scarlett - 2.74ms), but I run it on PC Windows, not on a Mac.
What is that drumset in the far bottom left in the thumbnail?
ICanHazGaming12345 go e drum kit. he did a video on them recently. it's the Same company as the kit in the top right.
the various points you make all ring true. Both electric and acoustic drums can sound dreadful in live mixes - mainly down to bad choices regarding quite basic electro-acoustic principles and not the equipment itself..
The basics, everything always comes down to the basics :)
👍👍👍
5:27 So, I would actually provide individual channels to a live sound guy, because I have also done sound and I know the sound guy wants control over it. So I want to provide as much control to the sound guy as possible. Think about it. An acoustic set will have 1 mic per drum, and two or 3 overheads depending on size. Maybe more (i.e. some sound guys want 2 mics on snare and 2 on kick). Your lazy ass just wants to give him all those crammed into one channel (two if stereo)??? No no no no no no no. Find a way to give him all the channels separately. He will respect, if not love, you.
The reason most people don’t like electronic drums is because they can’t overcompensate with 37 cymbals and 10 toms
Hi
+CreamyDonut PRODUCTIONS hi :)
: )
+Zam Muan :)
Tip No. 8. BURN ALL YOUR ELECTRONIC GEAR AND PLAY A REAL KIT 🤪