Acoustic or Electronic drums live ?

Moltisanti

Did my first show in a few years last night, it went great, my drummer was on an acoustic kit which sounded great but is a pain to setup/load in/out/mic etc.

In rehearsals he used an electronic kit which sounded way better than the ones i remember from 10+ years ago.

what do your drummers use live, the real thing or V-drums (electronic) ?

PhilKing

Used an Alesis Nitro Mesh through the PA.  Lots of kits to choose from and you can move it in assembled, you just fold the arms in, add the bass drum and pedals and plug it in.  You need decent monitoring though, as you won't hear it on stage. 

Littlejonny

Electric drums make a lot of practical sense, but I’m yet to hear a set that sound anything like a set of real drums in a room.

there’s no reason it can’t be done though, surely.

the massive advantage to electric drums is they can go really quiet if you need them to

maltingsaudio

Electronic kits are consistent, I’ve heard so many crap sounding acoustic kits that unless you can properly tune your kit please go electronic! That said if your going electronic please ensure you send the kick into the Pa on its own send, I’ve encountered too many electronic kits which just send L&R to front of house with the kick drowning out the rest of the kit.

ESBlonde

Electronic kits have balanced volumes so the snare and cymbals don’t over power a weak kick drum for example. A good well tuned acoustic kit played well is a joy, but then needs to be miced and processed with dynamics and fx to get that familiar recorded sound for regular covers work. Just have a good drum fill monitor for stage volume if required.
Drummers prefer the touch response of an acoustic set like guitarists like a 52 tele over as booteek superstrat, but live work is not studio session work and the business has moved on.

RocknRollDave

maltingsaudio said:

Electronic kits are consistent, I’ve heard so many crap sounding acoustic kits that unless you can properly tune your kit please go electronic! That said if your going electronic please ensure you send the kick into the Pa on its own send, I’ve encountered too many electronic kits which just send L&R to front of house with the kick drowning out the rest of the kit.

Surely you just reduce the volume of the bass drum on the kit itself? Any halfway decent electronic kit will allow you to adjust the balance, won’t it? 

TheBigDipper

The band I'm in has a drummer who exclusively uses an electronic kit now. We go direct when we play live. He sends 8 different feeds to the PA and lets the engineer do his/her job. The drums on his kit look just like an acoustic kit until you get close enough to see the triggers. The cymbals are a mixture - some are shiny metal like an acoustic cymbal and some look like black rubber. I've no idea who makes any of it, he assembled it himself - but I do know the "brain" comes from Germany and cost him a fortune. He loves it, BTW and the drums sound good onstage, in practice and on recordings.

I'd be reluctant to go back to an acoustic kit onstage with me. 

pintspiller

Real drums are bit like amps on stage. They are what we like, expect and feel real, but take up too much room in the vehicle(s) and take time to load-in/out and set-up.

My last band went ampless for a time but we were told not to put my bass into the wedges and I started bringing my amp and cab again (downsized to a 2 x 10) that I had to bring as one guitarist and the drummer refused to wear IEMs! One guitarist even started to bring a second amp (for "dynamics")!

We tried to get the drummer to go electronic, but I think they feel as much response from the instrument as guitarists do. I also like the ambient rattle of the snare springs to the other instruments, so I'd miss that.

I think some of use are set.in our ways. Best of luck.

maltingsaudio

RocknRollDave said:

maltingsaudio said:

Electronic kits are consistent, I’ve heard so many crap sounding acoustic kits that unless you can properly tune your kit please go electronic! That said if your going electronic please ensure you send the kick into the Pa on its own send, I’ve encountered too many electronic kits which just send L&R to front of house with the kick drowning out the rest of the kit.

Surely you just reduce the volume of the bass drum on the kit itself? Any halfway decent electronic kit will allow you to adjust the balance, won’t it? 

Yes that is the theory, in practice, the drummer sitting behind the Pa has no idea how loud different parts of the kit are in the room. This translates to the sound engineer either having to try a balance it .

PolarityMan

I have never seen an electric kit used in a live setting that has the same energy as an acoustic kit. In my opinion I would only consider if if I wanted deliberately electronic sounding drums for a project, like 808s or something like that.

If you're a quiet cover band trying to be background music it might work but if that's the case just save yourself some hassle and dont bother. 

RocknRollDave

maltingsaudio said:

RocknRollDave said:

maltingsaudio said:

Electronic kits are consistent, I’ve heard so many crap sounding acoustic kits that unless you can properly tune your kit please go electronic! That said if your going electronic please ensure you send the kick into the Pa on its own send, I’ve encountered too many electronic kits which just send L&R to front of house with the kick drowning out the rest of the kit.

Surely you just reduce the volume of the bass drum on the kit itself? Any halfway decent electronic kit will allow you to adjust the balance, won’t it? 

Yes that is the theory, in practice, the drummer sitting behind the Pa has no idea how loud different parts of the kit are in the room. This translates to the sound engineer either having to try a balance it .

Tell him then!

Rowby1

Saw a local band a couple of weeks ago using ekit. Smallish pub so ideal you’d think. Sounded terrible. Whole kit was too loud (I thought the point was you can turn them down) and badly balanced (snare spiking out over everything). 

So, I’d rather an acoustic kit any day of the week. It was so bad I left after four or five songs…..that and the crappy backing tracks they were using. 

Biggest threat to live music in pubs is bands that sound like that!

Both my bands use real drums but both drummers are able to play with energy and vibe without being stupidly loud. We do use ekit for rehearsals though. 

maltingsaudio

RocknRollDave said:

maltingsaudio said:

RocknRollDave said:

maltingsaudio said:

Electronic kits are consistent, I’ve heard so many crap sounding acoustic kits that unless you can properly tune your kit please go electronic! That said if your going electronic please ensure you send the kick into the Pa on its own send, I’ve encountered too many electronic kits which just send L&R to front of house with the kick drowning out the rest of the kit.

Surely you just reduce the volume of the bass drum on the kit itself? Any halfway decent electronic kit will allow you to adjust the balance, won’t it? 

Yes that is the theory, in practice, the drummer sitting behind the Pa has no idea how loud different parts of the kit are in the room. This translates to the sound engineer either having to try a balance it .

Tell him then!

I do, but lots of bands don’t have sound engineers to help them, and sometimes the drummer doesn’t believe the engineer