Issues When Using Electronic Drums Live? - Common Problems With eDrums On Stage SOLVED
Вставка
- Опубліковано 18 гру 2019
- Learn how to optimize your electronic drums for on stage and solve common problems. When taking your eDrums to gigs, there's a few things that can come up time and again. Today I'll be talking you through some solutions to these issues and how to prepare for the worst.
Luke,
Thanks, I recently swapped over to edrums from Acoustic.
The only thing making me hesitate in the first place was our old PA didn't have a sub. Now that our new PA does, there was no excuse to switch. We trued mics on my acoustic drums, but that was idiotic as it caused more headaches with feedback, placement, etc., not to mention drum sound and tone.
The e-kit approach solved those issues, and introduced others.
The positive is that I have an identical kit setup at home so I can practice with the same setup I use on stage. Plus keeping things within one module, lets me hear the same results at home that I do in the studio.
....
I have had a module fail on me (older TD9) at practice, however playing live (and in studio), I use acoustic cymbals, so it was a matter of reassigning my snare to another dual zone input... But .... I didn't initially reassign my rim, so I was getting a crash cymbal edge sound instead, of snare rim.....very weird... my band members were looking at me perplexed?....especially with what should have been a few rapid rim shots in sequence, became crashes.....luckily it was an easy fix, and life went on......
Totally agree, I always bring more gear than I think i will need, especially if I'm at a venue for multiple days in a row. Extra cables, extra DIY boxes, extra triggers, they all can save your butt.
Yeah man, gotta be done! Cheers for watching!
I’ve got internal triggers on my acoustic shells, but also have ddrum triggers on the rim as back ups.
If the internal triggers break during a show, I can just switch the 1/4” plug to the back up trigger. #OCD #Paranoid. #redundancy
It's a good shout! I've been leaving my rim mount trigger on my kick recently so that it's always handy. Since it's a conversion kick it has a standard hoop on it.
Recently have decided to trash the acoustics and join the electronic drum scene...I have a major hunch its about to explode and acoustic drums will be an artifact one day. I would like to see more major acoustic companies recognize this and not get lost to the times..thankfully pearl has already but what about tama and dw...sure would hate for them to be to stubborn and get left in the dust.
Great video. I've been gigging with a TD-15 w a VEX patch for the last 7 years. Your advice to bring spare pieces is #1 on my list. I've always been aware that e-drums are just that - electronic pieces that we hit with a stick day after day. Something will eventually fail. Recently during a kit check just after setting-up - 2 hours before showtime - a pin in the snake harness wasn't working. I knew this day was coming - the biggest issue with a dedicated multi port harness. Luckily our rehearsal studio had the same module. I since have ordered 2 new harnesses. I've always brought a spare pad, cymbal. kick drum
...and now a harness to every gig. Thanks for the video. I may look at a higher end module at some point.
Another great video, keep up the great work
Cheers!
Great video. Very helpful. I was wondering about phantom power and if I needed a direct box for the electronic drums. Thanks for covering it.
I am not a drummer, I am a bass player that does the sound for the band.
Super helpful material. Man keep going.
Thank you, really appreciated!
Great video! I’m cautiously transitioning from acoustic to an kit electronic for gigs. Your videos have been really helpful, especially to us gigging drummers.
Thanks! Glad to be of help!
I have a Ludwig Breakbeats kit that I converted using Jobeky Triggers and Heads with Roland cymbals. I use it for practice and live, I run the module through a small mixer from which I run a monitor and direct outputs into the PA DI box. We always use a sub even for rehearsal and it always works great, it's great for keeping the levels down in rehearsal, unlike using acoustic kits where everyone else cranks up their volume to hear themselves. Using a sub is definitely the best way for a good sound.
Luke.
Great video,especially the section on toms sounding really wet and sustained. I have a td17 kit running through a Yamaha Stagepas P.A and have the aforementioned problem. I guess my first question is which set of controls to use ,( bass / mid/ high etc) ,the drum module,or the pa mixer ?
Great advice, as always. Just wondering what band you're in? I assume you're quite local so will try make a gig at some point 👍
The first time I went to live rehearsal with a PA I was astounded at the difference in sound. It took a lot of tweaking using that same PA to get the drums to sound good, using a lot of the same adjustments that you mention here.
Hello, I was wondering if you had ever used the porter and davies gigster with your live set up? I have One I use on my acoustic kit, but am switching to a Yamaha dtx 10 e kit for live gigs. Any advice on set up, would be amazing . Thanks…! Great channel, yours and 65drums helps me so much! Craig
Thank you! 🤛🏼
I used to play live with edrums about 10 years ago, at the time I used to actually cart round a "spare" acoustic bass drum, snare and hi-hats in case of emergencies. Spent the next 10 years on acoustic drums live only use my ekit for practise. I am about to go edrums again with a new TD27 and a VAD kit because I am an aesthetics snob:) but now intend just to take some spare cables, a spare pad and my old TD20 module after watching your video!
Interesting! Did you ever have to use those spare acoustic parts? If so, did you have to sound check them beforehand to make sure the mic'ing etc was right or did you just wing it?
The VAD kits do look great, I don't blame you! I'm sure you'd get by fine with those options and a plan for quick a change-around of gear!
@@TheeDrumWorkshop No, I never had to use them, I would have just winged it, the venues I was playing then weren't big enough to warrant mics!
You’re right about strange speakers. This is why I’m buying my own PA.i can work out 90% of those problems. The room then will be or should be the only thing left to adjust.
Sounds like a good way to help mitigate the unknown! The fewer variables the better!
Be prepared. !! Yes
Thanks
Hallo I would like to ask you one question should I play a live job with my edums TD 50 Kit and superior drummer 3 connected together without any trouble at all.an how do I connect to the mixer. an
thank you for all the videos
love from the blind drummer from Denmark Mik Roy
I have issues with some snare sounds not being loud enough to cut through the music even though they sound great in my inear mix. Are there EQ or tuning tricks for getting good sounding snares live?
I hav ms50dr yam on floor wit 2 satelite speakers facin me.i wan add 2 mor sat spkrs to face away so musician in my room can hear crisp like me .is there splitter cable that can couple 4 in 2 as ms50 only has 1 left,rire speaker input ..
I picked uo an Old simmons sd500 kit for nothing, with the simmons amp also. Theres a delay when I play them through the amp, but all is good when I play through headphones? Any clue why theres a huge delay, faster the sticking the worse it gets
Luke - recently tried a JBL PA speaker with my ad5 and found the kick sound was thin - almost all attack and no tone. Through in-ears it sounds great and even on my desktop studio monitors the kick is beefier than through the PA speaker. The toms sound fine through all three. The PA speaker seemed to do well on prerecorded music having good bass response without exaggeration. I'm at a loss to explain this. The ad5 offers no compression or EQ. Should I try an outboard compressor and/or eq on the kick only? (I'd have to pan the kick hard left or right in the controller and send all of the other sounds to the opposite channel to separate them). I am hoping that you might have tried the ad5 through a PA while you had one. Thanks
Hey Jim! What size speaker is it? And I'm assuming it's the usual setup with a large cone speaker and a tweeter? It can often be the case that these don't output enough power in the bottom end to properly replicate a kick drum to a good standard, as you get towards the lower end of the mid-bass, they tend to struggle to give it enough juice to replicate the lower bass/sub frequencies required. You might have better success paired with a sub.
I know it can seem weird when you listen to pre-recorded music through these speakers and they seem to handle the lower end better - and I'm not anywhere near knowledgeable enough to explain why exactly that is. It's something to do with the mastering of recorded music vs the fact that these instruments put out a "live"-style sound as you could get mic'ing up an acoustic kit. I did try my aD5 through a PA but it was a full setup with 2 top speakers and 2 subs. It sounded great through that setup. I use a dB Technologies Opera 405D for my stage monitor (also have a 515DX but it's the same speaker renamed, I think) and there's a surprising amount of low end but it still tapers off towards the kick frequencies and you only get the slap and a half-decent thud from it rather than the full range, and the floor tom particularly ends up being accentuated above the kick through it most of the time due to the frequency range it sits in. I get better results with this from my Roland as they're very processed sounds, but it's still nothing like a setup with a sub would be - it takes a lot of power to get those frequencies going. There are some single powered PA speakers that will have enough grunt to make it work, but I think you're looking at some pretty hefty prices to do it well enough. Hope this helps, unfortunately I don't know a lot more detail about the subject other than what I've experienced from mine.
@@TheeDrumWorkshop Thanks Luke. I think I need to do some more experimentation. The JBL had a 12" woofer and was rated at 1200 watts peak. I think the division of power was roughly 70% to the woofer, the rest went to the tweeter. I saw suggestions for using a sub, and I agree this is the optimum setup, but there's a big cost with a quality sub, and they are usually large and can be heavy. Thanks again.
No problem! I've heard of some 12" speakers doing a good enough job but I *think* the general consensus is typically to aim for a 15" speaker if possible, just to get enough air moving. But of course, you're adding more cost, more weight etc so it's not always ideal. There might be something you could do with using like a small mixer between the module and speaker or something to do a bit of EQ going into the speaker - might help, but only if the speaker itself can handle it. Hope you manage to find a balance in your experimentation!
I've been looking at PA subs - I have a JBL Eon 10 (don't use for edrums currently) that would probably work well with a sub. The JBL Eon sub is a beast (18")and doesn't have the best reviews. I'm looking now at EV subs. I think a single sub mated with a PA is perhaps the only way to really sound like an acoustic kit.
Doug S I also play bass and I am experimenting with using my bass amp and monitor cab. Haven’t really spent enough time to say for sure, but the first quick test was promising. I couldn’t really crank the volume due to neighbors. As soon as I get the chance I’m going to open it up a bit more. I’ve since read about others doing this same thing with good results. I may also wind up buying a keyboard amp and then eventually another to make a stereo pair.
We have an electric drums at church and it doesnt sound the way it should. Whenever we are playing with other instrument the sound of the electric drums in the PA decreases its output sound and when it is played alone it will sound loud on it own. What is the possible problem of our set up. Thank you in advance for those who will answer. God bless
Try and drop the overall volume in your mixer and see if that problem still occurs. It sounds to me that the sound is being limited either by a compressor, the PA or the Speakers.