Gearhead

[Prettymaid]

Mike, I wondered when you'd find that drumming smiley!

Can't quite tell if you're having fun or if you're aggravated, but keep up the good work!

[MikeA]

Mike, I wondered when you'd find that drumming smiley!

Can't quite tell if you're having fun or if you're aggravated, but keep up the good work!

Oh, rest assured: "I'm Having FUN!". But it's like everything else...when I start something "new" like this, I'm whole hog and a perfectionist to boot and will settle for nothing but "success" (which I never achieve <LOL>)

But I do have fun doing or trying to do it! Thing is, my son who was curling his eyebrows when he found out what I'd bought, has become addicted to the drum machine too! It's NOT just a toy.

But it isn't the "end all" either. I'm already wanting to upgrade to one of the Roland or Yamaha Digital drum kits that have multiple zones on the drum and cymbal pads and are configured with pads that are sort of close to being in the position of an acoustic drum kit.

I'll find a good pic of one like I have or post a pic of mine and also post a pic of one like I'd like to have. You can see where mine might be considered a "toy".

[MikeA]

I had already posted a pic of the drum kit I bought. Here's one of the digital drums I'd like to have. Either this one or one by Roland but Roland is way beyond any budget I'm likely to have in the foreseeable future.

There are advantages and disadvantages to a drum kit like the one pictured below compared to an acoustic kit (the kind you see Don Henley playing).

A good acoustic set will nearly always sound better than a digital set. However, you have to have a barrage of microphones if you want to record them. Plus, you can't practice without making a LOT of noise! So much noise (okay, "Music") that practice is really limited.

The digital sets are controled by a "brain" or computer module to interpret the drum strikes and pass them on to some sort of amplification. Also coming into play is the sophistication of the drum pad itself...it's sensitivity to light strikes, whether it is a 1 or 2 or 3 zone pad (so you can replicate "rim shots") and get different sounds depending on where on the pads you hit.

But one of the main advantages to the digital sets is that you can practice through headphones beating them as hard as you wish and not disturb anyone else!

If you look at the set here (A Yamaha lower end set) you can see that the position of the pads and pedals are much the same as what you would be using if you were playing an acoustic set.

With the digital sets, most have training aids and multitudes of sounds that can be applied to any of the pads. That means that in the one set, you can create far more drum kits than you would ever be able to either afford, transport or set up on a stage!

And, with the digital sets, you will nearly always have built in practice songs that you can listen to, play along with, and ultimately remove the stored drum tracks so that what you hear when playing along with the song is only what YOU YOURSELF are playing. Some even have the logic to alert you when you get even a little bit off the groove of the song. Pretty fancy!

The one shown below is the Yamaha kit that runs around $700 without the amplifier but with everything else pictured.

There is a pretty good demo at the following eBay auction

[sodascouts]

Nice!

[MikeA]

eBay must automatically remove the image after a short while after the auction is completed. Anyway, here is the actual set that I got. Note that the larger pads are 5" (4 pads) and the smaller ones are 3.5" (3 pads). Note how small the foot pedals are. And, sitting flat on the floor they are hard to "kick". I'm going to have to make some sort of plywood board that will angle them up about 45^ and mount the pedals backwards on that board so the position of my foot will be more like what a real kick pedal feels like.

That area that I have the drum set up is a really tight squeeze for a bar stool to be set up in front of it. My desk is really too close but I have no better place to set it up. I usually run a 15' guitar cord from the AUX out on the unit to my Fender Acoustasonic Amp. It seems to work much better with the drum kit than my 15 watt Marshall practice amp. When not using the Acoustic Amp on it, I'm generally plugged into headphones. My wireless headphones do not work well with this unit! They sound horrible with it. I have yet to attempt recording anything with the drums. I've got to get a LOT better before I attempt that <LOL>

[Prettymaid]

Mike, I see you've been doing some painting in your spare time...

[MikeA]

Mike, I see you've been doing some painting in your spare time...

Look closer Cathy....Those are little hand prints from Miles with a little assistance from my daughter Amanda, his Mom <smile> They gave it to me on my birthday last year (200 so he was Two.

[MikeA]

I can't believe this!

Playing this drum set has set off my "tennis elbow"! ARGGGGGGG! I've had to go back to wearing that annoying brace on it. Unbelievable that I can go out and play golf and not bother it swinging a freakin' driver and pushing a 3-wheeled cart over 18 holes but hitting a snare with a drumstick breaks it down! What kind of deal is that?

But, I'm getting to where I can fill in a beat on the practice sequences. Sort of. Still having trouble keeping steady bass kicks while filling with my snares, toms and cymbals. Don't know how those guys do it.

But I've got it backwards. I have to have a song to keep the beat to. With a band, it's the drummer who is keeping the beat for the other musicians! Something's wrong with anyone who can play drums. They ought to be checked by a shrink!

[MikeA]

I mentioned elsewhere that I was going to be accompanying my father-in-law for come country oldies with my acoustic guitar. Well, I went to tune it and my tuner was "busted". Thought it might be a battery but nope....new battery nor AC adapter worked. Hate that! It was a RockTek stompbox tuner that I just always left hooked up with my guitar running through it and then from the tuner to the amp. I could stomp it and it would cut the guitar out of the amp circuit and let me tune silently and when stomped "off" it would pass the signal unaltered from the guitar to the amp.

Oh well, everything has a life expectancy and I guess the RockTek was at the end of Its.

No problem, I have two other tuners. But I'll be danged if NEITHER of those worked either! I had to use a tuner built into one of my software interface adapters and it sucks! I can do better generating a tone and tuning by ear. I don't have perfect (or even marginally acceptable!) pitch so really need an electronic tuner.

I found a pretty good buy. KORG makes several models but the one most praised is a $35 KORG CA-30. I found one on eBay for around $17 (includes shipping) NEW. If all of its rave reviews are legit, that will turn out to be a good buy.

Only bad thing is that it is not an in-line tuner....can't leave it plugged in all the time like I could with the RockTek. Just a little more hassle to hook up and use.

[ticky]

Mike, I have a Korg ca-30 and it's pretty nice and easy to use.. Real accurate and you can adjust it to the key you want to tune to.. I dont know about plugging it in to an amp cuz I dont have one, if I can use it, you know it's gotta be pretty easy to use! *G*