Keyboard Drum Question:

Often said; “The drums are out front”.

Can you accomplish this by putting all the other instruments at a lowing volume or are we talking about drum sound quality?

John C.

I'd love to help but i dont understand your question...

Maybe explain?

Usually, out front is a combination of two things, firstly yes, you want to bring the drums up a bit in the mix, no other element should ever obscure them, and then secondly, dry them up a bit. Not too much reverb...

Psychologically, our ears equate reverb with distance, so to bring the drums forward, you want to lessen the overall drum reverb level...

The two of those will achieve the task. Now, as to whether your drums sound good when that is done to them... That's going to depend on how good they sound, and how well they are programmed But personally, just from listening to a LOT of user demos here, I'm ALL for bringing the drums forward a bit!

One aspect of the 'live drum' sound is is that, no matter HOW loud you get, your drummer ALWAYS keeps up with you... something that no arranger has leaned to do well. Yes, some will bring the drums up as you play louder, but it's not quite as consistent as a real drummer. But I hear so many demos where you often struggle to hear the drums well, it's probably a good rule of thumb to dry up and raise the drum level almost ALL the time!

Don't just make 'em louder... bring them forward!

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 01-31-2010).]

Thanks for that Diki, often pondered this issue myself and was not really sure what Out Front was supposed to mean.


I shall have ago at making the parameters you suggest on my keyboard and see what difference it makes.
Gilbert.

[This message has been edited by gilbert (edited 01-31-2010).]

You have a couple of options with this one, the easiest of which is tuning your style within individual registrations. With Yamaha keyboards, this is done via the Mixing Console, where you can increase the drum volume(s), change the EQs, and a number of other parameters that will make those drums come alive. This can then be saved to the registration(s) for that particular song. Be sure the Style Box is ticked in the Registration Memory Contents page and don't forget to save the Registration Bank as well as the individual registration.

The second Yamaha option is to use the onboard Style Creator program and perform the same tuning technique(s), then rename and save the style as a User Style. This technique allows you to access the file without going through the registration(s).

Both techniques work quite well.

Cheers,

Gary

Diki and Gary, Thanks I got it . You guys are pretty quick with responding. Gary I like working with the style because I can set up the instrumentation on all four variations and have eight more I the regs.

Thanks again, John C.

Back a few years ago, with the Tyros and T2, I routed the drums via separate outputs to two channels on my mixer. Then I could control the volumes, e.q. and effects as I wished. Made 'em sound better. This is not necessary on Ketrons, or Rolands, and not possible on PSRs.
DonM