KLA4

is that you Roel, de Jonge ......
please contact me the email address is still the same !

John Smies

neilshs,

Thanks also from me for posting these styles. I forgot how good those drums sound on the Ketron. It's certainly renewed my interest in the Audya.

But.....the first thing I noticed is how "overpowering" they are (the drums). Even before I read what Donny wrote. I'm wondering, not being familiar with Ketron, if one can't "temper" the styles. Part of producing good music is in the dynamics and constant contrasts. To appreciate upbeat drums like that you need to play many measures of "nothing happening" and THEN bring in those awesome drums.

Lucky

I think only those that have long forgotten what playing on a live stage with a real drummer (a real GOOD drummer!) sounds like are likely to call Ketron's drums overpowering...

But it does bring up an issue I oft refer to. Sure, you can always turn the Audya's drums DOWN, but turning hard hit audio drums down doesn't turn them into drums that are soft hit. At least, not with a loop. MIDI drums, if well sampled (three or four velocity layers per voice), you reduce the velocity (NOT the volume), it sounds like the same drummer playing softer. Reduce the volume on an audio loop, he sounds further away, playing just as hard. It's subtle, but it can make all the difference if you want to perform an upbeat tune in a more downbeat manner.

I am still not sold on the idea of audio drum loops. I believe that MIDI drum tracks, with plenty of dynamics, triggering multi-sampled drum sounds is the more powerful, more flexible way of doing things. And simpler, too. Listen to any BFD or EZDrummer demo, and you can hear how realistic MIDI triggered drums can be. And play MIDI into those kits at a lowered velocity, they still sound like a drummer playing softer, not just turned down in the mix.

Call me stick in the mud, but I am glad to see that not everyone (in fact, no-one other than Ketron) has taken this path so far. If you want an expressive instrument that follows what YOU do (not the other way round), I wouldn't holler too loud for all the other manufacturers to jump on this bandwagon. Start calling for better, more detailed MIDI kits instead....