08 March 2010

Electronic Drum Kit in the Studio

Normally I either put my drum tracks in a sequencer or I play them live on my keyboard, but that doesn't really feel natural. So I decided it was time to have a go at drumming. It always seemed fun to me, but I never tried it at all. Also my wife AND my kids like to play on a drum kit when we visit a music store. And this weekend we couldn't resist it anymore. I bought an Alesis DM6 drum kit. It is very complete with kick, snare, 3 toms, hihat, crash and ride. It has internal sounds you can play on, but also a USB connection to hook it up to your PC. It installs a midi driver and then you can drum on any drum program you like of course.

I already tried it out on a track I'm composing for my new album. It went rather well actually. Well the timing was not perfect of course, but it sounded much more natural than I could do on my keyboard. I guess I'll do some more practicing the coming time. Also my wife and kids have been playing on it. And I hear you think. Do you have room for that in the studio? Well it fits fine. It does take up a lot of space, but since it is not a very massive thing it doesn't really feel that big. And it is very light and you can fold it up and stash it away when you want to quite easily.

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