Echo Echo Studios Has Electronic Drums
I NEVER wanted to be the recording studio with the electronic drum kit. I never wanted to be THAT kind of studio guy. We all know him. When you were looking for the ultra mean real drum sound for your garage rock band or whatever he’s the one who insists you beat on this plastic toy contraption that perfectly emulations the timeless drum sound of Colour Me Bad’s “I Wanna Sex You Up”.
Well, times have changed. The long story short: drum samples have changed the way the world works. I have a new theory that that extremely few drums sounds have been on the radio since the hey day of Twisted Sister without the benefit of sample layering or replacement. You are free to argue and there are definitely some real drum sound out there, but there is no denying the popularity of drum samples in music in the past 20 years.
The Sounds
This whole e-drum thing makes it very easy to fire up some of the most incredible sounding drums in the world. We aren’t talking about your Roland synth drums. I remember that $5,000 Roland V-drum kit. I thought it sounded like a toy. Toss out everything you used to think about electronic drum sounds. Guys like me who HATED electronic drums before not only accept the modern samples, but LOVE them. The modern samples are real. I’m talking about a real mic was put on a real drum in a room that cost a zillion dollars to construct, and was hit by a real drummer. Essentially you get world class engineering at your disposal at my prices.
Convenience
There is also a convenience factor of walking in, adjusting just a few settings, and recording almost immediately. You can begin recording the first song at about the same time as you would have finished loading your real drums into the van. (Before driving to my studio, unloading, setting up, tuning, micing, etc). This time factor in itself saves you money on your recording. For some drummers, the idea of showing up to the studio with NOTHING is a welcome change.
Electronic drums don’t make any real noise so it is practical to record electronic drums at times that simply are not possible with real drums. I have (very tolerant) neighbors, but it would take 30 seconds before the cops were called if we started beating on real drums at 2am. With electronic drums this is not even a factor. We record anytime we want.
Killer Drum Performances
It’s easier to achieve the drum performances you want. Some people from the old school do not believe in drum overdubs and editing. I can see the merits in this. However, for the person looking for the most powerful drum performance possible, I can think of no better way to achieve this than by recording MIDI. Editing capabilities of real drums are possible, but limited. With MIDI we can do ANYTHING.
I don’t like to intervene too much with the real drum performance (unless the drummer insists) on it, but using MIDI allows us to focus our attention on one section at a time. Overdubbing small sections is absolutely no problem. It works the same way as if we were fixing a guitar part or a vocal. We never have problems with cymbals ringing that get abruptly cut off by the edit. This feature alone makes MIDI an incredible way to get the most exciting drum performance possible.
If you really want to use and abuse all the extremely powerful editing capabilities of MIDI, we can certainly do that. It’s not a big deal to quantize an entire performance to sound like a boring robot. I’m not a fan of this, but I’m sure some drummers would find a use for this kind of production.
The Downsides
Obviously, the electronic drum thing isn’t perfect. Electronic drums work great for pretty much any normal drumming. It’s no big deal to pull off most AC/DC or Metallica style drum thingies with an electronic drum kit. When you get into more unconventional drumming you can become limited.
We are limited in sounds by the samples I have. I own several AMAZING sounding drum libraries, but they don’t have everything. Most things are covered, but it’s possible that we could run into an issue. Then again, with MIDI we can also open doors into actual electronic sounds if we so choose.
Some people worry about the lack of individuality by using samples. So far in my experience that has been a non-issue. The drummer still sounds like that drummer and ultimately there are so many samples out there that variety isn’t a problem.
Conclusion
Some guys just need a real drum kit. If so, great! I can do that too. I would never force someone to use my little plastic toy regardless of any benefits it may have. For some drummers, I would simply prefer to record the real drums and either leave them as is or give sample layering a shot. All of these are valid ways of making a record. There are no rules. Do what you want! It’s just nice to have the option and benefit of using an electronic kit for the type of musicians who are into that sort of thing.