I have worked for the last weeks/months on rebuilding my Studio room to make it more functional and more inspirational. Whether I am recording or working, I want my room to be useful to me for creative inspiration or for just getting things done. This video is a quick review of the new updates I have done to my room to make it work better for my day to day use.
Pearl and Steven Slate Drums have done it again!
This time out, we have the new Firmware version 1.1.0 and a bunch of fun extras. In this video blog I detail some of these new features and showcase one of the new presets. Whether you are coming from another brand, an earlier model, a lower level module, or from an acoustic kit, the Pearl Mimic Pro, especially with these new features and sounds is something you should seriously consider.
In my last post, I said I'd have an example up of the audio differences between the Console 1 SSL4000e emulation and the Bristish Class A emulation. This post is to showcase the differences.
If you have been following my Blog or any my other online presence for any time, you know that I play the drums and specifically that I have E-Drums (or Electronic Drums). I have been playing for many years and have done a ton of recording for other people over those years.
Now I am offering my drumming services to others over the internet.
As you look at this site, I hope you notice that I have removed all of the advertisements.
I previously had Google AdSense running on the site as well as some links by Vigilink. In the many years I've been running this site, including the 100s of thousands of YouTube video hits I received since about 2008, I have earned a total of about $100. That's about $10/year over the last 10 years. In the process, I think it has made my site look uglier and has made the content less appealing to the visitors who come here. So I've removed all of the Advertisements!
I did a conversion of my old DW 13" x 5.5": maple snare. The thing had been sitting in the basement on a shelf for a decade. So when my wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year, I said "a snare drum edrum conversion kit". I had already looked at the UFO Drums. I put together a quick video that shows the drum and explains a few things about the process.
The Pearl Mimic Pro is the newest electronic drum module to hit the market, with some being received as early as June 2017. I received my unit in August of 2017 and have spent a good bit of time using it, practicing with it, tweaking it, and most importantly, ENJOYING it!
This is a video of the Pearl Mimic Pro module and some practice time which was recorded to show off the new tom pack that came out this week. These are the Pearl Reference Series Toms. I added these toms to the Venice preset kit and changed little else about that preset. I don't know why my Samsung S8 camera went on a mission of making everything blurry several times during this video, so sorry for that! Anyway - plenty of mistakes and unusual groove things, but hopefully you will get something from this.
As always, please leave me some comments here on the website blog. Or at least please choose a "Reaction" below the video if you don't want to take the time to post.
This video is some practice time on the "Origins" Preset kit (#44). This is a tight kit with a layered kick (A 20" Ludwig + a 22" Pearl), a layered Snare (Hur 7 CST (?) + Pearl 5 CSM). The toms are DW Maple, and a mix of Zildjian Hats and Soultone Crashes and Rides + a Sabian splash.
This is my first video with the Mimic Pro. I'm still getting used the triggering, the sounds, and the process of recording the unit, but so far, after about 1.5 weeks, I am really impressed with how great it sounds, how flexible it is, and how well it works. I will be posting more videos as time goes by, hopefully with better quality each time.
In this case, this is the "Studio" kit, which is number 54 (coincidence?). It is a generally usable kit that I think would work pretty well with many genres. It feels like something that would be in a studio, setup for whatever session might come along. This is a fairly generic kit, but seems well versed for about any occasion. I'd like to hear your thoughts about the kit, the Mimic, or whatever else (though criticism of my playing abilities is not really what I'm looking for).
What else do you want to see?
Look just below the video and Please leave a "reaction" or comments!
While neither these products are new or ground-breaking, I did an unboxing video for both. This is for the purpose getting ready to welcome my new Pearl Mimic Pro that I'm expecting in the next week or two to arrive. Expect that there will be some videos coming for that unit once it is here. Please enjoy my excitement for these two great birthday gifts.
This is a video showing the custom created kit I made on my TD-20 with the TDW-20. This kit is called Phatty. I created this video using my Droid Turbo phone (about 1 hour before it had an end-of-life experience with a faceplant to my wood floor. This is now replaced with a Samsung S8 phone for future videos.
I also anticipate that this will be the last or nearly last video I create showing the TD-20. I will be receiving my Mimic Pro unit hopefully next week and I anticipate posting many videos with that module in place.
That said, this is a just a practice session that I did with a focus on trying out my picture in picture options. While you don't see them in this edit of the video, I was able to get them to work as hoped, so I will be able to get two video streams together in future shots, with the hope of showing off some module features.
If you liked this video or have any comments, please feel free to share with marking your impressions with the "reactions" below of leave your comments. Please note that this is a non-perfect practice and I know it. I have a lot of playing experience, but this was for fun, I don't have much in the way of lessons/training, etc, so if you have comments on technique, they will largely only serve to educate others. If your aim is to insult me in the process, please don't.
Enjoy!
Below you will find two videos, one made to show of the VExpressions Master Picks expansion pack of drum kits for the Td-20 brain and the other with the new TDW-20 expansion card for the Td-20 brain. Both of these were just practice sessions, but show some of the flexibility of the Roland Vdrums brain.
If you are interested in this drum kit, it's basically the Td-20 kit with some upgrades like the TDW-20 expansion card, extra pads, and a few home made extras, like the rim triggers on the rack tom pads. For thos who already have a Td-20 kit, I can tell you that the TDW-20 expansion card is VERY owrth the purchase. The overall kits are better, and the individual samples sound a lot better as well. Creating my own preset kits is much easier with this expansion. Unfortunately, this card is no longer available, though you may find one on eBay.
If you are interested in upgrading your vDrums kit, you can now do that with the TD-30 module with even more great improvements. You can get one here (and your purchase will help me and this site!):
Watch and enjoy!
