Astro-Drummer

The ToolBox page has been updated with 29 clips. These clips are designed to inspire – add some fills to your playing as well as some great exercises for double-bass.

I have also added a song to the sounds page – my first recording of a Rush song. I chose Prime Mover from the Hold Your Fire album.

Comments are welcome. 

V Expressions Ltd, a company that produces custom modeled sounds for the Roland V-Drums, has released the Professor’s Pack. 

This pack features drum sounds from the Professor himself – Neil Peart. There are 20 kit sounds that span his career from 1974 to 2007, from Working Man to Far Cry (of course, Neil did not join the band until Fly By Night). The expansion kit works on the TD-20 and TD-12 modules. Some kit sounds are extended to include addition tom or percussion sounds.

The complete list: Working Man, Fly By Night, 2112, 2112 EXT, Closer to the Heart, Closer to the Heart EXT, The Trees, The Trees EXT, Jacob’s Ladder, Jacob’s Ladder EXT, Freewill, Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer EXT, New World Man, Kid Gloves, Manhattan Project, Time Stands Still, Show Don’t Tell, Roll the Bones, Roll the Bones EXT, Double Agent, Limbo, Limbo EXT, Ghost Rider, Spirit of Radio (Live), Spirit of Radio EXT (Live), Far Cry, Limelight (Live), Limelight EXT (Live).

The pack also includes some bonus kits from John Bonham, Jeff Pocarro, Vinnie Colaiuta, Tim Alexander and Mike Portnoy. 

The kit sounds are fantastic and well worth the price. The sounds are rich and vibrant and appear to have been a labour of love.

I have expanded the kit a bit, using all available inputs with the addition of two more cymbals. The photo below shows cymbal number one placed above the hi-hat. Also, notice I have added a Pearl Hi-hat clutch which is a great tool for double-bass work. This had to be modified – sharing parts from both the Roland clutch and the Pearl clutch.

The other cymbal pad has been placed between the ride and crash and serves as a special effects cymbal – like a china type or swisher. In addition, you may notice the Roland SPD-20, and 8 pad percussion system. This is self contained and has expansion inputs numbering four. I have yet to decide to expand on that – maybe a foot trigger but we’ll see.

The SPD-20 serves as my percussion voice with a wide variety of bells, tubes, chimes, percussion hits, sound effects and many more. There are 700 sounds in this so it will take some time to figure out what I want. Right now, the output is connected to the Mix-In on the TD-20 module, but I can connect the SPD-20 to the TD-20 via MIDI but I haven’t figured that one out yet.

If I may, I would like to share my view when I practice. It’s one that is difficult to beat I think. It can be very peaceful – and cool with the window open.

I have recorded several bits of my practice routine and will soon upload them to the “sounds” page. I have also decided to work on a new page called “ToolBox,” and will contain clips of a variety of items one can apply to a solo or performance – like samba rhythms, double-bass work and much more.Look for that!

About the only thing that does not require visual aide is drumming, at least for me. So to keep me happy I bought me a Roland TD-20BKS a few months ago.Electronic drums have come a long way, and while I would lobe to have a nice set of acoustic drums – say by DW – these will keep the neighbors happy.

The kit sits in my bedroom – and given the nature of our one bedroom apartment – I am amazed it fits. There are 5 tom pads, 1 snare pad, a bass drum pad, 4 cymbal pads and a pair of hi-hat pads.

From this angle, you can see the carpet, which is actually Roland’s TDM-20 acoustical mat. There is the glimpse of my Roc-N-Soc seat, the DW5000 double-bass pedal, DW5000 Hi-Hat stand, the TD-20 brain, and the FS-6 footswitch. The footswitch is cool because it allows me to switch drum kits. For example, some drummers have more than 5 toms, so I will make a high and low range and switch between them.

A caution about the FS-6: it’s powered by a 9 volt battery and there is no power switch. The battery runs dry in about 4 days. I leave the battery disconnected until I really need to use the foot switch.

This view offers a better look at the snare pad, a few of the tom pads and the hi-hat. Notice my stick holder.

This left view shows the rest of the tom pads as well as most of the cymbal pads.

This view shows the bass drum pad as well as the main component of the DW5000 double-bass pedal. You can also see my DW snare stand as well.

This image shows the two most amazing parts of this kit. The TD-20 module controls the sound. There are 15 trigger inputs – each with dual trigger capability. That means my snare and tom pads also have rim sounds. The cymbals have edge and bell sounds. I have room for two more pads and those will be cymbals – one on each side of the kit.

The hi-hat is another amazing pad. It actually comes in two pieces, just like a real hi-hat. And just like a real hi-hat, it uses a regular hi-hat stand. This pad also has bell and edge sound, and even pressure. Step on the pedal tight to get the tight, higher pitched sound.

I live upstairs and as a result electronic kits are loud. It has been described to be like I am bouncing a basketball every time I hit the bass pad. My neighbors are pretty cool about me practicing, but I wanted to tone down the noise.The result is the stage you see. This actually cuts the noise significantly and is very muffled for the folks down stairs. The stage uses Auralex acoustical foam – this style specifically for making a drum stage. They are spaced 4 inches apart and applied to the bottom of 3/4 inch plywood using their included special glue. On top of the plywood sits the Roland TDM-20 acoustical mat to further assist in sound dampening.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my drum set. Comments are welcome.