Trad-looking E-drums?

[TomB]

Live shows are getting weird. The local drive-in wants to do FM broadcast of live shows to carloads of fans using their car stereos. Cool idea! But built-in latency creates sonic chaos if the band is amplified. In-ear/ampless technology gets you most of the way to a silent stage, but aside from a plexiglass enclosure, what about drums? Is there such a thing as a trad-looking e-drum kit? Other ideas?

 

[WayneP]

Why do they have to be trard-looking?

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[TomB]

Promoters want them to look like acoustic drums. It seems there are lots of options. All you need is $$$.

 

[DirtDog]

Roland V-Drums VAD-506.....only $4,799.


What is this built-in latency that an electronic drum kit would help you overcome?

 

[TomB]

Good question! It doesn’t, but along with in-ears it allows for a nearly silent stage and so no sonic conflict with the slightly delayed FM signal, though the visual lag might be disturbing. I guess when they tried it with a PA and a mic’d kick along with the FM it was a mess (duh!).

 

[TomB]

Oh, and Roland, such a deal !

 

[DirtDog]

Good question! It doesn’t, but along with in-ears it allows for a nearly silent stage and so no sonic conflict with the slightly delayed FM signal, though the visual lag might be disturbing. I guess when they tried it with a PA and a mic’d kick along with the FM it was a mess (duh!).

Oh, I get it now.... I was thinking the latency on stage due to space between musicians.

Yes, the sound onstage and what ends up being broadcast could get messy in that part of the signal change. Add in the umpteen sound sources from however many vehicles were parked and amplifying that signal in various ways.

I'm sure the old school drive-in operators had the latency figured out - as far as how to delay the film to be able to sync to the audio (on average, anyways). Probably not an intuitive part of the average outdoor rock show so the promotor/soundman might be out of their depth.

 

[Wadge]

Drum-tec make such kits. Sets

They aren't cheap though.

 

[knumbskull]

It’s a custom build but out of interest the drummer from Perturbator was using this custom e-drums setup when i saw them:

 

[newwavefrank]

Stick a real kick drum in front of whatever e-drums you are using. It goes a long way to changing the whole look. That being said, Roland look good and sound great just depends on your budget

 

[Downunderwonder]

On the cheap the thing to do would be mount your edrum set of choice inside a beater set of drums.

 

[walterw]

they make mesh drum heads that are essentially silent but supposedly feel like regular drum heads; a set of those with triggers on your regular drumset and off you go. they even make these weird almost silent cymbals, punched with tiny holes to where they're almost like pasta strainers.

(reviews i saw all said to put some kind of pad thing on the kick batter head or you'd go through it)

 

[TomB]

Thanks all. The concert went ahead with a conventional in-ears set-up. I guess there was some latency for those close up if they were outside their cars (which was discouraged), but it was hot enough that most stayed in their cars and listened to the broadcast with the AC on. So other than slight big-screen visual displacement (like watching some old films), I guess it turned out sonically OK.

 

[monkeyland]

they need to measure the delay to find the real answer. depending on how much it is you could delay the PA back a little to match the FM signal. Same with the video screen. There's a chance that it's too much for that to be a reasonable solution but any audio engineer worth his/her salt will be able to find out.

 

[TomB]

they need to measure the delay to find the real answer. depending on how much it is you could delay the PA back a little to match the FM signal. Same with the video screen. There's a chance that it's too much for that to be a reasonable solution but any audio engineer worth his/her salt will be able to find out.

That’s just it. Those engineers are few and far between and not many of them ever worked at a drive-in. But I agree it’s technically quite feasible. Who knows, if this pandemic keeps up it may become a regular thing!

 

[mikewalker]

Thanks all. The concert went ahead with a conventional in-ears set-up. I guess there was some latency for those close up if they were outside their cars (which was discouraged), but it was hot enough that most stayed in their cars and listened to the broadcast with the AC on. So other than slight big-screen visual displacement (like watching some old films), I guess it turned out sonically OK.

Thanks to Das InterWebz, (and streaming digital network TV) I think most people don't even notice audio sync lag anymore...

 

[monkeyland]

That’s just it. Those engineers are few and far between and not many of them ever worked at a drive-in. But I agree it’s technically quite feasible. Who knows, if this pandemic keeps up it may become a regular thing!

I would have personally tested the delay introduced by the FM transmitter before it ever left my shop, but I'm picky like that. Very easy to do with tools such as Smaart. I think that the limiting factor would be what, if any, effect distance has on that delay and how close it comes to the speed of sound

 

[wraub]

Late to the thread, but check these- As a bonus, e-drums that mare also not inexpensive but, it's actually also an acoustic kit.