Roland td-12?(help)

[mlawranceowen]

Right well i have had a begginer level acoustic drum kit for quite a while now and am thinking of upgrading to a td-12. I am in a indie, alternative band so would like an acoustic sound (what is the td 12 like?). The main reasons i am thinking of an electric is the portability, creativity, of course volume and because are band have dancier bits to our songs and may wish to use a slightly dancier kit...any thoughts on the td 12 and how does its sound compare to an acoustic? One last thing...does anyone know of any bands that use electronic kits live?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.... cheers

[yannock]

Originally Posted by mlawranceowen

Right well i have had a begginer level acoustic drum kit for quite a while now and am thinking of upgrading to a td-12. I am in a indie, alternative band so would like an acoustic sound (what is the td 12 like?). The main reasons i am thinking of an electric is the portability, creativity, of course volume and because are band have dancier bits to our songs and may wish to use a slightly dancier kit...any thoughts on the td 12 and how does its sound compare to an acoustic? One last thing...does anyone know of any bands that use electronic kits live?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.... cheers

I have a TD12 and I'm thinking of doing the opposite: upgrading to a real kit.This said, the TD12 is a brilliant piece of kit. With some proper tweaking (presets are cr*p) you can certainly fool most listeners that you're playing an acoustic kit. Individually, each drum sound is very close to the one emulated. But the one thing missing is the overall impression, this sort of air that there is around a drumkit and which I haven't managed to recreate. If you live in a house, I wouldn't hesitate: with this money I'd buy a real (expensive, something you won't get bored of soon) acoustic kit. If in a flat, well, depends on your neighbours, room acoustics etc... The Feeling use a TD8 for their initial takes to lessen spill (article in SOS magazine, march 2008) but re-record the parts with a real kit.

[cortisol]

Hi mlawranceowen,

I gig on both a midi kit and an acoustic. Some advantages to the midi kit are that you will get a very consitant sound as it doesn't interact with the room at all. As you said you can change kits from song to song and there are no drum mics involved.

On the other hand a real kit is more responsive and has more brilliant attack and transients and it feels different to a midi kit to play on. It is also what live sound engineers are used to dealing with.

Personally I would think of a TD-12 kit as a side step rather than a step up from your acoustic kit. A real step up would be a better acoustic kit.

If I where you I'd spend some time in a shop playing one and getting to grips with what the drum brain can do and what sounds are in the box.

As for me I'm proabley going to get a TD-9 drum Brain. I'm thinking that maybe a top of the range TD-9 range might do ya. Have a look on youtube for the TD-12 and TD-9 at Namm and the Musicmesse to see the units in action.

Best,
cortisol