Roland V-Drums

Though the V‑Drum system is ideally suited to the hi‑tech drummer, its modular brain features, modelled timbres and powerful editing features may lend it appeal as a source of high‑quality sounds for the non‑drummer. Nicholas Rowland checks out this beat feat.

Scan the hi‑tech musical landscape of the past decade and you'll see the bleached bones of defunct electronic drum kits, once proudly advertised with slogans such as "The Future of Percussion", "Real Drums Suck", "Chuck Out Your Chinas" and so on. These pathetic remains — usually with the words 'Made in the UK' still discernible through the dust — are testament to a fatal misunderstanding of why people become drummers in the first place. You see, as all the drummer jokes suggest, we really are the modern‑day equivalent of Neanderthals thrashing around on goat skins stretched over hollow gourds. And that's why we have also tended to judge electronics almost entirely on how they feel 'under the stick'. Forget the advantages of mind‑blowing sounds and modern‑age MIDIness: the fact that most electronic drum systems of yesteryear had the dynamic response of wet fish slapped on concrete made them a total turn‑off.

I mention this now because it explains why drummers should view Roland's new V‑Drums as a revelation — nay, revolution — in the field of electronic percussion. Expressive, dynamic, responsive... probably for the first time ever, the versatility and range which electronic drums always promised have been delivered without compromising the sheer enjoyment of the physical drum‑playing experience. In short, even before you hear what it sounds like, you'll be sold on how the V‑Drums feel to play.

Before we get too apocalyptic here, I'd better just return to earth with an explanation of what exactly the V‑Drums System is. In the blue corner we have the new TD10 Percussion Sound Module, where the big news is the use of Roland's proprietary acoustic modelling software (Composite Object Sound Modelling, or COSM for short) for generating the majority of its 600 drum and percussion sounds. Other spec‑sheet highlights include 50 melodic instruments, 50 user‑programmable kits, effects processing, onboard sequencer, 12 trigger inputs, eight ouputs, and expandability via memory cards and an expansion board.

In the red corner are the PD100 and PD120 pads. Developed in conjunction with drum manufacturers Remo, these offer all the natural feel and speed of response of acoustic drums, plus virtually silent performance (useful for practising) and, with certain TD10 sounds, the ability to play in traditional style with brushes. The system also offers positional detection, where the timbre of sounds will change according to the position of the stick on the drum pad — a feature also accessible with Roland's older pad designs, the PD7 and PD9. This is good news for existing Roland compact drum system owners. The TD10 is also compatible with the KD7 kick‑pedal trigger unit and FD7 hi‑hat control pedal, enabling you to build up a complete electronic kit without a real drum or cymbal in sight. That said, it can also be triggered from real drums if necessary and via MIDI. In fact, Roland are trumpeting the virtues of the TD10 brain as a stand‑alone drum sound module for the project studio.

Electronics & Ergonomics

The V‑Drums system was conceived right from the start as a drummers' instrument, one by‑product of which is its extreme user‑friendliness. The large LCD display doesn't just glow with names and numbers, but also with some neat graphics of different types of drums, mixer screens, even pictures of different scenes to accompany the ambiences (locker rooms, beaches, caves and so on.) They're not just a novelty item — they really do help you navigate your way round the system. The TD10 is also well‑equipped in the knobs and knockers department, offering dedicated buttons for virtually all the major features. Jumping from parameter to parameter is a breeze, and most functions involve no more than three screens' worth of parameters. And if you do get stuck up the proverbial creek without a manual, you'll find a menu of help screens is just a button‑push away. One drummer‑y feature worth pointing out is the fact that the increment/decrement buttons are large and rubbery enough to survive a poke in the eye with a sharp drum stick. And if you want to do some editing without pads, another highly useful feature is the touch‑sensitive 'preview' button, which allows you to play the TD10's 650 sounds from the front panel.

The Ears Have It

As you might expect, the instrument list is heavily weighted towards conventional drumkit sounds. In round(ish) numbers, we're talking 80 types of kick drum, 100 snares, 130 toms, 23 hi‑hats and 30 each of crash and ride cymbals. On top of that there's 100+ percussion instruments (including Latin, hand‑held, orchestral and tuned percussion voices). The remainder of the 600 voices are made up with an eclectic mixture of scratches, pops, special effects and guitar, bass and brass slides, labelled under the catch‑all title 'Other'. Normally, I'd ask you to grab a pint and take a seat as I talked you through the various groups of sounds. But as space is short, you'll have to be content with an overall verdict of "superb quality", "brilliant expression", with extra "pleasing work and effort" stars for the snares, hi‑hats and ride cymbals. The implementation of these latter sounds is nothing short of stunning. Even the most die‑hard acoustic drum enthusiast will believe that electronics can fly.

Maximum polyphony is 56 notes — which non‑Octopus drummers might think is on the generous side. Don't forget, though, that once the 4‑track sequencer is playing, even human drummers will need all the polyphony they can get. Crudely put, sounds fall into two camps: those that can be edited with an extended range of parameters and those that can't. The first are known as V‑Edit voices and they comprise the kicks, snares and toms. Of these three drum types, it's the snares which are the most complex, in terms of how the COSM technology has been applied. You can select from different types of shell material (brass, wood or steel), apply different heads, alter the depth of the shell (from 1 to 20 inches in 1‑inch steps), muffle the sound with virtual gaffa tape or donut‑shaped mufflers, apply extreme tunings (up to +/‑ four octaves) and even loosen the snares. Given these parameters, I defy anyone not to create the snare sound of their dreams. I remember at one stage in my musical life spending some considerable time in a local studio with gaffa tape and empty cigarette packets, trying to get rid of some nasty overtones on my acoustic snare drum. My gob was truly smacked when I achieved exactly the effect I had in mind back then with just a few button pushes. Another virtual action which you need to hear to believe is the way you can loosen and even throw off the snares on the snare drum. It's so realistic, I felt like shaking the TD10 to see whether some real drums dropped out.

Editing of kicks and toms is a similarly rich experience, even though there are a few less parameters to play with. You still get the choice of heads and a menu of tuning and damping options, but your choice of drum size is limited to 'deep' or 'deeper'. Given that you can still come up with dozens of variations on a basic voice, I'm certainly not complaining.

The acoustic sounds are augmented by voices from Roland's classic TR808 and TR909 beat boxes. This being the world of COSM, the sound‑shaping controls for these sounds follow the style of the original machines. So for the TR808, say, you're presented with a screen of virtual knobs offering control over Attack, Tune, Tone, Snappy and Decay. Similarly, parameters for the analogue electronic drum voices comprise Attack, Tone Pitch, Noise Pitch, Decay, Noise Tone Balance and Pitch Bend. Sadly, this feast of V‑Edit functions stops after the kicks, snares and toms. With all the other sounds, you are limited to tweaking tuning and decay. As the sound quality of all voices is so high and the range of sounds available so broad, this is generally not so bad, though it would have been interesting to have extended editing parameters for some of the more complex percussion instruments. I look forward to the future expansion board and extra wave cards with interest.

While we're picking at what few shortcomings the TD10 has, I might as well point out that while any sound can be assigned to any pad, certain combinations limit your editing options. For example, only when you assign a V‑Edit sound to inputs 1‑6 do you get the full menu of V‑Edit options. Furthermore, it's only when V‑Edit kick sounds are assigned to the kick input that you can shape them using the V‑Edit parameters. When assigned to any other input, even 2‑6, the available editing parameters are limited to tuning and decay. There are a number of other quirks too. I can't see them being particularly bothersome, but at least I've drawn your attention to the small print.

Of course, individual sounds are only the beginning. The premise behind Roland's COSM technology is that it mimics not just a single instrument, but all the elements in the sound chain — in other words, everything that shapes the sound as it travels from source to ear. So, having assembled your virtual kit, it's time to turn your attention to the virtual space you'd like to play it in. The 10 options range from Beach (no ambience) through the likes of Cave, Living Room, Locker Room and Bathroom, to Dome Stadium. The size of the space can also be altered, as can 'wall materials' (Wood, Plaster or Glass). Then it's time to position the ambient room mics — 'High' capturing the higher frequencies of the room and giving a brighter setting, and 'Low' picking up the lower frequencies and imparting a warmer sound. Kicks, snares and toms have their own individual mics, with placement options comprising Outside, Standard and Inside. For kicks and snares you also have a choice of mic types: Condenser, Dynamic and (for snares) Lo‑fi. Ambient effects can be applied in different amounts to each individual drum. It's worth underlining that these ambiences are not simply fancy names for different reverb treatments. Through the TD10's effects section, you can apply reverb on top of an ambience, if you so desire.

This brings us to the so‑called Control Room where we get to play with the TD10's rather well‑appointed mixer and rack of outboard gear. Along with individual volume, pan and output assignment, we can bring in a separate, fully programmable compressor and 2‑band parametric EQ for each of the sounds assigned to the first 10 trigger inputs. There's also a 3‑band master equaliser which can be applied to all the kits at once. This is a godsend if you're playing live and need to make a last‑minute quick fix to compensate for a dodgy sound system. The effects section offers 30 algorithms — 14 reverbs (including halls, rooms, plates, gate reverb and non‑linear reverbs); four delays, including a beat delay which is sync'ed to the tempo of the sequencer and where delay times are specified in note values; two types each of flanger/delay, phaser/delay, chorus/delay and pitch‑shift/delay multi‑effects. Using the pitch‑shift/delay, you can create some neat rhythmic effects, with sounds rising or falling in time to the beat. Also included are four 3D delay algorithms (as encountered in the highly acclaimed Roland RSS‑equipped spatial echo boxes) which can add a sense of spaciousness and movement to the sound. As you might expect, all these effects functions are extensively programmable and can be saved as part of individual kit setups.

Con‑Sequences

The TD10 comes equipped with a 4‑track sequencer which is primarily intended as a practice aid and musical scratchpad. There are 100 pattern locations in all, the first 50 of which are permanently filled with a selection of factory presets covering a range of mainstream musical styles — jazz, big band, soft rock, blues and so on. Making use of the TD10's melodic voices, they sound like those 'playalonga' styles you find on home keyboards. While not exactly highbrow stuff, they are fun to practise with — certainly better than playing to a click track. In a studio situation, they might also prove more inspirational than a click track, and perhaps even help you come up with new rhythmic ideas for your own compositions. There is space to record 50 user patterns, though it's real‑time programming only, folks. Editing facilities are pretty basic. You can't do much more than chop patterns about a bit, and copy and append them to other locations. But it's useful enough if you want to record your own playing or just get some ideas down quickly. Sequences can be triggered from pads; you can also set up a pad to act as the start and stop control. And you can also trigger sequences from an optional footswitch. While some sequences loop round and round in the time‑honoured tradition, others are what, in TD10 speak, are known as Tap mode sequences. This means that they will advance one step each time a particular pad is played. Sequences can be recorded in various common and not‑so‑common time signatures, and at tempos from 20‑260bpm. A click can be superimposed over a sequence, or you can use the metronome in isolation. The click sound can be chosen from a range of 16 percussion instruments, or you can opt for the rather severe voice to count it out for you. You can also send the click to the master or phones outputs, or both. Both the sequencer and metronome can be driven from an external MIDI clock, which makes the TD10 ideal for those drummers who need to play along with sequenced tracks, either on stage or in the studio.

MIDI Matters

As we're on the hard MIDI stuff now, let me assure you that the V‑Drums will happily function as a trigger‑to‑MIDI converter. Note numbers are programmable for each pad, as are gate times — essential when you want to trigger longer sounds or loops. When recording a V‑Drums performance into a sequencer, you can capture all the nuances of the hi‑hat, plus the positional sensing for the snare and ride cymbal inputs. These functions are brought to you courtesy of control change numbers 4, 16 and 17 respectively, though there are options to swap them around, or control them via a modulation wheel. As a sound module controlled by an external device, the TD10 offers up to 4‑part multitimbrality, one part being the kit sounds, the other three being whatever melodic instruments are assigned to the sequencer section. You may not have gathered (and there's no reason why you should) that a TD10 kit normally consists of a maximum of 24 voices (one pad and one rim sound for each of the 12 pad inputs). To access more than 24 sounds via MIDI, you can assign instruments to the MIDI note numbers not being used by the kit sounds. You can create up to four of these collections of MIDI/voice assignments (called Percussion Groups) and assign one to each kit. Each instrument within the percussion group can be edited, with parameters comprising volume, pan, pitch, decay, ambience and effects send. There are a number of limitations to this system, including the fact that you can't include TR808/909 or electro drum sounds within a percussion group. A kit sound will also have priority when assigned to the same note number as a percussion group sound. Both these limitations are niggles rather than major disasters. In terms of sync'ing to external devices, the TD10 can be told to be slave and master, or can be left to make up its own mind, depending on whether you press its start button or the one on the sequencer first.

Verdict

Even in a review of this length, I'm sure I've left a few stones unturned, such as the housekeeping functions to copy and name kits, and also how you can make global adjustments to certain parameters without going in and changing them individually for each kit. But I think you've got the idea by now.

The TD10 itself is a wonderful piece of technology. Though brilliantly simple to use, it's packed full of features which make it readily adaptable to any serious music application, be it playing live, studio recording or post‑production MIDI editing. Even if it sounded half as good as it does, it would be a winner. Taken as a complete system, the V‑Drums is a true player's instrument. And for the reasons I laid out at the beginning, this is the highest praise you could give an electronic drum system. For once I agree with the marketing men. As it says in Roland's brochures — welcome to the future of percussion.