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In order to save weight on next year’s most controversial new car, the Chinese manufacturer has not included any of the following:
However they did add a couple of things, such as some batteries made by the world’s top battery maker, an array of computer-controlled electric motors, and a plug.
Also missing will be emissions, a need to buy fuel, and a lot of guilt. Today in Los Angeles, BYD is looking for a partnership to manufacture it’s long-range zero-emissions cars in California, and the State of California is eager to go up against Detroit with it’s Chinese venture partner. Perhaps by year’s end we’ll hear almost nothing as Californians silently zip around town in cars without engines.
By Jeffrey the Barak
Before I ever had electronic drums, I spent a couple of decades carrying around large, heavy drum sets and cymbals, which could only ever be played in rented rehearsal rooms, because they naturally made very loud sounds that would never be appropriate in a normal domestic setting.
As loud as real drums are, they invariably require amplification in a loud setting, so not only are there many huge shells and large cymbals with a great deal of heavy, metal hardware to support them, there is a second set of hardware to support the microphones.
But once a decision has been made to replace the drums and microphones with electronic drums, a new option appears. This is the option of a compact format. With real drums, as they have evolved, the standard drum set includes a bass or kick drum, which is on it’s side, on the floor and a hi-hat, which has it’s pedal directly below the pair of cymbals, and is usually therefore placed before your left foot. Typically the snare drum is between the legs with the kick and hat to either side, and then an array of toms and cymbals surround the aforementioned triangle.
But of course, with a remote pedal for the hi hat, an electronic hi hat does not have to be in the usual position. For example, a right-handed drummer does not have to cross arms to get to the hi hat on his left with his right stick. It can be at 2 o’clock of the snare, and still be opened and closed with the left foot. And since we don’t need to have large toms and large cymbals to produce the sounds of large toms and large cymbals, then it starts to make sense to abandon the format and layout of acoustic drums in favor of a small compact array, permanently connected and easily amplified with one or two cables.
In some situations, a drummer will have to mimic the layout of an acoustic kit, either because he switches back and forth from one to the other and wants to avoid adapting back and forth, or because the standard image of a conventional set is assumed to be desired by his band, or his audience.
But for me, if I can have a large ride cymbal sound or a large floor tom sound without having to have those large objects present, then I will happily have a compact layout before me and also take advantage of the ability to play quietly and precisely, and yet still produce all the sound I want. So my electronic setups have started and remained compact throughout and I have little interest in the so called normal electronic kits with their racks and spread apart format.
My road to the DrumKAT.
Towards the end of my acoustic era, I had already eliminated tom-tom shells and had an array of Roto-Toms over two bass drums and a snare. If I could have found a decent double-kick pedal back then, I would not have had two bass drums either.
Shortly thereafter, I stopped playing altogether, but at one point I went to a toy store and got a Yamaha DD-50 with it’s two little foot switches and noisy, hollow pads. That little toy was a lot of fun for a while and I even McGuyvered together a base for the kick trigger that I could strike with a bass drum pedal.
But that was not real. It took eighteen years of being a non-drummer to prepare me for a return to serious playing, and when that time came I began on a short odyssey of buying, trying and either returning or re-selling various devices before settling upon the DrumKAT.
First was an Alesis Performance pad, then came a Roland SPD-20, complete with throne, hat pedal and kick trigger/pedal. Then came a year of swimming against the current. I got rid of the pedals and sticks and adapted to hand and finger drumming using a Roland Handsonic 10. I developed a technique whereby I could play bare handed and have it sound like a real drum set. I even recorded an album of self-penned compositions using my Handsonic, but I felt that I was wasting my ability to control a pair of sticks. I wanted press rolls and all that comes with stick drumming. So I got a Yamaha DTX Multi and it took me all of a day to realize that I could never get what I wanted from it, and so that led me to the amazing DrumKAT.
The DrumKAT has been around for a couple of decades, and yet unlike a slick mass-produced product from Roland or Yamaha, it remains a specialty product, encased in tough steel, finished with a hammered enamel paint, looking tough and roadworthy, and yet with an air of laboratory roughness. To use car euphemisms, while the Roland and Yamaha all in one drum pads have a refined quality, like a new Toyota Camry, the KAT products, from a family-run American firm have more the feel of a hand-built British Morgan sports car, or a military vehicle.
Upon receiving my DrumKAT, I was obliged to embark upon a course of tinkering, seeking forum help and support from my peers, and general experimenting to get to a place where I could focus on nothing other than just playing the drums. But it was worth it. The DrumKAT suits my drumming style better than any other electronic or acoustic instrument.
As per my comments on format, unlike a conventional electronic drum set, the DrumKAT puts everything on a tea-tray, right under your sticks. It is a format conducive to flying around the drum kit, without having to move much above your elbows, perfect for quiet, fast, precise strokes and press rolls with lightweight 7A drumsticks, which with electronic drums, can sound as big and loud as a crazy hard swing on a rock kit with the butt end of a 2B drumming bat.
True, the pad format is also available from Roland in the old SPD-20, or from Alesis with the low-priced Performance Pad, or Yamaha with their new hybrid pad the DTX-Multi 12, all of which I have owned, briefly. But unlike any of these, the DrumKAT responds to playing dynamics more like a perfectly tuned snare drum than anything that has so far been imported from Asia.
So I bought a full playing setup from Alternate Mode, makers of the DrumKAT. The DrumKAT dk10, with a new Yamaha Kick trigger and a Pintech Hyperhat pedal. My plan was to pull it out of the box and mount it to a stand I already own, a Roland PDS-10, but right away I could not because the DrumKAT mounts with screws unlike the ones Roland uses, so I had to run to the hardware store and get some 1/2″ X 10-32 machine screws, per the warning sticker on the KAT’s underside.
The Hammerite finish of the DrumKAT’s case is beautiful, but the wonderfully playable rubber surface does something the Roland and Yamaha products never did, it makes the room smell like a tire store! No exaggeration, if you dislike the smell of rubber, you can never be comfortable right beside a brand new DrumKAT. But again, the pads on my Alesis were too hard, and the pads on my Yamaha were spongey and very difficult to play on. The DrumKAT pads are Goldilocks perfect for playing on, so I will gladly take the rubber smell.
So even here at square one, the eccentricities of small American companies are beginning to provide a different experience from the mainstream, all-scenarios-considered Japanese option.
It was at this stage that my first real problem appeared. Of the ten pads on the DrumKAT, I had one that was not working. Pad 7 was silent and pads 3 and 4 sounded the same, but the latter issue was not a problem, I realized I was triggering a virtual drum set that only had three toms. More on that later.
After a re-initialize and a support call to Alternate Mode at closing time, Pad 7 was kind of working, but only if it was hit very hard, about 10 times harder than the other 9 pads. So it was faulty alright. Actually it would work normally for while, then go out again, so it was probably something simple to do with a missed inspection or testing stage at the factory.
The second issue popped up a minute later. To preface this account I should explain that the DrumKAT is not a drum machine combined with a controller. It has no brain or sound module. All it does is send MIDI signals to either a drum module, (like the box that comes with a conventional e-drum set), or to your computer via a MIDI to USB interface cable. I had such a cable, an M-Audio MIDIsport UNO, purchased specially for the DrumKAT, but my plan to get started by triggering the nice-sounding drum kits native to Apple’s Garageband went awry.
When the Pintech HiHat pedal was depressed, I got a vibrato effect on all the other drums. This was very noticeable on snare and ride cymbal but present on every generated sound. It sounded like the end-theme from Spongebob Squarepants. Boing, Boing, Boing, Boing, Switching between mono and stereo hat cables had no effect so I ruled that out.
But that’s in GarageBand. When I closed Garageband and instead opened EZDrummer Lite, which I got free with a Korg NanoPAD, no Boing! So then I played the EZDrummer kit via Garageband, and there was no problem. I made two tracks in Garageband, one for a native Apple kit and a second for an EZDrummer kit. Apple went Boing, EZ did not.
I then purchased, downloaded and installed the full version of EZDrummer so I could pay the KAT without the modulation issue . The basic program has a limited number of drums and cymbals available. In it’s default configuration, right out of the box, it’s very hard-rocky. The default toms in particular are too big, too loose and too noisy. A most unpleasant racket, even with the virtual overhead and room mics turned down in the virtual mixer. Playing this noisy kit makes me want to reach for a tuning key and tighten it all up. But like most things in electronic drumming, some input is required. By changing the preset to dry then sliding up the overhead to sweet spot, a nice-sounding kit was found, albeit with oversized deep toms. I actually prefer the rock, pop and crystal kits that come with Garageband, but until I get the vibrato sorted out, I cannot use them.
Having recorded my last project with bare hands, using a Roland Handsonic 10 and it’s default “drums” setting, via an audio interface straight into Garageband, I have to say that Roland makes better drum sounds for their modules than EZDrummer’s default kit can provide without a lot of adjustments. But I soon added my first EZX expansion pack, the Jazz EZX,and now I have virtual drums that sound beautiful.
So the nice lady at Alternate Mode said,
“Since pad 7 is not responding correctly, we need to get the unit back to see what is wrong with it. We will build and ship you a new DK10 and enclose a prepaid UPS shipping label. You can just package up your current unit and use the prepaid label to send it back to us. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you. Unfortunately, no-one here uses Garageband. I looked at their website and I’m not sure how to change the note number or shut off controller 4 or 10. Maybe they could help.”
So Alternate Mode may be a little American firm selling out-of-mainstream products cooked up in a little factory, but the customer service is a thing of beauty.
At this point I turned to my peers for help with the incompatibility issue between the DrumKAT dk10 and Garageband. I realized that finding anyone who used both alone in the same combination was a long shot, but I posted on forums for help. Namely, Vdrums.com, Apple’s Garageband’09 support forum and Alternate Mode’s discussion forum.
The consensus seems to be the DrumKAT is sending a signal on the same MIDI channel that controls vibrato or perhaps modulation on Apple’s other soft instruments. Now since I am a drummer and new to MIDI, all this is beyond me so I have to admit defeat with regard to the DrumKAT dk10’s mysterious incompatibility with Garageband’s native drum sets.
Again, a Morgan is not a Camry. I probably would not have to worry about any of this with a Yamaha or Roland or Alesis pad module. In fact I have triggered Garageband’s kits via MIDI from a Roland pad without issue. But little Alternate Mode do not buy everything in the marketplace and test their products for compatibility. That would be so, Japanese.
When the shiny new dk10 arrived, the situation with regard to Garageband was unchanged. However, all pads work on the replacements unit, and aside from a little worry over some loose mystery object inside the case, I am feeling good about it. Again, you expect a rattle or two on a Morgan, but would be shocked if it was a Camry.
The next morning I started to play and the next set of mini-disasters began. This time I am fairly certain that it is a computer RAM issue. When playing the DrumKAT via Garageband with the EZDrummer plug-in, the sounds were cutting off. But upon closing Garageband and using EZDrummer with it’s standalone host Toontrack Solo, it was great and followed my zillion notes per second without missing a beat.
Great, that is, unless I want to record something using Garageband. So this is a RAM issue. Maybe the solution is to get more RAM, or maybe I should get a sound module plus an audio interface so I can have the same sound live and in the virtual studio. Maybe a nice little Alesis DM10 module would help. Gear escalation folks.
So here I go on my new playing adventure with my DrumKAT, for now triggering EZDrummer Jazz EZX, through Toontrack Solo on my iMac, but perhaps with a sound module and amplifier in my future, if I decide to take it outside to the real world and scare people with it.
Jeffrey the Barak is the publisher of the-vu and back in the Nineteen-Seventies, he used to be Jeffrey the Barak.
