I was booked to play at a high-end country club, they wanted two musicians so I hired a drummer. His ability was not at question., he was good.

Problems:
1-A drummer’s main job is to hold the beat, now he being asked to follow a machine.

2-Because we had to hold the volume down the drummer had trouble hearing the style. The speakers were at each side of the stage. His drum was right in front of him, not good. I had to move one speaker behind him. It was not a good night.

My question is, why use a drummer? Sax, trumpet, even vibes add much more, they are live. With my band we had a cowbell, tambourine, and timbalies. (Spelling?) At the right time they added a lot.

I was in an audition of bands; people came to book a band for their wedding and parties. There was a band playing Latin music, they were fantastic. Drummer, two Percussion, and a drum machine.

Using midi I added a drum machine to my Kn7000, what a marriage. I used a foot pedal to control the volume of the drum machine. I was able to add different drum sets, breaks, and combine styles. The sounds of the drum machine were far better than my keyboard. It worked very much like the pads on a keyboard.

The world of music has been so rewarding, John C.