I just don't hear this LIVE sound from the drum sets reg or audio on Yamaha Arrangers, or bass for that matter.....
for example at 7:30 in this demo the drums are smokin' ... and this goes for ballads, or any genre etc, also, hopefully Tyros 5 if ever produced will make me a believer again.

what i hear is not a LIVE drum sound
what i hear is a nice performance with a VERY Electronic & Compressed drum sound
which is GREAT for Dance stuff

i prefer my Audya's LIVE drums anyday, but that's just me...

I agree. The 800 drums always sounded terrific and this demo sounds as Leezone said. Maybe it's the way the sound is coming through to us - I know Korg is better than this.

Hey Donny, when did you switch to playing Middle Eastern styles? I agree with Leezone - the drums sound somewhat robotic and harsh to me. I hear live drums a lot down here, and they're nothing like that demo.

Good Luck,

Gary

zuki, gary

i'm glad we agree to agree

Well I have a PA3X and I agree. However, there are wonderful live drums in it. The drums here sounded not as good as Yamaha!
Maybe DNJ linked to the wrong song??
DonM

I'd have to go with the drum sounds are seriously lacking in the PA3x (though I managed to EQ some of them for a better sound). Then again I think they're lacking in all recent arranger keyboards, except, the Audya, of course.

I think it's the same as "food." We've been eating processed/packaged food so long we forgot what real food tasted like. I still have my old Yamaha RX7 analog drum machine. If I remember it correctly, that sound more like a real drum kit than today's machines.

Does anyone have any ideas about improving the drum sounds? I went through all the drum kits. They all sound thin, limp and synthetic (and maybe even pathetic?). Or......has anyone played their PA3x on a real industrial strength amp? Maybe a bass amp? Are the drum sounds any thicker? I'm using EV's which are known more for clarity, and not "punch" so I haven't tried it myself.

So, again......anyone have any ideas for improving the drum sounds?

BTW, to it's benefit, I think the trumpets are incredibly authentic sounding when used with pitch bend, vibrato, etc

I remember the RX7. I also liked the Alesis SR-16 that was made for many years. Even the Roland TR707 I remember very fondly. There is something about those drum machines that date back quarter of a century ... how amazing.

I'm hearing, once again, the Master Compressor settings being used over-aggressively. I cannot emphasize enough how, if you want your drums to sound as live as possible, DON'T use the Master Compressor. Even the best of arranger drums are, by their very nature, incapable of the TRUE dynamic range that a real drummer plays at. Why you would want to restrict it any further is beyond me...

You ask how to "improve" the Drum sounds?
Perhaps meaning sounding more authentic and live?

Very easy, use REAL audio drums as does the Audya.
No amount of compression will make fake drums sound real

If manufactures included proper drum samples there would be no need to go the audio route, (Which unless you have the right software you can’t edit) as can be seen here , here and here

Bill

abacus

i kinda agree with you about proper drum samples, BUT

you will still be missing that human feel, that human swing, that REAL human performance, that human "imperfection" that makes it sound so REAL

... But isn't that true of all the accompaniment sounds in an arranger... That's why I throw in a few 'clinkers' now and then...

And, you will be missing the drums overpowering every instrument in the band, the guy at the mixing board going nuts trying to balance the sounds between the drums and other instruments and the vocalist. Yep - you'll be missing all of that. And I for one, am damned glad that "human imperfection" is no longer a problem.

Good Luck,

Gary

IF the style's drums were performed on a MIDI drum kit to start with (and then probably edited a bit) you can get all the human 'touch' you want...

If they are programmed by a keyboard player on his arranger's keys, then probably no... you can't!

The fault with stiff, undynamic styles is not the fault of the arranger's drum samples. If you have got ONE style that rocks, then theoretically, they ALL could rock.

And sorry, Gary. I feel bad for you that you've never played with a real drummer that knew how to play in balance (in other words, not as quietly as arranger players seem to like it!) with the guys..! It's quite sublime.

Played in lots of bands/groups when I was a young man playing a guitar. No keyboards back then - just a couple guitars, slap bass player, piano player and a drummer. And, because I've always had a nice, smooth voice, I was the vocalist most of the time. There were times when I couldn't hear myself singing, which I consider somewhat ridiculous. Of the half-dozen drummers I performed/played with, only one seemed to actually know what he was doing.

I hear drummers here on the island nearly every night - most are just loud, but some are louder! Last week, our incredible female vocalist was drowned out by the guy playing the synth. Unfortunately, he was the person controlling her mic volume, so I couldn't do anything to rectify the situation. This Saturday night, she will be singing through my system, which makes life a lot better.

Guess it depends upon what you enjoy. But overwhelming drums, even on an arranger keyboard, just don't cut it for me. If you have a chance, please record your group the next time you play so I can better understand what you are describing when it comes to drum balance and overall sound. I would be more than happy to record my stuff, and have posted many of them in the past, but I only have so much room on the boat for stuff. And, the salt air is beginning to have some detrimental effect on some of the gear.

Cheers,

Gary

Gary ... you can do some recording for us when you get back to LAND !!! ... ESPECIALLY if you have that 950 ...

So, only ONE drummer you have ever played with got it right? Got any recordings with him in the band? Care to compare to the drum level on most of the user demos posted here?

I believe that overwhelming drums are JUST as detrimental as underwhelming drums. But slightly too loud drums are easier dealt with, simply by playing just a tad harder (which, again, wouldn't be the worst thing for many user demo players here). Tough to play even softer to balance an anemic drum part...

There's wrong at both ends of the scale, but I must confess, the end of the scale that almost all arranger players favor is the low one. One just wishes for a more even balance of wrongness!

There ya go!

Diki, No recordings from back then - couldn't lug a 1-inch tape machine around with all the other gear. Keep in mind that I've been playing solo for a long time. I was hoping you would be able to provide something from your group to compare with what I'm hearing in the demos and postings here and other sites.

Gary

Now, does anyone know where I would 'adjust' the 'Master Compressor" on the PA3x as Diki suggests?

Hi Lee....

I have a limited knowledge of tech stuff. Are you saying...buy a good set of drumkit samples and load them into the PA3x and then don't use the internal drum sounds, but DO use the 'sampled drumkit' that I loaded?

If so, is there any downside to doing that other than filling up some of my memory and a longer bootup time?

But then I'll have an Audya sound as far as the drums go?

Yes, under Global menu, adjust the MAXX settings. Turn off for no compression.
DonM

MARK

i don't know what the PA3X can or can't do, if it can use different samples etc,

also, i do not think the Korg can Stream REAL Audio Drums as does the Audya

Actually, the Korg PA3x has a FULL featured sampler, with data compatibility (mostly) with the Korg Triton series, which opens up a vast library of world class sample libraries. So importing drum kits in is very doable.

And no, while it can't actually stream off the HD like Ketron's do (mind you, I don't know if user made drumloops stream or have to be loaded first on the Ketron either), it can do the exact same timesliced drum loop thing that Ketron's do.

The main difference is that Ketron do the work FOR you, and for the most part, if you want to do this on a Korg, you have to roll your own.