Welcome to the V-Drums page!
Feel the beat!
And then go out and get a hearing exam!
Rhythm is the key!
What is a V-Drum?
Some years ago, I had an opportunity to purchase a revolutionary new product. The Roland V-Drum kit. What it was, was a tremendous electronic drum kit, capable of producing well over five hundred high-quality digital drum sounds. We even had birds, dogs and all various and sundry out-door sounds. It had standard acoustic tom sounds, snare drum sounds, bass drum samples, tons of cymbal samples, plus electronic and ethnic percussion samples of every kind imaginable!! The drum heads were even tuneable, and felt like you were actually playing on an acoustic drum kit. It was amazing! This V-Drum system was controlled by a multi-layer menu system. You could choose from head type, tuning ranges, the type and size of drum shell, the amount of drum muffling, microphone type/placement, reverb, EQ, compression ETC… If you wanted or needed to adjust it, it was there for the adjusting! It played and felt just like you were playing on acoustic drums, which was Roland’s intended idea. Roland makes several various configurations, but the point was, when you got a hold of this thing, you were going to have the feel and familiarity of acoustic drums.
I had this kit for about a year, and recorded some various drum styles, which is why I have this page here! I could never get the menu system to conform to my brain. Because this unit has layers upon layers of multi-menu options, and it has no way to get that information out to a person with a visual impairment, in an accessible format, I ended up selling the system to my former church. They got it going, and someone there took the time to go through the menus, and make some really nice sounding drum kits! Looking back on it now, I may have been able to make some sort of Excel chart, but it would have been quite a process…
The samples that I will share, are me playing the V-Drums, with its factory sounds and factory default configurations. As I said above, it plays like you were sitting at a conventional acoustic drum set. Although you will hear some way-cool sounds, and think that there is no way that one person can play all that, let me assure you, it is only me drumming, and no extra multi-tracking was employed… I mainly wanted to record some samples, and have them, as a way to illustrate to folks, yes, what my playing abilities are, but also, what just the basic factory presets and a bunch of pent-up human energy, at 02:00 AM in the early morning can really sound like!!
I have recorded eight drum styles, which I think will give you an idea of how versatile the Roland V-Drum system is. I did this the night before I sold the kit to my former church. I hope they will be as enjoyable to you, the listener, as they were for me, the drummer… If you wish to discuss drums, playing styles or techniques in general, feel free to send up a message
Thank you so much for visiting, and have a blessed day!
Samples
| Artist | Song Title |
|---|---|
| Roger Cusson | Bahamas! |
| Roger Cusson | Funk! |
| Roger Cusson | Groove! |
| Roger Cusson | Jazz! |
| Roger Cusson | Latin! |
| Roger Cusson | March! |
| Roger Cusson | Drum Solo! |
| Roger Cusson | Techno! |