TD50x Kits?

[Whitten]

I'm sure their marketing guys tell them where to spend their time....but innovators make new markets, not market surveys.

Toontrack are the market leader. I'm sure their sales figures tell them what people buy and don't buy.
My partner and I have proposed projects to them multiple times. I think other producer/drummers have too.
Knowing them personally, they follow their own minds when doing projects, or listen to friends and people they've worked with before. If something sounds fun and interesting, they'll probably agree to 'spend their time' making it happen.
Market surveys have zero influence on them.

 

[wolfereeno]

Toontrack are the market leader. I'm sure their sales figures tell them what people buy and don't buy.
My partner and I have proposed projects to them multiple times. I think other producer/drummers have too.
Knowing them personally, they follow their own minds when doing projects, or listen to friends and people they've worked with before. If something sounds fun and interesting, they'll probably agree to 'spend their time' making it happen.
Market surveys have zero influence on them.

Well, please tell them some kind of Drums of Blue Note would sell at least one copy!!

Anyway, thanks for your responses. I appreciate the hard work that goes into products - sometimes they sell and sometimes they don't.

As food for thought, here's something I saw only a couple of days ago that I was pretty impressed by. His examples are weird abstract stuff (I happen to like that) but there's no reason his tools couldn't be used for more conventional sounds and provide multiple axises of expression from pads, sensors, or audio. It will be fascinating to see where this stuff goes.

And here he did a quick experiment using an Erae touch instead of a audio impulse. The touch is already MPE fluent and completely programmable. It already handles aftertouch pressure and gliding a stick around it, multiple points of simultaneous contact... And this is what this guy did with his first week of having one!

In comparison, doesn't Roland's $850 USB snare drum seem kind of ridiculous?

 

[bpaluzzi]

In comparison, doesn't Roland's $850 USB snare drum seem kind of ridiculous?

I mean, I see what you’re saying, but I can’t agree. The Roland digital snare fills an actual need for me. The Erae Touch, while an interesting piece of tech, isn’t something I’d have any use for. The Roland snare could be $1000, and the Erae could be $20, and I’d still get the Roland.

 

[Whitten]

Then problem is I imagine the base TD17 is Roland's biggest seller. The vast majority of v-drum buyers are home drummers or churches, they just want the basics to work well. That's just the reality.
I've been watching the v-drum debate for years and the topic most people are energised about is the onboard sounds.
Pearl I think satisfied a lot of people's wish list for better sound, but it hasn't sold as well as the Roland modules, I think because it's expensive and only has one sound library, which has never been expanded.
In any case, yes I agree, the technology could be better, and the sounds absolutely should be better, but the market just doesn't want to pay for it (sadly).

 

[cochlea]

Wasn't the Mimic's sound library expanded somewhat with the latest software update? I do agree that Pearl hasn't supported this module the way many of us anticipated at the time of its release. I thought there would be frequent releases of sound packs that could be purchased and added to the unit. Maybe this lack of expansion is do more to issues with Slate than with Pearl.

 

[Luke_eDW]

Wasn't the Mimic's sound library expanded somewhat with the latest software update? I do agree that Pearl hasn't supported this module the way many of us anticipated at the time of its release. I thought there would be frequent releases of sound packs that could be purchased and added to the unit. Maybe this lack of expansion is do more to issues with Slate than with Pearl.

Yeah, it was updated with hundreds of new sounds in July which was done by the Slate developers, as far as I understand it. They're still Slate sounds, it was all of the SSD3 stuff, but it's a pretty comprehensive addition to the library. Add to that an instrument editor that allows you to load any sounds you own as multi-layered instruments alongside some great feature updates, all completely free. Not a bad deal for a module that was released 5 years or so prior at that point.

 

[Whitten]

Oh sorry, I didn't keep up with it.
Still, I too was expecting the Mimic sound library to be more varied, with other sound developers coming in (like Superior).
And Mimic is still a rare sight, which says to me people preferred Roland (most likely based on price and reliability).

 

[Whitten]

FWIW, here is a video we made about the sampling sessions for the TM-6 pro. It was fun and creative because basically we only needed one or two quality hits from each kit piece (as opposed to hundreds for an S3 pack).

 

[cochlea]

FWIW, here is a video we made about the sampling sessions for the TM-6 pro. It was fun and creative because basically we only needed one or two quality hits from each kit piece (as opposed to hundreds for an S3 pack).

Although you only need one or two quality hits from each drum, that still seems like a tedious and labor intensive process to get each drum set up for recording since there are many variables to consider. I would think that the more people involved, the harder it would be to come to some kind of consensus as to which sample hit to go with for each drum at the end of a session.

 

[Whitten]

My partner and I have done a lot of sampling, since 2004. So we were hired to create the library.
In the case of single hits, he and I went home to separate locations and just chose our favourites, mixed them and processed them, then a few days later got together and 'blind' listened back to our work and chose the ones we liked.
Then we sent a fold with more hits than were needed to Roland and they went through their own selection process.
The aim is variety. It's no good me just creating sounds I like, because most other drummers will like something different.

On the labour....
Setting up different drums, with different mics in different rooms, playing each drum for 10 minutes to get a couple of good hits is a lot of fun (creative). The detailed multi-sample packs like Slate, Toontrack, Addictive etc, they are very hard work and super boring to do.
Like I said, typically 1.5 hours on one snare alone.