Uploaded October 2010 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Well, here is something very different, after all these months of not uploading anything!!!!
I got this rather pretty Roland TD20KX last week. With extra tom and cymbals, naturally :-) It is INCREDIBLE!!!!! I am still getting the hang of it, as you will see with the dynamics and cross-stick bits at end that don't quite work. I have also had to record this without the camcorder picking up me talking and grunting and stuff - I am still working out the best way to use this kit for YouTube work!
Anyway, this cover of 'Fly' and 'Broadway' is by no means spot on. It is one of those very few Genesis tracks that you think 'ah, this one is straightforward', only to find that it sounds pants however hard you try!!! I love the half open hi hat of Phil's, and who does not smile every time they hear that off-beat crash thing going on? It is a great groove Phil gets here, really open and loose and lazy and powerful. And damn difficult to copy!
You'll notice me swop hands, as it were, in the middle of 'Fly'. Playing left hand on hi hat was the only way I could find to then also play that weird as hell 3 hits on the toms that cut straight across the beat. This fill is made harder by the fact it starts a 16th note after I always thought it did! Brilliant! Unfortunately, you can hear that I rushed it, and my last tom hit of the three is early - you can hear Phil's tom slightly later :-(
The fills leading into 'Broadway Melody of 1974' are also a bit awkward, in that I could never quite decide which drums to hit to make the same sound. But worse, when the last fill ends with that off-beat crash, it sounds wrong, every time I do it! I really am not sure what Phil did there, and it shows!
The second half (Broadway Melody of 1974) is frustratingly difficult too. I cannot tell whether Phil is playing 8s on his hi hat with ghost notes on snare, or 16s on hi hat. The latter never quite sounds right when I do it, and the former sounds worse, though that is chiefly 'cos I seem unable to do it with enough subtlety! In the end, I seem to have chosen the simplest way, which is to play 8s without even trying the ghost notes. Pants. Sorry. I must have been concentrating too hard on hitting the Roland quietly (and failing), and I forgot to try to play this bit as 16s. Not good.
When I go to the cross stick at end, some of them come out as snare hits, and at least one is totally silent!!!!! Give me a chance to get used to this kit before laying in to me too much! The cross sticks seem easy to get wrong on my Roland at present...................now, where is that manual?
I will be interested to see what the reaction is to this video, compared to my previous, acoustic drum kit vids. Do you hate the sound? Is it an improvement? Do you want me to only use my accoustic kit on these covers? Let me know.
I am uploading a drum solo in the next couple of days too - I hate solo's and don't usually do 'em, but it seems a good chance to show you what this kit is like :-)
Hope you enjoy! Right, I am off to re-read the user manual for the four hundredth time. It is blowing my mind. I've got the hang of the important stuff, like instrument settings and mic positions and head size and shell depth and rim triggers and sensitivity and god knows what else, but I still don't understand how to save my drum kit............Oh well!
Well, here is something very different, after all these months of not uploading anything!!!!
I got this rather pretty Roland TD20KX last week. With extra tom and cymbals, naturally :-) It is INCREDIBLE!!!!! I am still getting the hang of it, as you will see with the dynamics and cross-stick bits at end that don't quite work. I have also had to record this without the camcorder picking up me talking and grunting and stuff - I am still working out the best way to use this kit for YouTube work!
Anyway, this cover of 'Fly' and 'Broadway' is by no means spot on. It is one of those very few Genesis tracks that you think 'ah, this one is straightforward', only to find that it sounds pants however hard you try!!! I love the half open hi hat of Phil's, and who does not smile every time they hear that off-beat crash thing going on? It is a great groove Phil gets here, really open and loose and lazy and powerful. And damn difficult to copy!
You'll notice me swop hands, as it were, in the middle of 'Fly'. Playing left hand on hi hat was the only way I could find to then also play that weird as hell 3 hits on the toms that cut straight across the beat. This fill is made harder by the fact it starts a 16th note after I always thought it did! Brilliant! Unfortunately, you can hear that I rushed it, and my last tom hit of the three is early - you can hear Phil's tom slightly later :-(
The fills leading into 'Broadway Melody of 1974' are also a bit awkward, in that I could never quite decide which drums to hit to make the same sound. But worse, when the last fill ends with that off-beat crash, it sounds wrong, every time I do it! I really am not sure what Phil did there, and it shows!
The second half (Broadway Melody of 1974) is frustratingly difficult too. I cannot tell whether Phil is playing 8s on his hi hat with ghost notes on snare, or 16s on hi hat. The latter never quite sounds right when I do it, and the former sounds worse, though that is chiefly 'cos I seem unable to do it with enough subtlety! In the end, I seem to have chosen the simplest way, which is to play 8s without even trying the ghost notes. Pants. Sorry. I must have been concentrating too hard on hitting the Roland quietly (and failing), and I forgot to try to play this bit as 16s. Not good.
When I go to the cross stick at end, some of them come out as snare hits, and at least one is totally silent!!!!! Give me a chance to get used to this kit before laying in to me too much! The cross sticks seem easy to get wrong on my Roland at present...................now, where is that manual?
I will be interested to see what the reaction is to this video, compared to my previous, acoustic drum kit vids. Do you hate the sound? Is it an improvement? Do you want me to only use my accoustic kit on these covers? Let me know.
I am uploading a drum solo in the next couple of days too - I hate solo's and don't usually do 'em, but it seems a good chance to show you what this kit is like :-)
Hope you enjoy! Right, I am off to re-read the user manual for the four hundredth time. It is blowing my mind. I've got the hang of the important stuff, like instrument settings and mic positions and head size and shell depth and rim triggers and sensitivity and god knows what else, but I still don't understand how to save my drum kit............Oh well!
