Uploaded January 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
This video features the gorgeous sounds of the Mimic Pro combined with the VExpressions John Bonham expansion kit. I am using a drumless track and what you are listening to is my band.
This is not a multi-track recording - it is simply Master Outs 1 and 2.
I am well aware that I am playing with fire here - uploading a video of your own band covering this classic Dire Straits track is bound to elicit some adverse comments. Anyway, this is how we play this at our live shows, where we get a huge reaction, and I thought it was a great way to show the versitality of what is actuallly a Bonham inspired drum sound.
So before we get into the merits or otherwise of this particular cover (my playing and/or my band's playing), let's discuss what I have done here with the drum sounds -
I have used the exact same VExpressions kit as I played on my previous video - the 'Bonham' video. However I made a couple of important, and simple, changes to the kit sounds prior to recording. (It is important to realise that I have done ZERO post production. I recorded the drums directly into the Mimic on-board Recorder).
Primarily, I reduced the Room and Reverb mics (in the Mimic Mixer) quite a lot. I then adjusted the relative volumes of the various kit pieces in the Mixer, to try and get the kit to mix in with the backing track. I was left with toms that still boomed too much, and were muddy during the big fills (listen to my previous Bonham video and you will see what I mean). So I went into the 'Mod' settings on the Mimic, and reduced the Sustain and Release on all the toms until I got a more 'damped' sound. And that was it. Nothing else. You can hear the 'damped' toms most clearly on the very last fill of this cover.
I think this kit sits well in the mix, and is not too disimilar from the sound I had on my band's full recording of this, which we did for our album. That's pretty cool for a 'Bonham' kit, to be used in a Dire Straits track!
I'm finding the Mimic on-board Recorder to be incredibly useful. It's much easier than connecting everything to an audio interface and my laptop and faffing about. I simply save a WAV file of the Master stereo outs 1 and 2 onto a USB, and then hey presto I'm ready to import that file into my laptop, where I then attach the drumless backing track.
I hope you enjoy this cover. I throw my arms up in frustration at the end because I didn't play this as well as I usually do (despite several attempts!) - I never seem to play this as well as I do in front of a live audience, where I really feed off the energy of the audience and my bandmates. This is a real crowd pleaser at our shows, and me and our guitarist have a lot of fun with it! But I just can't replicate the energy here in my house.....
No doubt some of you will pick up on some random rimshots that occur. Just to be clear - these were indeed unintentional, but they occured becuase of my poor technique recently - I keep dropping my arms and catching rimshots when I should be staying higher. It is not the module - it's me!
Also there is one occasion when I hit the china, and no sound comes out. This is actually my CY14 pad, which is pretty much knackered - I've been beating it up since 2010 and its becoming increasingly prone to not detecting all my hits. I need to replace it (all my cymbals actually).
Our band is Monty's Travellin' Music Show International, and we play in UK and Germany. On this track we are leader John Montague (UK, acoustic guitar), Marten Rolf (Germany, lead guitar and vocals), Keith Brooks (UK, bass) and me.
This version of Sultans of Swing is based on a combination of the original original Dire Straits track, and on their epic Alchemy live version. I always try to seague from the original to Terry Williams' masterclass of live drumming, as our cover progresses. I have always been in awe of the way Terry Williams played this on Alchemy - so physical, such groove, incredible fills, that unbelievable swinging ride: it's just stunning. Anyway, I hope our version here does not upset too many hardcore Dire Straits fans. Certainly when we perform this live, audiences go nuts.
This video features the gorgeous sounds of the Mimic Pro combined with the VExpressions John Bonham expansion kit. I am using a drumless track and what you are listening to is my band.
This is not a multi-track recording - it is simply Master Outs 1 and 2.
I am well aware that I am playing with fire here - uploading a video of your own band covering this classic Dire Straits track is bound to elicit some adverse comments. Anyway, this is how we play this at our live shows, where we get a huge reaction, and I thought it was a great way to show the versitality of what is actuallly a Bonham inspired drum sound.
So before we get into the merits or otherwise of this particular cover (my playing and/or my band's playing), let's discuss what I have done here with the drum sounds -
I have used the exact same VExpressions kit as I played on my previous video - the 'Bonham' video. However I made a couple of important, and simple, changes to the kit sounds prior to recording. (It is important to realise that I have done ZERO post production. I recorded the drums directly into the Mimic on-board Recorder).
Primarily, I reduced the Room and Reverb mics (in the Mimic Mixer) quite a lot. I then adjusted the relative volumes of the various kit pieces in the Mixer, to try and get the kit to mix in with the backing track. I was left with toms that still boomed too much, and were muddy during the big fills (listen to my previous Bonham video and you will see what I mean). So I went into the 'Mod' settings on the Mimic, and reduced the Sustain and Release on all the toms until I got a more 'damped' sound. And that was it. Nothing else. You can hear the 'damped' toms most clearly on the very last fill of this cover.
I think this kit sits well in the mix, and is not too disimilar from the sound I had on my band's full recording of this, which we did for our album. That's pretty cool for a 'Bonham' kit, to be used in a Dire Straits track!
I'm finding the Mimic on-board Recorder to be incredibly useful. It's much easier than connecting everything to an audio interface and my laptop and faffing about. I simply save a WAV file of the Master stereo outs 1 and 2 onto a USB, and then hey presto I'm ready to import that file into my laptop, where I then attach the drumless backing track.
I hope you enjoy this cover. I throw my arms up in frustration at the end because I didn't play this as well as I usually do (despite several attempts!) - I never seem to play this as well as I do in front of a live audience, where I really feed off the energy of the audience and my bandmates. This is a real crowd pleaser at our shows, and me and our guitarist have a lot of fun with it! But I just can't replicate the energy here in my house.....
No doubt some of you will pick up on some random rimshots that occur. Just to be clear - these were indeed unintentional, but they occured becuase of my poor technique recently - I keep dropping my arms and catching rimshots when I should be staying higher. It is not the module - it's me!
Also there is one occasion when I hit the china, and no sound comes out. This is actually my CY14 pad, which is pretty much knackered - I've been beating it up since 2010 and its becoming increasingly prone to not detecting all my hits. I need to replace it (all my cymbals actually).
Our band is Monty's Travellin' Music Show International, and we play in UK and Germany. On this track we are leader John Montague (UK, acoustic guitar), Marten Rolf (Germany, lead guitar and vocals), Keith Brooks (UK, bass) and me.
This version of Sultans of Swing is based on a combination of the original original Dire Straits track, and on their epic Alchemy live version. I always try to seague from the original to Terry Williams' masterclass of live drumming, as our cover progresses. I have always been in awe of the way Terry Williams played this on Alchemy - so physical, such groove, incredible fills, that unbelievable swinging ride: it's just stunning. Anyway, I hope our version here does not upset too many hardcore Dire Straits fans. Certainly when we perform this live, audiences go nuts.
