You probably know I did the drums on the last two albums, Now Weaponized! and The Firebard (re-release). In both cases, I used my electronic drum kit. But at the time I did those, I was thinking someone else would replace my parts when I found someone, found money, found time, or all three. But it didn’t happen and I used my performances.
I used the same kit for the debut album by my band, Black Halo, but the drummer I brought in used his real cymbals along with the v-drums’ snare, kick, and toms. Well, we triggered sounds from Superior Drummer 3, rather than using the Roland sound samples in the TD-12 unit. But the cymbals were real and engineered by me with surprisingly little difficulty. And I think this is one of the key differences on the improved sound.
I’m gearing up to do another acoustic album and then an instrumental rock one, and I decided against hiring someone to duplicate (or improve) my drum performances. Instead, I spent the money on buying real cymbals and everything else needed for that (a rack, mic stands, mics, etc.). Just this morning, on Acoustic Wonders, I finished replacing the v-drums cymbals with a performances of the live cymbals on all songs (this took less than a week). And it sounds so much better.
So going forward, I’m doing everything on my instrumental albums, including drums.