Drum editing for big speakers

[Lee Batchelor]

Hi all,

I have concluded that despite the Genos being the best arranger out there, it is very difficult to get the Revo kick drums to sound right on bigger sound systems. I spent the better part of three weeks restructuring all my song styles to Custom styles. In doing so, I changed all the kick drums from their typical  boomy sound to a sample that was more flat and contained no "kit resonance." Sadly, that was almost impossible with the Revo kick samples. They all have that resonance you often hear when a kick is struck and its sound triggers some echoing in the rest of the kit. This is very annoying! On bigger systems like mine, it creates a boomy effect. Musically, it violates the basic rule that a kick drum should be felt and not heard. I played a bigger show yesterday and the sound was better but still boomy. The same ringing occurs with the Toms. Those samples have an exaggerated ringing to them that totally competes and distorts the bass track.

The only way to eliminate the problem is to choose a different kick but none of the Revo kits offer a dry kick. Is there a way to add the kick from a Legacy kit? This is a very annoying problem. It's horrible to be in the 5% of players who need to get rid of this issue. I even thought of trying to EQ  the problem away but the EQ  functions on the Genos are very limited. I think Yamaha never intended the Genos to leave the living room!

Another nice feature would be a decent drum editor. I used the Style Creator but it's very clunky for mass editing and creation, and requires 10 times the amount of taps to get anything done. Are there any other apps that would work well – keeping in mind, I need to audition the edits at the same time. If Mix Master would work, I would need to learn it. It's a great program but its GUI is cluttered and difficult for me to navigate.

That's a lot to ask but your thoughts are most appreciated. Thanks.

[Lee Batchelor]

Hi again everyone. Thanks for reading my question. Despite no one answering, I may have found a solution that I'm pleased to share.

My complaint with the drums was the "ringy" sound in the kick. I believe I know how to get rid of it.

In the Style Creator > Drum Setup > Rhythm 2 > Category area, set Decay 1 to a value of 63. In one instance, doing so eliminated the annoying ringy sound. I'll try some other drum parts where the kick is ringing on and report back. It makes sense that the ringy sound is an issue with how long it takes the sample to go silent. Full on decay shuts it off instantly.

For those using even small subs, try this out. If you think your rhythm sounds good now, wait until you dampen that annoying ringy sound 😉! The side benefit is, the bass instrument will be cleaner.

Thanks...

[Amwilburn]

Sorry, i was off work the last 2 days, so I never check those 2 days.

But I would've suggested using a tighter kick (in style, go to Drum Setup) and just reassign your kicks to a tighter kick, such as Standard Kit -> Kick, or Hit Kit-> Kick Tight H. You would love the production kit on G2; the kick is insanely tight. So tight that increasing decay1 to 63 has no effect!

I would not have thought of increasing the delay to make it cutoff sooner, though! So I'm glad you thought of that before I replied!

Mark

[Lee Batchelor]

Hi Mark and thanks for confirming my find. I figured Yamaha may have corrected this on the G2.

I found out two more things:

1) After you change the Decay for Variation 1 (for example), there's no need to change the Decay for each Variation. If the kit remains the same, the Decay is carried through for all Variations.

2) If Rhythm 1 uses a different kit, you can't access the Drum Setup menu without making Rhythms 1 and 2 use the same kit, which is a MAJOR nuisance! There is a work around though. Make note of the drum voice and keys used in Rhythm 1, and match the kits as per the requirements. Make the Decay change to Rhythm 2, and then restore the original kit to Rhythm 1.

[Amwilburn]

Yes, it needs to set the same kit across all variations, but most of the time that's not a problem; like you said, just introduce the samples used into the drum setup for your style. The only time that's an issue if you trigger the same midi notes for the different drum kits (in which case you'll need to painfully remap your style notes for the section where you're using a different kit).

[Lee Batchelor]

Agreed, Mark. You can usually sub in some voices from the same kit to closely match what the kit in Rhythm 1 is doing. Thanks...