7 Playing Live Tips For A More Realistic And Powerful Electronic Drum sound

If you're getting a sucky sound every time you play live with your electronic drums, this video gives you 7 tips on how to make that sound more realistic, and just overall better for every room and system you play out of. It can be a struggle to get a decent sound, but here are the 7 strategies:

1. Ambiance CUT IT OUT It muddies up the sound. If the room is decently sized, you don’t need it. Keep it light.
2. EQ Your Kit. Crank that bass. Or Cut it. This is a trial and error thing.
3. Compression (module or soundboard) if your dynamic range is TOO crazy, this will help bring the quiet sounds up, and the loud sounds down. It changes up the sound a bit. This can really help your sound. (play example.
4. CHILL WITH THE CYMBAL VOLUME
5. KICK SNARE (bring them up, you are the heartbeat of the band)
6. Choose A balanced kit. Some kits sound better out of a PA. Cycle through them until you find the one. Sometimes the best kit, is only the best kit through headphones.
7. Keep A VST Handy

Links To The Videos I Mentioned:

Videos About Compression:
(Pro Audio Files)
(Mike Luke)

Video On How To EQ Drums:
(Mike Luke)

Links To Gear I mentioned
(Disclaimer: The Channel Will Recive A Small Commision Off Anything You Purchase Through Most Of These Links)

DI Boxes:
Whirlwind pcDI Direct Box
Radial USB-Pro 2-channel Active Instrument Direct Box

Audio Midi Interfaces:
Focusrite Scarlett 2i4
Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6

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My Favorite Edrum Headphones:

My Favorite Drum Throne:

Handy Way To Record Your Electronic Drums:

Here's a tutorial on how to use it ^

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[Drums]

Lies Section: The Radial USB box DOES have a headphone jack, so you can monitor your playing.

[JPGroleau]

tip #4 is SO true ! I used to adjust my drums by playing them alone, and as soon as I tried to play over a song, I realize that all cymbals are always too loud. I understand how it may be confusing, because when you play a drum at home, a real drum, the cymbals are LOUD and we get used to that. But when you listen to music, especially when you listen to hard rock and metal, the cymbals are mostly sitting low in the mix. Great vid, keep up ! You're a reference for e-drums informations !

[flippindrumcovers]

hey dude. jusy saying i always look forward to seeing your next video

[mballouelectrician]

Hi great info !! Question hope you can answer . I’m playing a live Gig for the 1st time with electric kit. Do I run left and right into a DI box or should I come off the headphones Jack with a stereo cable to the DI ? Kinda lost on best option.

[Jditty]

Sir, thank you so much for doing what you do as a veteran, drummer and learning about electronic drums and nothing short of a miracle for me. But that mind about life Sound, is it tract to use direct passive or active? Just a thought thank you.

[Dozereyes]

Just played out for the first time with my TD17, it was a nightmare. I never thought the badass drums I heard in my headphones, could sound so bad coming out of a top notch PA system. Soundman, my band, wanted to kill me. Couldn’t wait for the night to be over. This video is real- it takes many hours of adjustments, and preparation to bring your e-kit out on stage.

[hollywooddjs]

Hey I have Alessi DM10 MKII PRO is this a good high in module, or should I do something more like VST? I will be using this to play out at gigs!

[micharbel]

ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO, THANK YOU JUSTIN, REALLY THESE INFORMATIONS HAS TO BE PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC DRUM MANUFACTURER, BUT THANKS GOD WE HAVE YOUR CHANNEL TO LEARN AND LEARN. THANKS AGAIN.

[edsalisch]

Up the hihat. 8) Show up early to the gig, do do a sound check and by all means keep it simple. Bring back up cables and stretch. The first time I played live with an electronic drumset I pulled the muscles in and around my shoulder blade.

[lianzaathang]

Hi Justin, do you have any tips for playing edrums for church? It doesn’t really sound good when sending it to the PA!

[policeluber]

I’ve been an Acoustic drummer for last 35 years and had one Yamaha drum-set that was sub $1000 but sum sounds were kewl . Which drum sets would u recommend for a jazz and funk and rock player ? I want best feel with best sound . I don’t need large pads or electric drums that look acoustic sets . I want to know, what electric set has best feel . And best sounds for jazz funk and rock ?

[FiveByFiveDnD]

You reference “high end” and “low end” drum modules. Can you draw the line of where that difference is? Would a td17 or td27 or td25 fall on one side or the other?

[christopherdonegan]

I’ve just bought a Pearl e/merge, can I use Addictive Drums / Stephen Slate etc?

[MichaelDenny]

First of all, thank you for your videos, I found those really helpful. I have a couple of questions: I can’t open mike luke’s YouTube link, could be blocked from Italy or mobile app? can you list some more useful video resources about eq electronic drum for live? I’m about to get my Roland tm6-pro and I will use it on a hybrid drum live, and I would like to be prepare before going on stage, ready to work with the sound man. Tm6pro has 4 direct out and I was thinking to provide those to the sound man at least separated for kick and snare, then one with toms and another with cymbals (actually only hi/hat because other cymbals I leave those in acustic).

[TRUTHUNO]

Peavey XR 6000 mixer amp is a tube amp that loves edrums. 6 inputs with amazing Eq use 15 in speakers.

[shawnlothamer]

Loaded all my VST samples (EZ Drummer, 2 Addictive drums 2) into my Strike Pro.
Best of both worlds.
Used SDSE software for the conversion. Beats relying on a laptop live.

[Bobby_Uterus]

How do you get around latency using VST’s live? Seems running a signal into a DAW then back out through IEM’s would introduce some latency. Are you sending MIDI to the PC for the VST/front of house, and then a separate direct feed from your module for IEM’s/monitoring?

[bigbadbob]

Love the channel. I'm currently playing a dtx 700 at church and the sounds are not great. How much latency were you getting when you run a vst through the laptop sound card? And what audio interface do you recommend that has low latency?

[alexfr]

hi... nice tips... a question, I normally play alone with backing tracks and I've been mixing both backing track and drums inside the module. Then I send the signal srtaight into my small PA (which doesn't have anything but a couple of inputs)... I'm actually thinking about buying a 6 channel mixing console to have better control over my levels DURING the gig... do you think it's a good investment? or i should just stick to the in-the-box mixing... thx very much

[charles_luke]

Nice video.. Its really helpful.. I'm thinkin on using a drum sample like addictive drums, what do you think is the best to use?