Official rant about triggers and metal drummers.

[Thunder]

I love the kick drum to come mostly through the tweeters.

[abacacus]

triggers are a huge help, but along with the blessing of volume there a curse. if you hit one tiny bit off with an acoustic kit, most of the time its hard or impossible to notice because any kick has a small amount of sustain. a trigger can be made to have zero sustain,. and as such that minute bit sticks out like a sore thumb.

[future lars]

Well, Lars Ulrich being the ultimate cheater, when he is not even the one playing in some of his albums, it has come to a point, like someone said, who cares?
No one even cares if its your drum what is making the sound you hear, or is the sound of a module, when still there is a wooden kick on stage, who cares, right?
Its all about how you look, that is why drummers trigger their kicks, the rubber pad do not look as cool as the real kick.
Who cares if that is not you in the recording, but another better drummer> As long as people thinks its you, who cares?
Have you seen Lars playing live?
Its a shame!
Long live the looks, the fake sounds, real musicians are out! Appearance is all that matters!
Artificial sounds rule!

The day my fanboy mindset was crushed.

[broke]

Did you bother to read my earlier post? I've never met a drummer in my local scene who thinks like that and no one in the crowd thinks like that either. Even when I've spoken to and been given advice from guys who are up there with the worlds fastest, that mentality is non-existent.

i agree completely here. when im watching other guys play their stuff im watching purely to appreaciate what they are doing on their drums.. whether they are better than me on the drums really doesn't come into my mind. i do know a few people who "assume" that if they don't play extremely fast stuff or don't throw blasts around everywhere that they can't do it which is a pretty silly mentality to have.

[Neko]

Let me repeat my post from page 1.

You can't fake music. If it sounds good, why complain? Using triggers does not make you any less of a musician.

[GTHO_PhaseIII]

i agree completely here. when im watching other guys play their stuff im watching purely to appreaciate what they are doing on their drums.. whether they are better than me on the drums really doesn't come into my mind. i do know a few people who "assume" that if they don't play extremely fast stuff or don't throw blasts around everywhere that they can't do it which is a pretty silly mentality to have.

Of course there are always going to be a few people like that, it's just life. But anyone whos half serious about it has a completely different mentality. After my first gig, Todd (of The Berzerker) gave me some bloody good advice to being a metal drummer - When you're playing live, play all the songs just a fraction slower than what you're used to playing them, that way everything sounds tighter because you're right in your comfort zone.

That's the way we think, our job is to hold the band together and lead the band and everybody at a metal gig would much rather see a tight, slow band than a sloppy fast one.

[Trollet]

If you are going to use triggers, why don't leave the wooden kick, or kicks at home, be more truthful to the audience, and just bring the rubber pads to the stage?

I understand your point, but I don't agree. If you are just listening to a record at home, it doesn't matter what the studio looked like. But when at a live show, you are not there just for the music itself, but also what's actually going on at the stage. Therefore, there is no denial that a live show is partial image, and therefore it matters what things looks like on stage. I don't think any band or drummer triggers the accoustic drums in an effort to trick the audience, but more to make them go "Wow, nice drumset", instead of people thinking it looks lame with just a bunch of pads.

However, a lot of metal drummers struggle with playing evenly loud strokes throughout a whole show, because it is hard and very exhausting to play for example blast beats at a volume you would play in a straight groove, and triggers may help evening it.
Personally, I am not a fan of triggers, as I have yet to hear a triggered sound as nice as an accoustic, but to each man himself.

[epsy]

Well, Lars Ulrich being the ultimate cheater, when he is not even the one playing in some of his albums, it has come to a point, like someone said, who cares?
No one even cares if its your drum what is making the sound you hear, or is the sound of a module, when still there is a wooden kick on stage, who cares, right?
Its all about how you look, that is why drummers trigger their kicks, the rubber pad do not look as cool as the real kick.
Who cares if that is not you in the recording, but another better drummer> As long as people thinks its you, who cares?
Have you seen Lars playing live?
Its a shame!
Long live the looks, the fake sounds, real musicians are out! Appearance is all that matters!
Artificial sounds rule!

If you're correct, buy pictures of bands instead of albums then.

[kayaun]

^You missed the sarcasm there bud.

[antoniobanderas]

I trigger and mic like 50% of the time i play. But its true little rubber pads would look strange.

[Damo]

I think its getting very difficult to even TELL when triggers are being used on albums these days, as the quality of samples are getting extremely high and realistic.

The important thing for triggering in a studio is for saving TIME, which equates to a LOT of money saved.

Triggering live can be a quick fix for a kit that may not be sounding the best (hire kit, etc), requiring a consistent sound gig after gig or because mics/engineers are not good enough at what they do.

I prefer mics, but triggering is extremely flexible nowadays and I cant afford (as a musician) to be so black and white about it.

[dudme]

I trigger and mic like 50% of the time i play. But its true little rubber pads would look strange.

Back in the 80s a lot of the New Wave bands did that with the Simmons kits. They would play the eDrums. It kinda became a trademark of the style of music, so it started getting associated with them.

[ytse jam]

Best triggered drum sound i've ever witnessed personally was when seeing SiKTh live for the second time.

Dan Foord's whole kit (I'm pretty damn certain), was hybrid triggered. The kick had so much presence in the live mix and the drums had a lovely rounded sound to them that just sat like the records. It was quality.

Although one of the support bands used a trigger on the kick too and it was the worst thing i've ever heard... a night of two extremes!

[codyblast]

i use triggers so i can play faster

they are little motors that attach to my pedals

[cornwallace]

Triggers can be necessary for extreme music, but the same sound presence can be achieved with mics, and even have a better result. This might cause hundreds of pages of arguing but not my problem - the triggers on Joey Jordison's kit for Slipknot shows, for example, is purely for monitoring. The front of house sound is purely microphones. Apart from the Sub Bass 404 sound, everything you hear at the show is Joey mic'd. FACT. Bet you didnt know that I think this might be the same for a few metal drummers.