TOM LEE Music in Cameron Lane, Tsim Sha Tsui, has a set of electronic drums in the window just asking to be smacked around. When it comes to drumming, I have Beethoven's ear and the sophistication with drumsticks of a drunken baboon - which is why I was accompanied by a colleague with adolescent rock-star fantasies. Let's call him Ringo.
Roland has designed its V-drum kit to look as much like a real kit as possible. The giveaways are the size of the drums - different diameters but the same depths - the black rubber mats that replace the cymbals, and the mess of wires that connect the lot. The look of the mesh drum head and its rubber rim is similar to that of a real drum, although the action, said Ringo, was like hitting a rice pudding. Beneath the drum head is a trigger that, when struck, sends a signal to the attached TD-10 percussion-sound module, which converts the impulse to the appropriate sound. The TD-10's 'positional detection' system senses the location of each pad hit, and allows for the triggering of sounds with slightly different timbres, narrowing the gap between the virtual drum and the acoustic model.
It takes some time to get used to the sound of stick hitting mesh, made by the artificial drum surface before the impulse is converted by the TD-10 to a drum noise. If you find it disconcerting, the only solution is to wear headphones.
The ability to run the sound through headphones is, of course, one of the advantages that V-drums have over real drums, especially in the confines of the average neighbourhood. The other significant advantage is the TD-10, the brains of the kit. Drum type, drum-head type, drum-shell materials, drum depth and drum tuning can all be 'modelled' using the TD-10's graphic, icon-based interface. Taking this modelling concept a step further, you can select the type of 'venue' you wish to play in - from the bedroom or garage to the more fantasy-orientated beach or cave settings (one imagines drummers being very at home in caves).
Roland's COSM (Composite Object Sound Modelling) system gives a tremendous variety of sound from the kit. COSM is based on what Roland calls the 'sonic chain': the fact that the sound vibrations of an acoustic drum are affected by a number of variables before they reach your ear, including the material, size and tuning of the drum, the type of microphone used, if any, and the size and reverberation characteristics of the venue. Without recreating the chain electronically, says Roland, you cannot get an authentic drum sound.
The variety of sound effects available through the TD-10 is astounding. You can choose from a programmed list of 600 drum sounds, spanning the likes of hard rock, '70s music, Latin, fusion and techno. You can store your own drumming on a memory card and drum with yourself, plug in a CD player and drum to the track of your choice, or drum along to a selection of musical styles, such as salsa, rumba and jazz. Plugging a MIDI keyboard into the TD-10 allows you to record your own backing tracks, or you can choose from the 54 backing instruments built into the TD-10.
Ringo found the TD-10 daunting at first, but he picked it up quickly. However, he never became flash enough to hit the control buttons with the sticks like a pro, which is how they are designed to be used.