Overview of Roland V-Drums Acoustic Design VAD706 Electronic Drum Kit

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[Music] hi i'm jules from roland and i'm going to show you the vad 706 series v-drums acoustic design sets the vad706 series is the highest tier of roland acoustic look electronic drum sets with four color options available all of which are powered by the same td50x module these are professional quality drum sets and can be enjoyed by players at home that just want the very best electronic drumming experience possible through to professional players using them for studio recording tv production and live stage use in this video i'm going to take you on a tour of the vad 706 show you what the kits are capable of and explain the key features for you first things first what are the top things you need to know about the vad 706 v drums acoustic design sets well the td50x module that powers these kits is the sound engine that provides a total playing experience what that means is the sound you hear originates from classic acoustic drums recorded in some of the highest quality in some of the best studios in the world but also the reaction or the behavior of how those sounds respond to your playing happens in a completely organic way it's about the sound and the tone that you hear but it goes much deeper and how the sound responds naturally to every minute drumming input without any delay the td50x module has great sounds inside our brand new preset drum sets tuned to sound like great studio drum kits recorded and mixed so that you're hearing what a studio recording engineer would hear across a bigger range of music genres giving greater usability and enjoyability we have digitally precise snare ride and hi-hat instrument pads roland v drums are the first electronic drum sets to redesign and evolve the electronic drum pad in decades and are digital pads that connect via usb allow drummers to use natural playing techniques and a range of playing surfaces for individual tones that never before has been possible with electronic drums i'll show you what these pads can do later in this video you'll see from the kit here that the pads are larger so the kit has an acoustic drum set size and look but also a great playing field that comes with that yet these are still 100 electronic drums meaning they're quiet to play the playing spread of the kit and the actual diameter and depth of the shelves and pads creates an experience that feels great to play and is actually the size of an acoustic drum set finally you can mix outside of the module which is perfect for live stage and recording performances the td50x module can connect to computers via usb for multi-channel audio recording and there are 10 balanced audio outputs on the back of the module too it means each pad of the kit can be sent via its own dedicated channel for easier mixing either live or after recording so let's take a closer look at the vad706 set on what's included with the kit let's talk about the first thing that we see with this kit and that is the drum shells these are real hardwood drum shells with outer pliers of maple that's then finished in a gloss finish to make them look really bright luxurious really high quality this is the natural drum set which means it's got no colour staining at all but we actually have four colours available with the vad 706 series so these shells as i mentioned are wooden drum shells but there is no acoustic sound to them whatsoever they're fitted with roland v drum pads inside of the shells here we have a 10 inch shell a 12 inch and a 14 inch diameter floor tom the kick drum is 22 inches the snare pad here is the pd 140 ds digital snare drum we also have the 14 inch d digital hi-hat symbols which are brand new and i'll talk about those in a moment the cy18dr digital ride symbol and two 16-inch cy16rt thin crash symbols those are 40 thinner than our previous symbols which means they really flex and respond really nicely as you play them a really nice feature that i like with the vad 706 series are these rim protectors so we have a rubber coating actually over the rim on our regular v-drum series that is black but on these shelves it's a kind of translucent smoke color which means that they really don't stand out so much they blend in really nicely with the look of the drums all of the drums have got roland's two-ply mesh heads on them which means their tension adjustability you can then completely change the tension for your own stick feeling and rebound but on the floor tom and the snare drum we've got three ply mesh heads that's because the diameter of those shells is a little bit bigger so having three ply provides a better stick resistance underneath as you play them every drum that you see here across the toms at least has a head sensor and also a rim sensor as well that means you can have a different sound on each part of the pad but it also means that you have positional sensing so as you start to play from the outer to the inner part of the drum you have a completely natural playing experience those tonal changes that you would have and that you would expect with an acoustic drum happen here as well we've actually got more sensors inside these toms as well so it eliminates what we call hot spots that is a louder playing noise towards the center of the drum the kick drum is 22 inches and actually has a pad mounted to a head that then pushes air as you bury the beater into the head gives you a resistance underneath the beta but also gives you a more natural rebound and a really satisfying very realistic feel to playing the kick drum the crash cymbals that we have and also have different zones so we have a bow playing area an edge playing area and you can grab the cymbals to choke them but those symbols are a little bit different from the ride and the hi-hat symbols as i mentioned earlier those are digital that means that they have extra sensing and extra playability compared to the crash cymbals and some of the other pads in the kit the ride cymbal has three key playing areas it has the bell the bow and the edge i can grab the edge to meet the symbol but also because of the multi-sensing that's inside this pad i can put my hand on top of the symbol and it will mute the sound as well equally if i hold my hand on that symbol and then play it it will play a more muted tone and that is the exact same technique that we would play with an acoustic ride if we wanted to the hi-hat symbols have that same kind of multi-sensing technology inside so just as i can with the ride i can touch the top of the cymbals to play a muted sound i can play the symbols open and grab them to mute the sound but also i have positional sensing from the center of the pad to the outer part of the hi-hat pad as well so it picks up exactly where i'm playing and adjust the tone accordingly the other thing with the vh14 the digital hi-hats which were newly introduced with the td50x module is that as you change the position of your foot from closed to open the resolution of the sound that you get between the close and open positions is richer you've also got enhanced foot splash playing technique with these symbols as well so they really are very dynamic and you can really get great tones and playability and nuance from these hi-hat symbols just as you would with an acoustic set of hi-hats [Music] [Music] do this is the 14 inch pd 140 ds digital snare drum this also has the multi-sensing technology in it as well so i can play three different types of technique with this snare i could play the headshot the rim shot but also the cross stick and depending on where i place my hand that multi sensor will work out exactly the kind of technique that i want to play so you can play all the kind of snare drum tones that you need to get and would expect to get without adjusting any technique whatsoever [Music] all of the sounds in the vad 706 kit are powered by the td50x module and later in this video i'm going to talk more about the details and the features of that module explicitly all of these pads are mounted to the new dts-30 series of drum stands we have simple boom stance we have symbol boom and tom combination stands and we also have the pds20 mounting stand for the module specifically all of these stands are finished in a high chrome finish they've got thicker tubing so they're durable and they're very very sturdy we have things like ball clamps for the cymbals and for the tom mountain so you can position those wherever you need them to be wherever is comfortable for you and that set of stands is provided with the vad706 kit but it is worth mentioning you will need to provide your own kick pedal drum thrown snare drum stand and hi-hat stand with the kit so let's take a closer look at the td50x module i like to think of v drums and the td50x as a warehouse a collection full of the finest drum percussion symbol electronic sounds that you could possibly think of so inside here we've got over 900 individual instruments any one of those instruments can be completely edited so they can be tuned and tweaked for your own preferences when we record the sounds that go inside the td50x module we actually sample acoustic instruments inside some of the best studios in the world and we sample them across a range of different playing positions on those instruments and a range of velocities so that when you hit a pad on your v-drum set the sound that you get is representative of that acoustic instrument that we've recorded in that studio and you get the full dynamic range of that instrument inside the module you've got 100 presets so that's 100 kits that you can use at any one time a lot of these are already preset for you so we have over 70 presets and those are created by our product artists who are absolute experts in creating these sounds and they've made the kits there instantly satisfying for you to play no real tweaks necessary and that's across a whole range of different music genres however each one of these kits is completely editable and customizable by you we also have a series of user kits as well a user kit is essentially a blank kit space where you can go in assign different instruments to any of the pads or any of the areas add your own samples to it for example as well and completely create and name your own kit personalize it to you let me give you an example of how you can edit a preset kit so i'm going to press the instrument button and you can see here that on the snare drum i have a solid shell stainless type snare drum and i want to choose a completely different snare drum so just by turning the dial here [Music] i can choose a range of different drums i quite like that hammer bra sound i can then tune it i can add damping make it more open i can change the depth of the shell [Music] i can change the position of the mic i could adjust the stair strainer [Music] the type of snare wires and even how much snare wire i get [Music] so you can see that you can edit instruments inside the td50x very much like you would if you had an acoustic snare drum or an acoustic instrument in front of you i could do similar things with cymbals for example i'm going to change this for a different crush symbol [Music] i can change the symbol size i can change the thickness of the crash [Music] i can add sizzle to the symbol [Music] there's a number of different things there that you could do to personalize each instrument and the sound for yi a really neat feature inside the td50x is the ability to adjust the transient of an individual instrument so by using this i can adjust the amount of attack or the amount of release on an individual pad perhaps give it more bite or to give it more punch or perhaps to make it even softer i can also layer sounds inside the td50x so what i'm going to do here is i'm going to go to the sub instrument page and if i turn the sub instrument on you'll hear that i've laid a clap underneath the main snare drum i've used an internal sound here to layer underneath the main snare drum but you can load your own user samples that sounds that you've recorded and you can layer those underneath an instrument or in fact even assign that sound as the main sound on any of the pads or any areas of the pads i can also adjust the volume of the sound that's laid underneath the main instrument you'll see here i can completely control the ambient environment inside the td50x so i have overhead mics i have room mics and i can adjust the gain of any of those and turn them on and off individually too so here's a quick example of how that sounds i have different ambient templates in here as well and i can change these to give me different ambient sounds [Music] but each one of these is customizable as well i can also adjust things like the type of room i'm playing in and even the shape and size of the room and i can send the ambience to different instruments at different levels i also have a range of multi-effects inside the td50x so i have over 30 different types and i can use three different effects on any individual pad at any one time if i want to so just to give you a couple of examples [Music] you could do some pretty cool stuff by using the effects you can also assign effects to any of the individual pads and you can also send effects to different instruments at different levels the module also has compression inside and you can set that as global compression or you can set it as pad compression so you can send different amounts of compression to different individual pieces within the kit or to the kit overall we also have eq this is full parametric eq and you can use that again on any individual pad known as pad eq or you can send global eq one of the key strengths of the td50x is its ability to send individual pads as individual outputs to a mixing desk or to a daw for example so via usb audio out you can send up to 32 individual channels so every individual pad of the kit could be sent to a separate channel but also effects compression eq ambience can all be sent to different channels as well i've got 10 audio outputs on the back of the td50x module those are balanced two xlrs and eight jack outputs but the great thing is i can send any pad or any type of effect or any ambience for example to individual outputs so in the output assign menu in the module i can choose which pads go through the master outputs i can assign individual pads to direct outputs i can also choose overhead room mics effects songs clicks even the mix in to go through individual outputs and i can bypass the individual pad faders on the fascia so that i'm not affecting the mix that goes to the front of house desk or to the engineer one feature i really like inside the td50x module is the setlist function so by pressing the setlist button i can choose any of the kits and put them into a custom order so that if i'm perhaps performing with the td50x and i need a particular kit for a particular song i can put them in the order that i need to play them i can have up to 32 different set lists and i can have 32 different kits in any order per set list as most drummers will appreciate being able to play in time is a key requirement and the click function inside the td50x is a really useful tool what you can do here is you can send the click through the headphones or through the master outputs or any of the individual outputs you can completely change the tempo the number of beats in the bar and the note value [Music] [Music] i've also got a coach function inside the td50x module so i can use tools like time check quiet count and warm-ups as little tools to really help me improve and hone my timing and also track my progress there is a recorder built inside the td50x so this allows me to play a drum groove and record it i can then export that as audio or as midi to an sd card and then i could perhaps import that into a daw or email it to a friend anything like that i could play a track from the td50x module and then drum over the top of it and i have the ability to record the drums only or the drums with that track so if for example a friend sent me a guide track or a demo track and wanted some drums adding on to that i can play the track record the drums separately or even record the drums with the track send it back to my friend and then they have my drums on their track i mentioned the song player there and if i have any audio tracks such as a wav or an mp3 and i put those on an sd card i can put the sd card into the td50x and play the song directly from the module itself so that's the td50x module that powers the vad706 kit that's a really brief tour we've barely scratched the surface so why not go and check it out for yourself by visiting ronan authorized retailer or by searching for more td50x content online thanks very much for checking out this video and hope to see you again soon you

2021-04-20

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