About 'Electronic drums'

I introduced famous and popular drummers from my 3rd post to my 5th post in my blog. I'll talk about a little different topic this time. This time's topic is 'Electronic drums'.
Did you notice? I introduced it a little in the last post. If you want to see this post, please check it out!! Introduction-of-famous-drummers-part 3
Electronic drum is made sound with electronic processing when you play. You can connect to an amplifier, speaker or headphones. There are different from 'acoustic drums or real drums'. There are various kinds of electronic drums.. For example, synthesizer drums or not synthesizer drums.


This is electronic drums.




 These are real drums.

When we play electronic drums, we can set the drum sound and also we can make interesting sounds. For example, we can make the sound of a gun, a human laugh or a footstep sound.
Electronic drums were introduced at the end of the 1970's in the world. The first in the world were SYN-DRUMS Pollard by the company (USA). They were used for techno-pop mainly.

This is SYN-DRUMS.

In 1978, Toyo musical instrument company (in Japan) released ULT-SOUND. This musical instrument is similar to SYN-DRUMS. This machine was called synthesizer drums in those days.

This is ULT-SOUND.

At the beginning of the 1980's, Simmons company (the UK) developed an epoch‐making thing. This musical instrument's epoch‐making thing is its shape. The shape is hexagon. Thanks to this shape, it was known widely and boomed in this period. The shape was same as the present form from this era. In those days, it was about 100 million yen for the first model.

Simmons's electronic drums. It's very novel, isn't it?



In middle of the 1980's, various makers developed and announced electronic drums with various approaches inside of Japan, but Electronic drums were inaccessible for amateur drummers, so each company retired by the end of the 1980's.
Roland and YAMAHA developed a high quality sound module and kept the sense of playing real drums. This era's electronic drums got good evaluations from amateur drummers, and its use by drummers increased from this era.

This is V-Drum.

In 1997, Roland released a news electronic drum material. We call it the V-Drum. It is made from mesh head. What is mesh head? Mesh head is lapped material of two pieces of mesh texture materials.

I don't recommend electronic drums, because if you don't practice playing real drums, you can't learn drum's expression. If you want to play real drums, please practice both real drums and electronic drums. Electronic drums can cheat for poor playing drummers. If you want to play the drums well, you ha better not use electronic drums. However, they have some advantages, such as the ability to we can set interesting sounds and so on.

Thank you for checking my post!!    



        





Introduction of Famous Drummers Part 3







This is Akira Jimbo.

Hi, again! Last time, I introduced Tico Trres. I'll introduce a famous and respected drummer this time, too. This person is... Akira Jimbo. Akira Jimbo is a famous Japanese drummer. He is from Tokyo. In 1980, he joined Cassiopeia a fusion band, while he was in college. In those days, he was 20 years old. He was in this band from 1980 to 1989, but he rejoined Cassiopeia as a supporting member from 1997.

His presence attracts listeners, amateur drummers and professional drummers, both Japanese and foreign. Whatever sound appears on a score, he can play each sound. His technique is like Senzyukannon (Thousand-armed Kannon). Actually, he is called Jyutte kannon (Ten-armed Kanon). Because he plays like it's not only him playing. Jimbo has used YAMAHA drums since his debut. He took part in development of electric drums as a demonstrator. He has used MIDI (Drums Trigger System) since the early 1990's. Akira can play the drums while playing melody part and bass part on MIDI solo performance at same time. The solo performance is called one-man orchestra. In 2000's, His playing style was known only by his fans. He has taught at Kunitachi College of Music as a visiting professor with a jazz specialization since 2011, and he has appeared on band contests on TV shows as a judge from 2012.
His appeal is using normal drums with electron drums (MIDI). I explained MIDI (Drums Trigger System). More talk about MIDI. MIDI (Drums Trigger System) is made by YAMAHA originally in beginning of 1990's. The system is First, pasted cartrige and electronic drum pads connect each part of drums. When you beat each part of the drum, you can hear the set sound. But a one-man orchestra is so difficult, because we can set the order of intervals, so the machine doesn't beat the sound automatically. The other reason, we have to acquire perfectly about where I beat part, how many times and where I beat it, how I beat right order. We need to set short tones and long tones. So he is so awesome!!



This is MIDI (electron drums, Drums Trigger System)

I found Akira's drum set and gear. This is the URL. Please take a look. In 1999, he was chosen by Reader Poll Most Popular Drummer of the UK drum magazine "RHYTHM MAGAZINE". In 2000, He was chosen as the most accomplished drummer by American magazine, and he was featured on the main story in "MODERN DRUMMER MAGAZINE". The feature was more than 10 pages. He talked about what the drums mean to him and why he chose YAMAHA's drums. He said, " My Drum set is my irreplaceable space, and I have used YAMAHA's drums for a long time, I feel deeply 'my body extends is to my drums' ". When I sit and beat just one sound, I have passion in my mind. YAMAHA's drums always say 'Have fun more freely' to me.
Last, I'll show you two videos. The top left side video is a famous song of Cassiopeia the song title is 'Asayake'. The bottom right video is Akira's one-man performance video. The song is 007's theme song from Mission Impossible. He is so cool and marvelous!!