I get a ton of questions from comments and e-mails about my rig and what I’m using to track with all this gear and it’s actually a fairly simple setup. Leave any questions or comments in the comment section below. Thanks!
- Roland SPD-30 Octapad
- Toontrack’s Superior 2.0
- Mbox 2 (any MIDI input will do)
- MIDI Cable
- Snare Stand
- Drum Throne
- 2 Guitar Hero Kick Pedals (any trigger with a 1/8 or 1/4 inch out will do)
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Roland’s SPD-30 Octapad is the most responsive and accurate MIDI controller for drummers I have ever played, and I’ve played on almost everything out there that’s electronic you can hit with a stick. |
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I’ve owned a ton of Guitar Hero drum controllers (at least 30), Rock Band and Ion Kits, a Roland TD-10 & TD-20 kit, and a Roland SPD-S.
The most common issue I’ve found with MIDI drum controllers is not being able to pick up those light taps for ghost notes and crescendos, or even just upbeat hits on the Hi Hat. So what do you do when this happens? Turn up the sensitivity 1 notch at a time until it starts picking up those low velocity hits. The problem with this is when you turn up the sensitivity on one pad, hitting other pads around the controller/kit might fire off a hit with your pad with low sensitivity now. This is what we call cross talking. I have yet to experience any double hits with the SPD-30 either. This happened pretty frequently with other controllers where you would get flam-like MIDI output sporadically throughout your performance. These are easily the most common problems with drum MIDI controllers these days, and the Roland SPD-30 Octapad |
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The combination of the Octapad and Superior 2.0 is absolutely awesome. It’s allowed me to track demos and even full-on final recordings at 4 AM in my apartment. Using MIDI output with Superior 2.0 has never been easier to get a good fully modifiable drum sound. |
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Superior 2.0 delivers amazing sounds straight out of the box, and comes with a bunch of presets to make them sound better, and you don’t need to know the first thing about audio production or mixing. At the same time, the software allows you to run Multi Output to go straight into your DAW (Logic, Protools, Reason etc.), and treat them as actual drum tracks letting you add your own plugins like Compression, EQ, Noise Gates, Reverb and etc. Superior Drummer 2.0’s samples were recorded by Pat Thrall, Neil Dorfsman, and Nir Z at Hit Factory, Avatar Studios, and Allaire studios, NY. The three have worked with artists as diverse as Meatloaf, Celine Dion, Nick Lachey, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Dire Straits, Beyoncé, Björk, Kiss, Joss Stone, Genesis, John Mayer, and Chris Cornell. It has recently gained more popularity with bands like Periphery, Meshuggah, and Animals As Leaders. |
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This bad boy plugs into your Mac or PC via USB, and lets you plug your Octapad into its MIDI-in with a MIDI cable. I would recommend the M-Audio USB Uno 1X1 MIDI Interface |
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This guy runs from my Octapad into the mbox which carries all the magic. Simple enough. |
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This is a spare snare stand that I’ve had for about 6 years now, with no problems at all. A lot of snare stands don’t go high enough to my liking (which is unusually high), but this one does. Pretty. |
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I have fully converted to Roc-n-soc drum thrones for their durability, look, and their ability to adjust to heights I need to be able to perform. I’m about 6 ft. 1 in. tall, and I keep my snare almost at waist height if I stand next to it, so it’s not often I come across thrones that can actually go that high. Also pulling the lever to adjust your height is fun, cause it’s so smooth. Warning: very addicting. Once you have a roc-n-soc you won’t go back. |
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I have yet to find a desk/office chair that can rotate, doesn’t have arms, and goes high enough to accompany my comfortable playing height, so I got one of these to use as my normal desk chair. Switching to the Roc-n-Soc with a backrest has saved a lot of time and space when performing parts and editing sounds and performances back-to-back constantly. Just swivel, and adjust the height with a pull of a lever. So good. If anyone has any other recommendations I would love to hear them, because this is hard to top. |
Guitar Hero Kick Pedals
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Say what you want about Guitar Hero Kick Pedals, but they cost me nothing and get the job done, and they are more responsive and dynamic than you think. All I needed was a couple 1/8 to 1/4 inch adaptors to plug into the Octapad’s expansion slots, and voilà. I’m currently looking into products such as the Roland KD8 Kick Drum Trigger Pad |
Well that’s pretty much it (minus things like my mixer, sticks, PC, and headphones and what not).
Please let me know if you have any questions or if there’s anything you need help with!
-andy
Hi Andy,
First I would like to say that I’ve liked your videos very much. Very well played, and the compositions are awesome! I have a SPD-30 too (bought this week), and I’m just wondering if you have some instructions on how to map the SPD-30 to a VST. I have addictive drums, but I’m having some problems to map, as ALL pads are mapping to same sound. I’ve looked in SPD-30 and there the midi notes are diferent, so I dont know whats going on. Appreciate your help! Regards, Tred.