Melbourne-based drummer Gerry Pantazis, is a big fan of Roland V-drums, particularly when it comes to studio recording. Gerry, best known for his skillful skin-thumping behind Bachelor Girl, discovered Roland V-drums - which use a mesh drum-head triggering system - about three years ago. He was immediately impressed by the system’s natural feel, fast triggering, touch sensitivity and sound versatility.

“They’re very drummer-friendly and they’re great in the studio, because you can create any sound and environment you like, with no spill, no microphones, and they give you all the feel of a live drummer, because they’re being played, not programmed,” Gerry says.

Roland V-drums look pretty much like conventional acoustic drums, yet feature a unique mesh head that actually replicates the sound variations you’d experience when hitting a real drum head; that is - looser in the middle and tighter towards the rim, for realistic overtones.
The V-drums can be combined into a kit system that includes all drums, kick-drum beater and hi-hat control pedal. The central nervous system of the V-drum package is the unique TD-10 sound module. The technology in the module is based on Roland’s proprietary Composite Object Sound Modeling (COSM) technology (as used in the revered Roland GT-5 guitar multi-effects unit). 

The TD-10 goes beyond the sample-playback (PCM) used by every other electronic percussion module on the market. Gerry says the module is “incredibly versatile” and lets you sonically ‘model’ drum type, drum shell material, drum depth, drum head type, drum tuning, muffling, microphone type, microphone placement, room ambiance, effects and EQ. So if you’ve ever wondered what a 20-inch wood snare drums would sound like in a cave, or a 1-inch brass piccolo snare in your bathroom (or at the beach, in the garage, in a hall, etc.) - recorded with an offset condenser mike - the V-drum can nail it.

The V-drum module comes loaded with 600 drum sounds, 54 melody instruments (excellent for composing, practice and jamming) and 50 full kits, each with four assignable percussion groups. Using the programmed sounds as a starting point, you can then model every  element of each drum sound, to create sound you’re after one drum at a time. You can then select and add muffling, room ambiance, mic type and position, and digital effects for each drum. You can then select from four pairs of stereo outputs (eight 1/4” mono) to send to each drum and percussion sound. Other features include a built-in sequencer (with a four-part backing band), expansion board slot and RAM card slot for future sound and system updates, 12 dual-trigger inputs, headphone jack, MIDI In, Out and Thru jacks, auxiliary input for mixing in any audio signal and a counting voice metronome. There’s also a very intuitive, graphic user interface that shows a little picture of your drumming environment (including palm trees at the beach!), mic placement, EQ settings, the other instruments you’ve programmed and so on. 

“You can have your own drum mix in your headphones, and group analogue faders on the module allow you to adjust the level of each drum pad very easily, even in a live situation.

One of the unusual elements of the V-drum kit is the hi-hat controller that consists of a rubber pad - that’s attached to the surrounding support stand - and a pedal controller that sits by itself, without the normal stand/cymbal configuration. At first it looks, well... weird!"

“I must admit, it does take a little getting used to,” Gerry says. “At first you miss the pure physicality of the hi-hats and stand, but after a while it’s really amazing how closely it replicates a real hi-hat - including open and closed, splashes - every sound you could get from a normal high hat.

“It’s just important to ensure you set the pad up in exactly the same place you’d have your hi-hats and then just play as you normally would. With a bit of practice, you’ll get it.”

“The best thing about V-drums - apart from the sheer versatility of the sounds - is that unlike the other electronic drums I’ve tried, you don’t need to adjust your normal drumming technique,” Gerry says.

“They have a very realistic feel and you can tension the heads to the way you’d normally have your drums. So you can have the perfect ‘slack’ feel on your 16-inch floor tom for instance.

“The triggering and touch sensitivity is incredible. For example, if you let a stick just drop on the head, you’ll hear every hit - decreasing in velocity - until it stops. You can even use
brushes and the V-drums will capture every subtle stroke, roll and sweep."

“It’s just a matter of pending some time with the module, getting to know what it can do, to get the best out of it. I like experimenting with recording my own patterns into the module’s sequencer, playing them back and drumming along with them. I also muck around with bass grooves. It’s great fun. "

“It’s an excellent practice tool. You can plug in an external audio source and play along with your favourite CDs - with your own killer drum sound.”

Along with using the V-drums for certain applications and his acoustic kits for others, Gerry also employs a Roland SPD-11 percussion pad.

“When I play live with Bachelor Girl I use the SPD-11 to trigger samples from James Roche’s keyboards in real time,” he says.

“This way I don’t have to rely on a sequencer and worry about  the likelihood of it breaking down! It gives me great playing advatages too. For example, I can play 1/4 notes on each pad and get two 1/8 notes with different sounds coming out -  creating a  drum loop live!
“It follows what I play, so it gives much more of a live feel than a sequencer!”

The SPD-11 Total percussion Pad has 255 editable preset sounds accessed via eight velocity-sensitive trigger pads. It’s also MIDI capable, has a range of effects and can be linked to other percussion controllers - or act as a master percussion controller for other MIDI devices.