V-Drums World Championship 2 winners at the Frankfurt Musikmesse

During the recent 2013 Musikmesse music fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Roland held the international finals for the V-Drums World Championship 2. From a field of top drummers representing 16 different countries, Issah Contractor from Canada grabbed the crown with a masterful performance blending impressive drumming chops and a thorough command of the modern technology in Roland’s electronic percussion products.

The V-Drums World Championship 2 Explained…

Roland’s annual V-Drums World Championship gives drummers everywhere a unique opportunity to showcase their skills and compete against other Roland electronic percussion players. This year’s contest was the biggest yet, with nearly 5,000 participants competing during national preliminary rounds in countries around the world. The grand finale took place on April 11, 2013 at the prestigious Südbahnhof music club in Frankfurt, with well-known German drummer Dirk Brand serving as the host for the evening. The event was also streamed live to Internet viewers around the globe on the V-Drums World Championship international website.

The night featured inspired drumming by players from the United States, Sweden, Italy, Mexico, Hungary, Switzerland, China, Turkey, Brazil, the Netherlands, Japan, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Spain, and Canada. Each earned a trip to the finals by winning national V-Drums competitions in their home countries. In Frankfurt, every finalist played an original drum performance using the TD-30KV V-Pro® Series V-Drums, OCTAPAD® SPD-30 Percussion Pad, and SPD-SX Sampling Pad.

A group of seven judges assembled for the finals included noted drummers Brand, Craig Blundell, Tommy Snyder, and Florian Alexandru-Zorn, plus music journalists Mark Van Schaik, Rich Chamberlain, and Axel Mikolajczak. They scored the contestants’ performances in areas of technique, style, stage presence, overall creativity, and creative use of technology.

See the V-Drums World Championship 2 slide show

V-Drums World Championship 2 winner: Issah Contractor

Naming a winner was a tough call, as all the players delivered jaw-dropping displays of drumming prowess. When the smoke had cleared, Issah Contractor came out on top with a performance that featured looping on the SPD-30, sample playback from the SPD-SX, multiple meter shifts, impressive double-kick chops, and unique playing of melodies with the V-Drums’ pads.

V-Drums World Championship 2 runner-ups Jaime Edwin de la Rosa & Lars Nijman

Second Place went to Jaime Edwin de la Rosa from Mexico, while Third Place went to Lars Nijman from the Netherlands.

In an interview after his win, Issah talked about how he’s excited to use the powerful technology in V-Drums to forge a new melodic direction in drumming. “One cool thing about the TD-30 is the step sequence function,” said Issah. “I believe that can be utilized very uniquely in the future. I’d like to see if I can push that boundary. It could be really something that is groundbreaking. Although there are notes on the drums, it feels a little devoid over the harmony aspect, and I think the V-Drums would be awesome for trying to put that forward.”

If you’re a drummer based in the United States and want to enter for the V-Drums World Championship 3, check the V-Drums contest page at RolandUS.com.

Check out our V-Drums World Championship 2 playlist on YouTube to see final performances from all the contestants, plus interviews with the top three players.

V-Drums World Championship 2 Performances

Do you agree with the judges? Tell us who you think the winner should be.

Related links and articles:

• Pat Kennedy V-Drums Training Camp
• Brendan Buckley Judges V-Drums Semi Finals
• Meet the V-Drums U.S. Finalists
• The Benefits of Electronic Drums

Netsky Live at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles, CA.

A celebrity in his native Belgium and growing in popularity worldwide, Boris Daenan—better known as Netsky—has received numerous awards and accolades for his new-school brand of drum and bass. In 2009, Hospital Records signed him to an exclusive deal, and his first release with the influential UK label was the highly successful single “Memory Lane,” followed soon after by the chart-topping debut album “Netsky.” In 2012, sensing that he could take his show to another level, the DJ and producer put his turntables aside and unveiled Netsky LIVE!, an EDM stage show featuring a complete band.

What’s the difference between the SPD-SX and the SPD-30? Find out here!

Netsky LIVE uses a full arsenal of Roland gear

Netsky plays the SPD-30 and A-500 PRO, keyboardist Babl plays the JUPITER-80, VP-770, and A-800 PRO and drummer Michael Schack plays the TD-30KV V-Drums and SPD-SX Sampling Pad. Michael has a long history with Roland, both as as a product demonstrator and advisor. We caught up with him at a recent show date in Los Angeles for some insight into his gig with Netsky, including how the band uses Roland gear to deliver a more rich and dynamic live EDM experience than a one-man DJ show can.

Q. How do you prepare your V-Drums set for the Netsky show?

A. Actually, there’s this incredible thing that happened a few years ago: I was playing V-Drums with Kate Ryan, who is really popular in Eastern Europe. We arrived with the tour bus, and I see all kind of microphones set up close to the V-Drum pads. So, a very strange situation, because the guy didn’t actually realize that it was an electronic drum set!

With electronic drums, and especially the TD-30 today—which is fast, low-latency, the best SuperNATURAL [sounds]—you can go single outs for everything. For instance, I’m using the kicks and snares in stereo, layered with the TD-30, but they’re coming out of the SPD-SX. So [they’re] triggered at the same time. And then we have the toms on separate channels, we have the hi-hat on a separate channel, the ride on a separate channel, and the two crashes on a separate stereo channel. [With] so many separate channels, [the sound engineer] can actually make it sound very wide.

You can adjust the panning to every concert hall. You can totally go wild in making the sound as broad as possible, which is much more impressive than a USB stick just playing a stereo out through a DJ mixer. Same for the keyboards—it’s hardware and software combined. So all the synth sounds, all the pianos [have] separate stereo channels, so that’s really a very important main difference with any DJ set, which actually sounds a little bit more compressed, and not so wide-spectrum, not so dynamic.

Q: With all that Roland gear on stage, how long does the sound check usually take?

Michael Schack, drummer for Netsky Live

A: Actually, we have a very good system. First of all, we don’t have to put mics on the V-Drums, which is already a big time saver. We have all the sounds and patches very well prepared, [and] everything connects very easily to the laptops. We have a flying rack with us, which holds some very nasty sound cards and everything, so it’s actually jut a matter of getting the engine started and then really tweaking the PA for what’s coming out of these instruments for the front of house. Frank, our sound guy, is a champion in tweaking a PA for really good drum and bass vibes. It’s very important with electronic music that everything is very consistent and very glued together, and that makes the people dance. It takes us not too much time to really get going.

Q: What’s your involvement with Roland V-Drums?

A: My involvement with Roland V-Drums has been a love story [for] 20 years. Before the V-Drums came out, I became a demonstrator in Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg through Roland Benelux, when the TD-7 came out. I was a very young guy, but I was interested in electronic drums. Most of my colleague musicians, they named me “Mr. Tupperware” because they didn’t believe in the potential of electronic drums. Then the V-Drums came out [in 1997], and in 2001, for the very first time, I was invited by Roland Japan to play at the Frankfurt Musikmesse.

Netsky Live on stage

From then on it took off—I got to know the engineers more personally, [and] they were asking me things about the music I was playing. They found it really strange that as a drummer I was also interested in using samples and triggering samples, and not just playing along with linear tracks from a CD or whatever. I’m really a little bit freaky on how it sounds and how it’s compressed and how fat you can go, and it took off from there.

I [also developed] a very good relationship and [friendship] with Steve Fisher from Roland U.S., who has been a main guy in getting the V-Drums program going, [and] also Tommy Snyder, another very important Roland demonstrator. I learned so much from them. In 2004, I had the incredible opportunity to play together with Steve when the first TD-20 set came out, and then again the success story continued.

I’m so happy that I could serve along on this wave of continuous development. The engineers in Japan, they’re just great, and they dig electronic music, acoustic music, old-school blues—they really have their thing together. I try to [advise] them [based on my experience]: “Hey, this kick sound, you need to make the people dance, this needs to be a little bit more punchy, more in the face, less effects, more compression,” and so on. Johnny Rabb is also a very important contributor. Through all these people working together, the presets in a V-Drum set are actually very representative of what it already can do, and then the user, the drummer, can go as far he wants. That’s my role in this story.

Related links and articles:

• Michael Schack looping on the Octapad
• Michael Schack – Drumeo Edge (FULL DRUM LESSON)
• Omar Tavarez: How I Use my SPD-SX
• Aaron Rossi on how to land a gig like Ministry

American Idol season 12 is underway with a new slate of contestants vying to reach the top spot and international stardom. Led by music director Ray Chew, the American Idol house band backs up every performer on live television, covering an enormous range of musical styles to perfection throughout the year. Working without a net before TV audiences of 20 million and beyond is a pressure-packed gig, for sure. To help get their jobs done, keyboardist Russell Graham and drummer Rex Hardy Jr. rely on Roland instruments to instantly deliver the top-level sounds and versatility they need every time, without fail.

In his duties as second keyboardist on American Idol, Russell Graham uses two JUPITER-80 synthesizers, plus a VP-770 Vocal & Ensemble Keyboard for vocoder sounds. “Over the course of the past year I’ve come to lean very heavily on the JUPITERs, not only for their sound quality and sonic richness, but also for the speed of programming,” he says. “I find the touchscreen navigation to be extremely intuitive and well thought out. I can do simple tweaks quickly, or I can go a few levels deeper and really get ‘under the hood’ of the sound.”

The impressive sounds that Russell achieves with his Roland rig are regularly noticed at rehearsals and on the set. “Without fail, every time we begin the rehearsal process for a TV show or live artist performance, someone asks me what these keyboards are and how I’m getting the sounds I’m getting,” he relates. Russell appreciates the great versatility of his Roland keyboards, and also their ability to achieve unique sounds. “As general-usage keyboards, the JUPITERs and the VP hold their own against anything else out there,” he says. “But aside from that, I’d say it’s about once a week that I do something keyboard-wise that simply wouldn’t have been possible with any other keyboard currently available.”

Drummer Rex Hardy Jr. employs the flagship TD-30KV V-Pro Series V-Drums set while working on American Idol. In addition to its great feel, he loves the ability to have quick and easy access to an incredible variety of drum and percussion sounds. “Using the Roland TD-30 gave me more versatility with sounds,” he says. “Considering we play so many different styles of music on American Idol, the TD-30 allows me to explore all types of sounds and feels that make each song sound authentic.”

Rex has expanded his TD-30KV with an additional PD-108-BC V-Pad for a side snare, plus a PDX-8 V-Pad for even more triggering options. “I have three to four main kits that I’ve set up to fit what we normally do on American Idol,” he says. “There are a few times where I may have to set up an ‘80s rock kit or an electronic disco kit, depending on the songs week to week. Being able to have options is amazing! When the kit is going through the house mains, it sounds killer.” Rex also plays an SPD-SX Sampling Pad, which he loads up with custom drum loops and auxiliary sounds that he triggers for song intros and other applications.

With his success using V-Drums, Rex readily encourages drummers to discover their many benefits. “Other pro players should definitely get into the TD-30 because it’s limitless,” he relates. “There is nothing you can’t do with this kit. I even implement it within my acoustic setups as well. The sounds are amazing, and you can tweak them to what you feel works. My advice is to try it and see what you think—you’ll love it.”

Russell is equally enthusiastic in recommending Roland gear to other keyboardists. “Playability, sound quality, versatility, reliability. They sound great, they play great,” he says. “Especially in TV situations, where deadlines are tight and everything is moving fast, they can be programmed and edited very, very quickly.”

Related links and articles:

• Russell Graham Interview on Roland Users Group
• Russell Graham Talks About His Roland Rig at the BET Awards
• Learn to Play Electronic Drums

When it comes to drumming, acoustic drum triggers are the gateway to a sound palette limited only by your imagination. If you can think it, acoustic triggers can make it happen.

The Source of Sound

Contemplate for a moment, the nature of sound. No matter what you play… a guitar, a piano, a wind instrument, even tapping your desk, the sound you hear comes as a result of striking something, like a piano key, a string, or even by hitting the instrument itself (like a drum head). Sound transmits  by vibration, which resonates  at a given frequency, which is then picked up by your ear and interpreted as sound. Even when you speak, your vocal chords vibrate at a frequency that your ears pick up, which your brain interprets as speech and words. The surface or interface you strike becomes the ‘trigger’ – the source of the sound.

The sound you hear from your drums is exactly the same. By playing an acoustic drum, you cause the drum head to vibrate. That vibration creates a sound, which  vibrates at a certain frequency, and is  in turn controlled by the tension of the drum head. The change in frequency of the vibration causes a change in pitch, while the drum’s tone is controlled by a variety of factors including the type of drum head, the shell material and amount of damping.

Roland V-Drums are no different. The V-Drums mesh (or rubber) pad  vibrates, which is picked up by a sensor. Just like your ear picks up sound and your brain processes it, a V-Drums module does the same thing. A V-Drums module can even adjust tuning/pitch, tone and drum shell material. Perhaps that’s why V-Drums modules are called  ‘brains’ in the drumming world.

So, what is an Acoustic Drum Trigger?

Acoustic drums and cymbals can create an array of different sounds, only limited by the range of instruments available. So, a four-piece drum kit with ride and hi-hat cymbals can only create a certain set of sounds, whereas a 32-piece monster with many different cymbals, cowbells and tambourines will add many more tones to your soundscape. But what if, by playing your acoustic drum, you could simultaneously trigger an additional, electronic sound? This is exactly what acoustic drum triggers do.

By mounting Roland’s RT-10 series acoustic drum triggers to your acoustic snare, toms and kick drum they pick up the vibration and send that information to any Roland V-Drums module or percussion instrument, such as the SPD-SX Sampling percussion pad or SPD-30 Octapad. You can choose the sound triggered by the module; the triggers are velocity sensitive and will detect how hard you are playing a certain sound. So, if you can think it, you can trigger it and you can play it.

Here’s Craig Blundell showing you a few possibilities by adding triggers to your acoustic drums and combining them with a Roland percussion instrument.

We just received a really cool update from Michael Schack who’s currently on tour with Netsky (Boris Daenen). Micheal is responsible for keeping pace with the frantic drum and bass BPM that Netsky is known for. In our iPad user’s group magazine we asked Michael how fast he has to drum to which he answered, “The average tempo is like 175 beats per minute, but after an hour it feels more like 198!”

The band consists of drummer Michael Schack on the TD-30KV drum kit and SPD-SX sampler, and keyboard player Babl on the VP-550, Fantom-G7, and an A-800PRO MIDI controller. Boris himself uses an AX-Synth and an Octapad® SPD-30.

Published on Nov 1, 2012 by NetskymusicTV:

Netsky News, Live Dates & More - http://netskymusic.com
Filmed behind the scenes at the recent sold out show at Electric Brixton in London, Netsky and the band tell us the story behind the live show.
Shot & cut by Nezih Savaskan http://redhavoc.co.uk

It was really weird. Boris and I got in touch through Facebook. I was posting on his wall and at the exact same time he was posting a comment on one of my demos. We arranged to meet up the next day, we lived nearby, and that same evening I was on stage with him. Boris already had it in his head to do a complete live show, so we just started jamming and took it from there.

Michael is also a Roland artist and product specialist. Please visit Roland’s YouTube channel to view some of his product videos and stay tuned for a full Netsky interview on Roland User’s Group iPad magazine out soon.

This just in:

Published on Nov 3, 2012 by SKKaddy

Looks like SKKaddy took this video from his phone. The audience is really into the Dub Step and Drum & Bass coming from Netsky’s band. What do you think of Dub Step and Drum and Bass drumming? Drop us a comment.

Related links and articles:

Pick Your Poison – SPD-SX Versus SPD-30

Michael Schack Looping on the Octapad

V-Drums World Championship U.S. Finals 2012