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

This is an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at U.S. National Champion Pat Kennedy preparing for the V-Drums World Championship 2. He’ll be representing the U.S. during the V-Drums World Championship in Frankfurt, Germany on Thursday, April 11, 2013. And Roland is giving everyone around the world a front row seat to watch the event live, online! Check the V-Drums contest website for all the streaming details, and join us for the show if you can. Go Pat!

Patrick Kennedy (USA)

Like Pat Kennedy, each contestant is already a champion, having won their respective national V-Drums contests, but climbing to this level has been far from easy. In order to adhere to an interesting twist in Roland’s V-Drums contest rules, contestants had to learn and incorporate an additional piece of Roland gear for their national championship showdown. Each regional finalist won the opportunity to choose his or her prize, an SPD-30 or an SPD-SX. (Pat chose an SPD-SX.) Then, each national champion went on to win a TD-30KV V-Drums flagship electronic drum kit. With the playing field as level as possible for the world championship event —  TD-30KVs, SPD-SXs and SPD-30s at each drummers’ disposal — the pressure to shine creatively and technically will be higher than ever, and the competition will be fierce.

What’s the difference between the SPD-SX and the SPD-30, any way?

The first V-Drums World Championship contest attracted hundreds of talented drummers from around the world. These were narrowed down to 16 finalists who traveled to the world final in Anaheim, California during Winter NAMM 2012. After a night of spectacular performances, the top honor finally went to drummer Baard Kolstad of Norway who beat out the U.S. national champion JP Bouvet.  Judges were impressed not only with Baard’s drumming ability but also with his use of the technology available on his Roland V-Drums kit.

Based on the contestant lineup below, the judges have a tough job on their hands trying to choose a winner for this year’s V-Drums World Championship. Meanwhile, each drummer must impress the panel of judges with technique, creative rhythm, use of technology, and of course, great showmanship.

What are your thoughts on the U.S. national champion Pat Kennedy’s preparation? Do you have a favorite drummer from the list below? Will Pat bring home the world title?

Judges:

Dirk Brand – Musician, V-Drums Specialist (event host as well)
Craig Blundell – UK Songwriter, Producer, Journalist, V-Drums Clinician
Tommy Snyder – Drummer, Singer
Florian Alexandru-Zorn – Drummer, Lecturer, Journalist
Mark Van Schaik – Journalist
Rich Chamberlain – Journalist
Axel Mikolajczak – Journalist

Related links and articles:

• V-Drums Contest U.S. Finals Results
• Pick Your Poison: SPD-SX Versus SPD-30
• The Benefits of Electronic Drums
• Roland on Stage with American Idol

News from our Roland brothers around the world

Top UK drummers battle it out for a chance to represent the UK in the V-Drums World Championship 2013

Last year’s V-Drums World Championship competition attracted hundreds of talented drummers from every corner of the globe. These were narrowed down to 16 finalists who traveled to the World final in Anaheim, California to perform in the renowned House Of Blues club. After a night of spectacular performances the top honor finally went to drummer Baard Kolstad (Norway), who impressed judges not only with his drumming ability but also with his use of the technology available on Roland V-Drums.

Back in August, entry for the 2013 competition opened and Roland UK began the search for the next V-Drums World Champion. It was a difficult task choosing participants for the regional finals from the wealth of great video entries submitted but after much consideration, six drummers were invited to participate in a live show at the Birmingham Jam House on 23rd October.

It was a great night of varied live music with each performer bringing something unique to the stage. The participants had the new flagship Roland TD-30KV V-Drums, SPD-SX and OCTAPAD SPD-30 at their disposal. The competition was intense with all drummers getting five minutes to demonstrate their skills whilst the performances were judged by a panel of industry experts like V-Drums demonstrator Craig Blundell, V-Drums Product Manager Jules Tabberer-Stewart and Chris Barnes, editor of Rhythm Magazine.

The judges had a tough job on their hands trying to choose a winner but in the end drummer Geoff Fry emerged victorious, impressing judges unanimously with a mix of impressive technique, creative rhythm and great showmanship. He had a clear grasp of how utilizing Roland technology could raise a performance up to the next level. For his stellar effort he was awarded a brand new Roland SPD-SX sampling pad. Check out the video below to see his performance from the night.

Geoff will travel to Frankfurt in March 2013 during the Mussikmesse 2013 trade show to compete against drummers chosen by Roland branches around the World. He will spend the coming months preparing his performance with an aim to win the V-Drums World Championship crown for the UK. We are sure he will give a performance that will do the UK proud.

Related links and articles:

• U.S. V-Drums Contest Results
• Pick Your Poison – SPD-SX Versus SPD-30
• Meet The V-Drums Finalists

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 

As we head into this year’s V-Drums World Championship U.S. Finals it’s worth mentioning that every finalist has to incorporate the use of either an SPD-SX or an OCTAPAD® SPD-30 into their sets. Upon winning their semi-final competition, each contestant had a choice between these two units as their winning prize with the caveat of having to integrate it as part of their finals performance. Both units have tons of features that appeal to their legions of users.

Here are a few videos by Michael Schack demonstrating the SPD-SX and the SPD-30, Michael is Netsky’s touring drummer and also a Roland product specialist, demonstrator, and overall drum enthusiast.

SPD-SX: Michael Schack – “Do Me SPD-SX”

Whether you’re firing off one-shot samples, looped phrases, or complete audio playback tracks, the SPD-SX is loaded with the latest technology and tools to get the job done with speed, precision, and convenience. It is equipped with nine highly sensitive rubber pads with two independent real-time control knobs and four dedicated effect buttons. This is a sampling powerhouse with 2GB of internal memory that provides about 360 minutes of audio. If you still need more sounds, the built-in USB ports lets you directly import audio files from a thumb drive or from your computer. For a complete list of features visit the SPD-SX product page.

OCTAPAD SPD-30 – Michael Schack Performance Vol.1

The OCTAPAD combines cutting-edge drum and percussion sounds with the latest triggering and Phrase Loop function, it is a rugged instrument that’s versatile for any musical application. The on-board Phrase Loop function is a powerful creative tool that lets you quickly record your playing in real time. Each pad is a separate, isolated unit, providing the ultimate in sensitivity with complete crosstalk rejection. There are thirty types of internal multi-effects, plus EQ, limiter, and seven Ambience types. Most importantly, the Octapad has more than 600 drum and percussion sounds from around the world suited to cover any musical style. And, the Octapad just got an upgrade with the addition of the new Version 2.0 System Update which adds 99 new preset kits, new world percussion sounds, plus many more new enhancements. For a complete overview of the SPD-30 visit the SPD-30 product page.

SPD-SX with SPD-30 – Performed by Michael Schack

Conclusion:

So, what’s the difference between the SPD-SX and the SPD-30? The SPD-SX is a powerful sampler with sound import functionality. The SPD-30 is a percussion pad with on-board sounds and phrase loop technology (sounds cannot be imported for sampling like the SPD-SX.) Another difference is that you can trigger up to four external sound sources on the SPD-30, or trigger two external sources on the SPD-SX. (See Roland’s Acoustic Drum Triggers and the vast array of  drum pads and controller options.) In either case, adding an SPD-SX and SPD-30 to your existing drum rig will greatly expand your sound options and open up your playing to new possibilities.

Related links and articles:

• Michael Schack Looping On The SPD-30 Octapad
• Omar Tavarez (Pitbull): How I Use the SPD-SX
• Learn to Play Electronic Drums

U.S. National Finals

Live Performances by Thomas Lang an Johnny Rabb

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Pasic – Austin Convention Center – Exhibit Hall 5 – Austin, TX

• Doors at 6pm
• Event at 7pm
• Free and open to the public
• All ages welcome

Enter for a chance to win a free V-Drums kit an other prizes, or tune in here for the live webcast and follow the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #vdrumscontest. In the meantime check out these four videos that Roland put together of last year’s event and previous performances by Thomas Lang and Johnny Rabb.

2011 Highlight Reel

More videos

JP Bouvet – 2011 U.S. Finals Winner

Thomas Lang – Previous V-Drums Contest Appearance/ Performance

Johnny Rabb – Previous V-Drum Contest Appearance/ Performance

Have a comment? Drop us a line.

Related posts and links:

In this video Omar Tavarez, both drummer and musical director for Pitbull, discusses how he uses Roland’s SPD-SX sampling pad. He explains how he has customized his SPD-SX for Pitbull’s show and where it falls in place with his acoustic drum kit.

More of Omar:

• Omar’s Instagram: drummer_305
• Omar on facebook

Related Articles:

• Pick Your Poison – SPD-SX versus SPD-30
• Aaron Spears (Usher): Checks His Timing on the TD-15KV
• The Benefits of Electronic Drums

Omar Tavarez, drummer and musical director (MD) for Pitbull talks about how to stay healthy through a rigorous touring schedule. vitamins, stretching, exercise, and how having a great mental state all play a role according to Omar.

In playing live, Omar relies on the SPD-SX for triggering the electronic dance samples Pitbull’s sound is known for. In the studio and rehearsals Omar calls on the TD-15KV.

Related links and articles:

• The Benefits of Electronic Drums
• Learn to Play Electronic Drums
• Pick Your Poison – SPDS-SX versus SPD-30

Aaron Rossi, drummer for Ministry tells us what it takes to land a gig like his in the ever changing and competitive music industry. This is practical advise given by a world class drummer, according to Rossi the key is consistency. Rossi’s current set up includes Roland’s SPD-SX to trigger samples during sets.

Related links and articles:

• What are Drums Triggers?
• Pick Your Poison – SPD-SX versus SPD-30
• Michael Schack Looping on the Octapad