In Summary

As drum virtual instruments fast approach parity with the real thing, increasingly acoustic drums can be justifiably left in their cases. Here Luke talks about what each can bring and why even now, the decision on which to use still isn’t clear cut.

Going Deeper

As both a drummer and engineer, I remember the first time I ever heard a mix that contained virtual instrument (VI) drums. Or to put it another way, the first time I realised that I was listening to a mix with them in! That was in 2007; it was an experience that jolted me into understanding the power that VIs had gained since the last time I had heard machine drums of any kind. Up until that point, machine drums for me were just that: an artistic choice used as the antithesis of the acoustic drum kit. That they could sit in as the real thing (for this drummer at least) had been inconceivable until that point.

Back in the present, if virtual drums and their MIDI drummers can sell believable drums to the listener, does that leave a place for real acoustic drums recorded using mics by engineers, and if so, when?

Luckily for fans of all things loud and round, real drums’ time is far from being up. It turns out that one of humanity’s oldest instruments has an enduring appeal that continues to turn the heads of anyone choosing between these and their digital pretenders. Here I talk about what each can bring, and why either can have the upper hand in a given situation.

Prepare To Be Amazed

For me, the single biggest advantage of using a virtual drumkit is speed and convenience. In my home studio, the size and sheer acoustic level of live drums means that I can’t use them at all (all in full view of my kit as it looks on sadly in its cases). Contrasted with the zero physical footprint of the VI, and its second or two load time, things don’t look good for the real thing by comparison.

Incredibly, for the price of a modest second hand snare or cymbal, the same money can buy a VI that has hundreds of kit pieces, recorded and played in world class rooms through stellar signal chains. Thanks to the nuances provided by MIDI played by some of the best players out there, finely sampled virtual kits sound nothing short of superb. I still maintain that one of these kits will easily blow away any ‘real’ recording made with the wrong drummer on the wrong kit in a compromised room.

Virtual drums are also excellent for drum replacement or augmentation techniques. With a suitable trigger, being able to flip through a choice of candidate drums and hear them in context, in real time, is for me one of the major studio marvels that never fails to impress and improve recordings in need. Try doing that in the mix with the real thing! Incredibly, producing engineers and composers can sometimes even get a taste of this awesome power for free. Check out the free BFD Player below.

Another less talked about advantage of the drum VI is the wider insight into drums and drumming that they afford non-drummers. Non-drumming engineers can get a real feel for the instrument by seeing how simple a part can be to drive a track, and also how drum sizes and tuning affect the final sound. This is far quicker than having to nip out for ten years to get the same knowledge by learning how to play…

For all their spendour, acoustic drums need a home. If they’re set up and ready to go, as a guide even a small kit will need a 3 x 3 metre (9 x 9 feet) patch of studio to allow mics and the drummer themself to clamber in and back out again. Stacked up, they still need a phone booth sized footprint. Second only to electrical gear, their ability to attract dust and fingerprints is also legendary. Although cheap drums can be given decent heads and tuning, with cymbals to match even £1k ($1250) will only just get you towards something record-worthy. Compare that with the VI’s rows of extra options that are always in tune and can be switched around or replaced at will, for free.

The Acoustic Resistance

Much like tape machines were dedicated devices to record and playback, the drum kit is still a dedicated ‘machine’ that exists only to be itself. That takes some beating (pun intended).

For all the inconvenience of buying, maintaining, storing, and transporting real drums, nothing can beat their presence in the studio. In terms of providing a sense of occasion to a session, as well as sounds that are 100% special to that recording, the VI can quickly seem like a mere imposter compared to the living breathing sounds of a real drum kit as heard in the room. Along with this, most engineers love the challenge of capturing the kit, even if the drummer does insist on practising their part just as you lean in to place that snare bottom mic, or maybe engage you in some impromptu log-rolling across the studio floor on a discarded stick or two…

For all the amazing record-ready sounds inside the VI, they can have a fatal flaw: their sounds do not and cannot belong to the song. When all is said and done, the art of marrying sounds to the song is all but lost when using canned drum sounds. There is a real craft and satisfaction in sounds that are spun especially for the song using playing nuances, tuning, and mic placement to build something truly unique, and for any act featuring a real drummer, using the kit in a room is the default with good reason. In a world full of clones, with access instead to the real thing, why use its pretender?

Drum VIs Are Not A Panacea

If I am using a VI with VI-specific MIDI, I think the virtual drummer can be invincible. There is a big “but” though. Just like their sounds, VIs’ MIDI can never belong to the song. Most drum VIs are ready to receive input from real pads and triggers (which themselves can be set up to properly track the drummer’s playing), but this can all get lost in translation when it hits the VI. The result is hours tweaking velocities on drums; continuous controller fixes such as on hi-hats can consume hours, not minutes if you actually want it to sound like the real thing.

Then there is the small matter of latency. Playing live MIDI into a DAW instrument using pads and triggers is far from there yet, to the point where for me it is still more a novelty than a serious option. Even now, most drummers simply cannot work with latency that others would find unnoticeable. Using an electronic kit module’s sounds for monitoring can get around this, but many will ask, why not just use the real thing?

With so much of musicians’ identity tied up in feelings of staying authentic, very few drummers would consider getting behind a digital kit in the studio to get some VI excellence into the recording. Fallacies aside, wanting to make a full contribution musically and sonically is most musicians’ desire, and I can understand any reluctance to become a mere MIDI donor without the sound of their own drums on record. How important this identity is to the production is where a band recording ends and a session recording begins.

Never Mind The Kit, Who’s Playing?

I get to try a lot of different virtual instruments, and if I had to sum up two must-have features for any VI they would be believability and playability. If those two things come as standard with the real thing where does that leave the virtual drummer?

Firstly, as mentioned in terms of the sounds I think the believability is already there. Perhaps the only factor to listen out for is any instrument that has been pre-processed to work straight away. Where the real thing provides a true baseline for the odd tweak, a VI could suffer with the same treatment. Unless you like your snare to have more 10k than the acoustic, that is… In a few short years the choice of which to use has become one of mainly practical considerations. Astonishingly, the all-important question of sonic authenticity can often be filed under “Don’t Worry About It”, simply because in most cases instruments’ sounds frequently convince once placed in the mix.

With productions ranging from modest writing projects, right up to platinum-selling records or blockbusting symphonic masterpieces, both drum virtual instruments and the real thing have a part to play.

In terms of playability, drum VIs’ achilles heel can still be translating incoming MIDI from continuous triggers and/or entire digital drum kits. For existing grooves, we’re left with the (albeit excellent) bundled MIDI that doesn’t know your song. Yes there have been developments that allow the instrument to learn the song, and these will only get better. That said, for now the best way to serve the song might still be to use the real thing if you can.

On the other side of the coin, the multitude of beats, fills, tricks, and phrases that many virtual instruments land with can do more than just keep up with the composer. Having sifted through more than my fair share of these, I can say that far from being restrictive, these can often spark an idea or encourage the writer to explore a different style or tangent outside of their comfort zone. With all that power at the touch of a button, the drum VI’s greatest use is perhaps for songwriters and composers, where its power and flexibility can beat one drummer with one approach to playing, in one room on one kit.

Regardless of the type of production, if the real thing is there with the right drummer in the right room, with the time to invest in the recording, then the decision for me is already made. Even now, when properly executed, real drums will be better.

If they do get used, the real thing has a formidable alternative waiting just behind the gobo. With the right MIDI, the sound of the best drum VIs will stand up to many world class recordings. To say they are sonically as good as each other is only half the point. More simply put, they are the same thing.

A Word About This Article

As the Experts team considered how we could better help the community we thought that some of you are time poor and don’t have the time to read a long article or a watch a long video. In 2023 we are going to be trying out articles that have the fast takeaway right at the start and then an opportunity to go deeper if you wish. Let us know if you like this idea in the comments.