First -- I'm now investigating the Roland SPD-20 (
link to PDF brochure).
(snip)
does anyone have experience working with this instrument that they can share?
I had an SPD-11 for a while, for use in my electronic percussion duo (
http://www.malletjazz.com/mahoneywalkerduo), but I decided that for the Duo's work, I had plenty to work with on the MalletKat, and I sold the SPD-11 to help finance another piece of equipment. Frankly, I miss it, and I'm starting to get the itch to buy either a SPD-20 or another used -11. Personally, I think it sounded great, and it was very easy to use. Plus, in the time since I sold my -11, I've heard countless comments from other drummers who have one of these Roland units, and who plug in a couple of appropriate foot pedals and use the kit for coffee house gigs and other situations where a full kit isn't practical (for whatever reason - space, volume, etc.). The other player in my Duo has an SPD-20, and he loves it to death.
Second... as to playing along with rhythm loops. This is something I struggled with when I joined this band. Yeah, it seemed like we were cheating. The more I thought about it, though, I came to some realizations. First, the band's sound calls for dense, layered percussion -- more than I can play at once with only four limbs. So, maybe we should add a second drummer, right? I considered this, and realized that the second drummer would find himself in the position of having to play something like straight and even 16ths, occasionally triggering off something that backs me, but that it would an incredibly boring job. We're not prepared to have two drummers duking it out King Crimson double-trio style.
All excellent points.
Anyone else have any insights into duets with machines?
I still haven't come to any conclusions since I first posed my question earlier in this thread, but one thing that keeps coming back into my thought process is, I would want the use of loops/sequences to still maintain a "live performance" quality; I want to be able to control the number of repetitions of a loop (or section in a sequence), not simply have everything mapped out to the measure ("Nope, you can't take a third solo chorus on this tune, we've sequenced two choruses, tough luck for you..."). If I do pursue this sort of thing in live performance, I want to make the sequence an "instrument" that I play, just like the mallet synth or any other instrument.
