Paul Hermann - Electric or Acoustic Drums?
Today's guest is Paul Hermann, who is a drummer and also a sales rep for Roland Canada in British Columbia. We began talking a little while ago about the Electronic vs Acoustic drums debate that seems to be very popularly responded to on social media. It just seems to me that drummers have a lot of interest in this subject, so I thought that Paul would be a good person to share some of his opinions on the matter.
By the end of the interview we both agreed that electronic drum sets are different instruments than acoustic drums. In the same sense of any electric instrument compared to it's acoustic counterpart, we use our knowledge and facility to play the instrument but the applications are a bit different. If we go into an electronic kit wanting to recreate the sound and feel of acoustic, and that's all that matters to you, it may be a somewhat diminished experience. Rather, what applications really cater to electronic drums? Or how can we incorporate electronics into our acoustic setups and how does that alter the experience of playing?
The big takeaway is really about removing the context of "vs" when talking about how electronic and acoustic kits are different from one another. Kind of taking a line of equality and suggesting that they both have a place, whether it suits your goals, preferences, or just the ethos of them in general is all that really matters. For me, I'll always need/prefer acoustic shells but sprinkling in electronics is even better than straight acoustic. It's just more options to utilize musically and I am totally cool with that.