by joncfox » Mon Apr 21, 2014 4:10 pm
When I play, I feel no dynamics issue. The way it feels is simply that it feels that the harder I hit, the louder the sound, and the more gently I hit, the softer the sound. For instance, especially with snare, I can play so gently that that I hear only a soft, gentle whooshing sound, but if I whack it, the sound is loud enough to be painful. Naturally, all this depends on my PA/amp setting. In the recording that goes with the video, I set the drums sound a bit louder than I had them in the room on the house PA, since especially in the beginning I was (very deliberately) playing 'way in the background,' to produce more of a 'shimmer' effect behind the sparse keyboard and Gracie's rubato vocals (especially on "I Believe It Matters."
I know that hard vs soft hit is interpreted by the program from velocity information provided by the sticks movement, but it definitely does not feel as if my speed of hit has anything to do with volume. Rather, it always feels as if the harder I hit, the louder the sound.
Maybe that is because the algorithms were co-designed by a drummer, and the resulting feel is very drum-like. In fact, after playing for a while (I've always called it 'wood-shedding') something akin to sports 'muscle-memory' seems to happen in my hands and arms and it somehow feels like there are drums out there in the air in front of me. That seems a bit more pronounced when I turn off the monitor (desktop) or turn the screen around (laptop) so I can't see the drum images. 'No monitor' works for me when I'm practicing on my own, but I probably won't ever try that at a gig.
As to your question, maybe someone else here can answer this more clearly than I can?