Does Matt use drum triggers?

Spiritual_Chaos · August 2017

Fell into a KISS rabbit hole on today. Don't know why.

Anyways, read that Peter Criss used "drum triggers" on the KISS reunion tour. And also read that Max Weinberg uses it.

Is this common practise? Does Matt C use drum triggers too?

PJinIL · August 2017

Some of those triggers are so small, it's possible we don't see them, but in concert photos, his kit looks mic'd up. It seems like I remember seeing some kind of electronic device to the left of his hats before, but the general kit I believe is not triggered.

earthquakes making waves · August 2017

He does have some electronics on the side, but mics up everything. Triggers are for cheaters who can't play the part as originally written or are horrible at tuning their drums. Kinda like Lars not being able to play one of the easiest double bass songs ever, "One." He hits the bass drum only on quarter notes to set sixteenth note triggers for his bass drum. That's just pathetic, at least Matt owns up to no breaking out the double bass pedal too often cause it's not his things, everything else is though! Obviously I'm not a fan of them and would never use them myself either. Just get an electronic kit if you wanna go that route and don't make it look like your a real drummer just for your own self esteem. You can find Mike's drum setup and mic setup somewhere if you google it. I did it some time ago. I'm also really surprised to hear Mighty Max is triggered, I doubt it and if it is it's probably for specific sounds / songs since they have so many.

Garasauras · August 2017

Triggers are essentially small condenser mics taped to the drum head. So you would never really see them anyway unless you were looking over his shoulder. They aren't always for adding extra notes, or cheating. Stewart Copeland used them early in the Police for adding extra "sounds" to the mix. So when he turned it on, with each single single drum hit, he would also get a keyboard sound triggered, or whatever sound he programmed to play. So if drummers admit to using triggers, it doesn't always mean they're trying to get more hits for the price of one ..so to speak. Not saying that this is the case for all drummers. Not everyone has the endurance of Stewart Copeland or Matt Cameron...So some may feel the need to cheat.

earthquakes making waves · August 2017

Garasauras said:

Triggers are essentially small condenser mics taped to the drum head. So you would never really see them anyway unless you were looking over his shoulder. They aren't always for adding extra notes, or cheating. Stewart Copeland used them early in the Police for adding extra "sounds" to the mix. So when he turned it on, with each single single drum hit, he would also get a keyboard sound triggered, or whatever sound he programmed to play. So if drummers admit to using triggers, it doesn't always mean they're trying to get more hits for the price of one ..so to speak. Not saying that this is the case for all drummers. Not everyone has the endurance of Stewart Copeland or Matt Cameron...So some may feel the need to cheat.

Yes this is totally true. I have no problems with people owning to it and yes triggers/pads can be just used for specific sounds. That's what I was getting at with Mighty Max. I mean look at Danny Carey, he plays a drum kit while playing ostinado patterns overtop the acoustic drums and he's one of the best I know at it. I do have a couple pads for this exact reason, but just love acoustic kits and get peaved when people just don't want to learn 16th notes.

Garasauras · August 2017

earthquakes making waves said:

Garasauras said:

Triggers are essentially small condenser mics taped to the drum head. So you would never really see them anyway unless you were looking over his shoulder. They aren't always for adding extra notes, or cheating. Stewart Copeland used them early in the Police for adding extra "sounds" to the mix. So when he turned it on, with each single single drum hit, he would also get a keyboard sound triggered, or whatever sound he programmed to play. So if drummers admit to using triggers, it doesn't always mean they're trying to get more hits for the price of one ..so to speak. Not saying that this is the case for all drummers. Not everyone has the endurance of Stewart Copeland or Matt Cameron...So some may feel the need to cheat.

Yes this is totally true. I have no problems with people owning to it and yes triggers/pads can be just used for specific sounds. That's what I was getting at with Mighty Max. I mean look at Danny Carey, he plays a drum kit while playing ostinado patterns overtop the acoustic drums and he's one of the best I know at it. I do have a couple pads for this exact reason, but just love acoustic kits and get peaved when people just don't want to learn 16th notes.

Yeah I can see your point. Danny Carey is exceptional anyway. There's a cool video of him on Stewart Copeland's YouTube page with Neil Peart all jamming. Pretty cool. I'm not sure if all drummers aren't learning the 16th's, but rather they're just trying to save energy by having the gadgets do the work for them. Either way, I agree that acoustic drummers should learn and perform those rudimentary skills. That said, I do like it when drummers experiment with different effects, when it fits the music. But back to the initial question, I'm not sure if Matt uses triggers. You watch him play, and you hear what you expect from seeing him.

earthquakes making waves · August 2017

I'm fairly certain he does not use them for the majority of the songs. I've heard his drums played between songs and they sure do sound miced up to me. Thinking back to shows, namely G-ville where I was on rail, he had the extra smaller tom attached on the right side of his kit for WMA for the Vs show. On all his drums he's a solid/accurate hitter and sometimes you can't hear the ambiances of playing towards an edge or not, but it was very noticeable on that tom so to my ear it sounded miced up with his kit. He may/prob does have some midi triggers for certain songs, such as You Are cause I also see him playing to click tracks on those songs. When he is rolling along on the kit it does seem noticeable, especially on his snare when he solos. You can hear the build ups in the way a drum resonates I've never heard from triggered sounds which are either "on" or "off."
On a side note: I gotta check out the video with Copeland, Peart, and Carey.

drummerboy_73 · August 2017

The only electronics I know he's used outside of a mic'ed up acoustic kit is a trigger on an auxiliary snare to the left of his hi-hat, which I believe was primarily used for the "hand claps" in The Fixer. You can see a picture here:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Matt-Cameron_Pearl_Jam.jpg

Besides that, I'm fairly certain everything else is live, acoustic drum sounds.

mrk2 · August 2017

Max Weinberg used them in the 80's to get that horrible big 80's drum sound. Hasnt used them since

nicknyr15 · August 2017

earthquakes making waves said:

He does have some electronics on the side, but mics up everything. Triggers are for cheaters who can't play the part as originally written or are horrible at tuning their drums. Kinda like Lars not being able to play one of the easiest double bass songs ever, "One." He hits the bass drum only on quarter notes to set sixteenth note triggers for his bass drum. That's just pathetic, at least Matt owns up to no breaking out the double bass pedal too often cause it's not his things, everything else is though! Obviously I'm not a fan of them and would never use them myself either. Just get an electronic kit if you wanna go that route and don't make it look like your a real drummer just for your own self esteem. You can find Mike's drum setup and mic setup somewhere if you google it. I did it some time ago. I'm also really surprised to hear Mighty Max is triggered, I doubt it and if it is it's probably for specific sounds / songs since they have so many.

Thank you. I though I was the only one who thought Lars was terrible. MC is a BEAST.

Blredyellow · August 2017

Of course Matt's drums are mic'd up. He plays in arenas and stadiums. Couldn't hear them from first row to last if not mic'd.

He plays the hell out of real, live drums. He is no poseur. I watch Matt at every show I go to. Nothing is faked.

U2 and R.E.M. have used "hidden" extra members. Springsteen has a 16 piece band. Stones have extra people. PJ live is as real as it gets, which is one of the many reasons they're so special. No smoke and mirrors. No fake drums.

hadfiiw · August 2017

Triggers can be used very well - in the correct situation.

As others have said, adding notes that you didn't actually play is a bad use for triggers (IMO). But, it you just want to change the sound of a drum from song to song, or be able to use some aux percussion for one song but not have a real one around all the time, a trigger is the way to go.

Honestly, I wish Matt would grab a few triggers to bring back some of the aux percussion used over the years (the cowbell in Who You Are as a prime example)

Rush's Neil Peart does this very well. Every note is played by him - the sound just changes depending on the song's need. For example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RbNkrvVHmY&ab_channel=CanadianRedneck

PJinIL · September 2017

Garasauras said:

Triggers are essentially small condenser mics taped to the drum head. So you would never really see them anyway unless you were looking over his shoulder. They aren't always for adding extra notes, or cheating. Stewart Copeland used them early in the Police for adding extra "sounds" to the mix. So when he turned it on, with each single single drum hit, he would also get a keyboard sound triggered, or whatever sound he programmed to play. So if drummers admit to using triggers, it doesn't always mean they're trying to get more hits for the price of one ..so to speak. Not saying that this is the case for all drummers. Not everyone has the endurance of Stewart Copeland or Matt Cameron...So some may feel the need to cheat.

Triggers are different that microphones, though can be used the same way. Actual triggers measure physical head vibrations and do not have any kind of transducer. A condenser mic can be used to "trigger" a midi sound, etc, but this is applying a trigger response using dynamic thresholds, etc. mics performing a trigger-like function, but are not triggers in the traditional sense. I'm with you on the rest, they can be useful, but it's no more cheating than putting reverb on a vocal track. It's a tool that can be used to enhance a natural sound, or it can be over-used, like auto-tune. That's a whole other discussion in theory and taste

i_lov_it · September 2017

earthquakes making waves said:

He does have some electronics on the side, but mics up everything. Triggers are for cheaters who can't play the part as originally written or are horrible at tuning their drums. Kinda like Lars not being able to play one of the easiest double bass songs ever, "One." He hits the bass drum only on quarter notes to set sixteenth note triggers for his bass drum. That's just pathetic, at least Matt owns up to no breaking out the double bass pedal too often cause it's not his things, everything else is though! Obviously I'm not a fan of them and would never use them myself either. Just get an electronic kit if you wanna go that route and don't make it look like your a real drummer just for your own self esteem. You can find Mike's drum setup and mic setup somewhere if you google it. I did it some time ago. I'm also really surprised to hear Mighty Max is triggered, I doubt it and if it is it's probably for specific sounds / songs since they have so many.

Ouch!!!...Scathing attack Dude!...no holding back there...

Does Matt use drum triggers?

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