Do you think you have a problem with a piece of gear..?
Is it frustrating you..?
Can I make a suggestion..?
Yes? Thank you... Then, do NOT go online and slag off the piece of gear without checking that it really is the cause of your problem!
(Aaaaaaaaaaannnnddddd... relax.....!)
At the moment there seems to be a LOT of blaming the wrong thing for your issues (I'm talking in the electronic drum world here, but obviously the rest of the world is currently equally applicable).
If you play an electronic kit, then you are an electronic drum specialist, to a greater or lesser degree. We choose to use different equipment to many of our fellow drummers, because we feel/ know/ can prove it offers us something in addition to just playing the acoustic side of our instrument. Because of this we need to know how our equipment works. It's our responsibility. No one else is going to tell us on stage or in the studio how and why we should tweak our sample or our threshold. Its down to us.
If you don't know how your equipment works (and are proud of that fact) then don't make bold public statements online and prove how little you know. Ask questions, please. Ask for advice (but please don't read the first reply from Mommurder, Idaho, and think a) its correct, or b) you are now an expert), but be really careful if you make sweeping statements.
Last week, I got into an online conversation with someone who was having issues with a hi hat controller. I knew that it was unlikely to be the controller, and that there was probably another issue behind it. There was. He wanted a new kit, and publicly slagging off the hi hat controller was his way of trying to justify this. When he realised that those reading the thread had sussed he was full of it, he did what every self respecting and respectable person would do.
Did he hold his hands up and go “Fair cop!”?
No, he deleted he thread. Nice.
And a couple of weeks earlier I had someone tell me that ALL electronic kits were useless, because they all used USB2 and were 'too slow' They needed USB3 apparently...
Alarm bells began ringing immediately. It transpired that the person was in fact taking the USB from his cheap Alesis kit, plugging it into a 10 year old PC running W8 and monitoring through the headphone output, heard the latency caused by the cumulative old tech, and had come to the conclusion that it was the Alesis which was the cause.
Would the person believe me that, perhaps they were misunderstanding the issue at hand here, and that they should be looking elsewhere (ie the computer)? No, of course not (though to give him his due, he did relent later).
So thats a very small example of whats been happening recently. Actually, as much of it has been to do with latency, maybe I should just say this right now, and it might be the most useful thing I've written all day;
If you have a latency issue when you are using a computer, it is probably (with 99.9% certainty) the speed, or lack of it, of your computer's processor, or the lack of audio interface, and the fact you are monitoring through the laptop headphone output which is causing the problem.
It is NOT the USB cable (“USB3 leads are like, 10 times faster than USB2 cables, man!” - true quote) which I've been told recently.
It is NOT the electronic kit (“So I'm going to buy a new electronic kit because my old one has latency” - another true quote), as I hear 5 times a week.
But, it IS possibly the fact you are expecting MacBook Pro performance from the massively underpowered Windows XP laptop your Mum's work was throwing out 6 years ago.
If you want to be taken seriously, you have to know your stuff.
Tours and sessions are not places to learn your gear. NOW, especially in lockdown, is the time and place to learn your gear. So get learning.
And finally, I don't want this to be a Mac vs. PC thing, but I know of no bands or artists who tour with PC's running their plug ins etc. I'm sure there are, but I don't know them and I've never worked with them.
If you want a computer that will do what you want, off the shelf, with no tweaking, then buy a Mac. There. Said it.
I'm sure there are many people who use PC's for their music making at all levels, but they have probably spent hours tweaking and honing, and are much more computer literate and expert than me. I don't have that time or expertise. If you want to get something which does the job. Right here, right now. Just get a Mac.
All is not rosy in the land of Mac though. As I've said before, I got talking to an Apple employee at NAMM a few years back who was asking me about the MacBook I was running my demo on. He said that if I wasnted to run VSTi programs (such as Superior Drummer 3, Ezdrummer, Addictive Drums, BFD) I should keep my 2012 MacBook for as long as possible, as the latest MacBooks are not as good for running them.
And also, Mac doesn't have to be expensive. A good reconditioned Mac (from one of the many worldwide Mac resellers) will only cost the same as a new ride cymbal, rather than a whole new kit.
Thank you. I feel much better now.
Simon