Listening to the drumming on synchestra, that is some hellish technicality. As well as all the whole background that dev creates, all the technicality thrashes out from those drums. I'm not a drummer, yet I was super impressed. I was even more impressed by the drumming on this album than by that on physicist, even though that had the legendary gene hoglan. but the main thing that blew me away, dev isn't a drummer, but he WRITES the drums. how in hell?! when it comes to drums I just immediatly end up confused, although comparing myself to the almighty musician power is a patheticly stupid idea, but I've never head so much technical drumming since I heard Death of a Dead Day by Sikth.

RVP wrote all the drums for Synchestra (at least that's what he claims ).

Although for Accelerated Evolution, Dev did write the drum lines, all Ryan had to do was learn them and then record.
I'm not sure how he does it, but Devin has a very strong 'vision' (not really the right word because we're talking sounds here) of the music and what it's supposed to be, I guess drums are just part of that?
Oh and for his new solo project, tentatively called "The Mighty Masturbator", he's going to program the drums with Drumkit From Hell. No real drummer on there, I'm curious to see how that works out.


But yeah, RVP is a great drummer (Check out his work for Non-Human Level and Lalu, if you haven't so already. Worth it )

I tried to use drumkit from hell. I was inspired by tomas haake to buy drumkit from hell 2 which cost me a great deal of £70. it's so damn complex though I've decided to read the manual continuously until I have a single idea of what to do with it (you might notice I'm also well into meshuggah =D)

fiddling around with it on cubase is fun though I guess, but so far I've only managed to get some really weak sounds out of it =[. I'm starting to wonder whether maybe getting the first dfh would've been simpler, but meh, I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. I hate the fact that you HAVE to go through a mess of websites to register it or it only lets you use it for 30 days though, because for about 4 days I just could NOT be bothered =P

i think sonar is far superior to cubase in terms of ease of use. At least to me it was far more intuitive, maybe you wanna take e look at it =)

I prefer cubase to most others personally, although nuendo isn't bad. but cubase has a nice accuracy to it and is practical for quick jobs. I prefer to use certain programs for certain things, rather than all in one, because I just get all confuzzled then

I just used the WAV samples from DFH 1 and I can make decent drumming. Although tom-rolls are hard. Which is why I just recommend using DFH as a VSTi plug-in instead

Hey Guy's,

To set the record straight.... This is how we worked out the drum parts for Synchestra.

First of all, Dev and I got together and started jamming the stuff out in the rehearsal space. Dev would always have an idea of what he wanted. He would let me know what kind of beat he would want or where he would want the kick and snare, then I would take it from there. For example, in Gaia he let me know that he wanted a straight up driving beat, so I came up with this cool beat that was driving but had a crap load of Ghost Strokes in it, Bells and other cool things. I love that kind of stuff, it worked and I think it really lent to the song. Notes From Africa we were jamming and Dev said follow the guitar groove on drums, so my interpretation is the drum part you hear in that song. Triumph was another song where I got to come up with a ton of cool stuff, same with Hypergeek and so on...

Every song was pretty much like that. Some songs Dev definitely had a very specific drum beat in mind, like the Baby Song, he knew exactly what he wanted and we went for it, then in most of the songs he'd let me know where the kick and snare went and I'd play off it and come up with a bunch of different beats until he loved it. It's a real cool way to work. Dev gets what he pretty much wants and I get to keep my style of drumming in the music. I always play for the music first then worry about fills and the cool stuff. Dev is great at producing drums as well, that should'nt be overlooked. I think you'll truly hear what Dev's drum writing is like when he releases The Mighty Masturbator, he's doing it all on Drumkit From Hell with no help from a drummer. I'm excited to hear and I know it'll be insane, probably not even playable !!!

As for fills, that would be my personal touch. It's pretty hard to tell someone how to do a technical fill when you can't play drums and show them. Dev did have ideas for some fills that definitely stuck though.

That's pretty much how Synchestra was written. Accelerated Evolution was a bit of a different story though. I learn't that album in a couple months then went in to record it. Dev did have almost all of the drum beats worked out already with the exception of a couple songs like Slow m Me Down and Away which we did the same process as Synchestra. AE was more of a basic Rock album that Dev could get drum ideas thru alot easier. I think AE turned out great but Synchestra is the masterpiece for me as far as drumming goes, that album has all out RVP drumming in it, but only one side of my drumming.

Like Biert said, you can check out Non-Human Level or Lalu if you want to hear a Thrash Metal and Progressive Metal side of me as well. I've also done a ton of session work doing everything from Pop music to Country. My new Solo/Side Project Terror Syndrome will be out in 2007, that's some pretty crazy stuff as well. Keep your ears open for it and hopefully we'll start working on some new DTB stuff later in the year (I'll be buggin' the hell out of Dev for it )

So, there is an Encyclopedia answer for you !

All the best,

RVP

I love your encyclopedia answers, man.

that answers pretty much everything I could ever need to know in this subject. thanks for the insight!

and that is why RVP is awesome

[...] but had a crap load of Ghost Strokes in it

oh bet your ass there is
thanks for the detailed info, man

Hey Guy's,

To set the record straight.... This is how we worked out the drum parts for Synchestra.

First of all, Dev and I got together and started jamming the stuff out in the rehearsal space. Dev would always have an idea of what he wanted. He would let me know what kind of beat he would want or where he would want the kick and snare, then I would take it from there. For example, in Gaia he let me know that he wanted a straight up driving beat, so I came up with this cool beat that was driving but had a crap load of Ghost Strokes in it, Bells and other cool things. I love that kind of stuff, it worked and I think it really lent to the song. Notes From Africa we were jamming and Dev said follow the guitar groove on drums, so my interpretation is the drum part you hear in that song. Triumph was another song where I got to come up with a ton of cool stuff, same with Hypergeek and so on...

I think you'll truly hear what Dev's drum writing is like when he releases The Mighty Masturbator, he's doing it all on Drumkit From Hell with no help from a drummer. I'm excited to hear and I know it'll be insane, probably not even playable !!!

As for fills, that would be my personal touch. It's pretty hard to tell someone how to do a technical fill when you can't play drums and show them. Dev did have ideas for some fills that definitely stuck though.

That's pretty much how Synchestra was written. Accelerated Evolution was a bit of a different story though. I learn't that album in a couple months then went in to record it. Dev did have almost all of the drum beats worked out already with the exception of a couple songs like Slow m Me Down and Away which we did the same process as Synchestra. AE was more of a basic Rock album that Dev could get drum ideas thru alot easier. I think AE turned out great but Synchestra is the masterpiece for me as far as drumming goes, that album has all out RVP drumming in it, but only one side of my drumming.



All the best,

RVP

- I think Synchestra proved that RVP is one of the most talented drummers existing today. Every single time I listen to this album i find myself shaking my head in disbelief of the musicianship. What an absolute masterpiece in so many levels.

- And Ziltoid? WTF? Knowing that one man created what, 95% or more of that is just short of unfathomable. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't know who Devin Townsend was. Simply floored by the drum work Devin whipped up, especially knowing he couldn't beat his way out of a paper bag with drumsticks. Incredible work.

I certainly hope these 2 fellows do many more projects in the future. They are responsible for some of the finest music the world has ever heard.

... he's doing it all on Drumkit From Hell with no help from a drummer. I'm excited to hear and I know it'll be insane, probably not even playable !!!

Hindsight can be fun, having now witnessed ZTO live... kudos for your fantastic drumwork man!