by Diceman » Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:45 pm
Onile, I use mine to supplement my rig, for example you can get a drum and snare groove going with the left hand while shaking a real shaker, twatting a real cencerro or playing tumbao on a conga with the left. In the Brasilian band I use it for Samba Reggae surdos, cuica, tamborim, etc, and even the berimbau sounds good, it means I dont have to buy a van. Great for working on new material with all those instruments at your disposal, you can find the right one to use.
GP, the travelling case is a good idea, it was a bit of an oversight that Roland have made such a great instrument not very robust, and gigging will make it look tatty very quickly. On technique, try doing grooves with the thumb and fingers of the same hand on different pads, eg thumb does bass drum, fingers do snare, an adapted pandeiro technique. you may have to move sounds on pads around (and save them) to get the technique comfortable.
Takes a while, but like all good things, practice makes perfect.
I also feel that proper percussionistas who convert, will get more out of it than a drummer or programmer.
My two Handsonics worth (if I may take the liberty of adapting JCs words)
Sabor
Diceman