dcrigger
PRO DRUMMER
And for the manufacturers to attempt to capture that next far more demanding part of the market gets like exponentially more difficult - and expensive.The number one customer for e-drums is the hobbyist, playing at home for fun. Second after that is the church drummer, who is also often part time.
It's like most anything - conquering 80, 90 even 95% of the problem is the easy part. The ability for a device to allow us to sit down and play a basic beat with a variety of decent sounds coming out has been accomplished. For some, that equals 100% of what they need to do what they want to do. But then it starts getting more and more demanding - can we change the character of the hi hat sound by stick position and foot pressure? Can we vary the snare rimshot sound with slight adjustment of hand position and playing angle? Of course, we'll want to be able to bury the beater and don't vary the beater on the bass drum - and do either "on the fly". And then there's cymbals - ride stick positions, variations of playing the bell... these are just off the top of my head.
And maybe that may eventually be possible - I mean, we are getting closer with the more advanced sample libraries. But controlled in real-time from pads???? I think we have a long, long way to go. If it is even possible - which it just may not be (at least not for a very long time).
So just like we can do phenomenal stuff with orchestral sample libraries and virtual guitar plug-ins - and can use those things quite effectively in cases where 80-95% is good enough. But for now - people are recording very expensive orchestras everyday. Just as they are popping for the drummer, the room and the engineer to capture live acoustic drum performances.
Those things aren't going away - but just like it's been for drummer since the arrival of drum machines, there is far far less "in the trenches" low and medium level work. It is just too affordable to forgo hiring a player (or group of players) and just do it yourself.