# Virtual Drumkit clip - Really Funny
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 7, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546 "2005-09-07T17:36:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546/1 "2005-09-07T17:36:44Z")
Have you seen [this](http://www.prodikeys.com/products/prodikeys_DM/watch/5_Drums_Low.wmv)? Very funny - guy selling a keyboard that can do drum sounds. But watch him go!
I swear - it looks like it is really him playing, too.
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### Author:  [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546/2 "2005-09-07T21:35:08Z")
Are we certain there isn’t just a guy off camera with a real drum kit?
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546/3 "2005-09-07T22:05:54Z")
It’s plausible that this guy was picked to give the pitch because he’d practiced so hard and was able to give such a performance too though. If he’d had any lessons as a pianist at all in his life, he’d be able to pull that off with plenty of practice on the routine.
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### Author:  [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546/4 "2005-09-07T22:34:27Z")
I think it’s definitely real, because I can do the same thing with my keyboards. Once you learn the basic General MIDI drum map and play along to things, you learn it just like any other instrument. I’ve actually recorded a lot of songs with me “playing” the drums via keyboard and have had drummers ask me who I got to play on the track and how I mic’ed the kit. 🆒
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### Author:  [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2005, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546/5 "2005-09-08T04:58:39Z")
> [@WordMan](#):
>
> Have you seen [this](http://www.prodikeys.com/products/prodikeys_DM/watch/5_Drums_Low.wmv)? Very funny - guy selling a keyboard that can do drum sounds. But watch him go!
>
> I swear - it looks like it is really him playing, too.
No reason to believe he’s not playing it - he’s just goooood.
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### Author:  [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2005, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546/6 "2005-09-08T05:27:52Z")
He’s really good with that thing - check out the [other clips](http://www.prodikeys.com/products/prodikeys_DM/).
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546/7 "2005-09-08T16:01:43Z")
Okay - so we can reasonably assume he is really playing.
Which makes it that much more funny - kinda nerdy, decidedly un-Rawk kinda guy gently describes the basics of drum sounds, then launches into a massive Neal Peart (Bonzo - whoever) solo!! Too funny.
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### Author:  [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546/8 "2005-09-08T16:15:23Z")
There are plenty of pros and major release albums that are done with synth drums. There was a, I don’t remember, Mix magazine a while back I think interviewing some engineer/arranger/do-it-all who recorded for big names and would lay down keyboard drum tracks.
I had a band once and our drummer for kicks would play Rush tunes using the GM drums on my synth.
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### Author:  [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546/9 "2005-09-08T18:32:14Z")
They’ve had stuff like that out for years. Decades, probably. It’s definitely real. Well, not the ‘prodikeys’ specifically, but software/hardware combos where drum sounds are mapped to a keyboard.
The cool thing is, yeah, you can play it so it sounds like a real drummer playing a beat, but because it’s a different layout you can also play things a drummer playing a kit would never think of or wouldn’t be able to play if he or she did. I’m a drummer, BTW. Then you can overdub stuff get a real mess going!
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546/10 "2005-09-08T18:57:58Z")
Of course it is possible to play credible-sounding drums on a keyboard-triggered drum sampler. My drummer, who is a record producer, has done this countless times while working on songs with artists like Erasure, the Cure, Neneh Cherry, Tricky, etc…
[realizing that humor that needs explaining is not funny]
I just got a kick out of Mr. Mild-Mannered laying down _beatz_ and kickin’ it hard.
[/realizing that humor that needs explaining is not funny]
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2005, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtual-drumkit-clip-really-funny/320546/11 "2005-09-08T19:19:41Z")
Futureman, the drummer for _Bela Fleck and the Flecktones,_ has his kit programmed into his Drumatar (which I think is called a Synthax in anybody else’s hands.) My brother saw BF& the F do an acoustic set, and Futureman set down his Drumatar to play a wooden box with round ports. He had various rings on his fingers to do that.