I am pissed off that hack drummers can drumagog themselves into sounding like they can play as good as the Bostaphs of this world.
I hate to perpetuate this, but...
Dude, what the fuck are you smoking?
Using drumagog to replace drum hits does just that - it replaces the drum hit. The drummer had to play it that way in the first place. So a sample of some other drum (most likely one on the same guy's kit, hit earlier in tracking and isolated as a custom sample) is heard instead of what was played.
Big fucking deal. It's not like they chopped up the drum track and pieced it together to a grid (see "...and Justice for All.")
I don't know what bands you're listening to who can't pull off live what they do in the studio - but I've got a question for you.
If the band sucks live then why the fuck do you listen to them? If the drummer is out of time what value is there to their music?
I can think of one drummer off the top of my head who has ever just totally failed in my eyes when it comes to pulling off songs live. That would be whoever was playing drums for Hammerfall when they toured with Edguy. I saw them twice on that tour and Hammerfall sucked it both times. Nobody was together and the drummer was all over the place - not just tempo-wise, but dropping beats everywhere, all night long. Both nights.
I've seen a lot of shows and a lot of drummers and I'll be damned if nearly all of them didn't pull off the stuff on the record to perfection:
Did Richard Christy pull off the kick drums in "Wolf"? Yes. I saw them on that tour three times. And he fucking rules.
Did Gene Hoglan nail everything on the Symbolic tour? And when he played with SYL when they opened for Testament? Hell yes.
How about Tempesta on tour with Testament after the release of Live at the Fillmore? Or Bostaph the same night playing with Forbidden? Every fucking note. Spot-on.
Felix in Edguy - who I've seen three times now. Every note right in the pocket. Jeff Plate in Savatage - tears it up.
Mike Portnoy? I actually saw him chuff one tom fill one time. The look on his face was priceless. That was in the first song of the night. The rest was flawless.
How about Tom Hunting and Louie Clemente - guys who hadn't played in years when I saw them last. Hunting floored my drummer, who is not easily impressed. Louie was clearly sweating through Trial by Fire but he still pulled it off. And the night I saw him he played the whole show - Tempesta didn't play the first half.
Van Williams also rips it up and I've seen Nevermore about a dozen times since 2000.
Vesa Ranta, who is probably one of my favorite drummers? In the pocket every time.
Jan Rechberger & Pekka Kasari? Both played just like on the record.
HOW ARE THESE GUYS FAKING ANYTHING IN THE STUDIO WHEN THEY CAN CLEARLY PERFORM THE SONGS IN A LIVE SETTING?
Maybe your real problem is your taste in music.
Who the fuck ever said music has to be performed poorly to be honest? I listen to bands like Testament and Nevermore and Exodus because I enjoy listening to top-notch musicians playing heavy music. It's all the better for me when the production is also top-notch. In fact, shitty production turns me off even when the band is great and the performance is tight - that's precisely why I've always hated Slayer records. I think they have great songs but until recently they have always sounded like under-produced garbage. But live? Holy shit. If you doubt Lombardo's ability for even a second you should just go lay down and die right now because there's no hope for you.
If you get a hard-on from shitty bands who will always have shitty recordings because they suck too bad for any kind of label support then there's no help for you. They're "underground" for a reason.
ryan
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