RECORDING January 2023 - 62

EFNOTE 3X & EFNOTE 7
REVIEW
In Use: Live
In addition to my job as the editor of RECORDING, I'm
also the tech director at Grace Church in Racine, WI, where
I oversee live sound, technology, streaming, recording and
more in a 2,000-seat sanctuary.
Typically we use real drums (no drum cage) in a traditional,
modern worship setting (2-3 guitars, bass, keys and 3-6
singers). Drums can be problematic when we wish to add a
choir, a 3-piece horn section or delicate instruments like violin
and cello-all of which is the case for the Christmas season.
The idea of adding an electronic kit option is to eliminate
the cymbal bleed in these scenarios, plus I was excited to
explore some new sonic options.
We have four drummers (myself included) with varying
tastes and playing styles. Working with Artesia Pro, the U.S.
distributor, we decided to go with a kit closest to the acoustic
set used week in and week out-a 4-piece 22 " , 12 " and
16 " set with a 14 " snare. The cymbal configuration is 14 "
hats, 16 " and 18 " crash cymbals, and a 22 " ride. As such,
we opted for the EFNOTE 7 and added a second 16 " crash.
Our drummers have all spent some initial time on the kit,
and three of us have used it during multiple rehearsals and
services. Playing reactions have ranged from, " Ewww, mesh
heads, " to " These feel pretty good, " and " These cymbals are
weird, " to " Wow, they react better than I expected. "
Perspectives
From a sound standpoint, each drummer's enjoyment of
the set was tied mainly to what they put into them, balanced
with expectation. If one is to sit down and just " have a bash "
and expect them to sound and feel indistinguishable from
an acoustic kit, there will be frustration and disappointment.
There is a learning curve, not only in how to navigate
Cymbal Play
The cymbals set
EFNOTE apart from
most other electronic drum kits. Each free-swinging cymbal is a
3-zone, bow, edge and cup design (second input is required for
the cup, and the 8 " splash is 2-zone only). More impressively,
they are a multisensor 360° design. Unlike many electronic
cymbals, you can play and mute them at any point on their
circumference.
The hi-hat takes this 3-zone design, adds a second (plastic) bottom
cymbal, and uses an optical sensor array to make the hi-hat
playing as normal and lifelike as possible.
EFNOTE is the first company to offer a full selection of cymbal
options from the 8 " splash up to the massive 20 " ride. You can, of
course, use any size EFNOTE cymbal to trigger any internal cymbal
(or drum) sound you want. But, like a good 88-key weighted
controller coupled with a great piano library is to keyboard players,
so it is here as it relates to feel and a psycho-acoustic " fool
the brain " playing response.
My initial reaction to playing an EFNOTE 7X kit at the 2022
NAMM Show was that these were the first set of electronic drums
I had ever played that got me close to the feel and reaction of
actual acoustic drums-I was drawn in by the ride and hi-hat
articulation (and the sound).
62 RECORDING January 2023
the tech but how you play them. If you find 2-3 kits you
are initially drawn to and then tweak them to taste, the
enjoyment factor improves significantly-especially as you
start forming personal attachments to the selected kit. In
tweaking the kit, you will get a feel for how it reacts and
how it is best played.
Most of our drummers prefer deeper-toned, thick snare
sounds and floor-rumbling toms, all possible with the tone,
damping and EQ controls. Also, many of the sets were a tad
too dry, which was easily remedied by adding some more
ambiance-I liked Hall 2 the best.
The second step is to tweak the trigger reactions, if necessary,
in small increments until things feel right. For instance,
the kick triggered more consistently for me when I adjusted
the playing curve up slightly.
While there was almost zero cross-talk across the board,
one drummer got some false triggers of the snare rim at the
bottom of the snare head. This was remedied by tightening
the mesh head and adjusting the X-Talk parameter.
While the hi-hats sound fantastic, they can be tricky to set
up and get used to. There is a hi-hat calibration feature and
settings for all three zones, but things also depend on your
physical hi-hat stand and your playing touch. One thing I
found curious was that the hats always default to a loose/
open upon changing kits, and you need to open and close
them once to get them to be a closed tone.
RECORDING January 2023

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