Korg Forums

Dear Forum,

Are there other members who are using their Wavedrum Global in a studio environment?

I compose scores and incidental music, therefore my main Wavedrum usage is recording. The abilities of the unit regarding dynamic range and its response to specific playing techniques are indeed pretty amazing.
There still seems to be nothing like it, no matter in which price range. To renounce midi is a good choice, this is a musical instrument, for once, an electronic drum that doesn’t sound limited like a machine.

Unfortunately, the qualities regarding signal to noise ratio, especially when I use more sensitive presets, that eminently take advantage of the internal microphone sensor to interpret brushes or rods, are anything but amazing. In fact the signal to noise ratio ain’t higher than 79 to 81 dB.
Since I couldn't find any documentation about the noise level, I wonder if my device has a particular problem.

My question is simple: is this comparable to your experiences?
Beside the noise, there’s a noticeable hum that sounds as if the rather cheap power adaptor could be suffering from (or cause) interferences. Electricity-wise my Studio is a quiet place. None of the other machines shows issues like that.

Here’s a short recording that shows the noise and hum. You can hear it particularly in the decay at the end or during softer parts.
If you’re not sitting in a control room or home studio, headphones can be useful to hear the interfering signal, wich is noticeable but at normal listening-volumes not dominant.

Wavedrum signal to noise ratio test recording

Thanks in advance for your answers and a nice, peaceful weekend to everyone here.

Alvy

I use my WaveDrum Global for recording ambient music. Yours sounds just like mine. My guess is that any interference that is heard is due to the very sensitive mic pickups. I just make adjustments within my DAW plugins to help reduce unwanted noise. I do love this drum alot. I too am glad that they left out midi control, like you said this is an instrument.


Flux

Thanks for your answer, Flux Cobalt.
This helps a lot to sort out the problem.
I almost assumed, that the semi-optimal signal to noise ratio could be kind of normal considering the technology a Wavedrum uses. All cheap microphones and any related circuits are usually a little noisy.

I am certainly delighted to hear, that others don't miss midi that much as well. It's actually a true virtue to make music without the possibility to fix each and every mistake in the process, but it seems even more reasonable to avoid the illusion, that music has to be (or could ever be) completely reproducible.

Anyway, I will try to get at least rid of that hum, wich could be a power supply problem, and let the forum know about possible proceedings.

If anybody had more or different experiences regarding the matter of signal to noise ratio, a short contribution to this thread would be very much appreciated.

Alvy