Pearl Demon Drive Problem

[Tikka]

I bought the demondrive pedal a few weeks ago and i have a problem.

I like to lift my foot from the pedals when playing slow double pedal.
And when i do this the beaters bounce all over the place. And often i catch the pedal when its on its way towards the bassdrum wich results in a extremely soft hit.
I've played around with all the settings for weeks and nothing is helping this.

I love the pedal when playing fast, doubles. You name it.
Its only when i play very slow.

If i go from extremely slow to fast. Somewhere in the middle i ONLY get silent hits. Like not even making a sound.

Any suggestions?

Sorry about the bad english by the way.

[Dre25]

One of the reasons I sold mine. I tried to get used to it for a while but It's just an awkward pedal when it comes to a change in speed, and it doesn't really deliver the power.

One thing you can do is stop lifting your feet off the pedals though, get the control core wood beaters and maybe raise the beater height a bit.

[Pocket-full-of-gold]

Originally Posted by Dre25

One thing you can do is stop lifting your feet off the pedals though.......

This^^^

This is definitely more of a player issue than a pedal issue. It's as much about control as it is about speed. With your feet off the pedals, you have none. Learn to control your movements......at all tempos. If that means making slight adjustments then so be it. We don't think anything of making slight adjustments to our hands according the application, I don't see that feet should be any different.

[toddmc]

Interesting- I was about to post a thread with this exact same issue. I also use Demons and its the same as the OP ie pedals are excellent for slow or fast tempos, mid- tempo is where we come unstuck.
Having new bass drum triggers has just exacerbated the problem (think playing a Guitar Hero pedal- no beater or head to strike).
Bit of a catch-22 situation- playing heel up = more speed / less control, while heel down is the opposite.
PFG- learning foot control at all speeds is proving easier said than done- any tips?

[Reggae_Mangle]

I think this is one of the problems that you'll suffer on any pedal if you practice only slow and fast tempos, without paying too much attention to mid-tempos. I remember reading Pete Sandoval saying how he started out trying to play as fast as he could, then later, he had difficulty adjusting to more modest tempos.
Not too sure this is a pedal problem. Some minor adjustment to technique and you'll be fine!

- Reggae Mangle

[toddmc]

Originally Posted by Reggae_Mangle

I think this is one of the problems that you'll suffer on any pedal if you practice only slow and fast tempos, without paying too much attention to mid-tempos. I remember reading Pete Sandoval saying how he started out trying to play as fast as he could, then later, he had difficulty adjusting to more modest tempos.
Not too sure this is a pedal problem. Some minor adjustment to technique and you'll be fine!

- Reggae Mangle

I guess it's something we don't consider when starting out. Surely if we learn to play fast, then mid-tempo should be a piece of cake right? Of course it doesn't quite work out that way....

[Pocket-full-of-gold]

Originally Posted by toddmc

PFG- learning foot control at all speeds is proving easier said than done- any tips?

It's more a matter of exploring what avenues work. Take a double stroke with the hands for example. When playing a diddle at really slow tempos, you don't tend to rely on rebound but rather make to two distinct wrist movements in order to maintain control over the stick......it's only when getting up to speeds where it becomes too difficult to do this that we then rely on rebound in order to fire the double out quick enough. Same goes for the feet. If you watch the very best players, they tend to chop and change their approach according to the application. Techniques like swivel etc are largely irrelevant for slow playing as the tempos are so slow that it becomes difficult to maintain control over the quick ankle motion which can result in uneveness. In such cases it's far better to maintain control by employing far more simplistic methods.

As with the case with the OP, his technique effectively means that his entire foot is leaving the footboard and as a result he's losing control of his action. The footboard and beater are doing their own thing, making it difficult for him to regain that control when his foot comes down again. So I'd suggest at those moderate tempos he needs to adjust what he's doing to the application.

I'm not a fan of "running" on the pedals to the extent that the whole leg motion is driven from the hip flexors and the foot loses contact with the footbaord for this very reason. There is absolutely no control utilising this method......so much of it comes down to "hit and hope".....especially at slower speeds where natural physics have enough time to come into play on the footboard and beater. Check all the great double bass players (Roddy, Kollias, Carey, Lombardo etc etc)....none of them "run" on the pedals like that. They all have complete control over their actions at all tempos.......and so much of the time, they will employ slightly different nuances in their action in order to achieve it.