Great point about chemistry and being able to play with other musicians and not just along to a track.
There was one youtube drummer with some of those play along “covers” that I watched. I saw someone comment that this person is a nightmare in real life. Out of curiosity I googled them and came across some interesting things on Reddit. Take that stuff w a grain of salt, but the unanimous consensus was that other musicians tried to form bands with this drummer and they were indeed a nightmare. Apparently that drummer could/would only play cover songs along with the musicians IF they played along to the track itself. And said drummer melted down when pushed to actually drive the band.
Driving a band’s rhythm section is very different from playing along to tracks.
It is very different indeed, I personally find it harder to play along a track even tracks that I know very well than to play with a band, when playing with a band I have the freedom to not have to hit every single fill exactly like a recording, I can (and usually do) add better fills (that still serve the song). Of course when a specific fill is a classic (Rush's Tom Sawyer fill) I don't alter it, that is sacrilege, is not because I care about Neil Peart.. I find him highly overrated, but it's because I know that the audience is expecting that fill and not my interpretation of it. When playing along with a track, I have to be able to copy note for note what the drummer did, and a lot of times, that drummer might have made a mistake that got corrected post, but you can tell because it throws you off when you play it.. (Any Metallica song comes to mind) but yet you still have to stay true to that recording, definitely harder to do than just playing with a band.. Now I agree that you can have the best chops in a Youtube video ( I can play that track in 15 second increments and basically play a
perfect take on ANY song) (but can I play that entire track in a single take? Probably not so when I see those guys with :
1 No drum mics on an acoustic kit (that somehow sounds better than even the original artist recording)
2 Constant camera shifts (that is how they edit out the mistakes)...
3 Playing so perfect that every single ghost note, every splash cymbal every minute detail is not missed...
That is when I lose confidence in those drummer's ability. I would have to see a single camera
one take before considering auditioning any of them.
And yes personality matters a lot.. work ethic matters as well. I have been in many bands where the rest of the band mates dreaded practice and basically only wanted the rewards without the work. Needless to say, the band is only as good as their weakest player and people tend to follow mob mentality. (if two of the band members don't show good work ethic, it wouldn't take long for a third to follow suit ...easier than actually doing the right thing). The band as a whole would suffer and eventually break up. I am not extremely demanding but I at least expect people to know the music to an 80% we can get the remaining 20% with practice and then move on, I also don't like to practice the same thing over and over, maybe do a run of the set and perhaps a couple of times on harder parts but not beat on the dead horse by going over and over and over the same part, (that is why I expect everyone to pretty much be there on their own and just getting used to how it sounds with the band and not playing along a record). Now of course when writing original material, the process is longer and there are going to be disagreements (and no you can't see how a person is going to be in real life through a YouTube performance..