The technology for electronic drums has hit a milestone in performance and realism.

originally posted by: abeverage
Well soon they will be playing themselves (I am sure they already do)

But are they artistic?

And when the power goes out...

The art is in the player. I have seen street people playing upside down 5 gallon pails, that were better than many drummers I know, including myself.

If the power goes out, you are going to lose the guitars, keyboards and singers as well. Well... there is always acapella.

Apple's Logic Pro X has "virtual drummers" with specific styles. You can manipulate the complexity of what they play, shorten the verses and all kinds of stuff. You can even adjust the "humanize" function it so it improvises and screws up now and then. You can just loud/quiet and simple/complex.

Hell, I could compose and entire song with just a keyboard, using virtual instruments to emulate guitars, bass...and most people wouldn't be able to tell. Add some effects, run it through some processors to make it sound like it was recorded with a certain flavored mic preamp (neve?) ...

It's pretty incredible.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Agree with the fact it is incredible. Great for composers who need backing tracks to test their creations.
However, I think the output is still rather sterile. For anything great, real musicians are usually called in to put it all back together again.