Ok, the following is only my opinion on the matter, also I am not sure if this has been covered already, if so, I apologize.

The drums of Mana's earlier pieces have come up in another thread I made. It is true that the drum machine adds a touch of impossibility to the music. The speeds are pretty insane (though I have heard some pretty fast drums from Versailles's drummer.

That being said I thought it would be fun to discuss where the Drum machine works, and where it fails. A song by song break down I thought would be fun. So here it goes.

1 Dix Infernal – no drums, just creepy voices about stuff.

2 La Dix Croix – The drum here is a tad fast, but somehow it adds to the energy of the start of this piece. Perhaps skipping one beat would make it less grating. At 1:20 into the song the drum works quite well with the other instruments. As I listened I realized there really was no better way to do it. The really fast drums work well with the slower more melodic (if that can be said for drums) drum during the vocal parts.

3.Front et Baiser – The drum here works very well. There are points where it seems to go off timing, this may (may) have not been the case had there been a human making the strikes. On the other hand it may have been purposely done by the composer. 2:00 in for a period the drum kinda over powers, but how this could be changed is beyond me, aside from reducing the volume a tad.

4.Ange- The start is very fast, and heavy hitting, as are the other instruments. Pure heavy metal drumming here. It works. Not too grating. Heck the whole song is of this style.

5.Tentation – Okay, personal opinion, this is a song I both love and hate. But once again I can see few ways it can be improved. But my sticking point is Juka's “voices of temptation whispers you far away” can at times just sound terrible, I think it is the synthesized violin. If it had been a better synthesize, or better yet a real violin, this would be a top notch song. Now back to the drums. Once again there are points where they go out of rhythm with the song, but overall they work.

6.Sollitude – Here the drum machine comes through. It works, keeps time, and is not overpowering. This is one of the better songs in my humble opinion.

7.Pessimiste-Another example of the drum machine working. I have friends say this sounds like the theme to a video game...I agree....hopefully a really cool video game. However at 1:32, it no longer sounds like that, it just rocks, and the drums still work with the other instruments. Then 2:21 the video game quality returns, which doesn't detract at all. But pertaining to the subject matter of my post....the drums work.

8.Glorie Dans le Silence- Video game like sound at first. This is the song where an AK -47 firing comes to mind. The drum is overpowering at points, and works at others. I think it is the rapid snare (I think that is what it is called) that detracts from this otherwise flawless song.

9.L'Interieur Dix – no drums, too short. Could have been the start of a nice gothic sounding piece.

10.Detresse – AK-47 again. Great song otherwise. 00:41 the drums work nicely, but at 00:50 the AK-47 comes back. This goes back and forth through the song. Once again I can't really see how the drums could be made more pleasing, perhaps a reduction in the snare hits (once again not sure if this is the particular drum)

11.Priere- The rapid drums DO work on this song, in many ways this is a slow song, but the drums offer a bit of contrast. The timing does seem to go off a bit from the rest of the song, something that may not have happened if there was a human hand striking the notes. Aside from that this song is another great example of the composer's brilliance.

12.Dialogue Symphonie-X - What can be said. This is a masterpiece. When I introduce my friends to Mana's work, this is the first they usually here, then N.O.. Every instrument works in this composition of almost Ethereal haunting perfection.

So with those thoughts, I think the real “problem” points would be in Glorie Dans le silence, and Detresse, which unfortunately lead some to think that all the drum work in D.I. Is sub-par. This I see is a usual case in us humans, we let the negative overshadow the positive. Over all after doing this little report reveals at least to me, that the drum machine was not all that terrible, though I am sure if there was a human striking the notes, it would sound much better.

What do you all think?

By the way this was in no way a slam on Mana, this is his earliest work with MDM, and over time the drumming has improved exponentially (in my opinion), the guy can write and compose some striking works. Gee maybe that's why I like him and his stuff so much:)


:dix:

Pythos--I seriously have to give you props my friend! I never thought someone felt as I do with the drumming!

If you want to see some lightning fast drumming, check this out!

Frost Drum Practice!
Frost of Satyricon

The only reason why I said the drum machine suck is... when you listen to the album and then watch Scars of Sabbath and Invite to Immorality, Tohru just can't keep pace; either he's a bad drummer or the drum rhythm is just unnaturally fast.
However I'm inclined to believe there is an aspect of both cases there.

Hayato on the other hand executed early songs really well.

I have to agree a lot here ~~

I also wonder if this wouldn't be Mana's fault as well (not because he writes the stuff but because even if he plays drums, Mana's not the best at it, we must say)

He just puts in the music what he feels is good, so maybe he just writes unbeliveable stuff for the drummer to do XD ~ I do not know much about "technical" music so I cannot judge really, but I think it maybe is this ;_;

And of course, I think Hayato does a pretty better job than Tohru (imo) and so does Sugiya for bass part (again, imo)

that was my opinion on the subject even though I just cannot explain my musical opinions on that because I s*ck at explaining things about music since I barely know technical stuff about it ;_;

I didn't really like M10M's music at first, mainly because it was a bit too intense for me. Fast and aggressive drums have never been my cup of tea, therefore it felt kind of awkward listening to their music. I needed some time to get used to their style, but I ultimately fell in love with it.
The AK-47 sounding drums fits some of their songs. Even so, I think Mana is exaggerating sometimes, and some of his work could have been better without the aggressive drums imo.

I agree on that though. Sometimes it is hard, but okay and it fits the song, but sometimes you're just wondering why is there just SO MANY drum hits or why the drum is so LOUD when the song could have been feeling better without this. Agree :)

You all do agree though that this has improved since B.T.G. though? Even B.T.G. is better by a lot. But as I said when one really looks at it, the drumming is not all that terrible, it is only one or two instances where this is the case, and really is just a case of two many beats, or miss-timing.

I still very much like D.I., Though IMO N.O. is the best, followed by Dixanadu.

Common Mana, and really knock it out of the park with your next compilation!! :dix: