who's got some new drums?

[Thrill Kill Will]

or cymbals? or even better.... who's got some OLD drums or cymbals? anyone have some recently acquired toys they want to talk about? itsbeen over a month since the last post... come on!! we can do better than that!

or how about recording? anyone record recently? i've started messing around with mixing some drums at home, not on our record or anything important, just on my simple protools rig. and i've been playing with parallel compression and compressed reverb and its a fun way to make the drums a lot thicker.

where are my drum nerds at?
-w

[ninjas and tacos]

i don't have any new stuff, but i finally found a place to set up.
i've been living in an apartment for the last six months, so i haven't been able to play. it's been depressing.

[Jazmin]

Why?

[esedler8785]

i drum on my desk with pens..haha

[Jazmin]

supersudz99 said:

i drum on my desk with pens..haha

ahaha. That's amazing.

[keving]

I am looking at rebuilding a kit entirely. I have a birtch gretsch kit with some quick beats, an 18 inch sabian and an old sweet ride but I bought it a little blindly when I had first started playing. A friend of mine actually is also endorsed by C&C and he is going to help me build a kit. White all maple, 22x18 kick, 10x8 rack and 14x11 floor with a 14x8 snare. Will, would you recommend die cast hoops or wood hoops for the snare? looking more for warmth than a powerful crack but if the wood hoops are uncomfortable I might go with die cast. also looking for some clean tight sounding cymbols, currently looking into the sabian aax studio line. anyone have any recommendations?

Kevin

[Thrill Kill Will]

good lord. thank you for actually posting on topic and about drums!

first off, i think you should consider perhaps a shallower kick drum. 16x22 is a pretty flexible sized kick. it can be tight and punchy but open depending on tuning and such. i never liked 18+ deep drums.

wood hoop snare drums are fun. i fell in love with yamaha's akira jimbo snare. i'd definitely go for it if you are looking for warmth. but just know that they'll take a beating if you're heavy on the rimshots.

white all maple? does that mean you're getting a white drum kit??? i would STRONGLY suggest rethinking that! try a nice vintage vibe! white marine pearl? black oyster pearl? green sparkle?

also, 8x14 drums are awesome. i toured with an 8ply +6ply ring 8x14 maple snare. its a GREAT drum. just make sure you know what you're looking for. it might not match all that well with the 10/14 vibe on the toms.

i think a 12" rack might be a little more flexible than a 10". like the jazz set up of 12/14. my black cat kit has a 9x12 and a 12x14 and since they are 6ply with wood hoops they have a huge deep rock sound. but typically with a slightly thicker shell you'd be able to tune low for rock or tune higher for bebop or jazz.

brighter cymabls. i've never used the aax line. though i think they have the "stage" and "metal" series right? for bright modern cymbals i like the Acustoms. though these days i like darker more complex sounds of Ks or my Istanbul Agop cymbals.

hope this helps!! let us know how it goes
-will

[keving]

I'm rather indecisive when buying equipment, and like to having different things used specifically for different sounds. because I have yet to actually try a 14x8 snare, I am not sure if I will end up getting one. my neighbor is a respected jazz drummer and he just scored a Yamaha absolute maple (pre nouveau lugs) sized 20x16, 10x7.5 and 14x12 with an old birch yamaha 14x6.5 white snare drum and it is probably the best sounding kit I have heard. my current kick is 20x16, but I originally had a 22x18 which when tuned right sounded phenominal, I just switched to the smaller one to reduce the volume here. thanks load on the tips for the wood hoops, I think I will stick to die cast because I really do a lot of rim shots. as for cymbals I might consider looking at the Istanbuls, but I don't know where in san diego I would be able to get them. I am going to see you guys at soma so I will be able to see if I like the sound of them.

on to topic #2. I am starting up a home recording studio and by far the most complex thing to record is drums. I hardly know where to start on this one. What setup would you consider the most cost-effective for mic'ing up a kit. I don't intend on mic'ing the toms individually, most likely just a snare kick overhead and possibly hi hats. Did you run each mic into its own preamp or run them all into a mixer?

thanks for all the help,
Kevin

[Thrill Kill Will]

wow, drums AND recording? excellent.

the yamaha absolute maple use a different shell and probably bearing edge than C&C does, but i'm sure you researched it and asked bill @ c&c they could do their best to match it. or you could just look for a used absolute maple...

as for recording.

i'd suggest going for something really common to start off with (though i also encourage doing random weird shit because that's what i end up liking best). but for a starting point. i'd recommend small diaphram condensers for the overheads. (i'd use a right and left and skip the hihat mic...). then a typical large diaphram dynamic for the kick (d112, re-20, beta52 etc). then a 57 or audix I5 for snare... (beyerdynamic 201 is awesome for snare). as for preamp vs mixer, its kinda the same thing. the preamp in a mixer does the same thing as a standalone preamp...sometimes better sometimes worse. i'd A/B them to see which sounds best. or just post what mixer vs what pre-amp you are using.

(i'm assuming if you use the mixer you are using directs out so that all the mics have their own tracks)

word
-will

[keving]

sorry to the admins because this one is a little off topic (but far more on topic than i drum on my desk with pens. no offence to the poster)

but will I also wanted to ask a few other random questions and I feel you will see them on here quicker.

1) when you play the acoustic dignity and money in half step tuning, What key does the harmonica have to be in that michelle uses, is it Gb?

2) how do you mic up shauns bass cab? I play guitar piano drums and bass and I am less familiar with the recording process for bass. I saw in your video you were using the avalon direct box from your studio videos but I'm sure you mic up the cab also. when I see live bands at my local venue the mic they use for bass cabs appears to be a kick drum mic and I have never asked them what kind it was

3) on the video medly with shaun, I noticed the vocal mic next to the keyboard that appeared to be an Audio Technica 3035, which I've been looking at for vocal recordings. just wanted to see if that was the same mic or not.

i have to say I'm a little starstruck that you answer all these questions with such depth. you are great to your fans.

Kevin

[Thrill Kill Will]

1 - uhm yea, i have no clue what key dignity is in. i just smash giant metal discs and drums with wooden sticks. sorry, shaun is more of a note guy, maybe his forum (though it would be off topic and i dunno how often he posts)

2 - on the newest record we did most of his bass tracks mic'ed up with a beyer 201. its a dynamic mic, similar to a 57, but its a hypercardiod so it has a more pronounced proximity effect. we ran his bass (fender jazz mostly) through the avalon U5 di, into his svt classic head, then out to his ampeg pro 1x15 cab. since we were using the 15" cab, i think the 201 had more clarity than a typical large diaphram dynamic (the kick mics you're talking about) would have. the 201 went into some neve 1272 line amps that were modified to pre amps.

for some demos we mic'ed up shauns 4x10 ampeg with a senheisser 421 and that was pretty rad. usually to support the low frequency you would look for a "kick" mic like a D112 or even an SM7 or RE-20. condensors (like the 3035 you mentioned) can also be used.

3 - we actually didn't have a 3035. our engineer bryan russell has an AT 4040 i think. we didn't use it much. we used our neumann TLM 103 a bit. we also had some 414s, an mxl v67, akg c3000b, and maybe some others.

word!

[thescenicreunion]

I recently ordered a c&c drum kit from bill himself. The sizes are 9x13, 14x16, 16x24 bass, and 6.5x14 snare. Red mahogany laqeur and tube lugs. 3,300 for these suckers and im sure in december i will realize how much more they are worth. It has always been a dream to order c&c and now its true. Thanks will for telling me about shallower bass drums and now i realzie how much of a factor it is when it comes to your own creation. from what i heard from you and bill, it will be a nice partner to the toms.