New Kit, New Sound

[jmillz]

Hey there,

Basically I'm looking into my second kit after drumming for three years now. I've developed my own preference for a certain sound and style now, and I'm ready to find that in a new set, because mine is too "ringy" for my liking. The reason I was motivated to ask you about it is because I love the way your drums sound. They really stand out to me when I listen to the album. I like the more definitive sound with all that "umph".

I was recommended to look into birch (is that what it is? ) shells.
Will that do the trick? Or is it more in the recording than anything?

Appreciate it Will.
Thank you for all your music, help, and inspiration.
-Jay

[Thrill Kill Will]

hey jay,

thanks for stopping by!

i'm glad you like the way my drums sound, but on a recording its hard to judge because there are so many factors.

oh the full length, i mostly used my black cat kit. which has thin 6ply maple shells and wood hoops on the toms. though i think the producer on our first record used samples to reinforce the drum hits so that record doesnt sound very natural.

for two tracks off the EP, i used a huge tama superstar kick drum, ludwig stainless steel toms, and an 8x14 maple black cat snare. we used very minimal mics and used as much of a room sound as possible, the drums sounded huge!! (with god on our side we actually recorded most of it seperately, i forget what drums i used, i think it was a 14x20 60's ludwig kick)

for the new record i used a ton of different drum sets.

ok so after all that gibberish i just need to say that to answer your question we need to hear more info.

what drum kit do you currently have?
how do you tune it?
what type of music do you play?

what songs and specifically which drums do you like the sound of?

word
-w

[jmillz]

Currently I have a Sonor Force '03, with Evans EC2 heads.

I tend to keep my top heads a little tighter and the resonant head looser, but honestly I dont know much about tuning for certain sounds. (I guess that'd help.)

At the moment we play a variety of different styles so I can't be too specific there.

Do you mean Straylight songs?
"Another Word for Desperate"
"Existentialism on Prom Night"
The end section in "For The Best" is sick.
And the toms in "Sympathy for the Martyr" especially in the end stand out too.
To name a few..

[keving]

I recommend using a product called Moongels for spot treatment of excess ring (you can get them on musiciansfriend or through guitar center), also when you tune any of your drums make sure that your tension pattern is even, so no one edge is tighter than the other

[jmillz]

Yeah, I'm always pretty cautious of keeping the tension even. Thank you though, I'll read up on Moongels.

[Thrill Kill Will]

the mooongels are a good idea, though i try to acheive the best results i can with no muffling.

first i would try practicing tuning on your kit. if the heads are totally shot, then think about putting on new heads (single ply clear heads on the bottom...clear G1 or remo ambassadors). top heads are your choice, i've heard good things about the EC2 from evans, a more standard would be coated G2 or remo coated emperor. i suggest trying to tune the bottom head first. i usually tune the bottom head of toms up pretty high. not so that the head is tight, but so that the tone they produce (by themselves, with only one head on.) is higher than you'd want. then i tune the top head medium. i try to find out where the tom sounds best, then play with the relationship between the two heads. usually if you mute one head and tap the other, the relationship between the two should be pleasant. then try to recreate that relationship with the floor tom so the toms have similar tonal qualities. if you are going from a 10 or 12 inch rack tom to a 16 inch floor...its very hard to achieve a similar tone because the drums are jus so different. so do your best.
short answer, try tuning the bottom heads slightly higher than the top heads.

all the songs you list were off the first record. so none of those drums are really natural sounding, most likely they are all replaced or supplemented with samples.

[jmillz]

I will definitly try out the tuning suggestions.
I see what you mean about the first album. At the time I hadn't listened to the new album, haha. I was just waiting for it to be released.

Thank you very much Will!
-Jay