Recomend a decent studio kit in my budget.

If you can find a good Yamaha birch set that is used, it's well worth it. I also recommend a used Tama Starclassic. Both of this kits will run less than used dw and they are super kits that work well with many styles of music. Used would be the rout that I would suggest. You can get a lot more "bang for your buck".

It's nice to have your own metal, pedal and snare around, but in most sessions, pro's bring their own cymbals, kick pedal and snare( I always do) so those things don't need to be top of the line, it'll just be used by the newbies.
 
Yeah in most cases the snare ends up being decent (although usually they need new heads), cymbals are always a crap shoot with drummers. I've had nice sets walk in and I have had sets where not one cymbal wasn't cracked (WHAT THE FUCK.)
 
Guitargodgt said:
Yeah in most cases the snare ends up being decent (although usually they need new heads), cymbals are always a crap shoot with drummers. I've had nice sets walk in and I have had sets where not one cymbal wasn't cracked (WHAT THE FUCK.)
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It sounds like you work with a few "not so pro" drummers. ;)

There are some drummers that seem to like broken cymbals and will argue that it gives them that wonderful garbage metal sound. I can understand having one trash metal cymbal for effect, but when all of a drummer's cymbals are broken, that's more of a sign that the drummer doesn't know how to play well, just hits hard.
:D
 
Yeah man your preaching to the choir right now. haha

There was this guy who stacked like 4 fucked up cymbals on top of each other, made for a sort of neat effect. It had almost literally no sustain to it. I'm not gonna remember the cymbals though.
 
Rimshot said:
It sounds like you work with a few "not so pro" drummers. ;)

There are some drummers that seem to like broken cymbals and will argue that it gives them that wonderful garbage metal sound. I can understand having one trash metal cymbal for effect, but when all of a drummer's cymbals are broken, that's more of a sign that the drummer doesn't know how to play well, just hits hard.
:D
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Obviously, your drummers have never heard of a china cymbal.... this kinda embarrasses me to hear that, being a drummer myself :(
 
Ninja_Drummer said:
Obviously, your drummers have never heard of a china cymbal.... this kinda embarrasses me to hear that, being a drummer myself :(
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Yeah, but there are all sorts of trash metal cymbals. My friend even plays one that looks like a Maltese cross. I have seen others where they are cut into spirals and the hang down on the stand. I keep a 20" Wuhan crash on my kit for effects once in a while, but I am a very fussy traditionalist and usually play with old Zildjians (that I've had for years) and a few newer Custom A's that I really like. On different sesions, I have tried all sorts of other cymbals, blocks, bells,etc., but they don't stay on my kit. I think once you've been around a while, you get really picky about your kit and know just what you want and need. At one point I had over 70 really good cymbals all together (though I rarely use more than 5 or 6 on my kit at a time) from all the different session work I did. I rarely use them beyond each session, and then wisely sold them (to people that were glad to get them because I take real good care of my instruments).

I once made a very effective cymbal from a crappy beginner Paiste 20" ride (it sounded like crap as a ride). I drilled six holes as if I was making a sizzle cymbal and then I mounted Turkish belly dance zills with very loose rivets. For effects it made this very sustaining sizzle that sounded like several dancers playing zils at the same time. I still use it once in a while.

I try not to fill my kit up with too many odd sound makers at once (because it's a bitch to record when so many things could resonate) and I don't want to feel like I'm a sound effects person rather than a drummer. ;)
 
Guitargodgt said:
Go figure I find a set of Pearl Session Custom Maple drums for $800 and I'm not ready to buy for at least a month.

22" kick
Toms: 10/12/14/16
Snare: 14.5

Damnit. haha

They are nice looking as well:
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I own a session custom. I have the prior years model before they went to the split lug design. That was by far the best "budget" line Pearl ever produced.

You should also check out the Vision birch. The steel snare is killer, and the throwoff on it is best in class for the market. It's basically a Dunnett style throwoff.

I've also been impressed with the Tama Silverstar, it's more of a thinner shell than the Pearl so you get some beautiful tones from the shell.

The birch in this price range is different than Scandanavian birch which is on most top end birch kits. But it sound pretty nice.

Big thing in this price range is throw out the stock heads and get a good set of Remo's or Evan's. (I personally prefer Remo for the tone, but this is another very personal choice)
 
He dropped the price down to $600. If he still has it in a couple weeks I'm probably just gonna go ahead and snatch it.
 
You will not be dissapointed. The only downside of them is they only have 8 lug bass drums and 8 lug snares (instead of 10). Other than that these are the same shells as the masters 6 ply, and the 2.3mm hoops to me sound better than the diecast ones on the masters.
 
If this is strictly a studio kit then finish shouldnt be an issue. So look used and piece the set together. for that budget you can find some real killer prices on single drums of very very high quality. Good woods, all wood plys, lotsa lugs, real nice rims.....things that make the kit sound great. Whatever you decide on spend some time cleaning up the bead on the leading edges. This is the very reason kits vary from one to another.
 
cavedog101 said:
If this is strictly a studio kit then finish shouldnt be an issue. So look used and piece the set together. for that budget you can find some real killer prices on single drums of very very high quality. Good woods, all wood plys, lotsa lugs, real nice rims.....things that make the kit sound great. Whatever you decide on spend some time cleaning up the bead on the leading edges. This is the very reason kits vary from one to another.
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^^^This is actually real good advice^^^^ And if cosmetics is an issue for you, then for not too much money after you have gotten an excellent sounding kit together, you can spend a few days putting new wraps on them and replacing all of the hardware. If cosmetics aren't an issue, screw it then. You can assemble a great kit that sounds great, with drums of different color with different hardware.
 
I have a Tama Superstar Birch set in the drum booth now. Its certainly not the best but its a really well oiled kit in that all the bearing edges have been done, it has the upgrade cast rims, the upgrade double strut hardware and its a small set. 20-10-12-14 and a number of snares. My room is treated so the kit sounds huge and seems to be able to get most drum sounds with only a change of heads or tuning. There's Evans G2 coated heads on all the toms, I usually use Evans EC-1 reverse dots or Genera Drys on the snares, and an Emad on the kik. Its a length of decay controlled kit without loss of tone, and makes great recordings. The entire kit with a complete set of semi crappy Sabian B8pro cymbals was $600. Actually the B8's dont record too badly. They surprised me early on.

The 'other' kit is a Gretsch Catalina Mahogany kit. 24X20 kik,14 and 16. Theres a lug every couple of inches it seems! The snare is living in the studio right now as it records so well. Its a 61/2" wood and is a beautiful thing . Theres also a wood Tama, steel Tama, steel old Ludwig,wood Slingerland(ten lugs!!), and several more.

I use Audix D series on the toms, i5 on the top snare Audix D under, ATM25 on the low toms and the kik, a sub-kik, and ATM5's for the overheads. Sometimes I'll put up AT4033's for the room or a U87 in omni. But lately its all about capturing the impact of the hit. And then adding Drumagog.

I also have an ancient Slingerland kik drum which I use a 13" Tama Maple tom and a 15" no-name wood flr with and then mix and match the rest. This kik is a 20 and is at least 30 years old. It really sounds incredible. Big, woofy, pillowy, with a emad it gets a nice clik and boom.

I'm not a drummer but I do know how to tune em and mic em. A lot of studio owners should develop that skill and save themselves a bunch of headache trying to fit wrongly sounding drums into tracks they're not tuned for.
 
Yeah I'm happy with my mics, I just am not happy with what they capture most of the time.

My setup:
Kick: Audix D6/home made subkick 8"
Snare: i5(t)/e609(b)
Rack toms: sm57 X 2
Floor tom: AKG D112
OH: EV RE200 pair

There is a catalina birtch fusion configuration kit on CL at the moment as well for quite a bit less than the Pearl.
 
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