Wringing the Most Out of Small, Cheap Drums

bongolation

bongolation

New member
Like an impulsive fool, I just picked up a Mapex Plasma set because it was on extremely long sale and I wanted a small set of actual drums in my home studio.

I'm sure these are far from pro stuff, but are there any links that come to mind about getting the most from small, inexpensive sets in the home studio in terms of setup and tuning? It's been ages since I had a kit around, and I've forgotten almost everything I ever knew, which was probably wrong anyway. :rolleyes:

Thanks for any tips! (will be sniffing for cymbal deals...)
 
For Cymbals:
I suggest avoiding prepackaged sets . You can start building an interesting
collection through ebay, pawns, craigs, etc.
Instead of looking for the perfect 3 cymbals that will cover any situation,
think of each cymbal as a different crayon in the box. Even cracked
cymbals can add something unique to the right song. you can build a
big collection pretty cheap that way.
 
Hire a good drum tech to come and tune it up for you. You may be able to find a good drum teacher who will just charge his lesson rate. After spending hours with the drum bible I got somebody to come in and had our kit tuned up and sounding sweet for $40.
 
zorf said:
For Cymbals:
I suggest avoiding prepackaged sets .

[...]

You can start building an interesting
collection through ebay, pawns, craigs, etc.
Click to expand...
I certainly see the point, but so far I have never seen a private party deal on this stuff; I've both looked at ads and run them, and without one exception, these CraigsList jerks want more for their low-end, corroded, dinged cymbals than I can get thems for new, delivered. It's freaking ridonkulous! :mad: Mr. T needs to slap some sense into these fools.

I spent about forty-five minutes in Guitar Center's cymbal room the other day giving myself tinnitus trying out cymbals in all price ranges. All were different, some were intentionally weird, but only a couple were really bad.

To my surprise, there was a cheap Chin-Dal Chinese cymbal set included with these drums that wasn't supposed to be there. They're pretty laughable, but a friend wants to buy them for his "world percussion" hand-drumming thing, for which they're perfect. That'll leave me with some unexpected bucks for cymbals.
 
Incredibly, I never got the second crate of drums and MF sent me a return label for the one crate I got and credited me $80 for my grief, but today I discovered that the second crate to the set has finally turned up and they're sending it to me tomorrow. I still get the $80.

Weird, weird, weird.
 
tarnationsauce2 said:
Remo Pinstripes can make a bad kit sound OK. But they make a good kit sound OK too.
Click to expand...
I was thinking a set of Aquarian Studio or Evans Hydraulics...I want quiet, dead studio drums here...but just out of curiosity, whatever happened to good old duct tape to accomplish this? :confused:
 
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TexRoadkill said:
Hire a good drum tech to come and tune it up for you. You may be able to find a good drum teacher who will just charge his lesson rate. After spending hours with the drum bible I got somebody to come in and had our kit tuned up and sounding sweet for $40.
Click to expand...


Yeah but you going to pay another $40 when it's out of tune again tomorrow?

Learn to DIY is the best way
 
bongolation said:
I was thinking a set of Aquarian Studio or Evans Hydraulics...I want quiet, dead studio drums here...but just out of curiosity, whatever happened to good old duct tape to accomplish this? :confused:
Click to expand...
The Hydraulics are pretty quiet heads as are Pinstripes. they have little resonance but let the attack through.
The Aquarian studios are actually pretty loud but are pretty dead. But not that dead.
 
bongolation said:
I was thinking a set of Aquarian Studio or Evans Hydraulics...I want quiet, dead studio drums here...but just out of curiosity, whatever happened to good old duct tape to accomplish this? :confused:
Click to expand...
I'm a big fan of Moon Gels for this purpose. They'll shut down the ring on any drum, and can even quiet overly "ringy" cymbals.

My only irritation with them is that they lose their adhesive powers after about a year... but hey, it's 8 bucks once a year, which is certainly not bad. Plus they're a great deal easier to store and transport than your typical studio rings.
 
Thicker heads, QUALITY heads, more muffling than you would use on a quality kit, lots of time tuning, and a good touch.

The cymbals have to be quality though. Cheap cymbals sound horrible. I use Saludas, which run about half the price of Zildjians, and they sound just a hair better.
 
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