let me see your studio!

[ofajen]

Cool stuff too.

What kind of drums are those Ofajen and what are they made of? I have never seen any like that.

I'm not surprised you haven't seen their like. I made them long ago when I had much time and little money. The shells are actually made of 1" lumber cut into strips with bevel cut sides calculated to produce the appropriate diameter of shell. The 22" bass and 13" riding tom have 16 sides, while the 18" floor tom had 9 sides. I glued them together, held fast with some kind of cincing strap. Then I made rims out of a piece of plywood cut into rings with a jigsaw and sanded them to produce edges and glued them to the ends of the shells, which produced drums that have now lasted about 20 years. The hardware is simple eyebolts and other parts from the local hardware store. Of course, I painted them black! They actually sound surprisingly good, which means that I can never justify replacing them with a commercial kit, since I made these by hand from raw materials.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[ofajen]

The 22" bass and 13" riding tom have 16 sides, while the 18" floor tom had 9 sides.

Actually, the floor tom also has 16 sides. There is a 10" riding tom I made back then (that isn't currently in use) that has 9 sides. I got confused...

Cheers,

Otto

 

[true-eurt]

Wow Ofajen...that is great. You put in a lot of work to do that, but have something really special there.


I would love to hear the kind of tone they produce!!

 

[RawDepth]

...I would love to hear the kind of tone they produce!!

I don't mean any offense by this...

I would imagine they sound somewhat dead compared to manufactured. The wooden shells are supposed to resonate with the heads so they project sound as well. At one inch thick, I doubt they are doing much of that. The reason that commercial manufacturers make their shells with multiple plies is to get them as thin as possible, yet still have strength. The thinner they are, the better they will vibrate with the heads and act as a passive radiator.

I would guess they would be louder and richer sounding if they were thinner.

But still, I applaud your workmanship. Not many people would go to the trouble of creating their own musical instrument. At first glance, I didn't even notice that they were handmade. Nice job.

RD

 

[ofajen]

I don't mean any offense by this...

I would imagine they sound somewhat dead compared to manufactured. The wooden shells are supposed to resonate with the heads so they project sound as well. At one inch thick, I doubt they are doing much of that. The reason that commercial manufacturers make their shells with multiple plies is to get them as thin as possible, yet still have strength. The thinner they are, the better they will vibrate with the heads and act as a passive radiator.

I would guess they would be louder and richer sounding if they were thinner.

But still, I applaud your workmanship. Not many people would go to the trouble of creating their own musical instrument. At first glance, I didn't even notice that they were handmade. Nice job.

RD

Thanks... no offense taken! My experience is that you are correct about them being less lively. Actually, getting functional edges was by far the hugest PITA. OTOH, for recording in the studio, I often like a pretty damped sound. Indeed I've taken other steps to further damp control the sound of the drums, depending on the tone I"m after.

I'll see if I can post some recordings of the kit in a few weeks. Of course, that will require that I figure out how to deal with one of those online sound clip hosting services! I just figured out how to post pictures online, so I'll probably save that for another week. My busiest week at work is next week, the last week of our legislative session.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[Gorty]

ofajen,

Let's have that room cleaned up before you go out to play.

 

[jamtheguitarman]

Sometimes taking chances pay off eh?

The Strat is drooling material. How about a center-fold of her?

More like ignorant luck pays off!
Center fold on its way, just need to find a shrine of some sort.....

I don't recall ever seeing a Conklin before...learn something new every day.

http://conklinguitars.com/bizarregallery/bizgallery.html

At this point money well spent would be some bass traps.

pffffft, 3 monitor setup is way cooler than any "defined bass mix" malarkey.




ofajen......if anything breaks in that room, looks like a fun job to find the problem

 

[ofajen]

ofajen,

Let's have that room cleaned up before you go out to play.

If I don't, do I get to stay in the studio?

In my experience, good music is never being created if my studio is tidy.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[Freudian Slip]

OK, I figured out a webhost for my pictures that may actually work, so I'm going to try to embed the picture links here...



Cheers,

Otto

Wow! That is one of the most eclectic collections I have seen

Very cool!

F.S.

 

[true-eurt]

More like ignorant luck pays off!
Center fold on its way, just need to find a shrine of some sort.....

I don't recall ever seeing a Conklin before...learn something new every day.

http://conklinguitars.com/bizarregallery/bizgallery.html

Those are some 'bizzare guitars... I love the Honeydripper...like the Wenge/Zebra melt....But that string-thru Fanned fret 8 string is gorgeous!!!!

Have ya found a shrine of sorts yet...?

 

[Nightfire]

Switched things up a bit, heres a new shot. Its nothing compared to all of yours but I gotta start somehwere

Mike

 

[cincy_kid]

Cool Mike, nice start ~~


Who signed the acoustic?

 

[DavidK]

Switched things up a bit, heres a new shot. Its nothing compared to all of yours but I gotta start somehwere

Mike

Its good what you need: a bass, a guitar, a keyboard, a few mics, a little mixer and a computer. Anything after that is merely icing on the cake.

 

[Gorty]

Switched things up a bit, heres a new shot. Its nothing compared to all of yours but I gotta start somehwere

Mike

I would get those speakers off those tin cans.

 

[Nightfire]

The acoustic is my cheap ($300 piece of crap ) 12-string. Its signed by people who have had an influence on my life, friends, mentors etc. The back of it is signed by kids who I hope I had/have an influence on (used to volunteer at an inner city place for less-privileged children).
Not pictured is my Vox amp and the electric guitar, as well as the Takamine. I hadnt set everything up yet before I got too eager to take the pics.
The tin cans were a temporary solution, do they hurt the sound?


Mike

 

[Gorty]

The tin cans were a temporary solution, do they hurt the sound?
Mike

I can see your speakers are stereo speakers, not monitors, but the tin cans will not help your sound. You could fill them with sand and put a piece of rubber or some foam to try and dampen things down.
This isn't a real major factor, acoustic treatments would be the next thing for you to look at doing for your little studio there!

 

[Nightfire]

Yeah acoustic treatment is next once my dad moves out of the basement with his office (which happens mid summer) and I get an official "live room". Proper monitors and a nice wood desk along with a Firewire interface are also on the backburner until my job starts paying off Im 19 and just got into recording a few months ago, I shouldve informed myself better before buying a small analog mixer (need firewire, or a decent soundcard) but thats 20/20 hindsight for ya


Mike

 

[Gorty]

Yeah acoustic treatment is next once my dad moves out of the basement with his office (which happens mid summer) and I get an official "live room". Proper monitors and a nice wood desk along with a Firewire interface are also on the backburner until my job starts paying off Im 19 and just got into recording a few months ago, I shouldve informed myself better before buying a small analog mixer (need firewire, or a decent soundcard) but thats 20/20 hindsight for ya




Mike

We all have to start somewhere!

 

[true-eurt]

The acoustic is my cheap ($300 piece of crap ) 12-string. Its signed by people who have had an influence on my life, friends, mentors etc. The back of it is signed by kids who I hope I had/have an influence on (used to volunteer at an inner city place for less-privileged children).
Not pictured is my Vox amp and the electric guitar, as well as the Takamine. I hadnt set everything up yet before I got too eager to take the pics.
The tin cans were a temporary solution, do they hurt the sound?


Mike

Good start Nightfire!

Gear is only crap, if it doesn't do the job you are wanting it to perform. Price doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it. Besides...we work with what we have and your skills and talent will pay off in the end, more than the gear.

I look forward to watch your studio blossom.

True

 

[tzer]

Nightfire - Mike,

Your setup and mine are very similar! I have a pair of near-field monitors but no power amp to run them, so I am using my compact stereo too as a temporary monitoring solution.

I also have a very similar, tiny mixer, a simple synth/controller, guitars (well, basses in my case) on the wall - the works!

Just this weekend I did cobbled together some acoustic treatment stuff - built 2 wall treatments to reduce reflected sound out of some old picinc bench slats, egg-crate foam and black nylon screen - each is mounted on either side of my listening zone (left and right). I also tacked up some heavy-ish Mexican-style wool blankets on the wall behind my desk (and the cheap-o monitors), etc...

Being broke, not necessity, is the real mother of invention!

It is refreshing to see someone brave enough to post their lo-end studio.

I have rehearsal tonight, but I will snap some pics of my lo-end room and post them shortly.