That's not a kick drum!

  • Thread starter Thread starter moresound
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Greg_L said:
Awesome. It's a date! :D
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can we call it anything but a date? :)


I might be in Houston at some point this year anyway....dunno yet so Ill scoot up to Katy and we can go grab a coffee and listen to some Nu Jazz or go shopping for used clothing :D
 
kcearl said:
can we call it anything but a date? :)


I might be in Houston at some point this year anyway....dunno yet so Ill scoot up to Katy and we can go grab a coffee and listen to some Nu Jazz or go shopping for used clothing :D
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Fuck yeah. Definitely let me know. There's a yuppie country bar out here that's fucking lol hilarious. :laughings:
 
Greg_L said:
I've got a good friend that's Scottish. He lives out here. It would be hilarious if yall were cousins or something. :laughings:
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you really are a twat sometimes :laughings:


he's from Dundee, he may have been one of my servants cousins :D
 
stevieb said:
Begging your pardon, but the first rule of fight club is, you do not talk about fight club. Look it up.
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Man .....you just broke the 1st rule. I was just trying to cover my arse so I didn't get my butt kicked at the next meeting .....are you gonna get it now!





:cool:
 
moresound said:
Been experimenting with an American tourist suitcase as a kick drum (had a few on a live stage) and they sounded real good on stage ....and hope to try this in the studio.
Any comments from any ones experience in the studio on this would be helpful
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Rimshot said:
Without any knowledge or skills with an instrument.......these mouth breathers decide they're going to use something creative (like a suitcase as a kick drum). Sure it sounds like crap........
Please, spare me all of this self indulgent crap! We have perfected and masterly made instruments capable of wonderfully controlled ranges and good response. All of us have made certain items that we may use in our "back kit" for certain ambience sounds and effects, but that's it. We don't discard a perfectly functioning instrument just for the sake of using something inferior. That isn't about music! It's about misguided showmanship and an excuse for poor musicianship.
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Dintymoore often says in his posts something like "Music is not about sound. It's about feel". I think I know what he's getting at. It's for that reason that I don't agree. If he put it the other way, I wouldn't agree with that either. I think it's partly about both sound and feel - and a number of other aspects too.
Greg _L in a few posts over the last few months has made the observation that what with the number of recording techniques, samples, heads, triggers, materials, types of drums etc, there really is no need to have to look outside of those things to get an acceptable drum sound. I agree in part. But only up to a point. There is no need. But let's face it, making music need not have a 'need' factor.

Some sounds just irritate the life out of me. They physically make me itch and make my nerves crawl. I hated the sound of the recorder and violin when my sisters were learning them (ironically, I just love the sound of violins now ~ and a well played recorder). My Mum told me as a very little kid I used to cry when she sang ! That didn't surprize me because I never liked the timbre of her singing voice even though she had a lovely voice. The way some of those free jazz saxophonists like Marion Brown and Pharoah Sanders or trumpeters like Don Cherry used to squeak and honk on their horns or some arco double bass screeing was like nails on a blackboard to me even though I dig alot of free jazz.

Conversely, there's some sounds I'm just drawn to. Percussion and drum sounds among them. From paint cans to plush sofa arms to dustbins to chinking keys. And one thing I've noticed in increasing measure over the past few years is the absolutely huge range and diversity of sound that exists on snares and bass drums in particular on recordings of the last 90 years. It's impressively humongous. I think I've been subconsciously thinking about it for a few years (evidenced by my trying out lots of different things and reading lots and really taking note of the likes, dislikes and foibles and ideas of the drummers, both here on HR and those that I know and play with) but it's come into much sharper focus with some of the things pointed out in this thread. I wasn't kidding when I said I'd really enjoyed it's two sided presence.

When I first heard kids being 'human beat boxes' in the early 80s, I thought it was quite novel. Until I listened to the actual sound. The percussion things that we made in school were simple but they had an interesting sound and also showed that making music has a huge fun element to it. Now, I'm not saying that's what I'd want on my stuff every day, but it has it's place. As do paint cans, pots half filled with water {the pitch changes as you move the water about}, multiple bottles filled to different measures with water, coins in a box or jar {be it plastic, metal or wood}, windows, guitar bodies, space hoppers, whatever. I used to think that Bobby McFerrin was weird for playing the trunks of trees and leaves....

Of course, all these things can be bought. But whether or not the 'found sounds' are inferior is rather missing the point {Of course, people said that about the mellotron and the electric bass and guitar and the synthesizer and.......electric drums}. Firstly, that's a personal judgement call, not a die hard 'fact' or something that is intrinsic to making music. Secondly, using other things to make sounds does not invalidate the beautifully created instruments that makers have spent so many centuries perfecting, nor the skills or techniques of regular users of those instruments. Nor is it discarding or replacing such. I personally respect anyone that plays an instrument. But that's got zilchopovski to do with what I deem to be a good use of something. Experimental ideas and techniques [and in this case, the instruments that foster such] tend to be used alongside and in conjunction with regular tried and trusteds. This thread was never about doing away with anything. Just experimenting......

I was kind of intrigued by the idea of a suitcase as a bass drum because my antennae does wiggle at suggestions that may be considered a little off the wall and that caused me to actually look into what people were saying about it, what it's history was, was it just a recent fad (it predates any electric drum by decades). There's a few people out there making music in varying applications with them. When I closed my eyes and just listened to the sound [even allowing for some pretty ropey sound quality of some of the links], I thought, you know what ? This can be pretty neat. I can see what moresound meant. I actually like the sound. As I've been broadening my view and taste in drum sounds, it's the kind of sound I can see myself using at some point. Surprizingly varied. I could see myself using an electric kick too. The regular bass drum, however, remains my first love. She'll never be surpassed. But she can live the more leisurely life of a sometime kept woman ! :D
 
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