4 drums or 5 and more..?

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msmales555 said:
....part of me always wants to cut out the rack tom and just use a floor, bass and snare, but i think that would put a damper on my creativity.
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It would put a damper on your creativity. You're too limited when you have no rack. I know a guy who used to play a 3 piece like that and he was always crossing his left hand over to play the floor tom and getting sloppy in the process. One rack and one floor is all you need but I like having 2 floors. It's only one more drum to hall around and it doesn't take that much more time to set it up or tear it down. Besides, hitting the 2 floors (16 and 18) together sounds awesome!
 
two floors

yeah, id love to have an 18 incher. i use a 14 and a 16 now and i think id love to have the other floor tom over there. i think ill buy one soon. i used to use a 12" rack with the 14x11" tom on the right next to my 16" floor. . . .but i really hate hanging "floor" toms. i like everything to have its own stand because i find that its easier when settign things up at a gig if you can move everything around independently. the hanging 14" required an additional stand and i hated it. don't get me wrong, the tom sounds great and there is nothing wrong with the size, i just hate having to hang it. throwing a floor tom into place is a sinch as it is on its own set of legs.
 
hey, i'm not really a great drummer, I play guitar in bands, I just mess around with the drums......but a good drummer i used to play with used a 4 piece and told me that he would rather use a small amount of drums and make them sound good than a bunch and sound bad. He said he feels like alot of drummers use alot of drums to make themselves look better, and he felt like good drummers could make a small amount of drums sound great. I thought that sounded about right to me......anyways, like I said, I wouldn't say drums is my thing, so take it or leave it
 
If you got the mics and stands, and you've got the pres, go for it!! You don't have to hit any of 'em.
 
18" floor

msmales555 said:
yeah, id love to have an 18 incher. i use a 14 and a 16 now and i think id love to have the other floor tom over there. i think ill buy one soon. i used to use a 12" rack with the 14x11" tom on the right next to my 16" floor. . . .but i really hate hanging "floor" toms. i like everything to have its own stand because i find that its easier when settign things up at a gig if you can move everything around independently. the hanging 14" required an additional stand and i hated it. don't get me wrong, the tom sounds great and there is nothing wrong with the size, i just hate having to hang it. throwing a floor tom into place is a sinch as it is on its own set of legs.
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I agree with the hanging tom shit. Every time you hit them, they move and I hate that. Bun E. Carlos will sometimes use a 8x12 rack and 14x14 and 16x16 floor tom setup which is cool. I actually like the 10x14 rack and the 16x16 and 16x18 setup. I have a 14x24 kick and I'll eventually upgrade to a 14x26. Big drums sound big, period.

I see some drummers at rock shows and they have "fusion" size toms hanging off stands and it takes longer to set up because there's more hardware. They also try and tune the small drums low to make them sound bigger and they always sound like shit. There's no volume because there's almost no tension on the head, resulting in no projection. They need to realize that those smaller size drums are for fusion or jazz and need to be tuned higher. If they want a bigger sound, get a bigger drum.

Look on Ebay for an 18" floor tom. I bought one 3 years ago for 75 bucks and it's a pretty nice drum. It's a Tama Superstar from the late '70s. It's birch instead of maple but it sounds pretty good and it's in pretty good shape. Eventually, I'll sell it and make or buy a maple one because one dark green floor tom with a maple kit looks a little funky.
 
Supercreep said:
If you got the mics and stands, and you've got the pres, go for it!! You don't have to hit any of 'em.
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True. My friend use to set up 2 kicks because it looked cool. He couldn't play double bass but the reaction from people at the club was funny. "Auh cool! Double bass! That's awesome."
 
cobradenim said:
True. My friend use to set up 2 kicks because it looked cool. He couldn't play double bass but the reaction from people at the club was funny. "Auh cool! Double bass! That's awesome."
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:D I think that having 2 bass drums adds more symmetry than having one double pedal. Plus, 2 separate pedals are more responsive IMO.
 
tilinmyowngrave said:
:D I think that having 2 bass drums adds more symmetry than having one double pedal. Plus, 2 separate pedals are more responsive IMO.
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I agree...and they sound better too.
 
Differnt sizes or Tune them differently and you can get different sounds also, then have a double pedal next to the left one so that you can have the same sound, or two differnt ones. :D

Just to remind people of this. So many people seem to have forgotten that you can use double bass for other stuff.
 
Disclaimer: I'm not a drummer, but have worked with some really phenomenal ones

Piggy backing off of the idea of changing things up to increase your versatility, I got to a gig once and our drummer had forgotten his kick pedal, so he ended up laying his bass drum straight up and playing it with a mallet - he said it was really a lot of fun and it forced him to think differently with his rhythms. Could be a fun experiment - but again, that is coming from a person who will only play drums when no one else is around. =)
 
I love 4 pieces. I love the comfort. I'm pretty short so I like to have things lower, and I like a good sized kick, 20 is too small. Also, I don't have thousands of dollars to spend but I like to get high quality gear. Well, if a 5+ piece kit suited my style, I would go for it, but since it doesn't there is no point in spending money for the looks and the occasional bang I would rather have that money in the pieces I use.

I think someone was talking about playing left handed on the hats being stupid. I assume you're talking about open handed playing. I personaly think it's great. I've worked on it for a bit, makes it so much easier to mix things up and throwing in little fills having the right arm free.
 
i prefer to make my 4 piece with 2 cymbals sound like a 20 piece kit :D
 
foreverain4 said:
i prefer to make my 4 piece with 2 cymbals sound like a 20 piece kit :D
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Trust me, there is no way in HELL you can do that! Anyone who says you can do the same thing on a 4 peice kit that you can on a big kit doesn't know what the hell they're talking about.
 
hahaha, Ok, well he might have created a whole new set of drums that move and morph into different sizes so leave him alone, Thats why only 4 durms can sound like 20 :D
 
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