Anyone tried putting their kick to the side?

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thebigcheese

thebigcheese

"Hi, I'm in Delaware."
I saw The Secret Machines last night and the drummer had his kit set up like this:

The-Secret-Machines-01.jpg


If you can't see the image, basically just imagine having your whole kit set up without a kick drum, then sticking the kick off to the side. I believe he was using the left foot part of a double pedal to make it work. It's something I never would have thought of before, but I imagine it would give you some extra flexibility in the placement of your toms. It would make it so you couldn't really use the double pedal as a double pedal, but still... Anyone ever tried it?
 
My first impression was that it's really stupid, but you may have a point with the tom placement thing.
 
The slave pedal is always a bit sluggish even on the best of them. Nice idea I guess, but I wouldn't like it.
 
I too think it would screw up something too important for a minor gain... does any of those pedals feel as good as a Ghost?

The size of my kit is important too, and in general those type of pedals are cumbersome in my case compared to a single pedal.

But if you dig it, go for it.
 
Rimshot said:
The slave pedal is always a bit sluggish even on the best of them. Nice idea I guess, but I wouldn't like it.
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I was thinking that it might be, though I can't say I've ever been very good with the kick drum in the first place.

I guess a similar idea would be to have the kick drum out farther and get a special pedal made that extends out far enough. But that would be a very custom (expensive) solution.
 
dintymoore said:
does any of those pedals feel as good as a Ghost?
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A GHOST!!!! Holy crap, I haven't thought about that pedal in 20 years.

Now I'm using Iron Cobra's. They are a little lighter. If you want pedals you can't feel, try out AXIS pedals.
 
I have always thought about arranging a kit around and experimented with adjustments. And actually just to night I was thinking why not turn my bass drum around then my tom toms will be closer. But did not think of this.

People do not think out side the box enough and this would make a lot of opportunities arise.
 
how did they sound? did the drummer have any unusual sounding styles? Just wondering if the crazy drum set-up serves a purpose and gives him a different technique to drumming..
 
Yeah because those 2, maybe 3 toms that drummer has are impossible to stack around a traditional kick drum placement. :rolleyes:

This is just some dude trying a little too hard to be different.
 
I mean, it was very smack-heavy in terms of the kick sound, but other than that it was fairly normal.

Greg: those are actually all rather deep toms, so they would be a pain to situate around the kick unless you angled them right. This way gives him the ability to have the tops flatter. Of course, then the debate is whether or not all that depth is necessary, but that's personal preference, I guess.
 
Some drummers (myself included) prefer bigger, deeper toms. We tune them very low and they really give off that rich low end when miked well. Mine are not quite as big as this guy's, but still.

On another outside-the-box note...I once saw a drummer who played standing the entire show. All of his kit was raised very high to accommodate this. He looked more like a standing Latin percussionist but it was a traditional rock drum set. I suppose he kept most of his body weight on his left leg while working the kick with his right. This allowed him to be higher energy and move around a lot. He spun in circles, ran around his kit, swayed to the music, jumped up and down, all while never missing a beat. His kit was front and center on stage because he was also the lead vocalist. What a guy!
 
RawDepth said:
Some drummers (myself included) prefer bigger, deeper toms. We tune them very low and they really give off that rich low end when miked well. Mine are not quite as big as this guy's, but still.

On another outside-the-box note...I once saw a drummer who played standing the entire show. All of his kit was raised very high to accommodate this. He looked more like a standing Latin percussionist but it was a traditional rock drum set. I suppose he kept most of his body weight on his left leg while working the kick with his right. This allowed him to be higher energy and move around a lot. He spun in circles, ran around his kit, swayed to the music, jumped up and down, all while never missing a beat. His kit was front and center on stage because he was also the lead vocalist. What a guy!
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And, I assume he wasn't playing his hats or he would fall on his ass.
 
I dunno, maybe I'm old fashioned, but the best drummers I've ever seen or heard don't set their shit up in all sorts of retarded configurations.
 
Greg_L said:
I dunno, maybe I'm old fashioned, but the best drummers I've ever seen or heard don't set their shit up in all sorts of retarded configurations.
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Yeah, but that doesn't really mean anything. Everyone's always told that drums are supposed to be set up the way they normally are, so everyone learns to play them that way. So, not surprisingly, a good 99% of drummers are going to have them set up basically the same way, so of course the best drummers are going to do it that way. When you think about it, though, his setup is still basically the same. All the toms and cymbals are in the normal spots. It's not really any weirder than putting the hats on the right (which I've often thought might be better) or the ride on the left or the the middle tom flat with the floor tom to make room for the ride. None of those are "standard," but they all work.

So yes, I'd say you're old fashioned :p But you are also probably right that they are mostly doing it for show.
 
I could see it might help accomodate big toms and possibly large kicks.
I am fairly short, and even with a 20 inch kick I have a hard time getting my snare directly between my legs with out it nicking the edge of the kick.
I have to spread out my stance a little more than is comfortable for a long period of time.
But...havin a kick to my right would screw with my floor toms and to the left ...my hats...so...something with a small offset would mean a lot more to me than way over to one side.
 
thebigcheese said:
Yeah, but that doesn't really mean anything. Everyone's always told that drums are supposed to be set up the way they normally are, so everyone learns to play them that way. So, not surprisingly, a good 99% of drummers are going to have them set up basically the same way, so of course the best drummers are going to do it that way. When you think about it, though, his setup is still basically the same. All the toms and cymbals are in the normal spots. It's not really any weirder than putting the hats on the right (which I've often thought might be better) or the ride on the left or the the middle tom flat with the floor tom to make room for the ride. None of those are "standard," but they all work.

So yes, I'd say you're old fashioned :p But you are also probably right that they are mostly doing it for show.
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Surely the best drummers ever have thought more about drum placement than just sticking with how they first started. My problem with this nonsense is that you lose your direct connection to the kick and that's totally unnecessary with his modest setup.
 
wouldn't he just be better with a smaller but deeper kick that would fit under his toms? :confused:
 
LemonTree said:
wouldn't he just be better with a smaller but deeper kick that would fit under his toms? :confused:
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The actual frequency (pitch) of the kick sound has more to do with the diameter than the depth, unless I am totally off base.

Greg: I'm not saying it's necessary with his setup. Personally, I'd rather hit the kick with my hand because I can't seem to get my foot to cooperate. Most of the time, you only really need the floor toms to be deep anyway. The others cut through just fine when they are shallow. I'm just saying it's better not to think of it as retarded, but rather as different or interesting. Thought provoking, maybe. Just something to question the way you do things. Do you hate change so much?
 
Other than the tiny kick and the percussion stuff on his left, it seems pretty normal.
 
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