Drummers.... C'mon tell the truth!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter rushfan33
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Pratt,

Yep! I love Rick Colaluca's playing.....it's actually quite sick the way he weaves all of his drumparts together, and sometimes I'll be listening to it, and after you listen to it a while you'll hear the pattern, but it takes awhile because he has SO MUCH going on that there's just a ton of info to take in at once.....but I find myself thinning ( Quickdraw McGraw )...what in the world possessed him to come up with that pattern for that part? Sometimes it never seems to make any musical sense....Watchtower are definitely less "musical"/song oriented than the other "Prog/Technical" bands that I listen to.....generally the King Crimson that I cite is Red...I just love the music on that CD, and Wetton is one of my favorite singers.
So it's not like I'm talking about any really "Wild" King Crimson material...it's fairly straight ahead, but still musically/technically proficient.


Rushfan33,

I know what you are saying...and that was why I put the :D ...just to say I was joking.

I do like to have certain cymbals in "duplicate" simply because I may love the sound, but it allows me to gt that sound, or a similar sound from a different model, without constantly whacking on the same cymbal over and over.....otherwise I'd have 3 cymbals that were all 22" in diameter and about 1/4" thick! Hahahaha Just to make sure I NEVER broke the things.

They would be the Wagnerian wetdream...the "MEGA-klaang" of a huge heavy cymbal would wake Richard Wagner from the dead! :D:D.

But seriously, I just like a lot of cymbals.


I almost never use more than 3 toms in the same drumfill...for 10 years I played with 1 mounted tom and 2 floors....and after awhile, I found it to be stifling musically for me....and instead of building a ton of new toms (because I built my drumkit) I opted for the Rototoms...I picked up a set off of E-bay for about $375 or so (It's been awhile...I can't remember the exact cost.) but anyway, it was cheaper than me building the drums..plus I don't have the TIME or place to do woodworking anymore.
I had a rototom kit back in the 80's (Hey when Bozzio was doing "Mental Hopscotch" - I had the roto setup at that time!...but my favorite Rototom drummer back then was Jos Zoomer who was the drummer for the Rock band "Vandenberg".

I don't know what it is about rototoms, but I just love them.

Perhaps it takes me back to the days of listening to Gil Moore from Triumph, and how much I loved the drumsound that he had on the "Just A Game" and "Allied Forces" LP's...when they were out.





Tim
 
Tim.... I know you were kidding. I'm not that sensitive!:D

Although I do value and respect many opinions from people on this BBS, I don't take too much of what I read too serious becuase you can't read tones! I kid 99% of the time but many people take me too serious and I end up in a flame war.

Never mind........ I'm tired and rambling on!!:D
 
Well...

Me, I'm kind of minimalist for the style of music I play. At this point in time, I'm playing in a metal band with a sound very similar to Pantera.

My entire setup consists of:

2 bass drums (18x22)
5 Toms (8x8, 9x10, 10x12, 11x13, 16x16)
1 Snare (4x14)

My cymbals are:

Sabian AA Regular Hats, 14"
Sabian AA Thin Crash, 14"
Sabian AA Chinese, 18"
Sabian HH Thin Crash, 18"
Sabian HH Thin Crash, 16"
Sabian HHX Stage Ride, 20"

See, even in metal, you don't need a huge kit and an assload of cymbals. :-D
 
I think a lot of cymbal are sometimes necessary in certain live situations, because if you want a certain sound on a certain song, you can't stop the show and swap cymbals. its easier to just have them all set up the whole time.

On the other hand, in a studio you can swap cymbals between songs.

I just use a pair of hats, a ride, two crashes, an 18" china and a 16" wuhan china. I know that 2 chinas seems weird, but I got the wuhan first and sometimes its just too trashy and the decay is really short, so I got a "cleaner" and "longer" Paiste china to compliment the wuhan.
 
Uladine,

That's not a lot of cymbals compared to the things I've been seeing lately. That's about what I have on my kit right now except for the 2 chinas.

Those Wuhans are actually pretty decent cymbals for the intended purpose, and for the price.


RF
 
I think if you enjoy tons of cymbals and drums, then by all means use them.

I'm big on the "less is more" thing myself.

4 piece kit
hi-hats
18 inch dark crash
20 inch ride
and an occasional 20 inch ride with rivets.



I like getting as much color out of this as I can, and the possibilities for color are many. Then again, I don't play louder music, so it's easier to pick up tonal differences. Also, my set up and breakdown time is so short these days.

If I add anything else, it's congas next to the hi hat so I can play it all together. What I would like is a modified vibraphone set up that I could play kit and vibes together. There's a guy with a one-man-band called Euphone who does something similar.



bing
 
Magpie99 said:


Yeah, where's your snare? ;)

Glenn D.
Click to expand...

It's an 8" x 14" Pearl Free-floating snare with 3 shells, Brass, Maple, or Stainless Steel. Normally I have the Brass on in it because that's got a "mayEA" microphone mount and XLR jack installed in it, but I'm thinking about breaking out the Maple because I'm getting really tired of the brass shell's sound.

I'd like to get a new 5"x14" but I'm just not sure what I'm after....I wish that the Ludwig "Acrolites" (El Cheapo with a cast aluminum shell) was a 10 lug drum, because they kick...hell I may just start using an Acrolite again.

I have a particular snare sound that I'm after, and it means that I need to go to a shallow shell for this sound....the 8"x14" is great for some things, but it's definitely not the "be all and end all" of snares.


Tim
 
!

mikeh said:
Interesting post!!!

I've been a gigging drummer for 35 years and have done gigs with as little as a snare and a pair of brushes up to an 11 piece kit with 10 cymbals.

I currently gig with a 4 piece kit (either a Maple or a Birch - depending on the gig and my mood) with 5 cymbals (ride, 2 crashes, 2 splashes) a cow bell, mounted tambourine, jam block, chimes, a mini timbale and sometimes a china.

During the course of a gig I use different sized sticks, mallets, hot rods, and brushes to draw additional colors and moods from my kit.

I find the less things I have to hit the more I concentrate on the groove which is a good thing. However, the more colors I have the more I can offer melodic content (vs. exclusively a rythmic content).

Normally, if I'm working in a 3 piece band (guitar, bass & drums - or - keys, bass and drums) I bring more gear to supplement the sound (in addition to more cymbals I may add drums - up to a 6 or 7 piece kit). If I'm working with more instruments, I tend to take less gear since there are more melodic instruments and I don't need to add melodic content.

So, are all the extra cymbals needed - no!!! Do they allow a drummer more creative expression - I guess it depends on the drummer!!!
Click to expand...


I have the privilege of knowing this about Mike, he plays a wide variety of gigs and is very keen in his assessment.

Not to get all picky but Elvin Jones uses a five piece and 3 cymbals and gets a variety of sounds. His vocabulary is quite expansive be cause he gets to know each element of his kit more intimately.

Now I love my splash cymbals, and I could never get a 20" K to sound like a 10" one but I have an 18'' K crash that has worked in every situation that I have placed in in from Rock to Industrial to light jazz. I may change up my sticks and the way I approach the cymbal but there is now way that 5 different crashes could satisfy me the way this one cymbal has.

I think we all love Neil Peart and Carter Beauford, and maybe some of us love Danny Carey as well. But I bet that you could take all of their stuff away and they would still sound like them when they played.....

nP

for the record:
HH- I alternate between Sabian 14" HHX Groove Hats, 13 Fusion and 10" mini
Crashes: Zildjian 18 K, Various A Custom sizes and Sabian Pro Sonix 17" that is great for riding on.
splashes: 10 & 12 world percussion china splashs and a Sabian Portnoy 7" signature
Ride: Sabian HHX 21" Dry Ride, 20" Zildjian Ping
and my other pride and joy Zildjian 20" Swish Knocker from the 70's with 6 rivets
(phew. don't tell my wife about all of these...)

I play 3 splashes, 1 set of HH, 2 crashes, 1 ride and the Swish for most of my work...
 
less and less...

I have been playing for about 15 years now and over the years I have been using less and less. I currently use a 4 piece with a 12" set of Zildian K's and a 22" Zildian Ping ride.

The hi-hats and ride make a great crash as well as the ride itself becomes about three different cymbals when played properly. It makes gigging a hell of alot easier and keeps me more focused on the groove of the song and makes me utilize fills more creatively. I like to keep my stuff up close to me when I play as well, I don't have to bend an arm to hit anything.

Someone's statement about a guy flipping out about moving or removing a cymbal during a recording session reminds me of my first, I had two crashes a china and a ride the china I used once out of 12 songs but I spent all the first two years of playing with it there and for some reason when it wasn't I felt I didn't have all my clothes on....well 15 years later, I'm debating my rack tom. Great Thread!
 
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