The best kit for recording purposes for the money?

  • Thread starter Thread starter FattMusiek
  • Start date Start date
FattMusiek

FattMusiek

New member
Come the end of Fall, the kit I'm borrowing from my friend Joe (they're Pearl Forums) will be gone. He's taking it back. I need a kit of my own for around $1500. I won't use these for live use, only for recording purposes. I need a really warm, powerful kit for rock music. I'm thinking Pearl Session Customs, they're maple. Too bad the Pearl Master's series are so damn expensive, I would look into those too.

Thanks for your help!
 
Thanks, but no one really posted anything that would help me. I would never build my own set, heh.
 
Some new kit choices in your price range:

Pacific LX and CX (lacquered maple and covered maple). These are the same design shells that DW used in their lower line. The CX is $700 and the LX is around $1100 with hardware.

Yamaha Stage Customs are not a maple kit, but sound tune up very nice. Their particular wood construction makes them pretty warm. About $700-$900.

www.music123.com has the Premier Artist Birch on closeout for $900.

If you can accept used, there are some nice bargains on ebay.

Gretsch Renown maple BIN $1200
Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute Shell pack: BIN$1199
GMS CL Maple BIN$1335

All of these are very nice kits.

You haven't indicated if you need cymbals, too. You should set aside $350 to $500 for a decent set of hats, ride and crash; more if you want more cymbals (which means more stands). Pick these out in person if possible, which makes used a viable option, too. I'd avoid anything below the A Zildjian line from Z and for Sabian, look at the XS20 and up.
 
Thanks for the reply, Magpie. You didn't mention anything from Pearl, do you not like them? I'm trying to escape the stiff sound of the Forums I have right now.
 
All of the above kits mentioned are real good. The best bang for the buck I've seen recently is
Tama Starclassic with the shallow shells (idea for recording) at Sam Ash for $1200. It's a five piece kit, 22" kick, 9"x12" and 10" x 13" rack toms and a 12" X 16" floor, 5.5" x 14" snare. They had a Gibralter rack thrown in for an additional $175. They sound really good, maple shells I believe. Not quite the Yamaha Custom Recording kit but real close at 1/3 the price.
I'm thinking about this one, but that'll give me four kits then.

I've made drums from Kellar shells and I've had good luck, but I wouldn't recommend it to everybody. I own all of the necessary tools and I'm an experienced woodworker. I've only made individual drums and I'm working on a deep snare right
now. I only reccommend it if you have a specific drum that you want as an expansion and it's either too expensive to buy or not easily available (like a 15" floor tom).
 
Rimshot, I believe those Starclassics are probably the birch model. Not a bad choice for recording.

Fatt, as an extremely satisfied Pearl Session Custom owner, I can tell you that for the price, these drums have exceded my wildest expectations. In comparing them to Masters customs, the only differences I could see OFF HAND were better hardware/diecast hoops, of course, perfect attention to detail and better grade wood on the Masters (I am in no way advocating that they are a replacement or "just as good" as their more expensive cousins). They sound like any other thin, quality, flawless bearing edged, suspension mounted maple drum should sound. As always, tuning and head choice will cause this to vary. I have no experience with the snare (I use a Masters MMX 4-ply maple) but have heard that it also performs like any good maple snare.

But of course, any name brand, quality kit will fulfill your needs and all of the above mentioned are for sure good kits.
 
Thanks a lot guys. I'm still gonna do some research (visit some retailers and actually playing some sets). I've played two Pearl Session sets, they feel very warm, especially the toms. I don't know if they were regular Sessions or Session Customs though. Can you guys fill me in on what the differences are?

So, right now I'm thinking Pearl Session Customs.
 
FattMusiek said:
Thanks for the reply, Magpie. You didn't mention anything from Pearl, do you not like them? I'm trying to escape the stiff sound of the Forums I have right now.
Click to expand...

Pearl makes nice enough stuff, but it isn't the biggest bang for your money. For about $400 less than the Pearls, you can get the Pacific LXs which are a thinner all maple shell than the Pearls. A thinner shell will give you a warmer tone.

I also didn't recommend the Tamas, as you said you wanted warm; with birch shells and die-cast hoops, the Tamas are more punchy than a maple shell with triple-flange hoops.

If you don't mind a little work, you can get wrapped Keller maples shells complete with edges and drilled out along with the necessary hardware to build a very nice kit well inside your budget from www.adonisdrums.com, and they'll sound better than any kit we've mentioned. And you get to pick your sizes.
 
Depending on the year, the Sessions were either all mahogany or a maple/mahogany combo. The only Session set that Pearl now makes is the Session Custom. The last series was the Prestige Session Select which was indeed a maple/mahogany combo.

When looking for a WARM recording kit, there are indeed other options than the Sessions. I was just offering some real world advice and experience. You simply need to look for (in no particular order):

1. High quality preferably maple shells
2. Great bearing edges
3. Suspension mounting that doesn't "pinch" the tension rods
4. Somewhat lightweight or unobtrusive hardware
5. The right heads for the drums/style of music
6. Proper tuning

If all of those factors are in place, you will have some great sounding drums provided they are played with some degree of proficency!

(Remember that the degree of "warmness" can be controlled via head choice and tuning).

:)
 
Don't get it too warm. The shells could possibly warp. Room temperature is preferred.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top