Dayton Ohio Drummer

Low-volume Drumset… an Oxymoron (kind of).

OK. First and foremost, I will admit, I am a hard-hitter. And my drums are LOUD (that is an understatement)! It can tend to be a problem on occasion, especially on the low volume gigs in small spaces.

So… I’m on a new mission…I’m going to put together a drum kit that is naturally a low volume kit (hopefully).

Now some of you may think that’s a oxymoron – a drum set that is not loud – but I think it can be done. You see, different woods/materials have different sound characteristics. For instance, I owned a set of Ludwig Vistalites back in the day. Vistalites are made from Plexiglas, they were the loudest drum set I have ever owned. I just got a great deal on a Gretsch Catalina Club Rock kit that is made of Mahogany, and much to my  my surprise, the kick drum and toms are much softer sounding than my PDP Maple LX or MX kit. I have also heard that Birch drums are loud,  but I have no experience with that.

As far as cymbals, I recently began to checkout Dream Cymbals (I’ve always been a Zildjian guy), but there is something intriguing about the sound of these cymbals. They remind me of the old Zildjians from the 50′s and 60′s. I recently bought a set of 14″ Bliss Hi-Hats, and was amazed to find that next to my 13″  Zildjian K/Z hats, they are much quieter.

So here’s what I’m doing… a small jazz BeBop kit (18′ or 20′ kick, 12″ tom, 14″ tom) made of Mahogany, and a set of Dream Bliss cymbals. Certainly the new 14″ Bliss hats are going to be a part of this setup. The main requirement of this set… low cost. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Drum technology has really come a long way in recent years, and even cheap drums in the hands of a drummer who understands drumhead selection and tuning can sound pretty phenomenal!

There may be hope for this old rocker after all. Stay tuned…

Everything in it’s place…

So the classic rock band I play in just did two weekends of outdoor shows, and it really drove home how important getting the drums in the perfect (comfortable) position is.

The first gig was relatively easy. We had 15 or 20 minutes to get setup after the previous band, but we were the last act. And to make things even easier, we did a mid afternoon sound check, so I had plenty of time to get the big Gretsch Rock kit setup. Once sound check was over, We just moved them out of the way and staged them for later in the show. The gig went off without a hitch, because when it was go time, I moved everything into position, and was perfectly comfortable for the hour and a half gig.

Last gig was a bit more difficult. We were one of eight bands, and our placement was 3rd from the last. We had 15 minutes to get our gear in place, get mic’d up, and go. About half way through the previous bands set (Stranglehold – a Ted Nugent tribute band who was really tight!), I started staging my gear off-platform, and was ready to go. Cymbal stands are always packed at the correct height, so getting that right was the least of my worries. I just needed to get the kick drum, double-bass pedal, snare and hi-hat placed first, and everything else just falls into place from there – or is supposed to.

In order to help the transitions between bands, there were some very good stage hands who were extremely helpful. Once the previous set was down off the riser, I headed up with the bass drum. Once I got it set in place and turned around, here were all these stagehands hauling up gear, in all the wrong order. “Where does this go?” “How about this?” Before I knew it, I had the monster 26″ bass drum, ride tom, and 2 huge floor toms all on the riser in all the wrong places, cymbal stand positioned all around, and nowhere to move them to I could get things setup correctly. In fact, they were starting to mic-up the drums before I was even close to setup!

As you might imagine, I did finally get everything positioned close enough to get though the gig, but I was mostly uncomfortable thoughout the gig. You can watch the highlight video below. The only really bad thing was that my hi-hat tripod wasn’t set level, so every time I’d start to pump the hi-hats, the stand would tilt in toward me like it was going to fall over. Never did, and after a couple of songs I realized I was just going to have to deal with it, because we typically try to keep the music flowing with out dead-time between songs. All in all I had a great time playing, but I’m really considering a rack setup to make things a little easier (maybe).

Lyrics and Setlists on the iPad

I’m an Apple fan (always have been). When the iPad was announced, there was no question…I had to have one! Ever since that day, I’ve been looking for an easy way to use it to display lyrics and setlists. Today I found it… the Setlist app by IndianCode. This is a great app for musicians. No more carrying a notebook full of lyrics, and a clip-on light so you can see. Did I mention that is is a FREE app?

You start by hitting the “Manage” button and adding your song library. Each song can have lyrics added to it and a length.

Then, add a setlist and order your songs. You can have lots of different setlists.

By hitting the “Perform” button, your setlist is displayed.

Clicking a song title displays the lyrics. and you can swipe your finger across the screen to display the next songs lyrics. You can even resize the text so that all lyrics show up on a single screen.

Now if I could just find an easy way to mount my iPad to a stand instead of  setting it on a music stand!

Dream Cymbals

So I’ve always been a Zildjian cymbals guy. Yeah, I’ve owned some of the other major brands in my day, but I always come back to Zildjian for some reason. But there some buzz going around these days about Dream Cymbals and how they sound like the old jazz cymbals (think K Constanoples). Well, being a vintage drum fan, I thought, “It can’t hurt to look.” So I did.

My favorite drum shop (Columbus Percussion), had a few. Gordon tells me that they are having trouble keeping them in stock. Hmm, that’s a good sign (I think). I really wanted to see a set of hi-hats. They only had two pair of hats… a set of Bliss 14′s, and a set of Bliss 15″ hats. I’ve had Zildijan 15′s before. Typically they are just too much for me, and this was also the case with these. So, we setup the 14′s. I will admit, at first I was going to pass. There was a whole row of hi-hats all setup and ready to play from Sabian, Paiste, and Zildjian, so I played the comparison game.

Hi-hats these days have a much more focused sound than they used too, and granted all of the sets I played that day we’re very, very focused. So when comparing them to the Dream Bliss hats, I just flat didn’t like them. The “chick” sound was much softer than everything else, but the open wash was more “noise” sounding. But something in the back of my mind said “Take em home and try them out… see how they blend with your other cymbals.” Cymbals are very personal, and they have to work together.

The price was certainly right! Just $135.00 for the pair. I would expect to pay $400.00 for a set of hats. SOLD!

So far I’ve had them for two days. And I love them! They sound very much like the old hats you’d hear on 50′s and 60′s jazz records, and 60′s and 70′s rock records. They feel more musical to me, yet I can’t explain why just yet. I still have the band experience to put them through before they are keepers, but so far… they are sooooo good!

Kickport – Enhance the sound of your kick drum!

It’s not that often that a new drum product comes along that males my turn my head, but KickPort is one of them.

Now, first and foremost, I must disclaim that I am not affiliated with KickPort International in any way, and have not been paid for this post. With that said, any product that claims to add low-end to your kick, without the addition of a bulky additional drum parked out front, or a electronic solution, gets my attention. Not to mention that this product fits into an existing port most of us have cut into the head. I’m ordering one right now, and will review it here in the coming days, but in the meantime, checkout this video…