Recommend a drum kit, plaese
Electrode
Los Angeles 3,083 Posts
I think the time has come for me to make a relatively big purchase and spring for a drum set. I have become accostomed to moving my feet and arms independently and I feel the need to finally get "the real thing" and ditch my little tripod supported practice snare. The thing is, I wouldn't trust the unbiased opinion of some Guitar Center employee nor do pawn shop/thift stores (in the raer instance they have a complete, functioning drum set for sale) in my area allow people to try the damn thing out before putting down the $200-$600. All I want is a basic bass-snare-kick hihat set -- maybe a crash cymbal or a tom, too -- nothing too complicated. I really like that early-60s, Motown sound or idealy, something "Hihache"-like; nothing tin sounding...real accoustic. I understand the woodwork of the drums matters, too. I'm quite new to all of this, so I value the input of those here who are seasoned drummers. Thanks.
Comments
I'm not a drummer myself but I got a funk band which I produce and I came to the point that you can use any drum set to make funk music. The sounds you know and love are allready recorded and thats a tricky situation to judge a sound after it is recorded. Beacuse the sound is not only coming from the drums but also from the microphones you use and the positions you put them mics, and how many mics you use.
When you put the mic on top of the head of a snare it sounds totayll difrent to the position under the snare. The Bassdrum is the easiest and there for you dont need any special bassdrums. The hardst is the snare, the hihat and cymbals comes after that. A lot comes also from trimming the sound of the istrument itself.
What you can look for is alos, the smaller the snare the thinner the sound. A small snare sounds like the snare of a marching band. Bigger snares got more of bass frequenzies and therfore sounding more punchier.
Getting the sound you want will be hard without trying out the drumsets, and to get many diffrent drumsounds with the one drumset you'll own is also very hard when it comes to play only live.
If you are planning to record you drums than it will be easier to get many dirffrent sounds out of one kit because of all the viariables you have when you record.
Read this therad about snares.
Hope this helps you a little bit.
Peace
Hawkeye
that said i would try and aim for something in the vintage of the type of music you're interested in. I think you'd have a harder time getting that butter funk sound with a brand new set of carbon fiber made in japans or even these zillion dollar DW sets.
drums are just crazy with the options for sound... how you tune it, do you have bottom heads on all the toms, front head on the kick or not. Close miced vs room. etc etc.
that said i'd break it down like this.
snare - go for a ludwig. You should be able to get a nice Acrylite or similar metal snare for around $100. I would recomend metal over wood. i've always found wood snares to be too boomy and hard to get in the mix.. always sounds like a massive 80's snare. Metal has a more punchy sound and you can get that real cracking rim shot PLOW.
Cymbals - get one of those zildjian starter packs from musicians friend / guitar center. don't worry about spending coin on cymbals.
Kit - as i mentioned try and go vintage if possible. I would recomend you steer clear of ludwig / gretsch as your going to probably pay a premium price for them.. they will be nice as fuck but they are also the top dollar kits. Try and find something that has been refinished or had the hardware brackets changed... this will devalue the kit significantly without changing the tone in the slightest. I've got some sixties slingerlands that have new mounts on them and the original finish changed to black. the entirre kit (kick, 2 rack toms, and floor tom) was $200.
Hardware - again i would try and cop hardware from musicians friend / guitar center as you can usually get really cheap no name stands from these places. get cheap stands for the crash and ride and then get a nice double braced snare stand, a good name hihat stand and also a good kick pedal.
with that your pretyy much good to go except for drum heads.
inevitably you will break the heads curently on there. i've always used ambassadors on my kit with an Evans ported head on the kick...
remember also the kick batter - wood vs clothe... ive always used wood.
peace
When it comes to cymbals, don't shortchange yourself. Go Zildjian all the way. When getting hi-hats, dont get anything more than 14" in diameter, unless you want that 'big rock' sound.
As for the cymbal stands, you dont need something fancy by Tama or Pearl, just as long as its sturdy, you are good to go.
Kick pedals are important. Id suggest something by DW like a DW-3000, you can get them used for about $75 which is a great price.
hope this has helped.