It's not the cost that counts...

Quite a few years ago I went to school with a fine drummer named Jeep MacNichol. Jeep is perhaps best know for his work with The Samples, but nowadays he's doing his own thing as Mr. Anonymous. I hit Jeep up for some info on his gear, and he came back to me with some surprises.

His words reinforce the old truth that good sounds aren't made by drums alone, but rather by drummers with chops who are recorded properly. It's not the cost of the kit that counts, but the skill and knowledge that goes into playing it and recording it. Here's what Mr. Anonymous has to say about the drums and recording technique used on his new album, Champion Sound:

I purchased a used Gretsch Catalina kit on ebay ... 18" kick, 14" floor, 12" tom, 14"x 5 1/2 " snare. We recorded the kit with just 3 mics and modeled the micing EXACTLY like Rudy Van Gelder used to track the drummers on all the blue note albums in the 50's and 60's. He had a great approach for capturing the sound because in working with a lot of those drummers, he wanted to capture the sound as a single instrument. He was quoted as saying something like "...a jazz drummer thinks of his kit as a single instrument and sound rather than the individual elements like the hi-hat and the snare and the tom, etc...and my job is to capture their intent and what they want to say on the instrument as a whole rather than separating the sounds of the individual parts of the kit."

So we put one mic pointing between the hat and snare, one mic about 4 feet in front of the kit pointing directly at the drummer's chest, and one mic about a foot in front of the kick...we also had one overhead pointing directly down on the kit...and all the mics were ribbon mics and mixed through an analog board and slammed with compression.

So check these tracks and tell me that you ever would have thought this was a simple Catalina Gretsch! 

Some fills at the top of this track show what the kit - and Mr Anonymous - can do.



And this one has some particularly nice action around 2:30.





Here's the humble kit.

Listen to more tracks here.

And I'm throwing this in since it's pretty cool. 

In response to It's not the cost that counts..., my friend and super-microphone-geek Eszter pointed out that the ribbon mics used by Mr Anonymous to create such a fine drum sound from a simple Gretsch Catalina kit were probably much more expensive than the kit itself. And she pointed out that you need quality pre-amps and other generally expensive gear to make fine recordings.

So I leave the question open: Does cost count? Can you make inexpensive drums sound good without expensive mics and recording gear?  If you save on the drums, do you need to make up for it with quality mics and other gear? 

This is all getting very geeky.  I'm starting to scare myself.

Ludwig Classic Maple? As good as they say?

My friend Bali is a much bigger drum geek than I am. You can tell by his gear. Dig this. He's got a Ludwig Classic Maple in Silver Sparkle with 13x9, 16x16, 18x16, 22x14.  He tells me it's from early 2000s. He's also got a 14*6.5 Supraphonic snare.  Not bad for a kid from Budapest.

How does she sound? Pretty fine!
Check out this demo video we made or check it out on this fine track from The Walrus, featuring Noel R Mayer on vocals and Balázs on his fine Ludwig drums with Ambassadors on top and bottom . 




This is a great song if you are into classic Anglo-American rock sounds. Maybe one of the better songs you've never heard. And now you know all about the drums.  And you are happier because of it.

My Buddy's Tama Starclassic Maple

I share a practice space with a great drummer here in Budapest named Bence Bátor.  Bence plays a mid-2000's Tama Starclassic Maple.  Every so often I get to use his kit, and I gotta tell you, I just love it.  It's a standard 10*8, 12*9, 16*14 set-up.  What I love about these drums is that you don't have to hit hard at all, and POW, they just come alive. He just fit the kit with Vintage Emperors, and man, it's just a joy to play. I love my Pearl MHX, but you really have to whack it to get the life out of it. Not the Starclassic Maple. It's a much livelier play.

You can hear Bence and his kit on these tracks.  Some really great sounds on some fine tracks.


On this next one the drums are dampened quite a bit to create a "certain" sound that works quite well even if it doesn't illustrate how well the drums resonate.



He also has an 8 inch deep Tama Bubinga snare which is certainly one of the finest drums I've ever played. I'm pretty sure he's playing it with an Evans HD Dry on the tracks above. Top stuff.

Here's a video I made of his kit using my Tama Mastercraft (Imperialstar) snare from 1983

Pearl MHX - Masters Mahogany Classic

Since 2004, my main kit has been a Pearl MHX - Masters Mahogany Classic. I've got a 22*16 kick, 13*9 rack, and a 16*16 floor. I was after that vintage sound, like so many others, and I think I pretty much got it (but see below for a caveat).  Over the years I've earned lots of praise for this kit from bandmates, other drummers, and sound guys/gals.

Funny enough, there's not much about MHX available online. Personally, I love this kit. Deep? You bet! Almost too deep!  Sometimes I had Evans EC2, which made them lower than low. But that wasn't ideal. Ambassador and Emperor have probably been best, or maybe EC1, which I also have used over the years. Once I used Remo Fiberskyn, but that also deadened the sound a bit too much.

But is it really "vintage"?

I should note that this kit has 45 degree bearing edges, which means it has more attack than true old school vintage drums I've played, like my Beverley or my friend's Dayton-era Rogers Holiday. I've learned only recently never to underestimate the importance of the bearing edge! While this drums has a deep, rich tone that might be called vintage, I would hesitate to call it a true vintage sound since it really does have that extra explosion on stick impact (AKA attack).

Update: Die Cast or Triple-Flanged?

My MHX kit has Pearl die-cast MasterCast hoops. I set up my Beverley mahogany 12" (with Gibraltar triple-flanged) and compared it head-to-head to my Pearl MHX 13" with MasterCast hoops. Both had coated ambassador with top and bottom tuned to the same note. On the Pearl, the die-cast hoop clearly cut down on resonance. The Pearl had the attack that the Beverley was missing, but the Pearl clearly rang down more quickly. My conclusion is that the die-cast hoop makes the 45 degree edge sound somewhat more vintage (that is, short), yet the 45 degree edge gives some of the attack that drum with rounder edges just won't have.

So, here's a track that shows what she sounds like (with a nice little Ringo-fill intro).



The snare on this track is an old Tama Superstar birch.

Anyway, I've loved this kit, and if you ever have a chance to grab one, go for it.

UPDATE: After many years of being a one-kit guy, I recently hit a midlife crisis and picked up my Natal Maple kit and an old Beverley. So I sold my trusty MHX to a friend. Nothing against her. I just found my Natal more playable and a better match for what I'm doing nowadays. Besides, I couldn't justify keeping an extra kit on top of my wardrobe!  I guess some of you out there know the feeling?

Geo. H. Way "Indy" Bronze snare

I just picked up a George Way "Indy" 5.5" x 14" bronze snare, and I've gotta tell you that it is an impressive piece of craftsmanship!

First of all, it looks downright CLASSY. That's the best word for it. Ronn Dunnett and his team did a fine job on the design.

Here's the picture from the eBay listing. It does not do the drum justice.

And the sound? We checked it out with no less than four professional drummer buddies of mine, and we were all blown away by the punch. For a 5.5 this puppy has some serious low end, even with a simple Ambassador at medium tuning. Ronn Dunnett confirmed that some of the extra low-end comes from the thin shell (though interestingly he doesn't advertise the exact thickness of the shell). Anyway, the 6.5 must be really something! They say Bronze is warm, and this drum is no exception. It has an absolutely pleasant and characteristic tone that I can't capture in words. I'll add some sound clips when I can!

UPDATE: Here are some samples!




One thing that impressed me is that the Indy really seems to stay in tune. I hit pretty hard, and tend to hit a lot of rim shots. Some of my other snares tend to get floppy and sloppy as the set progresses. But the Indy did well in its debut gig. I kept checking it and only needed to make a few minor adjustments as we moved along. Big bonus!

When I ordered the drum I did some research and found that it's not exactly "Made in Canada"... rather assembled in Canada, if you know what I mean. But now that I've held it in my hands and heard it, I could care less if parts came from Taiwan or wherever. It's just a fine drum. Period.

If you see one of these, grab it.  Really fantastic!