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I'm a great fan of classic 70s songwriting and the albums that came with it, including Lennon, Nilsson, Chapin, etc. and have always wanted to be able to create the drum sounds of the era for my own singer-songwriter productions.
Two weeks ago a dream came true: I bought an original 70s maple Tama Superstar with concert toms (i.e. no resonator heads) for peanuts that had been sitting in someone's garage for a long time - it still had the original factory-fitted black-dot Tama-labelled heads on every single drum!
I've been cleaning and restoring it since I got it, and yesterday was the first opportunity to set it up, put new heads on and test-record it. I had a ball!!!
I put Evans Hydraulic heads on the toms - these are 2-ply skins filled with oil, originally invented in the 70s to replace the tissues and duct tape. I still had to muffle them a bit, because they give a loooong ring. No overtones, just attack and boom. It sounds very uninspiring in the room, but once you stick a mic up a tom's shell you get THAT sound! Of course, the 24"x14" bass drum doesn't have a resonator head on, either, and my Ludwig Supra Sonic snare is muffled by means of a packet of Lucky Strikes!
Now I know why most drummers don't like "dead" drums: While you're hearing your drums "live", everything just goes "blat blat", but wait until you've heard it recorded! Spectacular (if you like 70s drum sounds, that is...)!!! Instant Bob Marley, Carpenters, Lou Reed, even early Elvis Costello.
I'm not really a drummer by trade and tend to play quite soft, which seems to give me exactly the sound I've been lusting for for years. Excellent!!!
Now I really want to get my studio construction finished....
Cheers,
Recky
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