Low End Drumkit, High End Sound?

[BigJunk]

Are there any cheap drum kits under a thousand that actually record well? We're getting a house and it will have a big entry hall so I figure it'll serve as a cool drum room. I know there are a lot of cheap drums out there but do any of them sound good to record?
Junk

[lpkyer]

PDP, Gretsch catalina... all great drums. Dont be shy to swap the heads though !

[PoorGlory]

+1 for DW Pacific. Even their extremely low end model can sound good with quality heads. Way better than the low end Pearl and Tama counterparts.

[Stevil]

we've got a tama swingstar @ the haus. it sounds great when someone takes the time to tune it & theres a solid drummer playing it. sound seems to improve every time i pick up a new mic or improve signal path.

[bigbone]

DW Pacific..and change the head, put some coated emperor.......great tone....

[nandoanalog]

good heads + good drummer = good sound no matter how good the kit is.

[dlmorley]

I have a Sonor sonic plus birch kit that cost me $500 off ebay. Last of the mid priced German made kits and I think it sounds excellent (when someone else plays it!)

[chetatkinsdiet]

There are so many used Rogers or Ludwig kits that can be had for around $500 that would make killer studio kits. Take your pick.

m

[pan]

Tune it right!

[joeq]

Originally Posted by chetatkinsdiet

There are so many used Rogers or Ludwig kits that can be had for around $500 that would make killer studio kits. Take your pick.

m

absolutely! in the Old Days, the major manufacturers did not MAKE "budget" kits. Those 'standard' drums are the equivalent of today's 'deluxe' sets.


these sets go for cheap because

1 people don't know what they have. Junior gave up the drums 15 years ago and now that he is a lawyer on Wall Street, mom and dad are selling the kit

2 the kit has some blemishes or fading on the finish- on stage, that might be a disadvantage, but in a studio kit, that just adds cool.

[RoundBadge]

Ebay is your friend ..
for $600-1400.00 you can find great old ludwig 3 ply maple kits[think Bonham,etc] that will record way better than the newer PDP type stuff..
..a lot of the newer budget stuff uses green wood[younger trees]..giving a lot of attack,but a brighter harder/louder sound..[not necessarlly the best thing for recording]
the old stuff has been sitting around for years[hopefully in a dry space]and is usually a mix of wood ply's[maple;poplar.mahogany,etc]=nice round warm/punchy tone[mics likee]

Theres a reason guys like Matt Sorum,Chad Smith,etc often use the older shit in the studio..
..because it sounds good.
And no, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to get a great sounding recording kit.

[chetatkinsdiet]

i just posted this link to another thread.....someone please buy this kit...I don't need another. Unless it's just totally trashed, which it doesn't appear to be from the pics, $350 is a steal on these drums.

Music Go Round - Inventory Details

These Big R Rogers are KILLER. It's the same shells as the earlier drums with the newer, heavy hardware that's great.

m

[metaldrummer]

+1 to DW pacific, the FX series looks good for budget/recording.

[Blindside]

the Maple Pacifics record incredibly well! Insane value.

[BigJunk]

So in LA there are a lot of musicians, many who need to pay rent and are broke. I'm pretty much one of them. Anyway, I found another one but this guy had a Pearl Masters Maple kit and needed to sell it to pay his July rent. Don't cry, but I gave him 600 cash and got the whole 5 piece kit. Yes you read that right.

My roomate and I are micing it up each day in different ways and having fun experimenting with getting sounds. Thanks for all the suggestions, I went to GC and looked at a lot of them. Now I just need to finalize some real good overheads so I'm off to gearslutz searchville.

Junk

[nandoanalog]

Nice. I have one of those in my bedroom for practice. Nice kit. And for 600$.... It`s a steal....

[mattasbob]

Pop anther plus for the Pacifics, I got em dirt cheap, and everyone loves then, great kick drum, toms are solid. The snare is the only question mark on it.

[Chapiro]

Another vote here for pacifics. I have an LX and couldt wait to record it. I did a session with it the other day and the snare was mediocre but was impressed with the kik and the toms. so i went and bought a 5X14 DW maple snare and the whole thing sounds great now. great deal for the price!!

[Dr Rubberfunk]

Originally Posted by chetatkinsdiet

i just posted this link to another thread.....someone please buy this kit...I don't need another. Unless it's just totally trashed, which it doesn't appear to be from the pics, $350 is a steal on these drums.

Music Go Round - Inventory Details

These Big R Rogers are KILLER. It's the same shells as the earlier drums with the newer, heavy hardware that's great.

m

Crivens! It's only $279 now! How I wish such Rogers kits littered the used drum stores of the UK for such low £$£
Still, we get our fair share of great old Premier gear for nice prices, but those prices are rising fast these days ...

[james.ca]

Youbet
Drums a lot has to do with tuning them if the shells harware will hold a tuning your in .
Lot of real nice entre kits now out there with decent shells the hardware so -so but if' it's not being moved and looked after the kit should do fine.
Drum s are one of the bitcher things to tune & mic up in a studio A lot of studios just keep an in house kit and let the drumers bring in there thown snare and cymblas to use
.
What comes out of the drum and what's recorded can be 2 different things. as well.
It's also a lot to do with the producer/engineer and where he/she wants to place the drums in the over all picture of the recoding to match up to what style of music your doing as well.
The one huge plus now is having a huge choise in drum heads that you can try out as well to match up to your kit or your own sound choice as well.
Good hunting on a kit
James





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[spjessop]

The Mapex Pro M with professional heads top and bottom are excellent drums. Great edges.

[biggator6]

You mentioned the maple PDPs.. I assume the MX series - has anyone tried the MXR (the larger 'rock' sized drums) with the 24" kick? I'm very interested in this kit (also plan to replace my kick-myself-for-selling early 60's Rogers kit.. but later.

[gibsonlp75]

+1 for the pacifics!

also, yamaha stage customs sound amazing and are only $650-ish!! definitely consider this kit!

[Superdrumskills]

Mapex sound great! they are in my opinion the most bang for the least amount of buck. I just bought one for my studio sound great!