How to wisely upgrade a cheapo drum kit for recording?

[SoundChances]

For tuning and a bunch of other stuff, like drum head info, go here --> http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/

[mig27]

thx mate.

[mig27]

Hey I just surfed to the site.
Awesome stuff!

many thx !!


Michael

[SoundChances]

Yeah, tons of good info in there.
I hadn't tuned a drumkit in over 10 years and that site got me back up to speed real quick when I hauled off and bought my Gretsch last year.

You said you're happy with your snare, but you might want to consider putting some after market snare wires on there. I recently put some PureSounds on my snare and it's like a whole new drum!

[against88]

What kind of skins shall I get to upgrade the toms?

well it all depends on what kind of sound you want. if you want something more controlled, and something that will be forgiving of imperfect tuning, maybe some 2 ply coated heads. more control you could go with a hydraulic (remo pinstripe or evans hydraulic). maybe stick with evans because the coating wears away much slower than remo (good if you don't plan on changing heads anytime soon)

Are there any other accessories that you can recommend?

some people use moongel to muffle their drums, but i usually just use gaff tape.

How do I have to tune the drums? (Maybe a link?)

you're all set with prof sound!


gooooood luck!
-will

[chuckj]

A custom drum builder friend of mine suggested I buy some rim isolation mounts by Gibraltar for my two rack toms on my less than stellar studio kit and it made the toms sound soooooo much better. I think they were about 20 bucks each. Another five bucks for some Moon Gel and you have a cheap and cheerful possible solution to improving your tom sound.

[Blueflame]

Originally Posted by chuckj

A custom drum builder friend of mine suggested I buy some rim isolation mounts by Gibraltar for my two rack toms on my less than stellar studio kit and it made the toms sound soooooo much better. I think they were about 20 bucks each. Another five bucks for some Moon Gel and you have a cheap and cheerful possible solution to improving your tom sound.

RIMS or any isolation mounting system will make a huge difference in your sound, and Moon Gels are great for quick muffling on an as needed basis, especially if you're experimenting (I've always hated tape on my drums). And cheap drums can sound as good as the most expensive kit on earth. (Actually, what I should say is that the most expensive kit on earth can still sound like shit if it's not tuned well). BUT - your drums will most likely sound horrible no matter what you do to them if the bearing edges are corrupt. You can send the drums to any number of good places to get the edges done for about $25.00 a side. It would be money very well spent if you need it done.

There's also a dvd by Bob Gatzen that deals pretty well with drum tuning for non-drummers and beginners. Good luck with it.

[dale116dot7]

I got the same problem. But after looking carefully at the toms, we found that they just could not be tuned. The bearing edges are not true, and the shells are warped. The best that we could do with these toms was take off the bottom skins, tune everything lower than it really should be (so that the skins are not really determining much of the sound), and trying to arrange the songs with minimal tom work, and hope for the best. We did replace the ride, crash, and hat with Sabian and Pearl (about $700), and that made the sound not too bad. Actually, pretty decent. Until you hit the toms.

I've also found on these kits, the live snare sound is acceptable but I've found that these kits sometimes have a funny ring about them that an SM57 really doesn't like. For these kits I like to use a C451B as a snare mic, as it sounds more like a snare to me. I find using a 57 makes for a separation in the snare sound - the snare wires are coming in from the overheads and the whack comes from the 57 but they don't seem to gel on this kit like they do on 'nice' drum kits. Even moving the overheads around doesn't really help much. I try to get a good balance of 'whack' and snare wire sound with just the one mic.

[BevvyB]

Speak up Emre!!!

He's gotta have something to say about it!

Bev