Knox,
That's absolutely correct. DW's "basic" if you will shell sizes are what they call "fast tom" sizes. Kinda in between traditional and power tom sizes. A good example would be for rack toms a traditional size would be 8x12 where as what was considered a power tom (popular in the eighties) would be 10x12 or 12x12!
DW's fast tom size is a 12x9. (As you might have gathered, this is for a 12' diameter drum). Anyway, my tom sizes are as follows;
8x10
9x12
11x14 (floor tom)
13x16 (floor tom)
And yes, I do find that the shallower floor tom depths give me much more control over the sound and are a helluva lot easier to tune!
And speaking of tuning drums, I HIGHLY recommend the DrumDial. Its basicly a very accurate tensionometer for checking that you have even tension at each lug on the drum head. The cool thing about this device is tha once you have a good sound out of your drums, check the tension on each lug (top AND bottom heads) and write it down. The next time you change heads, after you make certain they're seated properly you tune EACH lug to the average tension you previously noted and your drum is there!!!(Provided you use the same type of heads, that is) When I firstsaw this thing I thought it was just another drummers toy, but I'll share one of my experiences;
December, midwest, cold as **** and I've got the flu. Stiffy head, ears plugged up, I can't hear a damn thing. I get a call for a session, and unfortunately we don't have the Drum Doctors in K.C.(Miss those guys, used them all the time in LA) Anyway, Ichange my heads on all my drums, seat them, and tune the with the DrumDial. Stretch, stretch, and retune. Mind you, I can't hear pitch to save my soul. I do the session and my drums sounded amazing!
heh
Anyway, sorry for the long winded post, but I hope this info helps all who are looking at kits, and definitely check out the DrumDial!
http://drumdial.com/
TommyD