Aquarian Performance 2's or Response 2's (live unmiced gigs)?

Powerpito

Junior Member
I'm torn between the Aquarian Performance 2's and Response 2's for my kit that I will be using for live unmiced gigs. Can anyone help me out?
 
Unless you are doing hard pound R&R, Response 2 would be my choice as well.
 
"Probably" Response 2's...

I say "probably" because I am trying out a Performance 2 now on a 12" tom and it's a little too "dead" for me. i.e.-like a Pinstripe. Which is exactly what it is supposed to sound like as it has a control "ring" around it similar to a Pinstripe.

I wanted to try a Response 2 but they only had the Performance 2 where I went.

For a live unmic'd situation you probably want something with less "control" and more sustain....
 
Picked up a set of Performance 2's for my 10/12/14/16 kit, and I agree that I don't quite love them on the smaller toms, but they're really nice on the floor toms.

After trying a lot of different heads I'm moving toward using gradually thicker heads as the drum size increases. So I'd probably try either a Classic Clear or Super 2 on the 10" tom, a Response 2 on the 12" tom, and save the Performance 2's for floor toms.
 
Response 2 gets a nice slappy attack like emperors. Haven't tried supers but on paper they remind me of pinstripes too.
 
I played my Response 2 on a steel snare with a 50-some people band. Later on, I couldn't hear myself play on the recorder.
 
I tried performance-2's on a maple set with deep power toms and it cut the ring nicely.

I have a birch set 10,12,16,22 that I gig with and found the coated response-2's let enough sustain come through that we don't have to mic them for small rooms. The coated response-2's give a warm full sound. I had tried super-2's , but the heads got dented rather quickly.

best choice may depend on the type of set- birch has less sustain than maple all things equal.
 
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