My drummer uses no bottom heads

We tried to record the other night. Horror show. So we have some sh|t drum tracks for reference and It's going to be a few till I finalize the guitar tracks, vocal tracks. I'm a nit picker. I'm not going to post anything till the vocals and guitars are 100% and ready for drums, but right now I'm too messed up to do anything, will be a few.
 
James, my deepest sympathy for your loss, I lost my mom 10 years ago, I know how you feel right now.
 
James, you have my condolences, this is a tough one. You are not alone. Many of us have been where you are. I'll say a prayer for you and your family. I'm sure your Mom would want you to live out your dreams so when you are ready please come back to the forum. We'll have more ideas to help you then. Tom
 
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Thanks guys, you cats are a helluva crew. Very nice group of guys, unlike most forums. I'm sorry I haven't had time to check in. I've been driving 3 hours a day for the past 3 days and then will be maxxed out getting all my moms financial crap in order. Might be a solid month or two till I'm able to get back to the music.

Sucks :(

Anyhow thanks for thinking of me.

Kevin James
 
Hope you cope with everything, dude - must be beyond tough.

Still - music is a great way to lose yourself and work out stuff. I look forward to seeing some progress and what the guys here can do for you.
 
Condolences and best wishes from Australia. For what it's worth, I will be praying for you and your family.


Just a note on this thread as a whole; this is why I love the Drummerworld community. I don't post often, but I lurk lots and while there are the occasional disagreements, the members here are really great people.
 
He's a mess. 10 percs a day for shoulder injury, always smoking weed, drinking beers. @ 55 I have no idea how he does it and gets up and works. Always a mess, always drinking and driving. I don't know how he can do it.

Haha.

Just wanted to add that being from MA, this is such a common thing. :-(
Percs and beehs kiiiid.

Then again I'm 23...

Yeah I think you'll be real happy with what folks on this forum can come up with!
Really dig the tunes by the way... just need someone to lay back and groove with you!
 
Hey Kevin, my advice would be the following:
1. Spend just 79$ into decent drumheads (see for example this drums heads pack). The one showed on the pictures are no doubt over-dead. It's like, you were trying to play guitar with strings played for over 20 years: would you?
There's nothing wrong with using pinstripe heads, but they need to be new (or they sound more precisely at their best after they've been played for like one week).
If the batter head is well tuned, a good sound engineer can get a hell of a sound out this old Slingerlands. These drums were, and are still amongst the best ever built, they can reach astronomical prices on ebay. And he seems to have nice cymbals (Zildjian A) and hardware (DW), so on this side there's not much to say.
2. Try to convince him to put resonant heads on his toms.
3. If he doesn't want to, well there's also nothing wrong with not using bottom heads! As other guys said here, it was even very popular back in time. Since you can insert the mics inside the toms, they capture the sound differently than from what is most commonly done today (a mic over the batter head plus ambiance microphones). Inside the tom, the mic gets the punch of the batter head plus some of its resonance, that you wouldn't get so distinctly outside the tom. It's a different sound (of course without all the sustain you would get when having a resonant head), old school, but in now way worst that's just a matter of taste. And I think it can suit very well to your style of music.
4. If this guy uses no bottom heads, he should then remove the bottom hoops, and even the bottom lugs out of his toms as it can generate some parasite noises.
5. Tune his snare. Generally, just applying some higher tension on the snare head helps. You can maybe borrow a drumdial to someone, it helps a lot.
6. The playing: He has some kind of feeling, but he's not in time!!! Try to make him play in the tempo, with the others. Also I noticed that he's inconsistent in the dynamics (heard some suddenly hard beaten crash of hi-hats when they shouldn't). By the way, very nice music.
7. Make a CD out this recording session, find gigs, and find eventually a new drummer.
 
Ok, been doing some sh*t lately. Gonna get the first tune to Larry to see what he can do. Chad, bass player is gonna upload the files to sugar sync, Larry I'll shoot you an email.

Here's another tune I threw together. I'm probably the first one on the planet to use distortion on the resonator. The drums are toon track. Sucks, I have no idea how to edit the piano roll and add fills and crap. Wish I did, but I don't have the time. I have to practice everyday or I go stale fast.

So Chad is adding bass to the tune tonight. This is the general direction we want to head in, some of the more acoustic country stuff on wood body guitar and this heavier stuff, which I love more than the lamer stuff for lack of better words.

Song kills me though, it's hillarious, I think. I love the farm stuff.

ACC for better quality
https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D168806_8768467_755046


MP3
https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D168806_8768467_755034

Tune is not mixed or finalized yet. I don't handle that, Chad does. But when he adds bass to it, it will sound cool and if you guys are interested I'll host the individual track files as well if anybody wants to add some real drums to it. I don't want to steal the thunder from Larry either but I got endless tunes. More than we can keep up with.
 
I apologize. I only read the first and last few comments of this forum. First, I must say that I’m sorry for your loss.

My favorite band released a live in concert CD/DVD combo in 2008. The concert took place in an auditorium, and the drummer was using what looked like a 7 piece DW drum set with a 14x8 Pearl Signature Vinnie Paul Snare Drum. Each tom didn’t have a resonant side head. All batter sides (snare and toms) were using Clear Remo Pinstripes. I think the batter side bass head was either a Clear Remo Pinstripe or a Clear Remo PS3, I’m not sure, also the reso side drumhead for the bass drum (yes, unlike the drums I’ve seen on this forum, this one had a reso side base head) looked like a common DW reso side bass head. Personally, I think the sound is great. What’s strange is that I’ve never seen that drummer play a set of drums like that before or after that concert. Usually he uses 5-7 piece DW drum sets (drums of which all have reso sides) and I think Aluminum or Stainless Steel DW Snare Drums with the same clear pinstripe batters. I’m just saying that the sound was great but then again he was using newer equipment and the whole thing was live in concert. Sorry for the long story.
 
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LOL, forgot I sent it. He went and bought new heads last week and I don't know if it helped much. He didn't use a drum dial or anything.

I sent him an email telling him what was up as well. The dry drum recordings weren't good. The beats were off, he doesn't practice except when it is time to record. I'm hearing stuff recording that I don't like, so I'm practicing non stop to correct it.

Anyhow, sent Larry a couple tunes.
 
LOL, forgot I sent it. He went and bought new heads last week and I don't know if it helped much. He didn't use a drum dial or anything.

I sent him an email telling him what was up as well. The dry drum recordings weren't good. The beats were off, he doesn't practice except when it is time to record. I'm hearing stuff recording that I don't like, so I'm practicing non stop to correct it.

Anyhow, sent Larry a couple tunes.

Probably for the best based on what you've said anyway.
 
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