For the guys that wanted tips on Benny's sound...
He tunes up higher than you might think...MUCH higher. In a lot of his videos his drums sound very warm, resonant, deep, etc... Its because of the Coated Emperor over Coated Ambassador combination. The lack of bright overtones that can cause some boingy tones can are canceled out by the Coated Ambassadors as resonant heads.
Tuning the kit with Benny taught me something. He doesn't fuss like crazy about his tuning like we all talk about here. He gets a nice tight feel on the Coated Emperors for rebound, pitched to a medium-tight, then goes slightly higher up on the resonant heads. Not so close in pitch that would cause phase cancellation, but enough to create a decent pitch bend and resonance.
He doesn't worry about intervals between the top or bottom or between drum to drum.
Because he uses 10, 14, 16, he naturally gets great tonal separation. The 10 and 14 usually always end up sounding like a perfect octave apart. The 16 usually ends up a 3rd or 4th apart. Again, he doesn't worry about them, but this information was simply my observation.
I can't really give you tuning technique pointers or tips on how he did it. Like I said before...He doesn't fuss about it at all. The only thing he was really particular about was the snare. He took a 13x7 Special Edition which use Force 3007 shells. He tuned the snare side up, loosened the snares until almost rattle point, took the batter quite far down and used some tape on the batter. He gets a nice full bodied pop this way.
The setup on the snares were Coated Ambassadors over Ambassador Snare Sides.
It isn't as dry as you might think. Benny Greb uses Coated Emperors over Coated Ambassadors with a killer full sound.
His last clinic here I had to put on his required heads on a Force 3007 kit. I tuned it up along side with Benny and the sound was killer. I actually just recently played that kit for a show because I couldn't get access to my Yamaha MCAN.
It is super full, warm, more resonant that most would think and the attack is wonderful.
Benny Greb recently has been using Coated Emperors over Coated Ambassadors on his toms.
Here is something I typed up on an other forum about when I had to tech Benny's Force 3007 kit at his clinic here back in July. It was a FUN experience working side-by-side with Benny getting the kit setup and tuned to his liking.
My question is if I do the coated over coated heads then should I do the 2-ply or 1-ply heads as batters?
Hmm...
In most cases you don't want to use 2-plies as resos unless you want to kill the sound of the drum.
Oh I know I meant that if I use coated ambassadors as resos, would I put Emperors or Ambassadors as my batter head?
I'm thinking Ambassadors.
Why not try one of each on the same drum, say, a 12" tom? It's impossible to predict which you'll like.
Nothing wrong at all using coated single ply heads as reso's, it will warm the drum up some. 2 ply reso's? never experimented with them but I use the G plus clear single ply 12 mill head and it makes for a slightly longer sustain, which I prefer over clear G1's or clear Ambassadors.
Would using a coated G Plus as a reso increase the sustain because of the thicker head and despite the fact the coating is frosty (I think) would it keep the drum warmer than if I had used clear resos?
The G-plus definitely will increase sustain compared with 10mil resos--I do it myself on some drums. First though, try tuning both heads to the same pitch (if you don't already), that how you get the most sustain.
To my ear the Evans frosty coating just can't suck enough. At least as resos you wouldn't get that ultra-plasticky attack you get from using them as batters. But I don't find them to make the sound warmer compared to clears, just deader.