Your posts have been very enlightening. Nice to know that the studio usually takes care of your shells and you just bring cymbals, 2 or 3 snares, and my pedals with a couple different choices of beaters. Wish that a 2-up 2-down set wasn't thought of so much as a minimum carry to sessions where drums aren't provided, but I suppose I wanted the choice of a couple bigger and smaller toms anyway. But at least the larger Neil Peart sets seem to be a thing that rarely applies in sessions unless it's your own band, and even then it's not all that appreciated in the studio. I love looking at them but I have zero desire to surround myself in drums and cymbals whatsoever. And a gong is right out!
Going to be a while before I ever get to a level where I'll need to worry about it, but I certainly don't ever want to come off as less than pro on anything I do. I'm pleased to see I won't need to spend $3000 on a set, either. I'm also pleased to say that after a month of solid practicing at least 1-3 hours a day, I'm starting to get my consistency and flow on the good foot again. Still hitting those pesky rims, but I can even do moderately difficult fills again. Even double bass is starting to come around, despite only being a single pedal player in my previous life.
I know this thread is putting the cart way before the horse, but as quick as I seem to be progressing, I have a feeling that I can get good enough again in a relatively short time. Remains to be seen, though...I'm sure I'll have a few stallouts where I get worse before I get better, and I'm not taking anything for granted. But I can't afford to sully my good reputation on bass and guitar that I worked so hard to build by playing crappy drums crappy