Gavin Harrison here!

Gavin Harrison said:
I think I have had 6 Sonor sets in my possession in the last twenty years (and I have probably played another 60 or 70 sets worldwide at drum clinics etc). Sometimes they have been Birch or Maple or Beech with every type of shell thickness they offer. I have never played a bad one. They are just really well made drums. I don't think you can really go wrong. Personally I prefer 8x7, 10x8, 12x9, 15x13, 18x15 and a 22x17. I have played lots of other sizes. I struggle a little bit with very long or very short toms - they just don't suit the sound I try to get. Remember that most of the sound is you. The way you strike the drum is really a huge part. The heads you choose and the way tune is also a big thing. The last set I had made was all Birch medium shells for the toms and heavy shell for the bass drum. I also have a maple kit with identical sizes and shell thickness - it's almost impossible to choose one over the other.


Unfortunately that job comes down to me. I'd rather not be distracted with it - but someone has to do it. I run Logic Pro on a MacBook Air. Every song is just a block of audio in one huge 3 hour arrangement page. In other words - I don't have 21 different Logic songs open at the same time - I think that would be prone to crashing.

Regarding your question: "Will AI take our jobs"?
Well it already happened in 1980 with the Linn Drum LM1 - and continues to this day with drum machines - or drum programming - especially with pop music where quite often a dead straight beat without a lot of variation is what's wanted. I don't hear that much in genres like progressive rock or jazz.

cheers
Gavin
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Thank you Gavin! I use Logic exactly the same way when playing live.

- Do you send timecode or some other protocol to FOH to sync videos with the audio playback? How is video being run?
- Did you at any point experiment with sending bunch of Aux's instead of Stereo Out to FOH for playback (for more control over the sound)?

Thank you very much for answering and your insight.
 
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Gavin,

Have you ever had to deal with a foot injury, such as Achilles tendon pain? I woke up the other morning with my Achilles inflamed to the point of being unable to walk. Now my foot is in a boot, doctor says I should be good in about 3 weeks for my next shows. Seems a bone spur on my heel is the culprit.
 
sahilsarin said:
- Do you send timecode or some other protocol to FOH to sync videos with the audio playback? How is video being run?
- Did you at any point experiment with sending bunch of Aux's instead of Stereo Out to FOH for playback (for more control over the sound)?
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Yes I send SMPTE code to the FOH lighting engineer. I know he has the films on a MacBook but I don't know which program he uses to receive the code and trigger the films. I have never sent more than a stereo mix to FOH. We try to keep any playback stuff to an absolute minimum.

psycle_1 said:
Have you ever had to deal with a foot injury, such as Achilles tendon pain? I woke up the other morning with my Achilles inflamed to the point of being unable to walk. Now my foot is in a boot, doctor says I should be good in about 3 weeks for my next shows. Seems a bone spur on my heel is the culprit.
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Sorry to hear about that. Luckily I have never had a foot injury that would stop me playing the drums. I sometimes get Tennis Elbow (Lateral Epicondylitis) and in fact I got it pretty bad in my right elbow during the Porcupine Tree tour last year.

cheers
Gavin
 
Have you ever had to deal with a foot injury, such as Achilles tendon pain? I woke up the other morning with my Achilles inflamed to the point of being unable to walk. Now my foot is in a boot, doctor says I should be good in about 3 weeks for my next shows. Seems a bone spur on my heel is the culprit.
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I didn't pursue double bass for long, but I do play with my weaker foot in every gig for a few minutes total time on a double pedal. An Iron Cobra or older DW5000 isn't much money.
I could get thru a gig with only my weak foot.
 
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Hi Gavin,

I hope you are doing well.

I have a question regarding your grip. I saw a video from a while ago showing how you hold your sticks but was wondering if you switch between German, French, and American for anything like your ride or hi hat playing?

Also, I know that there will be a Porcupine Tree live album next year but do you have any personal recordings coming out soon or any collaborations that you would like to share?

Thanks! Wish you the best...Dave
 
Hi Gavin, I noticed that for a long time now you have been using a different support for your custom bells. You might have some photos? Did you have it made on purpose or is it available on the market?
 
dave mc said:
I have a question regarding your grip. I saw a video from a while ago showing how you hold your sticks but was wondering if you switch between German, French, and American for anything like your ride or hi hat playing?
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Yes I think I switch between all three grips as I feel it. Some things just feel better with one of those grips - when I'm playing loud I don't use the French grip as there's more chance of me dropping a stick.
dave mc said:
Also, I know that there will be a Porcupine Tree live album next year but do you have any personal recordings coming out soon or any collaborations that you would like to share?
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There are some things in the pipeline that I can't mention yet - all will be revealed soon.

EneaSergi said:
I noticed that for a long time now you have been using a different support for your custom bells. You might have some photos? Did you have it made on purpose or is it available on the market?
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The one I have been using for the last few years I actually found on eBay. So I bought a few of them. Unfortunately that seller has now disappeared. I slightly customised it - so mine uses the small Sonor circular wing nuts (as the threads are 6mm) and I added some hi hat felts on it.
IMG_5578.jpgIMG_5577.jpg
cheers
Gavin
 
Hey Gavin!

Hope you're well - just wanted to swing by here and say how much I thoroughly enjoyed your set at the Zildjian show last night! Fun to see you just grooving to Babylon Sisters, and loved your intro into 50 Ways!

Hope it was just as good for you! A pleasure to see you play again 🙂

Best,
Alannah
 
Hi Gavin, thank you for the reply.

I am currently 16 years old, but since I was 4 my dad had bought me the DVD rhythmic visions. I remember precisely the wonderful sound of the splash. I think it's 6 inches. I've been trying to find a splash that sounds similar or at least that I like as much as that one. But I never found anything. Was it a particular splash? Do you own it and still use it?

Fantastic sound!IMG_20231018_144706.jpg
 
Gavin Harrison said:
The one I have been using for the last few years I actually found on eBay. So I bought a few of them. Unfortunately that seller has now disappeared. I slightly customised it - so mine uses the small Sonor circular wing nuts (as the threads are 6mm) and I added some hi hat felts on it.
View attachment 139791
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Found these on sale on Reverb for those that are interested: https://reverb.com/item/6473763-camber-quint-chime-holder-with-mounting-bracket-chrome
 
EneaSergi said:
It appears unavailable to me. I had already searched but unfortunately I can't find any resellers, I was satisfied with the homemade one. I want to use it less than usual since it's not my idea. I don't want to copy Gavin. Just take inspiration from musical ideas.

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Yup, not long after I posted that, it had sold. Sabian sold a rebranded version of it too, and it appears to have gone out of stock everywhere. I blame Gavin :ROFLMAO: he probably bought up the last stock.
 
EneaSergi said:
I am currently 16 years old, but since I was 4 my dad had bought me the DVD rhythmic visions. I remember precisely the wonderful sound of the splash. I think it's 6 inches. I've been trying to find a splash that sounds similar or at least that I like as much as that one. But I never found anything. Was it a particular splash? Do you own it and still use it?
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Yes it was just a regular Zildjian 6" splash and I don't believe I still have it - I think that DVD was recorded over 20 years ago.
alparrott said:
Yup, not long after I posted that, it had sold. Sabian sold a rebranded version of it too, and it appears to have gone out of stock everywhere. I blame Gavin :ROFLMAO: he probably bought up the last stock.
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Most likely my fault ! I have 4 of them. It's a shame they are no longer available.

Cheers
Gavin
 
Gavin Harrison said:
Most likely my fault ! I have 4 of them. It's a shame they are no longer available.

Cheers
Gavin
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<cough cough>> manufacturing opportunity for Gavin <<cough cough>>

Seems a lot of attention wanders to that suspension solution but would it be worth the efforts?
 
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Hi Gavin.

I've recently been seeing these cymbal holders(?) on your kit. I initially thought they might be under cymbal mic's, however they have no cable attached, so best that I can guess is they are some kind of isolator? I tried looking on Gibraltar's website, but I couldn't seem to find anything that looked like these. Could you please provide some insight into these additions to your hardware, and their purpose?

Thanks in advance!


GH Cymbal thing.PNG
 
Hi Gavin,

I have a bit of a strange question regarding bass drum technique. Have you ever experienced a feeling of lack of balance, particularly in your abdomen? I feel like when I'm practicing double bass drum ideas, naturally my hands will be in a playing position, and when I play heel up, it feels as though my body wants to fall forward. So to counter balance this "falling forward" - I tense up in my abdomen and it results in me not being able to comfortably relax and use the proper ankle motion / rebound to get clean double bass drum hits.

My question is - have you ever experienced a feeling of having to work on the balance of your body while playing double bass drum, rather than just strictly "double bass drum technique"? If so, (or even if not), do you have any advice on perhaps body/limb positioning to make the bass drum as easy as possible to play?

Cheers!
Tommy
 
tommycirillo said:
I have a bit of a strange question regarding bass drum technique. Have you ever experienced a feeling of lack of balance, particularly in your abdomen?
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I can't say that I have - but when it comes to bass drum technique I would mention that Jojo Mayer has released (I would say) the most comprehensive DVD about the subject. When I watched it it made me realise how little I have really thought about it. I think my bass drum technique has just evolved/mutated over many decades.
I do like to sit relatively low - lower than most drummers I see these days - I'm quite a long way back from the drums - and I probably lean back a bit when playing double pedal stuff to counter balance - but not to the point where I can feel it in my abdomen.
I do play everything heel up and my foot is placed halfway down the foot board. When I play fast doubles - it's almost a twitch. Some drummers I see play with their foot right up at the front of the foot board and have to make a much bigger movement to play a fast double. However it works very well for them - and I guess you should do 'whatever works for you'. I think my bass drum technique is really about comfort and trying to play single beats accurately - not specifically meant for double bass drum or speed.
As I have said before - I'm really not a double bass drum player - when you see guys like George Kollias or Derek Roddy - I'm a total beginner.

Cheers
Gavin
 
Hi Gavin, lately I've been coming across a project where they called me to record prog drums for 3 albums! It's going to be a long road! I started recording at home and noticed that I had a sound delay of 5 milliseconds in my in-ears. This thing bothers me a lot! I wanted to ask you how do you record at home? I don't think you have this latency in your headphones. I'm also using Logic and using a template that I mixed myself.I listen to the sound processed by Logic. And therefore, having also the buffer size set to 32, "the minimum" unfortunately arrives late. I tried the low latency mode.But unfortunately I disable the effects chain and "Auto Align" which has saved me his or a lot of times. Would you have any advice? How does your monitoring work?

I hope you can help me! Thanks in advance!

Enea Sergi
 
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