I really need some drum setup tips.

Blankso

Senior Member
I could never get my drums set up comfortable. I know there arent any rules when It comes to setting your equipment up but what some tips you would recommenced?
There are always seems to be obstacles.
 
The key to a comfortable set up is placing the drums as close as possible to where your body would naturally reach for them.

I always start by making sure my seat height is comfortable. I find I'm at my most relaxed and comfortable when the tops of my legs are just about parallel to the floor. Sitting too low or too high doesn't give your body correct support, and you'll always be instinctively adjusting to correct for that lack of balance, and it can throw off everything else you do around the kit.

Then I try to place my bass drum and hi hat pedals according to where my feet naturally rest.

Next would come the snare drum, finding a good height and angle that makes rimshots easy to play and doesn't require me to drop my arms too far to get to the drum.

For tom and cymbal placement I often airdrum a little bit just to get an idea where my arms naturally reach to hit, and try to place things as close to that ideal location as possible.

You want to be as relaxed as possible, and the the key to that is to set the drums and cymbals up around you, not force your body to accommodate a mental image of how you think your drums should look.
 
I've only been playing for about 3-4 months and I'm constantly tweaking my setup, I don't think it's ever 100% perfect, but then again I'm still fairly new to this.
 
There will always be a compromise when setting up your kit.
For me, the ride, bass, snare, and hats have to be perfect.
Everything else I just deal with the best that I can. LOL
I have been playing since 1970 and thats the best advice that I have.
 
I try to set my kits up to be played as comfortable as possible. Everything is easily reached without having to go around cymbals to reach other cymbals and drums. The only time I have to twist my body just a bit is when playing my 16" floor toms. Keeping everything as close together as possible does create other problems when I have to mic my kit though, but this is very minor to the ease of playability of the kits. I also play a majority of the time with the tradition grip and this too can create a very slight problem when the hats are a bit too close to the small rack toms.

Below are the three basic configurations I use.

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Dennis
 
Experiment. I started off with a basic 5 peice, moved to 5 peice with the toms left offset, with one either side of the snare. Then with the hats in front of the snare with a rack and a floor on either side. Then moved to a Neil Peart-esque kit set up. Then a four peice. Currently messing round with using my rack tom mounts to hold up my 16" floor tom in gong tom position. Mess round with your set-up, I've played all these set ups in my short year and a half of drumming, and changing set ups is fun as hell.
 
Simplicity and your natural body movement should dictate your gear setup at first.

Start with the Holy Trinity of drumkit gear; Snare drum, Kick drum, Hihats. Remove EVERYTHING from your drumming spot and set up just those three pieces. Set them up so that you have the most natural, comfortable playing position with them. Once you get there, add one drum or cymbal at a time, and in the order of it's priority, until you have everything where it feels comfortable.

If it doesn't look quite right after you've done that, don't worry. Play your kit for a day or two and think about what improvements you could make to it. Once you've got everything where it feels proper, than you will be able to adjust your gear so that it matches your aesthetics ideal and still play comfortably.

You do not have to play all 6 drums if you have a 6 piece kit. Set a couple aside if you need to, atleast until you get your mind wrapped around a smaller kit.
 
If you can't get it to set up to where you are comfortable playing, then maybe you shouldn't be playing drums. It's not that hard.
 
There really is no solid advice i can offer lol, make sure your posture is comfortable for extended periods of playing.....other than that, im guilty of totally moving around my set once or twice a month.
 
I'm with the crowd that say stool and snare height are the first two things you wanna sort.

If you're a gigging drummer that's kit sharing a lot, I wouldn't get too fussy about the rest of your kit being perfectly setup each practice. The best interview I saw, (for me as the most fussy person on Earth), before I started gigging was with a couple of touring drummers who said they often had to kit share on tours for financial reasons - and the way they prepared themselves for that was by setting their kits up really quickly/awkwardly for practices before the tour to get used to not being 100% comfortable because you don't have enough time in band changeover to get 100% and you don't know what the kit at the venue will be like.
 
I could never get my drums set up comfortable. I know there arent any rules when It comes to setting your equipment up but what some tips you would recommenced?
There are always seems to be obstacles.
i set up my throne first at my comfy height.. then setup the snare lower than my knees, and tilt it a bit towards me..
 
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Place your throne somewhere, then place the bas drum in front of you right foot, and the hats in front of you left ( Vica versa if you're a lefty ) Okay.

The snare drum, placeed between your legs. The height of the chair, shoulden't be too low or too high, mess with that until it feels right. Usually when they a little above paralel to the floor. Lower means that you can't move your foot that much because it's cranked up.

Place the floor tom to your right, and the racktom(s) on the bass drum mount or stand.
At this point you want to be sure that you can reach everything with your bare hands. If not you will get exhausted very easily.

The ride cymbal is usually to the right, but i have seen people putting them anywhere, and also having multiple ride cymbals in both the left and right side. The crash/splash or anything like that, is usually placed to the left, but again. Can be placed anywhere.

Gongs are placed to the very right of you or behind you - that's what i've seen.

A cowbell HAHA, is mounted to the bass. - i have no cowbell.

Hope it helped - elseways i've been wasting my time :)
 
Btw, my snare is tipped against my crutch so the left hand can hit rimshots easily while also being able to make fast diddles, triblets, doubles....
 
Simplicity and your natural body movement should dictate your gear setup at first.

Start with the Holy Trinity of drumkit gear; Snare drum, Kick drum, Hihats. Remove EVERYTHING from your drumming spot and set up just those three pieces. Set them up so that you have the most natural, comfortable playing position with them. Once you get there, add one drum or cymbal at a time, and in the order of it's priority, until you have everything where it feels comfortable.

Agreed. This is good advice and a great approach.
 
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