Super Drums

[Imelda Matchett]

okno responses , more info , im currently playing a set of Granstars, im just wondering if the GLX kit would be much of an up grade the dude selling them is comparing them to the masters MCX of today but i cant find anything to back that up , any help would be nice

That would be why -- before my time in retail. I would definitely PASS -- Pearl hardware in the 80s was not reliable, and as you can see from the link, no suspension mounts. I wouldn't care if the tom mounts were the Ludwig or Tama style with just a few screw mounts, but the big 7/8 hole of the Pearl arm has always bugged me when drilled into the shell.

I remember a neighbor/mentor of mine had a set of GLX drums. They didn't sound any different than the pearl World series I had. The only real difference was he actually had a fair amount of trouble with those quick detach lugs. They would rattle , rarely held tension for more than a set of music. He tried in vain to correct it with all sorts of "jimmy fixes" but ended up selling them because he said he couldn't be bothered trying to track down replacement lugs that were from other lines that had the same hole pattern. If the drums came with censoredty lugs, he said they had a curse and sent them packing.

The GLX has a six ply maple shell, with excellent hoops, quick release lugs that are made with solid brass parts (yes they were expensive) and superb hardware. Pearl built this exceptional kit to break into the US market of high end drums.

I talked with a Pearl representative in Japan several years ago. He told me that Pearl discontinued the GLX series because the production cost was too high and most buyers, at the time, were looking for a middle of the road, inexpensive set like Tama or Ludwig was offering.

Today, the closest kit to the GLX is the Pearl Masters Series and those come with a hefty price tag. If you can find a GLX kit that has been taken care of, and someone who is willing to part with it (I'm not), I highly recommend you buy it. You won't be sorry.

Ive got a kit from 1985 which I picked up in the early nineties.... I didnt want a metal snare so I had Schuh custom drums in Albequerque wrap a six play Kellar shell in matching Piano Black and use it with a Pearl free floater system with puresound snarewires

Ive had numerous sound guys complement me on the sound.... Ive now retired from touring so theyve been in their cases for a couple of years....if theres some cat out there who really has to have them and is prepared to make me a serious offer because they know what theyre worth and how they sound Im prepared to part with them..... the drums are currently located in Toronto Canada I can be contacted at 416-801-1776 or crisc...@gmail.com..... Crisco

A faithful reissue of the cult-classic released in 1979, the EHX Super Space Drum uses analog synthesis techniques to create mind-blowing sounds ranging from deep kicks to high toms to sci-fi drums. Trigger it from the built-in pushbutton or an external (non-MIDI) electronic drum pad. Pass external sounds through the gated amplifier via the aux input. The Super Space Drum lets you create, control and manipulate a stunning array of synthesized sounds.

This article covers exactly how I put together this mini electronic drum set. Hopefully it can help other drummers out there who are stuck needing to practice drums in a small apartment or similar space.

The combination works well: The HH65 pedal is a classic Yamaha hi-hat pedal that does everything you could need: Foot-splash, good sensitivity from open through to closed hi-hats, and sensitivity adjustment.

When playing drums in an apartment, the bass drum can sometimes be the cause of the most noise: The constant slamming of a hard beater into a hard rubber pad is difficult to avoid, and this energy is channeled directly into the floor (and therefore directly to any neighbours below).

These weight reductions are due to the unique construction and tensioning system, that is found in all Flint drums, which results in a truly suspended drum shell. Further weight reduction comes from the use of high-tech materials such as high grade aluminium, and surgical grade titanium.

Maybe someone can help me with a drum treatment. I'm trying to get a really tight, I guess dry drum sound, like what I hear on some recordings recently, in particular on recordings by a band called Pinback if you know them. If not try listening to Prog or X.I.Y =r06fa-20 ) and I think you'll hear it right away even though the quality is so low.

It sounds to me like regular acoustic drums, but processed somehow differently than I know how to do. Maybe it's all samples pre-processed somehow. Maybe they mic every drum separately, or stuff pillows in every drum shell, I dunno.

I typically record drums with snare, BD, and overhead mics, or I use a drum sampler with an acoustic sample set. This typically works out for more "live" sounding stuff, but for songs that need a more controlled or refined sound, they just sound too raw. Maybe too much shell ringing, or mic bleed, or maybe too much room coming through. On the Pinback stuff it sounds a bit like they're playing in a really super dead room then adding a little reverb for space.

FWIW; compression will make the drums more ringy rather than less - unless you have a moderate attack and release that's at least 200ms. Not too long or you risk missing the next hit (some compressors won't re-attack while they're releasing, some will).

Not compression, gating. But again, you have to be careful not to cut the tail too short otherwise it can sound very unnatural. Gates on the drums. High pass filters on the cymbals. All things in moderation of course.

i couldn't listen to the band yet, but my guess would be close micing every drum in a more or less dead room.

you could also try a combination of compression (with a long release) and transient shaping (spl transient designer, sonnox transmod, logic enveloper...), where you turn down the release of the sounds. this way you can get rid of the natural ambience of the drums.

It still isn't that really dry poppy sound, but I can live with it. I'm pretty sure you guys that said it's a gate thing are correct, though I'm still having a bit of trouble getting it to shut in a way that doesn't sound clipped.

What I did is use a sampler with a sample set that is basically just mic'ed and left acoustic sounding as I figured this is easier to experiment with and will be similar to a real kit when I get the chance to try that again with real equipment.

So, I put the BD, SD, HH, Toms, and overheads each on a separate channel, and gated all but the overheads & hat to close pretty quick, sent all of those to a stereo group channel and then compressed that pretty heavily to get a good pop, and figured the gate would deal with the ringing so the compressor didn't have a chance to add it back.

If a gate isn't working as well as you like, a downward expander might do the trick. A little tougher to get a hold of though. I don't know of one in Plugin form. Hardware is expensive. Drumagog(drum replacement) is always an easy solution.

I typically do snare (57), kick (52), and OHs (414s). Tom mics are nice if the drummer uses them ALOT. Can do w/o.

The placement of the OHs brings a lot of the room in. Sometimes bringing them in closer helps for me. Like hueseph said, placement, and directional. A cardioid pattern lessens the room impact, too.

Another thing to consider is parallel compression.

That is, creating an aux or fx channel with some heavy compression on it. Send the snare and kick to it in a good amount, less on the OHs. All to taste. Then bring that aux/fx channel up under the drums until you get the desired punch.

When I want a supertight drum sound, I'll gate all of the drums. I'll even compress and then gate overheads. But it's all a careful balance. Do it wrong and it sounds like Tinker toys being dropped on the floor. Do it right with some tasty EQ & compression and you'll know it's Miller Time.

Could you say more about this? I've never tried gating overheads. Of course, I've never been looking for a supertight drum sound with the stuff I record, but I might need it on an upcoming song. My plan was to mic the toms individually and gate those, but keep the overheads open.

I had Dominion and all of those Fishphones plugins but never really tried them out a whole lot. Dominion I couldn't get to help me much, but Floorfish worked great and even has some presets for specific drums I never noticed before. It worked a bit better than just the Dynamics VST that comes with Cubase, although that also works pretty well.

I think the trick with gating is to get the release tweaked just right so it cuts off in a musical way, not too abrupt I guess. I'm really surprised by how this can totally change the sound of the drum! It seems like it would sound the same, but just with a different envelope. It's pretty cool.

jimminy wrote:

I have to admit that I don't really know what a downward expander does, or how to dial it in ... I think the trick with gating is to get the release tweaked just right so it cuts off in a musical way, not too abrupt I guess.

There are actually 4 basic types of dynamics processing: what most people refer to as 'compression' is actually 'downwards compression' where the gain is turned down when the signal is above the threshold. You can also have upwards compression, where the gain is turned up when the signal is below the threshold. Both types of compression will reduce the dynamic range, but they do it from opposite directions.

Upwards expansion turns the gain up when the signal is above the threshold, while downwards expansion turns the gain down when the signal is below the threshold, so both types will increase the dynamic range.

So actually you could think of a noise gate as a special type of downwards expander: while a downwards expander will apply a variable amount of gain reduction which will depend how far the signal has dropped below the threshold, a gate will apply a fixed amount of gain reduction whenever the signal is below the threshold, and regardless of how far below the threshold the signal has dropped.

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