Tuning Roto Toms
Jake
Tuning sounds nice when I sanp by the lugs. Its just at the right Tonal
level I want, but when I hit it with the stick, I get paper bass sound. I
tried muffeling with Duct tape and kleenex, but I loose all the
characteristic timber of the roto tom. I think that maybe I am not
placing the tape in the right spots.
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(bad circle, but what the hell)
Where should I put the tape if at all??
Thanx for the help
Jake
MuffinHed
though you might think an 18" RotoTom should produce a nice low tone with
lots of low end, it won't. Not unless you stick a mic up to it. The only
way for a drum to produce nice low frequencies is to provide the head with
a shell. This is the same reason why woofers sound like crap if they
aren't in a cabinet (ever hear some guy's car stereo who has like 6x9's
*laying on* the rear deck?). Heck, even small RotoToms sound like crap if
they aren't miked properly.
So, if you're playing in a band that plays gigs, either use some real
toms, or mic each RotoTom (you might also need a compressor/limiter with a
gate for each RotoTom). Sorry to say it, but if you want good sound, those
are your choices (or electronics of course:).
BTW, I have 6", 10", and 12" RotoToms. I haven't used them in years. In
fact, I scrounged the rims from the 10" and 12" to use on something else.
Muff Armpit Studios VII
_____________________________________________________________________
Oh, I see you've got the random access memory.
--Some guy on Fantasy Island talking about a hand-held calculator.
Andrew Roberts
: Don't muffle RotoToms. They sound bad enough the way they are.
[snip]
: Heck, even small RotoToms sound like crap if they aren't
: So, if you're playing in a band that plays gigs, either use some real
: toms, or mic each RotoTom (you might also need a compressor/limiter with a
: gate for each RotoTom). Sorry to say it, but if you want good sound, those
: are your choices (or electronics of course:).
I can't say that I hate Roto's to the extent that Muff does, but I
can certainly agree that every time I've tried to used them as the
only tom's in my kit I've been unhappy with them. I usually find
that I enjoy having them as optional extras along with normal shelled
toms to do most of the fills.
Since I've only tried miking Roto's for one or two demos on a
four-track recorder, I can't really make vast comments about
miking them (although I wasn't too unhappy with the sound I got
using a single mike on a 6",8",10" set). Perhaps the point is that if
one is using them in addition to toms with shells, the RotoToms are
sort of sonic extra's, so you don't expect them to have any
major depth or resonance, but if they're the mainstay of your fills
you're going to find that they're a bit lacking in guts.
Does anyone out there actually like RotoToms greatly, or is the general
trend these-days against them?
Andrew Roberts
-mail to: and...@dennis.ee.up.ac.za
Dave Hanson
as my repercussionist. Rotos give him an inexpensive and versatile set
of 5 drums, that live, sound close enough to be timbales, plus,
when we do Santana and Chicago tunes, he can beat the snot out them, and mounted
on a Tama rack, they don't wobble. Now if I could only get him to use his
4th and 5th fingers to improve his technique......
Dave Hanson, GE CR&D, (518) 387-7460, han...@crd.ge.com
Stephen P. Walker
>trend these-days against them?
I've got a set of small roto-toms, and I view them just as you do. Kinda
like sonic extras. More like a little splash cymbal than a tom. But I
don't even keep them set up with my drum set anymore.
I read somewhere about someone (Stewart Copeland, Perhaps..) using a Roto-
Tom as a trigger. Great stick response, and almost no sound...
-Stephen Walker
sp...@cornell.edu
(Any other Ithacans reading this newsgroup?)
MuffinHed
RotoToms. I've just heard way too many drummers using them in place of or
along with real toms and thinking they sound good. Our last gig for
example, the drummer had a 12" RotoTom, 14" tom, 16" & 18" floor toms (all
toms had the bottom heads removed - bleah - and all four things had
maxipads stuck to them - double bleah). This is how his fills sounded:
ticka-ticka BOINKA-BOINKA BONGA-BONGA THUMPA-THUMPA
If he would use the RotoTom as a percussive accessory instead of as
another tom, then his fills would sound good (well, fairly good - he could
use a lesson or two in tuning:). This is bad RotoTom usage.
On the other hand, Terry Bozio used to use an entire set of RotoToms,
from 6" all the way down to 18" or maybe 20" if they make 'em that large.
But he knew how to tune them. He knew which heads worked best on them. And
he and/or his sound people knew how to mic and process them *correctly*.
They still sounded thin, like RotoToms do, but at least the sound was
*good*.
Jon Farris of INXS also used RotoToms. They sounded great - even better
than Terry's, IMO.
I just want to reiterate one thing: No matter what you're using for
equipment, don't assume it sounds good to the people in the audience or to
the people in the mixing booth just because it sounds good to you when
you're banging on them from a foot or two away. Find someone who can play
your equipment the way you do, then go out into the room or into the
mixing booth and listen. Your stuff will sound *entirely* different. Do
this when you buy equipment too, especially cymbals.
PalmCo
(MuffinHed) writes:
>On the other hand, Terry Bozio used to use an entire set of RotoToms,
>from 6" all the way down to 18" or maybe 20" if they make 'em that large.
>But he knew how to tune them. He knew which heads worked best on them.
>And
>he and/or his sound people knew how to mic and process them *correctly*.
>They still sounded thin, like RotoToms do, but at least the sound was
>*good*.
I remember reading an interview with him when he was doing that. He said
if you're playing in a big hall, in the end the important thing that the
mics pick up is the attack and the sound guy can eq in the rest. I guess
he changed his mind over time
Jo...@Palm.com
Hans Malm
...cut...
> Jon Farris of INXS also used RotoToms. They sounded great - even better
>than Terry's, IMO.
>
Is the fill in the beginning of "What you need" perhaps played on RotoToms ?
Hans Malm ~~^~~
Fatburs Kvarngata 30 | !!
S-118 64 STOCKHOLM Sweden | [___]
email: hans...@eua.ericsson.se | |
phone: +46 8 7201001 /|\ /|\
MuffinHed
(Hans Malm) writes:
>Is the fill in the beginning of "What you need" perhaps played on
RotoToms ?
I'm about 95% sure that he used RotoToms on that fill. Who knows, he's
been messing with electronics for so long, and using so many effects in
the studio, that it could be anything. But it does sound a LOT like his
RotoTom sound.