Drum Construction

[XNavyDrummer]

Just a few observations:

Many years ago drum hardware was really weak and generally poorly designed. Heavier music came around and the hardware had to be beefed up to keep the kit from falling apart. Next, someone realized that clamping the rack toms with heavy-duty hardware shortened the drum's ability to sustain a note. So, RIMS,YESS and other mounts came on the scene to overcome this. People started to run with this extended resonance idea and came up with no-wrap drums with low mass lugs. The idea was to get the shell really vibrating after the head was struck. My impression is that by doing this, some of the lows and mids were lost from these newer drums. About the same time (I think), drum mics came on the scene that emphasized (or over emphasized) the lows. In other words these mics (along with sub-woofers) sort of replaced the lows taken away by going with thin shells and very low mass hardware without wraps. Additionally, we have all this outboard gear to really fine tune the drums including noise gates that can keep all that sustain out of the mix. So, on many mixes, the drums with the thin shells and low mass hardware start to sound like the older drums with the wraps and the heavier hardware.

Is this correct? Am I missing something? What?s your impression?

[ladanny]

Well, I would say you're right, for certain types of music. All the gates, processing, etc. is mostly true for music that requires that type of drum sound. However, I think the "real" benefit of all the advances in drum construction is how the drums now sound more "natural" and organic.

Like a guitar, sometimes a plain nylon string with one mic is perfect, while other times, running the signal through a million Lexicon units is perfect...

Just my thoughts.