My New Kit

First things first: My bad if there's already a thread called this in the HOD archives...

Anyway, I just got my new Pearl Masters Retrospec kit in the mail. It's gorgeous. It's a white marine pearl wrap with 16x20 BD, 8x10 and 9x12 toms, and 14x14 FT. It sounded great immediately out of the boxes, despite everything being tuned very low. I'm looking for the BD to achieve a sort of open, funky sound with nice clarity. What might you guys reccomend in the way of heads, tuning, etc?

You can go 1 of 2 ways on this.

Evans EQ3 on the batter side with a solid front head and a DW type pillow, front head tuned up abit and the batter side tuned to almost wrinkle point.

Or, you can use an Aqaurian super kic batter side and the same type sloid front head and pillow combination as above.
you can also use the super kic head and ignore having a pillow inside the drum, or as another batter choice, use an Aquarian Force1.

Hey Randy
I am also going for a more funky drum sound. Any thoughts here...

Current set-up: I have Evans g1's (reso) & g2's (batter) on toms (12" & 13") but only using the 12" and 16" FT now w/Powerstroke 3 on BD.

Changes: I've thought of trying the new Evans Hydros, but feel it might be too low even with tuning.
Or, Coated Ambassadors on batter of snare (upgrading to a 42-strand snare) and toms, keeping the PowerStroke 3 for the bass drum w/clear Diplomats on reso of snare.
Snare cranked tightly while the toms are a bit looser--with the bottom heads tuned slightly lower than the top heads to produce a subtle pitch bend effect.

Never worked with the Hydros so I am no help there.
As to the snare, 42 strand is a good choice, try not to tighten it too much for it WILL choke the drum out.
For toms, either a 2ply type head or a single ply with maybe a few small rolls of duct tape will acheive that sound. You don't have to drop the tuning of the bottom head to pitch bend, you can do it just by finding the right lug on the batter side and giving a slight turn counterclockwise.

Randy, thanks man! Everyone can always count on you for sound advice (pun intended.)

Well, don't thank me yet. First off I don't claim to know everything, like any student of an instrument we are always learning. What works for 1 person tuning MAY not work for the other. I highly recommend that every drummer get to know his or her gear, top to bottom and what each drum will sound like with different head types and tunings.
I can only describe what has worked for, my sound or the sound I strive for is an open sound like Simon Phillips with a punchy deep kic drum.

Trust me, Randy KNOWS how to get a killer drum sound. You should hear how he can make his 10" and 13" tom combination sound! I thought I was listening to 14" and 18" toms!!!!

Now Danny....................

Ok, here is a tune I did last week for an upcoming project of mine that I am doing with a guitar player friend.

First and foremost, this is a WORK in PROGRESS.......I am not happy with it and it's just a demo.

www.randywalker.com/Untitled.mp3

List of gear:
22x18 Ayotte kic
10" Yamaha hipgig jnr tom
13" Yamaha hipgig jnr floor
14" DW carbon fiber snare with wood hoops
18" A custom crash
22" Sabian Chester Thompson ride
14" Bosphorus Gold hats
D112 in kic
Micro D Audix on snare top
Audix D1 underneath snare
Audix micro D's on the toms
Studio Projects vacuum tube overheads

recorded in the entryhall of my friends house

Nice Randy...cool tune...ocean nights, warm breeze. I like your snare sound. Specs???

5x14 dw carbon fiber with wood hoops

I just thought I'd mention that I did not have good luck with the EQ3 system. It made the drum sound like an entry-level drum, and gave it a sort of "plasticky" tone...almost like a bouncing basketball. I found it took away some of the volume, depth and projection of the drum. It also did not have a very good feel to it--just seemed to kill the action of the beaters. Taking the extra muffling ring out did not seem to make much difference.

I've been using a clear Emporer for a while, and that's really given me a great sound--deep, dark, and full, but still retaining some punch. I still use the EQ3 front head (small hole from the factory, without the extra muffling ring). My "ideal" sound is somewhere between the Simon Phillips sound and a more "snug" late 70's/early 80's sound (e.g. Gadd, Porcaro, Chambers, Vinnie, etc.)

Both heads are tune just tight enough to get a tone out of them. The only muffling I'm using these days is a 22" Dave Weckl signature muffler against the batter head. Surprisingly, this minimal-muffling configuration doesn't really have that annoying upward pitch bend when you bury the beater.

Doesn't EVERYBODY have a Carbon Fiber DW snare?!?!? [img]eek.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img]