" All Things Loud " Jon Cohan's Drum Tech Site

Cavo at Water Music Hoboken, NJ

2011-07-06T22:58:00.004-04:00

Made it back to the fantabulous cavernous main tracking room at Water Music with producer Kato Khandwala to work on tracks for the band Cavo with drummer Chad La Roy. The studio is one of the biggest left in the NYC area and it is a real pleasure to track drums there, what with the resident Neve board and fantastic local pizza.

Looking at the pictures you can see that we used baffles or gobos to contain and corral the sound of the kit. This is common practice in recording studios. It helps balance what the room mics "hear" and by controlling some of the sound reflection the room doesn't get too overpowered by the volume of the drums.

How to Access The Fountain Of Youth!

2011-06-20T13:16:00.002-04:00

Check this out: Still drumming at 92!

Dropkick Murphys at Q Division - Somerville, MA Oct 20, 2010

2011-06-15T20:46:00.005-04:00

Old friends Dropkick Murphys pulled into Q Division back in October to record "Going Out In Style" with producer Ted Hutt. It was business as usual for us, this being my sixth record with the Boston-based Celt-rockers. Drummer Matt Kelly is one of the more idiosyncratic drummers I know, and as I've mentioned before, his style is grounded in drum corps playing and mixed with an exacting technical approach unique to punk rock. In other words he has his own voice and like the band itself, has spawned some imitators.

We used Matt's fine DW toms (with clear Emperors for a change) for the record but I brought in my Eames 20x15" kick out of retirement to give a quick, punchy attack to the drum sound.

One thing that is often overlooked at a session is the type of beater chosen for the kick drum pedal. The beater and head combination make a great impact (pun intended) on the drum sound, so I usually carry at least 10 different types of beaters in my toolbox and always encourage engineers and producers to explore the different sounds available from the different surfaces. On this particular session we settled on a Vater wood beater, but not before trying out three other beaters. I've really become attuned (yes!) to honing in on the right sound for the project, although in this age of computer editing and Sound Replacer, the sounds that are recorded are not necessarily the ones that end up on the record.

Catch Up Time

2011-06-15T19:46:00.006-04:00

Okay, so a lot of you have contacted me and asked "Hey Jon, what the hells is going on with the blog? Did you stop being a drum tech? Did your reality show American Drum Tech get picked up by the History Channel? Is it true a dog's mouth is cleaner than a human's mouth? What gives?" Ann Oy Ing - Parma, Ohio

There's no real excuse except that life has gotten busy and I've let my entries in the blog lapse for a bit. I'll do my best in the future to keep up. For now I'll throw a few pics at you of some of the myriad jobs I've worked on in the last 10 or so months.

From top down:

1. Jamie Perkins at House Of Loud for Miasha Fisher record

2. My 1960's Ludwigs with my 20x15" Eames bass drum onstage for a gig

3. Mark McCarthy of The Death Of Paris tracking at Scott Riebling's studio

4. Marc Cannata recording for Brittany Gray at The Outpost

So Long MoonGels, Good Riddance!

2011-05-24T15:20:00.004-04:00

Ringing in at an average of $5.00 - $8.00 a pack, using Moongels to dampen your drum's resonance can be an expensive proposition. As you can imagine, I use a lot of Moongels in the course of my duties as a drum tech I'm sure over the years I've spent a few hundred bucks on the little buggers. They always seem to go missing or lose their stickiness (and before I get e-mails from you guys, yes I know that they can be washed and re-used). It always seemed like a ridiculous amount of money to spend for very little product.

Drum guru John Aldridge recently showed me an inexpensive alternative to my costly Moongel habit. They are called gel clings and they're used by the general public as window decorations. I get mine at my local Target for $1.00 - $2.00 a package. Besides performing the exact same function as MoonGels at a fraction of the price, they are much more festive...

EXCLUSIVE Sneak Peak of Chad Smith's Drum Kit from the New Red Hot Chili Peppers Record

2010-10-17T19:52:00.008-04:00

Chad Smith sent me this exclusive photo of his Pearl kit (with DW kick drum) straight from the L.A. studio where the Red Hot Chili Peppers are recording their next record. You saw it here first!

Great Little Short Film For Those Of Us Who Love Drumming And Drums

2010-10-12T10:19:00.001-04:00

The Drummer from Bill Block on Vimeo.

Thanks to Dave Mattacks for turning me on to this.

Drum Heaven Limited Edition Shoes?

2010-10-10T18:12:00.008-04:00

I just wasted an hour online at Converse.com's hip Flash site designing my own two-of-a-kind Drum Heaven Limited Edition Ox Leather Chuck Taylor kicks. I made the shoes black (for formal gigs) with red trim (in honor of my red Eames drums). I like wearing Chucks when I play: I can feel the kick and hi-hat pedals better than with a heeled shoe, and it's the next best thing to playing barefoot. Some drummers enjoy using a heavier shoe - Buddy Rich famously wore boots when he played and from what I can tell it really didn't impede on his technique at all. ;-)

Vote on your favorite drumming shoe at the ballot on the right.

Follow this link to check out Drum Heaven Limited Edition Chuck Taylors on Converse.com.

John Aldridge - Drum Tech, Drum Engraver, Or Drum God?

2010-09-09T12:04:00.006-04:00

My good friend John Aldridge recently came through Boston in his role as drum tech for Bryan Hitt of REO Speedwagon. You may remember John from some of my earlier posts. He is America's premier drum engraver, having "scratched" drums for Ludwig, DW, Tama, Joyful Noise, and your's truly among many others. John was also at the forefront of the vintage drum craze - he founded Not So Modern Drummer magazine, the vintage drum bible for many of us drum geeks. Suffice to say, he has forgotten more about drums than most people know.

John has created yet another drumset masterpiece with Bryan and I had a chance to climb atop the riser and get a closeup look at the double bass drum Ludwig kit. Let's ask him how he put that bad boy together.

John writes:

Well, since you asked, the kit that you see in the pictures was the first one made with the Mint Oyster Sparkle finish. Bryan saw a swatch of the finish at the last NAMM show and ordered a kit on the spot. The configuration of the set is 10" 12", 14" 16" toms, all standard depth, 14X22 BD's, 10x22 Woofers, all with Ludwig Super Classic shells, and Keystone series hardware. It's not a stock, off the shelf kit in that the drums in the Keystone series have a different shell. The drums sound really good and I like the look of the new keystone lugs and brackets.
The rack is the result of an evolving concept that started a few years ago with Bryan's previous rack. I'm a big fan of racks and I had seen enough Gibraltar stuff to get an idea for a curved rack that would eliminate all the other hardware. When it came around to building a new rack, I suggested using rack tubing in curved sections instead of the cymbal stands with all the joints and angles in them. Bryan gave me enough rope to hang myself and here's the result. It's a fairly whimsical rack in that there are no right angles to be found. Even the side curves are at upswept angles to create the right positioning of each cymbal at the end of the vertical bars. All of the tubes used in the new rack were ordered in Gibraltar's longest size to insure consistency of the curves. After using two of these tubes for upright corners and two more for horizontal crossbars on each side, I cut sections and used Gibraltar's angle clamps, adaptor ends and t-legs to make it a homogenous looking rack with as little "non-rack" hardware as possible. With the exception of the cymbal tilters, which are all made by taking the boom arm off a Ludwig Mini-boom and cutting about half the tube off, the only non Gibraltar pieces on the racks are the mic stand adaptors and overhead booms.
The middle rack is a conglomeration using two one legged snare stands with t-legs added for stability on the front and back. Then the two are connected with another rack bar at the base of each "T". I then use rack clamps and mic stands attached to that bar to mike the top and bottom of the snare drum from below. All of this eliminates the need for visible mic stands on the kit. The tom mics clamp onto the hoops, and the bass drums and woofers are all miked internally.
Any Questions? Ask away. I can be reached at NSMDjohn@aol.com. And by the way, thanks for saying all that nice stuff about me Jon, but you still can't have my Radio King 24" bass.
Love ya!
Your twin brother from another mother
John Aldridge

During some downtime, John kept his engraving skills (and tools) sharp by scratching designs onto an aluminum water bottle. He also told me about an exciting new venture he will announce in the near future that will put all his substantial drum knowledge to good use. Stay tuned.

Click on the photo below to see more pics. Watch in "Slideshow" mode for the best view.

John Aldridge Comes To Boston

Take Your Drumset To Work and Other News

2010-09-09T10:57:00.004-04:00

It's about time for me to post some drum-related news, don't you think?

1) File this Under WTF!

2) Bonham Tribute In L.A. with Perkins, Aronoff, and... Bonham!

3) Feeling Obese? Try Drumming sez Clem Burke

4) Chickenfoot and Smith's Swansong Or Hiatus?

5) Slayer's Dave Lombardo Does Video Interview

6) Might Get A Little Cold In Siberia For Headhunter Mike Clark

Drum Head Changing and Tuning

2010-09-06T09:48:00.004-04:00

I've gotten a lot of e-mails from readers asking me about this, so I'm re-posting a link to a tutorial I did for my friends over at Vater Percussion - Drum Head Changing and Tuning

Richie Hayward 1946 -2010

2010-08-19T00:23:00.003-04:00

We lost the great Richie Hayward to liver cancer this week. Richie was one my earliest and most important drum influences. His talent, taste, and pocket were without peer. If you're not familiar with Richie's drumming you owe it to yourself to check it out. One of the best examples of his talent can be found on Little Feat's wonderful live record "Waiting For Columbus".

Here's his obit in the New York Times.

Drum Tech vs Local Stage Hand

2010-08-18T23:47:00.000-04:00

J. Geils Band @ Fenway Park - Boston, MA 8-14-10

2010-08-15T17:11:00.004-04:00

What a week! I started in New Jersey working on Cold's new record, then drove back up to Boston to work with The J. Geils Band on their gig with Aerosmith at Fenway Park in Boston. Drummer Marty Richards used his fine Pearl Masters Premium drums and Zildjian A Custom cymbals. Besides having the best seat in the house for the gig, I was able to wander through Fenway and sit in the Red Sox dugout and pretend I was in the major leagues. Some of us will never grow up!

Cold @ House Of Loud - Elmwood Park, NJ 8-10-10

2010-08-11T17:05:00.005-04:00

It's studio tan time down here at the House Of Loud in New Jersey working with drummer Sam McCandless and his bandmates in Cold. We're just tracking a few songs and Sam likes to keep it simple drum set-wise: kick, snare, rack, and floor, hi-hats, crash and a ride, so my job is easy. Even easier if you consider that mixing legend Dan Korneff got great sounds (before we even noticed he was trying to get sounds) and producer Kato Khandwala is sprinkling his hit-making magic dust on the proceedings.
The vinatge Gretsch bass drum "tunnel" is a new twist on an old studio trick. Instead of the common ploy of using just a headless shell to get a longer chamber (and hence a deeper sound)for the air to move through, I keep the batter head on the Gretsch, allowing it to take the original attack of the DW and use the older shell as a second resonator. For some reason this works better than a double-headed kick drum or just a shell used as a tunnel.

Time to Take In The Trash

2010-08-10T19:35:00.004-04:00

Twas' a cold day in April when I walked out of my front door and I spied a familiar shape in the trash pile in front of the middle school across the street. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a 26x14" Ludwig marching bass drum. Just by chance I was playing on a session the next day at Camp St. Studios with the After School Kids and the song called for a deep kick drum sound. Even more serendipitous was the fact that the wrap on the Ludwig almost matches my Fire Engine Red Eames tom-toms. Engineer Adam Taylor miked up the beat and got a great sound. On the last downbeat of the last take my bass drum beater broke through the old head.

Eksi Ekso @ Scott Riebling's Studio in Raynham, MA 3-23-10

2010-08-10T18:48:00.006-04:00

It's August and I'm just finally catching up with my blog posts. Thanks to all of you who lovingly busted my chops for not posting in awhile. Things have been relatively slow and I've been typically lazy but I haven't forgotten about you. I promise I'll call soon. The check's in the mail. There was a possible deal in the works for the blog to be sponsored by a drum-related company, but alas like so many ventures in this business of music, it fell through. That being said...

In March I spent a pleasant afternoon at my good friend Scott Riebling's excellent new studio in Raynham, MA while drummer Alex Mihm and his band Eksi Ekso recorded tracks for their upcoming opus. Alex and Scott had already sorted out most of the drum sounds by the time I arrived so my role was more of a straw boss or Monday morning quarterback than a drum tech. Alex posted an excellent entry on his blog here. The basic kit was Scott's Tama Starclassic augmented by many snare drums including Alex's 14x6.5" Ludwig Supraphonic, Scott's Noble and Cooley Alloy snare as well as his Yamaha 6.5" and 5.5 " Manu Katche drums, and my Raw Brass and Pearl Sensitone snares.

Thanks to Alex for the pic of him playing. What a stud.

Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless @ Water Music, Hoboken, NJ

2010-03-18T15:05:00.006-04:00

It's time for Round 2 of the sessions that will become the new release by Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless on Innerscope Records, this time at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ. It's the old gang of Taylor, producer Kato Khandwala, guitarist and co-writer Ben Phillips, and rock-solid drummer Jamie Perkins. We're getting great sounds in WM's big room with my fave snare of the moment, my hot-rodded 14x5" Pearl Brass Sensitone. We've been using Jamie's 22x20" Ddrum kick and my Eames toms, except on a song called "I, Zombie", where we needed a more scooped and higher-pitched tom sound that I got by tuning the thin-shelled birch 12x8" and 16x14" Ddrum toms Jamie brought to the session. BTW, that's an old Slingerland bass drum shell being used as a tunnel to focus the bottom end of the Ddrum kick.

Really Tama? Really?

2010-03-17T13:23:00.008-04:00

These warnings came with a Tama throne I just bought. Be careful out there kiddie's, drums can kill!

Larry and His Flask at The Outpost 3/10/10

2010-03-16T19:49:00.005-04:00

I worked with a great band from Oregon called Larry and His Flask at The Outpost last week. My guitar-slinging buddy and former Dropkick Murphy Marc Orrell was producing and Ray Jeffrey was engineering. Drummer Jamin Marshall plays a simple kick and snare set up standing up! I really like these guys' approach, check 'em out when they come your way.

Ra Ra Redux with Ra Ra Riot

2010-02-06T18:53:00.005-05:00

I'm back at Black Dog Recording Studio in Upstate New York to work on two more songs for Ra Ra Riot's upcoming release. The only difference this time is the 15º degree weather outside and my Drum Heaven 14x6.5" Limited Edition Hand-Hammered Copper Galaxy Custom Snare drum we're using for the song "Too Dramatic". I designed and produced ten of these drums about fifteen years ago and had a coppersmith do the hammering of the shell. What made this drum different was the solid brass reinforcement rings that support the copper shell. The bearing edges and snare beds are machined into the brass and there was some nifty engraving done by my good friend and personal drum guru John Aldridge. The brass re-rings give a little wetness to the normally dry sound of the copper which seems to work perfectly for the song the band is working on.

Supply Your Own Caption For This New Set Of Drum Links...

2010-02-03T18:49:00.004-05:00

Cause I got nothin. Anyway, it's been awhile since I posted any "Drummers In The News" links, so here you go...

1) Fall Out Boy Andrew Hurley Has A Falling Out With Fall Out Boy

2) Ringo Finds God (Hint: It's Not Clapton)

3) Jazz Brush Great Ed Thigpen -1930 - 2010

4) Radiohead Drummer Phil Selway Plans Solo Tour

5) So You Want To Be A Drummer In A Led Zeppelin Tribute Band? Get In Line!

Far From Finished at The Outpost January 4-8 2010

2010-01-18T09:43:00.007-05:00

The jaunty lads of Far From Finished came down to The Outpost in Stoughton, MA to begin work on their new CD for Old Shoe Records. Drummer Mark Cannata tracked 13 new songs including a couple kit changes to mix things up. We recorded the bulk of the songs in the center of the studio's excellent main tracking room using my 13 x 9" and 15 x15" Eames toms and the house 22 x16" Yamaha Stage Custom bass drum, then moved the kit to the corner of the room, surrounded it with baffles, and I then heavily dampened the kit with Moongels and paper towels. The different drum sounds will be used to highlight and contrast dynamic changes between the verses and choruses in a couple songs. Mark's heavily corroded solid maple 14 x 5.5" DW Craviotto (pictured above) was a wreck when he brought it in, but after adding batter and snare side heads, new Puresound snarewires, and lubing the tension rods, it sounded great and made it onto 3 tracks. My 14 x 5.5" brass Sensitone was used on 5 songs, and the always-useful Pearl Steve Ferrone made it onto 4 tunes. For an as-yet-untitled song, Mark wanted a drum kit that had a loose, old timey carnival vibe, so I detuned and loosened the snares on a 13 x 6.5" Yamaha Sensitive Series drum , used an old 16x16 Stage Custom floor tom tuned wide open as a kick drum, threw up a circa 1930s 11" Avedis Zildjian sock cymbal and a cowbell. and we got a great raunchy sound thanks to producer/engineer Jim Siegel .

I also had time on this project to tune the snare drums to specific notes that would work with the key each song was in. If the desired snare drum can't hit the actual key of the song and maintain the character we need, I try to tune it to a third or fifth of the note. I've been trying to do this a lot lately when possible, and although most people wouldn't notice it, an in-tune snare drum adds to the overall musicality of a song and has a mild positive psychoacoustic effect on the listener. (I just made that theory up but I think there's an element of truth in there somewhere)

Name That Badge - WE HAVE A WINNER!

2010-01-11T20:50:00.007-05:00

The contest is simple: The first person to correctly identify this badge from a now-defunct American drum company wins. Vote by leaving a comment underneath this posting. First prize is bragging rights as the biggest drum nerd on your block. Second prize is ... well, as Ricky Bobby would say: "If you ain't first, you're last."

Good luck and may the best drummer win...

Blog reader Crider from Germany got it right, it's a Walberg & Auge badge.

W&A was a company from Worcester, MA that made parts and hardware for American drum companies. They also sporadically built drums, most notably the Perfection line, often with W&A-made Gretsch lugs. Above is a 1940's era W & A snare drum I recently restored for a friend. Note the black painted Jasper shell, the Gretsch Rocket lugs, and the Walberg and Auge strainer. (The gold-painted hoops were done after-market by a misguided soul) Here's a non-smudged pic of the badge. Congrats Crider!

More About My Favorite Snare Drum: The Pearl Steve Ferrone

2010-01-08T09:06:00.007-05:00

I recently received a good question from an All Things Loud reader named Aaron who poses an interesting question about one of my favorites, the sadly discontinued Pearl Steve Ferrone 14x6.5" Signature snare drum.

Aaron asks: "Have you had any experience with the new Gretsch Steve Ferrone Signature kit or snare? and if so how does that compare with the Pearl?"

Well Aaron, I haven't had any experience w/ the Gretsch Ferrone drum, and I don't know how much input Steve had in designing the Pearl or Gretsch drums, but at a quick glance , the new Gretsch looks to be fairly similar to the Pearl drum which itself was a knock-off of a Ludwig Black Beauty. IMHO, what made the Pearl version so good is that it was a little more robust than a stock Black Beauty with a thicker shell (albeit NOT spun brass), heavier tube lugs, longer snare beds, and brass Super Hoops. The Gretsch drum has 2.3mm triple-flanged hoops as well, but I don't believe they are brass . Having owned a few Black Beauties from different eras, I think it's the Super Hoop and the snare beds that make the biggest difference. In my opinion, it's very hard to beat the sound of a brass shell snare drum (especially the Pearl Ferrone) when recording rock music. The attack is great, but what makes brass stand out above other metal drums is the musical quality of the tone and it's reactivity with the snares. I've A/B'd the Ferrone against a lot of snare drums (including quite a few Black Beauties) in the studio with many drummers, engineers, and producers and it always wins. That's not to say that it's the perfect drum for every type of music or song, because I often bring in another snare for a specific sound and color, but all things being equal the Ferrone just seems to stand up better under the mics than most snare drums. (The Tama Lars Ulrich Bell Brass aka "The Terminator" is another excellent choice for louder rock recording)

I'm an equal opportunity drum tech. I don't care how cheap or how worn a snare drum is, if it has the right sound for the song, I'm gonna use it. A drum has to earn it's place in my arsenal and to be honest the Ferrone sat around for awhile before I used it on a record. I bought it used and it came with an coated Ambassador head on it. I had hard time getting a good sound with it until I switched to a Remo Coated Controlled Sound batter head and added my own 24 strand snares. A lot of the engineers and producers I work with specifically ask for the drum when they hire me but I always give them a choice of other drums depending on the music. I really enjoy my 14x5" WorldMax Black Dawg and my latest aquisition: an inexpensive 14x5.5" brass Pearl Sensitone that I fixed up and hot-rodded for the studio.

While I'm on the subject, I always ask the producer and drummer what type of sounds they are looking for when deciding what drums I will bring to the studio. It's important that I get an idea of the type of music being recorded and how a drummer plays when I am choosing instruments for a session. That being said, there are certain drums and cymbals I will always take with me and the Ferrone is one of them. It's just that good.

PS: If anyone has had a chance to play the new Gretsch Ferrone drum, please drop me a line and let me know what you think.

"Toy" drums w/ Taylor Momsen and the Pretty Reckless

2009-12-30T18:59:00.006-05:00

I pieced together a "toy" drum kit for the middle section of a song called "Miss Nothing" for Taylor Momsen's new CD. I used a 16" DW floor tom for the kick, a no-name piccolo tuned high, and hi hat with an 11" K Splash on the bottom and an old Avedis Zildjian "sock" cymbal on the top. Session producer Kato Khandwala recorded the kit with a pair of custom tube ribbon mics into Neve mic pre's and a Roger Mayer compressor. Sounded really cool. And yes, that's a Bowflex weight set holding the tom in place...

Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless @ The House Of Loud, Elmwood Pk., NJ

2009-12-29T17:00:00.013-05:00

I'm back at The House Of Loud working with my friends Kato Khandwala, Ben Phillips, and Jamie Perkins again, this time on an new record by Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless for Interscope. Taylor is a talented young actress best know for her role on Gossip Girl, but she's also a really good singer and songwriter who is collaborating with Ben and Kato on songs for her CD. Drummer Jamie Perkins was brought in to put live drum parts over the parts Kato composed and sequenced and I was brought in to make the drums sound good.

This is a Rock record with a capitol R and Kato sets the bar just as high for the drums as he does for the rest of the production, so the first order of business was getting a deep and full kick drum sound. I took the resonant head off of the house DW bass drum and used my 1960s Gretsch kick as a resonator in front of it. We put a D112 in the DW and a Rode Classic II in the Gretsch to get a punchy thick sound.

I got to use a brass Pearl Sensitone on a song called "Light Me Up" and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I bought it used at GC a couple of years ago for short money, clean up the bubbling plating, and hot-rodded it for the studio. The drum sings like Pavarotti and has a musical cut to it not unlike an old Black Beauty.

The Take Back @ The Outpost 12/18/09

2009-12-22T16:18:00.004-05:00

Boston punkers The Take Back hit the Outpost to record the first seven tracks for their upcoming CD due in 2010. Hard-hitting drummer Dave Sexton brought the rock and sailed through basics in just a few hours. We used the standard Yamaha kick with Eames toms and although Dave's Ludwig Black Beauty is pictured here, we ended up using the Pearl Steve Ferrone - what a surprise! Dave has a somewhat unorthodox way of setting up the kit - toms flat with the rack tom off to the side and cymbals up high. Works for him and kind of reminds me of the Pretenders' Martin Chambers.

Ch Ch Chaos with Ra Ra Riot!

2009-11-19T12:26:00.008-05:00

The other night it was a group affair as everyone pitched in and built a Frankenstein drum kit for Ra Ra Riot's drummer Gabriel Duquette to play on a track called "Massachusetts". We threw up 8" and 10" Pearl Masters Retrospec toms that I tuned to resemble high-pitched Octobans. We put a cymbal on one floor tom and on the other, engineer/co-producer Andrew Maury put coins and other noisy bits which were prevented from flying off the drum by ingeniously taping a shirt over half the head. I attached 42 strand snares to the resonant head of the kick drum and we put another kick drum on it's side. We stacked cymbals on other cymbals, stuck a skewered soda can filled with change on the hi hat and threw in a cowbell for good measure. Good sport Gabe donned a hot pink duct tape head band for the occasion. 18 mics later the kit was committed to digits for posterity and you can hear it all when the record comes out. Good times...

Ra Ra Riot Days 2,3,and 4.

2009-11-17T19:15:00.009-05:00

Still tracking drums for Ra Ra Riot's new record. Most of the big differences as far as drum sounds have been leaning towards low-pitched snare sounds. At a recent clinic, British drum great Dave Mattacks talked about de-tuning the few top tension rods closest to the drummer on the snare which helps drop the pitch, remove some overtones, and fatten the sound. I've been implementing this a bit because engineers and producers have been requesting a deeper, fatter dampened snare sound quite a bit lately and frankly it's not something I have had a lot of experience with. Yesterday for example, we used the 14x6.5" 7-ply maple Yamaha Sensitive Series snare tensioned very slack for a great fat 70s sound. Today I pulled out my Pearl Steve Ferrone 14x6.5" brass snare and tuned it to "E" to complement the key of the song.

I'm really enjoying working at Black Dog Recording Studio. The stu-stu-studio is situated in beautiful horse country of eastern New York near Saratoga Springs, far from the madding crowd. This is the very first session at Black Dog and I gotta say I'm impressed by the way the drums sound in the main room. There's a nice 70s Sphere Eclipse console, a good selection of mics, as well as a really sweet Pearl Masters Retrospec house kit. There's always kinks to work out in any new studio but manager/house engineer Dan Vidali made sure the place was running smoothly when we got here. If you're looking for an high quality, affordable destination location in the Northeast for your next recording, give the place a call.

Ra Ra Riot at Black Dog Recording Studio - Stillwater, NY

2009-11-16T18:24:00.007-05:00

Started work last night with the fine folks of Ra Ra Riot and their talented drummer Gabriel Duquette at the brand spanking new Black Dog Recording Studio in upstate NY. Had a chance to use the beautiful maple snare drum by Italian maker Le Soprano that my friend Jerome Deupree gave me a few weeks ago. Also radically de-tuned the Yamaha Sensitive and gave it a controlled snare decay for a cool effect. More later...

Call Me NostraDrumus

2009-10-04T20:49:00.005-04:00

If you take a look below at the date of my last blog entry (Curse Of The Drummer 2009) you'll notice that I made it on August 14th. In fact I wrote that at about 1:00 in the morning on the 14th and for some reason unknown to me I chose an x-ray image of a broken collarbone to illustrate the piece about the injuries that had plagued so many drummers in the summer months. No big deal right? Just another seemingly random blog entry to keep you guys entertained between drum tech info. The reason I mention the date of that last entry is because almost exactly 12 hours after I wrote that, I was involved in a traffic accident and yes, you guessed it, I broke my collarbone. Could've been a lot worse, grateful it wasn't, etc., etc. But the point is, out of all the photos I could have used to illustrate the article on drummer's injuries, I chose the image of the very injury I was to sustain that same day. Anyhoo, I had to stop playing for a couple months and have a torn labrum but fortunately it was a slow time for work so I only missed a couple jobs. Onward and upward.

The Curse Of The Drummer 2009

2009-08-14T00:27:00.004-04:00

2009 has been a rough year for a lot of drummers. Stephen Perkins, Chad Smith, Tommy Aldridge, and others have suffered injuries and illnesses on the road forcing shows to be cancelled and dates to be rescheduled. But it's not all bad news; a couple of drummers are reaching out and using their talents and visibility to help others. Here's a quick roundup of drummers in the news:

1) Stephen Perkins down but not out.

2) Chad Smith tears a muscle.

3) Tommy Aldridge breaks collarbone.

4) Foghat's Roger Earl makes a triumphant slow ride back from serious injuries.

5) Dananananaykroyd drummer injured in onstage accident.

6) New Orleans drummer Derrick Tabb gives back to the kids.

7) The Clash's Topper Headon helps the homeless.

The Blog Days Of Summer

2009-07-08T08:40:00.004-04:00

Ah, those lazy days of summer. Things are pretty slow around here - plenty of time to change heads, polish hardware, and daydream of all the wonderful drums out there just waiting to be tuned. In the meantime, enjoy some drumming news...

Happy Birthday Ringo!

We Will Miss The Great Jim Chapin - 1920 - 2009

Drummer's Bummer: Joey Kramer's New Book

Steve Shelley Loves Sonic Youth Long Time

Black Keys Drummer Joins Band Of Drummers Called "Drummer"

My Chemical Romance Banger Bryar Sues Dog Trainer

Ratboy Leaves Every Time I Die, Loses Cheese

Rick Allen Is A Noble Rock Star

Tokyo Police Club @ Water Music, Hoboken, NJ June 16-19

2009-06-17T18:32:00.011-04:00

Started work on seven new tracks for Tokyo Police Club with producer Chris Zane at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ, one of my favorite studios in the greater New York City area. We spent Tuesday moving a kit around the room, comparing mics, and trying different snare drums and floor toms. The sizable main room has a great big sound which can be baffled and gobo'd (?) to taste (see previous Water Music posting). Drummer Greg Alsop plays a simple 3-piece kit, kick, snare, and floor tom, augmented by hi-hat, crash, and ride cymbals. We settled on Greg's excellent 60's Ludwig 22x14 Champagne Sparkle bass drum, as well as my Eames 15x15" floor tom, and the Yamaha Sensitive Series 14x6.5" snare drum. Everything sounds great. I'll give another update later in the week...

Far From Finished @ Q Division, Somerville, MA 5/29/09

2009-05-30T09:48:00.007-04:00

Far From Finished drummer Marc Cannata got to christen his spiffy new SJC Custom drums on Friday at Q Division when the band came in to record the Jackson 5 classic "I Want You Back" for an upcoming compilation. The kit, featuring red and black graphics floating on a White Marine Pearl, was designed by Cannata. The 20x20" kick drum/cannon was too much for the mic's so I popped the front head off and slightly muffled the batter head with a rolled piece of black velvet fabric.

I wasn't sure the 12x7" rack tom would give us the sound we were looking for but it ended up fine after I spent some quality tuning time with the bottom head. A lot of drummers try to tune their drums without ever touching the resonant (or bottom) head. They don't know that the bottom head plays a major role in defining the pitch of a drum. Most issues of uneven pitch are caused by the top head being out of tune with the bottom head. This doesn't mean that the top head needs to be tuned to the same note as the bottom - it means that it should be tuned to a complimentary pitch.
When tuning any tom tom I'll flip the drum over and rest the top head on my leg or a towel on the floor to dampen the head. This isolates the bottom head so I can check it's pitch. As a general rule I tune the bottom head a bit higher than the top head. (If I make too big a difference in pitch between the two heads I'll get what I like to call the "Syndrum syndrome", a nasty pitch bend that is reminiscent of the sound a basketball makes when it hits the floor. ) Once I get the bottom head evenly tuned I work on the top head and listen to the note it makes, trying to get an even sound between the two heads. You'll know if it's not right. I suggest experimenting with different tensions between top and bottom heads to see what works for you.

Exclusive Pics of Chad Smith's Chickenfoot Drumset

2009-05-27T01:23:00.008-04:00

Chad Smith and Chickenfoot (Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Joe Satriani) delivered a mighty sonic smackdown to a packed house at the 500 capacity Middle East club in Cambridge, MA on Tuesday. Chad and the boys are on a short "Road Test" tour hitting a handful of small clubs to promote their eponymous debut album to be released on June 5th. The 'Foot played a scorching two hour set featuring songs from the new record, as well as the Hagar-penned Montrose classic "Bad Motor Scooter" before closing with Deep Purple's "Highway Star".

Chad invited me to soundcheck to see his new Pearl Masterworks Series kit with a stunning custom paint job by Nub of Orange County Choppers fame. The drums (w/ a 14x5.5" Sensitone Elite SD) looked and sounded fantastic and I was again reminded of just what a great drummer Chad is while the band jammed on songs by Hendrix, Zeppelin, and Neil Young. Chad says the Chili Peppers are reconvening in October to work on new material after taking a well deserved break following extensive touring in support of Stadium Arcadium. Wished you guys could've been there so I took these pics and a video to give you an exclusive close-up look at the drums and the band. Don't say I never do anything for you. Enjoy...

Dropkick Murphys @ The Oupost - Stoughton, MA 5/20/09

2009-05-20T19:54:00.014-04:00

Click on photo to enlarge

It was like deja vu all over again for the Dropkick Murphys when the Boston-based rockers dropped by the Outpost to re-record their classic tune "I'm Shipping Up To Boston", best known as the explosive opening song in "The Departed" and just about every sports event in the last couple of years. Now that they have their own label imprint they're redoing the song to gain full ownership of the rights . (True story - I had the TV on while I was writing this entry and "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" just played on King Of The Hill!)

Drummer/hockey fan Matt Kelly showed me his awesome new Boston Bruins snare drum, made by the fine craftsmen at SJC Custom Drums. I really enjoy Matt's playing - he melds solid rock drumming with a precise drum corps snare work and somehow makes it sound great. If Kieth Moon and the Boston Crusaders had a baby, his name would be Matt Kelly.

We used a 5 piece DW kit , the Pearl Ferrone snare drum, and Zildjian cymbals for the session. The first take was a keeper but the band did a few more for safety. They also recorded another song for an upcoming tribute compilation.

John Bonham's Hot Rod from "The Song Remains The Same" Gets an Update

2009-05-18T14:25:00.002-04:00

Interesting article about Bonzo's Andy Brizio-designed custom rod HERE

We Drop Some Links On You!

2009-05-17T11:41:00.007-04:00

Going that extra mile to deliver you more useless drum information...

1) Shins drummer Sandoval fired from Shins

2) Ex-Shins drummer Sandoval to open taco cart

3) Jet drummer Cester cuts off tattooed fingertip while cooking

4) Richie Ramone Rocks ...(a symphony orchestra!?!)

5) Max Weinberg passes sticks for Springsteen gig over to son Jay

6) 27 hour and 23 second drum roll sets new world record!

You Look Like You Need Some Bonham

2009-05-12T09:33:00.005-04:00

Here's some Zeppelin for you on a dreary Tuesday morning courtesy of Wolfgang's Vault. That would be John Henry Bonham on the drums. Enjoy!

Outbreak @ The Outpost - Stoughton, MA May 10-11

2009-05-11T22:52:00.008-04:00

CLICK ON PIC TO ENLARGE IT

Just spent a couple of days working yet again with drummer Erik Perkins and the rest of the jaunty lads of Outbreak. You may remember Erik from such bands as No Trigger and such classic All Things Loud postings as "Smartbomb @ The Outpost 5/19/08"

Yes Erik is one busy fella and this session was no exception. Taking a break from a massive touring schedule, the band dropped into the Outpost to record a new collection of ditties with renowned hardcore/punk rock producer Jim Siegel (Dropkick Murphys, The Unseen, Blood For Blood, Death Before Dishonor). Erik recorded 14 drum tracks in two days, rarely needing more than one or two takes, no mean feat in itself. Add the fact that many of the songs had blistering tempos and you have yourself one of them sizeable achievements. He did the music proud and for my part I think I was able to make the drums sound pretty decent.

What drums did Erik and I make sound decent you ask? Well you got your ubiquitous Eames toms (which are featured heavily on a few numbers), your standard issue Pearl Steve Ferrone snare drum (yes again!), your standard 2001 DW kick drum, and some heavy-ass Vater Fatback hickory logs to hit everything with. Throw in a smattering of fine Paiste cymbals and you got yourself what we in the biz like to call raucous rock and roll.

The New Alibis @ New Alliance, Cambridge, MA

2009-05-06T19:40:00.002-04:00

Stopped by New Alliance Studios on Saturday to lend a hand tuning drums for my buddy Jessie for the new New Alibi's waxing. Rock was made.

2009-04-28T22:00:00.001-04:00

The Connecticut Vintage and Custom Drum Show

2009-04-20T14:40:00.006-04:00

I drove down to Newington Sunday and spent some time at the Connecticut Vintage and Custom Drum Show. I did lots of schmoozing with old drum biz friends and vintage collectors and did some serious drooling over drums that I wanted but definitely did not need. The kit I almost went to the bank machine for? The late 60's/early 70's 4-piece Premier kit in gorgeous Aquamarine Sparkle at Carter Harris' booth (bottom photo). I love vintage Premier's; they were very well made, the hardware is great, and they usually sound fantastic. Carter was asking a very fair $750, snare included. It was a real test of my willpower to walk away from that, especially since the Aquamarine is one of my fave coverings . (I'm still kicking myself for not grabbing a 14x22" Radio King bass drum priced @ $150, but that's another story)

Ran into my buddy Joe Montineri (third pic from top), one of the first custom drum builders in the industry. In his former role as Product Development Manager at Keller, Joe designed the Vintage Mahogany and Vintage Maple shell lines. He's one of the most knowledgeable drum makers in the business and he helped to pioneer the custom drum industry that has grown so big in the last few years. I thought I knew a lot about what makes drums sound good until I met Joe...

I stopped by the MCD Percussion. booth and checked out some of their beautiful solid shell snare drums. The drum that caught my eye and ears was made from sycamore (second photo from bottom) and has wonderful figuring. Sycamore is a relatively soft wood to make a drum from, so I was surprised by the rich tone and full body of the drum.

The top two photographs are of Jack Lawton of Lawton Drum Company. No, Jack is not a little person, that's an 18" diameter snare drum that was custom made for a customer to replicate a drum used in a Beatles video where the fab drummer is playing a giant kit. It's an oversized 60's Ludwig Jazz Festival snare, complete with Keystone badge, white interior, and muffler. The snares were custom made by Puresound, but the real surprise was how good the drum sounded. It was all I could do not to order one on the spot, just to see the look on the faces of the engineers when I pulled it out at a session.

Red Hot Chili Peppers @ The "House" April / May 2005 Sessions for Stadium Arcadium

2009-04-13T22:57:00.011-04:00

After many e-mails from ATL readers, I realized I never actually had made an entry about the sessions I worked on for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, so as per your requests, here's the story (four years later!) behind my work on Stadium Arcadium:

Back in April/May 2005 Chad Smith magnanimously asked me to come out to L.A. to drum tech on the Red Hot Chili Pepper sessions that would become the double CD "Stadium Arcadium". The record was being produced by longtime Pepper's collaborator Rick Rubin and was recorded at Rick's Laurel Canyon mansion studio known as "The House", an aging Grand Guignol structure where the Peps had also recorded their 1991 breakthrough blockbuster "Blood Sugar Sex Magik".
I shipped about eight of my snare drums out to LA and we also rented a new Gretsch kit and more snare drums from Drum Paradise. The job itself was one of the easiest ones I've ever been involved with. Rick Rubin runs a laid back session and the band was incredibly well prepared, having done about nine months of writing and pre-production before they set foot in the studio. Chad, like many other great drummers, can make any drum sound good, and he was very good about communicating what kind of sound he wanted for each song. We'd pick out a snare accordingly, sometimes changing up after a first take if we weren't getting the right sound. Standout snare drums were a Gary Noonan custom 5x14" brass snare, a 6.5x14" 20-ply Pearl Reference wood shell snare, my Pearl Steve Ferrone, and a Yamaha David Garibaldi 3.5x14" brass shell drum. I used coated CS batters on most of the snares and Emperor heads went on all the toms.

The whole experience was a pleasure made even more comfortable by my luxurious lodgings at Chez Smith courtesy of Nancy and Chad, who's son Cole was born in the middle of the two month session. The resulting platinum-selling album speaks for itself and went on to win a whole mess of Grammys and other awards. I'm proud of the work I did, but to be honest I could have put up garbage cans and they would have sounded great.

Sadly, my early-vintage digital camera died during the session and I lost a lot of great pics, so these shots came from a disposable "analog" camera my last night on the job.

The Connecticut Vintage and Custom Drum Show 4/19/09

2009-04-10T12:06:00.002-04:00

The Connecticut Vintage and Custom Drum Show for 2009 will be held on April 19th, in Newington Connecticut. The show will run from 10a.m. to 4p.m. and will be held at The Sphinx Shriners Center. Over 30 exhibitors, consignment area, and dozens of doors prizes. Special guests include Jack Lawton, William F. Ludwig III, Gary Asher, and Joe Montineri. Live performances include clinics by Larry Levine, and Bobby Rondinelli, and a tuning seminar by Jeff Ocheltree. For further information contact Rick Smith, at (860) 523-1850, or CTDRUMSHOW@aol.com. Check out the web site - www.CTDRUMSHOW.com

Square Drums?!?

2009-04-07T00:51:00.003-04:00

Has the world gone crazy? Square drums?!?! What's next, shark-shaped guitars? Don't know anything about these drums except that they are square and I want me some. Link HERE

Motown Funk Brother Uriel Jones Passes Away At 74

2009-03-25T17:22:00.003-04:00

Article Here: Hard-rockin' drummer was key Funk Brother
The great Uriel Jones has passed. I will always remember Mr. Jones fondly as one of the first drummers to agree to to be interviewed for my first book "Star Sets". His pocket and groove was unmatched and the records he was a part of stand as some of the greatest in American pop music.

Big D and the Kids Table @ Camp Street Studios

2009-03-24T17:06:00.006-04:00

Here's a couple pics from the session I'm working on this week w/ Boston's own Big D and the Kid's Table at Camp St. Studios in Cambridge, MA. More info in the next day or so. (Thanks to Sean Rogan for the most excellent wide-angle shots!)

Times are tough, but Links are free...

2009-03-09T13:32:00.003-04:00

Drumming in the news:
1)Josh Freese knows how to promote a record!

2) Andy Burrows leaves Razorlight for "personal reasons"

3) Questlove talks about the Root's new gig on late night TV.

4) Lars Ulrich illegally downloads Metallica!

5) Blur drummer to leave after tour.

From My Drum Arsenal: The Raw Brass Snare Drum

2009-02-19T06:16:00.007-05:00

Behold my 14x5" Raw Brass snare drum, a one-of-a-kind custom creation that has beaten it's way into many a drummer and producer's heart. The shell came from my good buddy and the Godfather of the vintage drum scene John Aldridge. He had tried to start a drum company to build brass shell replicas of 1920s era Ludwig Black Beauties, but when a problem occurred with the metal spinner who was fabricating the seamless shells, John had to shelve the project into which he had sunk a considerable amount of money. He was left with a few choice shells, one of which he generously donated to me. It sat on the shelf for about a year before I took the time to drill and assemble the drum. I used some 8-hole brass hoops and 8 brass tube lugs I had left over from my Galaxy Snare Drum days and I threw on some 14 strand Puresound snares and a brass-plated Ludwig P-83 strainer that was laying around.

I owned plenty of brass snare drums already so I thought I'd try something different. I had noticed a marked difference between the sound of old brass snare drums compared to newer ones, but I didn't have the patience to age the shell for 75 years to mellow it's sound, so I left the drum unfinished to provide a less reflective surface for sound to bounce off of and hopefully get a warmer tone. Normally, brass drums are buffed and lacquered (or black nickel-plated in the case of the Black Beauty) to produce a lasting shiny finish. I have always liked the patina that certain metals acquire through oxidation over a period of time so I thought the drum might look unique and change appearance over time.

The result is what you see above. I started using it on sessions and the response was overwhelmingly positive. The drum has tons of body and just as I had hoped it was less brittle sounding than a brand new brass snare drum. It is one of my "go to" drums when a focused, bright sound is required.

Here's the Raw Brass snare drum on That's How You Know by Morningwood:

Link Again

2009-02-18T14:30:00.002-05:00

Drummers and drums in the news...

1) Motown Funk Brother Uriel Jones recovering from heart attack

2) How Dave Grohl got the Paul McCartney Grammy gig

3) Step 1: Impersonate British Drummer. Step 2: Steal Corvette

4) Taylor Hawkins: 'Dave Grohl is a control freak'

5) Child-Like robot can play the drums

6) Become an iPhone Drummer

Edith at Woolly Mammoth Sound and a Lesson Learned.

2009-02-17T12:43:00.006-05:00

I spent the weekend at David Minehan's Woolly Mammoth studio in Waltham, MA working with local Boston band Edith and drummer Scott Rogers. We used the studio's Gretsch Reknown 22x20" (!) kick and 16x16" floor tom, my 13x9" Eames rack tom , a 14x6.5" Yamaha Sensitive Series snare drum, my 14x6.5" Pearl Steve Ferrone snare, and a 14x5" "Raw Brass" snare that I built.

We A/B'd 3 different bass drums and to my surprise ended up using the very deep 22x20" Gretsch, which goes against my predjudice of favoring shallower kick drums (14", 16", or even 12") in the studio. I have had to revise many of my preconceptions over the years, because for every rule I have about recording drums there is always an exception that makes me look stupid. Deeper kick drums are a relatively recent innovation designed to deliver a powerful attack by pushing air down a long cylinder. My experience has been that these drums are all attack with very little of the round tones that define a great bass drum sound. But here's the kicker (pun intended): on any given day, in any given studio, with any given drummer, and any given set of mics, and any given engineer, you are going to get different results and that's what happened Saturday. We tried other traditional size kick drums and they just didn't sound as good as the Gretsch. Once it was miked up it of course had great attack but it also had a nice round tone and was in balance with the rest of the kit. In other words it didn't sound like I expected it to. If I didn't know better and just listened to the results I would have sworn it was a 14" or 16" deep kick drum. So the lesson learned here is to keep an open mind and be prepared to drop your preconceived notions about what works and what doesn't. Sooner or later you will be humbled by the truth.

Louie Bellson 1924-2009

2009-02-17T12:30:00.002-05:00

One of the all-time great drummers Louie Bellson passed away on February 14. He will be missed by his many fans and friends in the drumming community. Anybody who ever met Louie was touched by his positive and generous spirit and his willingness to help his fellow musicians. To offer your condolences to the Bellson family send cards and contributions to:

Mrs. Louie Bellson
c/o Remo, Inc.
28101 Industry Drive
Valencia, CA 91355

What? More Links?!!!?

2009-02-07T23:52:00.003-05:00

We got more drum links than Trump's got towers!

1) Bill Bruford retires from public performance!

2) Keith Moon is to be honoured with a blue plaque at the site of The Who's early gigs

3) New Led Zeppelin book.

4) Blink-182 is Back.. sort of.

5) Drummer's freak death by anthrax.

6) Blondie's Clem Burke to research benefits of playing drumming video games.

Happy 80th Birthday Hal Blaine!!!

2009-02-07T13:28:00.006-05:00

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree and the world's most recorded musician Hal Blaine celebrated his 80th birthday with a big party at L.A.'s Baked Potato thrown by his daughter Michelle and fellow Wrecking Crew member Don Randi. Proceeds from the soiree went to help create a scholarship fund at the Berklee College Of Music in Hal's name.

If you're reading this blog and don't know who Hal is, shame on you! Google his name and prepare for your jaw to drop. Hal played on more hit records than any other drummer in history and his tasteful, inventive playing have influenced many generations of musicians, including your humble blogmaster.

I've know Hal for quite a few years and there isn't a more generous, down to earth, and downright hilarious musical "legend" around. So happy birthday Hal, and many, many happy returns of the day!

You can make donations to the scholarship by sending a check to:

Hal Blaine Scholarship
c/o Michelle Blaine
80398 Denton Drive
Indio, CA 92203

Make checks payable to “Berklee College of Music”
Make sure to write in “Hal Blaine Scholarship” in the memo field.

Be sure to include your return address (or that the address on your check is current). Michelle will be mailing checks in bulk to Berklee each month and they will mail out formal recognition receipts with tax deduction information.

Link-a-Delic

2009-02-07T13:06:00.006-05:00

I'm just getting back into the swing of things after having knee replacement surgery at the end of November. I played a couple gigs last week and the new knee works just fine. Thought I'd celebrate with a smattering of drum related links, cause that's how I single-stroke roll...

1) Wink at the President and lose your drumming gig!

2) Unique art exhibit celebrates the world's iconic drummers in works by 50 artists

3) Buddy Holly played the drums for Dion on "The Day The Music Died".

4) Buffalo Springfield Drummer Dewey Martin 1941-2009

2009-01-17T21:20:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Hal Blaine for this one.

Thelonious Monk's Musical Advice

2009-01-16T11:26:00.004-05:00

CLICK PIC TO ENLARGE

Words of wisdom from a master of phrasing and rhythm.

Dave Mattacks presents a Drum Tuning & Cymbal Selection Workshop 1/21/09

2009-01-15T10:55:00.003-05:00

British drumming great and good friend Dave Mattacks will be conducting a drum tuning and cymbal selection workshop at the Boston Drum Center on Wednesday January 21st at 7:30.

DM’s discography includes 5 CD’s with Paul McCartney & various CD’s / tours with – among many others – Elton John, George Harrison, Jimmy Page, Everything But The Girl, Sandy Denny, Chris Rea, XTC, Jethro Tull, Joan Armatrading, Brian Eno, Nick Drake, [“Procul Harum’s”] Gary Brooker, Peter Green, John Gorka, John Martyn, The Proclaimers, Cat Stevens & Loudon Wainwright.

Tickets are $8.00 each and in very limited supply, so BDC recommends that you reserve your place in advance; come by the shop or call (978) 263-7618.

Hope to see you there.

Drum Heaven & The Galaxy Snare Drum - My Very Own Drum Company

2008-11-17T21:21:00.026-05:00

Back in the early 1990's I had a nice little sideline business buying, selling, and restoring vintage drums. I called it Drum Heaven. It was a great way to get my feet wet in the drum world and learn the ins and outs of what made those great American drums so great. At that time, unlike nowadays, the major drum companies weren't putting a lot of imagination into the design of their products. Sure there were some nice drums being made by the Japanese drum manufacturers and DW was making inroads into the market, but the once dominant American companies like Ludwig, Gretsch, and Slingerland (Leedy and Rogers were all but nonexistent) were foundering under poor management, lack of innovation, and disinterest by parent companies. They were losing huge chunks of market share to the Japanese, who were making big advances (and profits) in the drum biz by applying the same creativity and design ingenuity they had used to capture the American auto market.

In the meantime there were growing rumblings by a small handful of craftsmen who were committed to building quality hand-crafted instruments for the growing number of discerning drummers and collectors who were demanding more quality from their drums than what was available from the major makers. It was in this environment that I started daydreaming about building my own custom snare drums. I knew the vintage drums I was restoring sounded and looked better than any of the modern products I had played. There was an attention to detail in the choice of materials, visual appearance, and quality of construction that had somehow been lost over time. Just take a look at a Leedy Elite, a Slingerland Radio King kit, from the 30's and 40's, or a 1920's Ludwig Black Beauty and you can see the marriage of form and function that these drums personified.

I had also developed a nice full Rolodex (remember those?) of contacts who were willing to share info and knowledge about drum building. I had a good relationship with Joe MacSweeney of Eames Drum Company who made amazing hand-crafted birch shells and was willing to share his thoughts about what made a good sounding snare drum. John Aldridge, master drum engraver and publisher of NSMD magazine was a good friend. Other custom snare drum makers were happy to let me pick their brains. This was before every Joe RackTom or Sally SnareBed knew about the Internet, so very little information was available about drum making and design. I had noticed what a big difference real brass hoops had on the sound of a snare drum, compared to alloy hoops, so I searched out a manufacturer who was willing to make them and imported them from China and then had John Aldridge engrave them. I used an undersized Eames 15-ply birch shell to replicate the Leedy Floating Head design and cut a rounder bearing edge and longer snare bed that mimicked the full bodied drums made by Slingerland and Ludwig during the 1930's. At first I used the fine brass tube lugs made by Don Corder, but later switched to a local machinist here in the Boston area. I also stole/copied duco finishes from vintage drums, but made them translucent so the beautiful figuring of the birch could be seen through the nitrocellulose lacquer. All of these elements were fairly radical at the time and unlike now, you could count the custom drum makers in the USA on two hands .

I received a great response when I debuted the drums at the Winter NAMM show in Anaheim. I knew I was onto something by the amount of reps from the major drum companies that came by to examine my Galaxy snare drums. Drummers like Dennis Chambers, Peter Erskine, Richie Hayward, and guitarist Ry Cooder all stopped by my booth to check out what the buzz was all about. The engraved brass hoops, brass tube lugs, luxurious finishes, and thick birch shell combined to make an impressive looking and sounding drum (if I do say so myself!). In designing and building the drums I gained a lot of valuable knowledge through making and fixing mistakes (at one point I had to recall some ten drums because of improperly cured lacquer finishes and poorly seated tube lug stems!) and by tireless trial and error.

Eventually, due mostly to my lack of bottom line business acumen, I retired from drum making and watched as the custom drum industry grew into what it is today. There are quite a few Drum Heaven Galaxy snare drums out there and every once in awhile I'll get an e-mail from an original owner or someone who has purchased one on EBay telling me how much they enjoy the drum. It made it onto a lot of recordings, one of my faves being "Early To Bed" by Morphine with my friend Billy Conway on drums. You can check out the video below...

Mitch Mitchell remembered in The Guardian UK

2008-11-13T14:29:00.003-05:00

Blog posting by David Stubbs - Original here.

Mitch Mitchell ... one of the few who could hold their own when jamming with Jimi. Photograph: Joel Elkins/Rex Features

The death of drummer Mitch Mitchell, aged 61, marks an unwanted milestone in rock mortality. Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, all have suffered fatalities over the years. However, with the passing of Mitchell, all three members of the Jimi Hendrix Experience are now dead. This is especially poignant since, with 1968's Electric Ladyland, the three of them created a double album of such sheer volume, incandescence and pyromaniac creativity that it remains unmatched and undimmed. It still has the power to knock you off your seat and Mitch Mitchell's percussive ferocity is a significant contributor to that.

Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding were selected for the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966 as much for their ability to look the part for the psychedelic novelty act the band were being promoted as. They were two kooky, pseudo Afro-sporting innocents standing alongside the Wild Man of Rock, and critics have occasionally been condescending towards Redding and Mitchell as a result. Writers like Nik Cohn suggested that they were uncommonly lucky to be playing alongside a genius like Hendrix, while biographer David Henderson wrote of the "strange contempt" he divined in Mitchell towards Hendrix. However, Mitchell deeply resented these remarks and, while he may not always have been happy with the lack of attention or remuneration he received in comparison with Hendrix, all of this was channelled as grist to his percussive mill.

Mitchell had been a child actor, a skill he brought to bear in the spoken word intro to Axis: Bold As Love, and at ease with the extroversion of rock showmanship. He had the same boundless, manic qualities as Who drummer Keith Moon – it seemed at times that he was not so much playing his kit as trying to smash it to smithereens. However, he really could play. He was steeped in jazz and particularly indebted to the post-bebop drummer Elvin Jones.

Playing with Hendrix was no second-fiddle indignity for Mitchell but a challenge to be risen to, time and again. On a track like Manic Depression, it's as if he's about to be pitched off his drum seat over the top of the kit, propelled by the sheer tsunami of his drumming. He is almost the dominant force. By 1968, as Hendrix really began to experiment, bassist Noel Redding found himself marginalised and eventually jettisoned. Mitchell, however, rose again to the occasion, holding his own in the jam session with Hendrix and Steve Winwood that gave rise to Voodoo Chile. Even when Hendrix went the way many of his black followers had hoped he would and formed the African American trio Band of Gypsys, Mitchell was never out of the loop. On the last Hendrix recordings, he was part of a trio that included bassist Billy Cox. He worked with him to the end, and beyond. For on October 19, 1970, it was Mitchell's grievous duty to go in and lay down the studio drum part to Angel, over the guitars and vocals of his colleague who had died tragically just a month earlier, aged 27. The rising swell of cymbals that concludes the track feel like a final embrace with the ascended soul of his old friend.

Although he played in a supergroup involving John Lennon, Mitchell never
really found a major role for himself following Hendrix's death, and towards the end of his life he had been playing on the Experience Hendrix tour across America. However, rock historians should always remember to open their ears beyond Hendrix's dazzling playing and recall that Mitchell was, then and forever, an indispensable part of the Experience.

Bass Player's 23rd Psalm

2008-11-10T21:48:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Hal Blaine for sending this:

BASS PLAYER'S 23RD PSALM
The Lord is my drummer, I shall not rush,
He maketh me to layout in tasteful places,
He leadeth me beside cool meter changes,
He restoreth my "one."
Yeah, man, though I read through the
trickiest of charts, I will fear no train wrecks,
For you are with it.
Your ride and your snare they comfort me,
You setteth up a solo for me
In the presence of mine guitarists,
You anointeth my lines with drive,
My groove overfloweth.
Surely good feel and swing will follow me
through all the tunes of each set,
And I will dwell in the pocket
the whole gig long.
Amen

Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group) dies at 70; original drummer in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention

2008-11-06T16:18:00.004-05:00

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-black6-2008nov06,0,4496764.story

Jimmy Carl Black's (The Indian Of The Group) website

Thanks to Tom Donati for the heads up.

New Yamaha Snare Drums - Loud, Sensitive, & Vintage

2008-11-04T09:24:00.005-05:00

I'm reviewing three new Yamaha snare drums for DRUM! magazine. Top in the above photo is the 14x6.5" 7-ply maple Yamaha Sensitive Series drum. In the middle is the 14x6" 4-ply maple Vintage series drum, and the 14x7" 8-ply oak (!) Loud Series drum is on the bottom. I've gigged and rehearsed a few times with the Sensitive drum and got to hear the Loud Series drum miked in the studio the other day.

An interesting feature of the Sensitive snare is a 60 degree top bearing edge and a 45 degree bottom edge. The wider top edge gives the head more land to sit on and allows a fuller sound and more snare response. This drum has a lot of uses and I've found it very musical and easy to tune and play.

I use to own an oak shell Craviotto snare drum and have found the Loud drum to be similar in character. The best way I can describe the difference between oak and the more commonly used maple and birch is that, while oak has less identifiable character, it does project very well. It's a dry sound that is very focused, which makes it excellent for playing at higher volumes. Further drying the sound are the eight vent holes drilled around the shell. I really liked the throaty snare response and the clean note the drum produced when I heard it over the control room speakers in the studio.

I'm still tinkering around with the Vintage drum but it seems to have good potential. Check out DRUM! mag in a few months for the official review.

Blue Moon Harem at The Outpost 11/2/08

2008-11-02T16:29:00.005-05:00

Worked on three drum tracks with drummer Brian MacDougall for Blue Moon Harem's upcoming CD. Brian had expressed interest in using his Sonor Force Maple toms (as we had in previous sessions) and I'm really glad we did. I liked these 9 horizontal ply drums once I sussed out the proper way to tune them. They have a nice low end roundness that worked nicely in the studio. I also had a chance to play and hear the new "Loud Series" snare drum from Yamaha I'm reviewing for DRUM! magazine and will feature in an upcoming post.

Brian made quick business out of the songs and I had a chance to enjoy the last hours of a beautiful but chilly New England autumn day...

With Woody Giessmann at The Outpost 10/11/08

2008-10-14T21:29:00.009-04:00

I spent the day at The Outpost in Stoughton, MA laying down basic tracks for a record by my good friend Woody Giessmann. I'm wearing two hats on this one, producer and drummer, and I'm having a blast! With expert backing by Richard O'Connell (Bryan McPherson, Bean Pickers Union) on bass and Mike Pyle (The Beacons) on guitars it's the best rhythm section I've been involved with for a long time.

Besides being the former drummer with 80s rockers The Del Fuegos, Woody is also a a great singer/songwriter who plays a mean piano. I used my 1950s 22x14" 3-ply Gretsch bass drum, the 13x9" and 15x15" Eames toms (with coated Emperors) and the ever-present 14x6.5" Pearl Steve Ferrone snare drum with a CS Batter. I played 13" Paiste signature hats, and alternated between a 22" K. Constantinople Light ride and my prized 20" Avedis Zildjian Ride from the 50s that's as pretty as any cymbal I've ever heard. We got great sounds thanks to Jim Siegel and my buddy Keith Cornella hung out and helped with the Pro Tools.

Here's a quick montage of some of the basics, unmixed, with scratch vocals:

Historic Drum Set #1: Hal Blaine's Monster Kit

2008-10-08T19:15:00.012-04:00

Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame drummer Hal Blaine played on more Top 10 hits than any other musician. In fact, he played on 40 #1 singles, 150 Top Ten singles and 8 Grammy Records of the Year. If you don't know his name, you certainly know his drumming. As a pivotal member of the loose group of crack session musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew", Hal played the iconic beats on such diverse hits as "Be My Baby" by The Ronettes, "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys, "Strangers In The Night" by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley's "Return To Sender", and literally thousands of other songs from the 60's and 70's. The Monster Kit was developed by Hal along with his drum tech Rick Faucher and builder Howie Oliver. The basis for the kit was a Ludwig Super Classic Blue Sparkle set without the rack tom.The single-headed toms were made of spun fiberglass and Ludwig hardware was attached. Faucher and Howie Oliver created the mounting system in two pieces so it could easily roll into place in the studio. The kit grew out of Hal's signature tom fills - producers began to request the sweeping sounds that only eight toms could produce. Hal was so busy in his heyday that he needed two of these kits so he could leapfrog them between sessions!

I've known Hal for years and interviewed him about the Monster kit for my 1995 book "Star Sets : Drum Kits Of The Great Drummers" (shameless self-promotion!). He talks about using timbales for tom-toms to get a nice pitch bend decay on fills. "I was getting such great sounds with [the timbales], I started thinking 'Gee, if I had a whole mess of these I could do some really great fills.' Howie Oliver came up with the idea to use Klieg light stands for the mounting system. The idea was to augment a regular four piece Ludwig kit, where I could still reach every tom-tom with no problem."

Ludwig thought so much of the setup they stole Hal's idea and created the Octaplus set, which in turn was copied by other drums companies. The single-headed toms set the tone for the drum sounds of the 1970s and in the 80s, drum companies introduced the drum rack, again inspired by the Monster kit's innovative mounting system.

To learn more about Hal Blaine check out his wonderful autobiography "Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew: The Story of the World's Most Recorded Musician"

Badge Of The Month: Meazzi Hollywood Drums

2008-10-03T16:14:00.006-04:00

Here's a fairly rare badge I found at Rick Smith's drum show in Connecticut a couple years ago. I don't know much about Meazzi other than they were an Italian company that made really funky guitars, basses,drums, and as you can tell by the picture, drum badges. I know that Max Roach endorsed the company and they released a signature kit in his name. I've seen photos of him playing the kit onstage. If you have any more information on Meazzi Hollywood drums, please drop me a line. I found some Meazzi catalogues on the wonderfully extensive drumarchive.com

An anonymous All Things Loud follower left this comment about Meazzi Hollywood Drums:
" Hi, I own a couple of these sets. Really great. The President model is the top of the line and includes a tunable floor tom. I have a jazz set with a 14" floor tom and a 20" bass drum and what I would describe as a big band set with a 28" bass drum and tunable 16"floor tom. Max Roach used them and also Billy Cobham. They were way ahead of there time and very well made and look great. All mine are very thin shells and I believe the wood is Beech. Watch out as the Jolly series and some others do not sound as good. Check out there [sic] acrylic sets which to me sound better than Ludwigs. I am a little addicted to them. You can find them cheap on ebay from time to time as no one really knows what they are, however in Italy you may have to pay a lot more. There is a clip of Billy Cobham on YouTube playing Nutville and his solo is from 2.25 and Max Roach can be also seen playing them, but I do not like the sound on the recording and feel its not a good representation of how the drums sound, but the Cobham one is close."

Thanks for the info!

NAME THAT DRUMMER

2008-09-30T18:29:00.003-04:00

Here's a photo I took at a sound check at Madison Square Garden in 2006. First person to correctly name the drummer in the pic gets a shout out on this blog. Leave a comment below.

ANSWER: It's Nick Mason at a sound check for a Roger Waters show . "Anonymous" had it right. If you look closely at the design on the drums it is from the Hipgnosis-designed cover art for Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon".

Hall of Fame drummer Earl Palmer dead at 84

2008-09-20T14:12:00.005-04:00

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Earl Palmer, the session drummer whose pioneering backbeats were recorded on such classics as Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" and The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin,'" has died. He was 84.

Palmer died Friday at his Los Angeles home after fighting a lengthy illness, his spokesman Kevin Sasaki said.

Born in New Orleans in 1924 and later moving to Los Angeles, Palmer worked extensively in both cities, recording with some of the music world's all-time greats on thousands of tracks.

His beats form the backdrop on Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High," Fats Domino's "The Fat Man" and "I Hear You Knockin'" by Smiley Lewis.

From his Los Angeles home, Palmer drummed for music producer Phil Spector and Motown, and his session credits include artists as diverse as the Monkees, Neil Young and Frank Sinatra.

Palmer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. According to the institution's Web site, Little Richard wrote in his autobiography that Palmer "is probably the greatest session drummer of all time."

I had a chance to spend one of the most memorable days of my life with Earl about three years ago. Chad Smith invited me along to hang with Earl, Hal Blaine, and Jim Keltner for an interview Chad was doing for Modern Drummer. Jim, Chad, and I picked up Earl and his wife and drove to Hal's house in Palm Springs. I set up my video camera and filmed about three hours of Earl and Hal reminiscing about the glory days of studio drumming. There were lots of laughs (and lots of unpublishable stories!) that day and it was an incredible treat to see these two Hall Of Fame musicians, who practically invented Rock and Roll drumming, cajole each other and enjoy each others company. Earl was in declining health but he didn't miss a beat with his warm humor and his easygoing manner. We became friendly and talked a few times after that day. There wasn't a nicer, more generous musician who ever sat down at a drum kit. If you're interested in learning more about Earl's incredible contribution to popular music and the art of drumming, check out his wonderful autobiography Backbeat. So long Earl, keep swinging!

Here's Earl on the classic Fats Domino track "I'm Walkin'"

EXCLUSIVE PICS - CHAD SMITH SUPERGROUP PROJECT

2008-09-15T18:09:00.004-04:00

You saw them here first! Courtesy of Chad Smith come these exclusive photos from his new project with Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, And Michael Anthony. Tentatively titled "Chickenfoot", the band is in the studio recording their debut with British engineering/producing legend Andy Johns. The material I've heard from these guys sounded exactly like you'd expect: heavy, riff and groove driven rock, with great vocals by Sammy and great VH'esque harmonies by Michael Anthony.

Swell Kids Choose Leedy Drums!

2008-09-11T02:34:00.002-04:00

Country Drumming Legend Buddy Harman Dies

2008-09-06T00:04:00.002-04:00

Associated Press

August 24, 2008

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — - Buddy Harman, one of Nashville's most-recorded drummers, has died. He was 79 years old.

Harman played drums on more than 18,000 recordings, including Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman," Patsy Cline's "Crazy," Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" and Elvis Presley's "Little Sister."

He was an early staff drummer on the Grand Ole Opry and among the first prominent drummers in country music history.

The Omnipresent Eames Tom Toms

2008-09-03T15:57:00.004-04:00

You might notice an ongoing theme in many of my session posts - The ubiquitous Eames tom toms. Why, you ask, do you use those Fire Engine Red beauties on almost every session? Good question.

Short answer: Because they rule!

Longer and more labored answer: Because they simply sound better in most studio environments than any other drum I've ever used. At this point many of the engineers/producers I work with ask for them by name. Why? (See short answer)

Seriously though, Eames drums are completely hand-crafted instruments made one at a time by Joe MacSweeney at his workshop in Saugus, MA. Joe took over the company from Ralph Eames a number of years ago and is one of the only drum smiths in the country to actually make his own shells. (Most so-called "Custom" drum companies use shells made by Keller or Asian suppliers). Eames shells are made from North American birch and Joe actually uses the same 19th century drum lathe that was used by the iconic drum maker Geo. B. Stone at his Boston factory. It is quite a site to behold; the inside of the shell to be sanded or edged is grabbed and secured by the chuck arms of the lathe and then the drum is rotated by an adapted alternating current motor.

The toms I own are 9 ply shells, but Joe offers 6, 9, 12, and even 15 ply drum shells. He was the first drum maker to build a monster hi-plied snare drum shell - before Ayotte, Pearl, or anyone else. There is a clarity of attack and a pure note to the drums that makes them my go-to picks 9 times out of 10 for recording. They have more character than any production maple shells I've heard.

You can have Joe drill the shells for any type lugs you want or he can supply the lugs and other hardware. I made a decision a number of years to go with Slingerland Sound King lugs because I liked the look of them and had access to a good amount. I put die-cast hoops on top and bottom (except for the 15x15 tom which seems to work better with a triple-flange on the bottom) and suspend the rack toms on Pearl OptiMounts (which I think are the best designed and most stable of the isolation mounting systems) .

I generally put a coated Remo Emperor on top and a clear Ambassador on the bottom. For bigger rock sounds I go for just a slight pitch bend by tuning the bottom head a little higher than the top. Too much difference between bottom and top and you get what I like to call the "Basketball Effect" or a rubbery pitch bend that sounds like a rubber ball hitting the floor.
Their favorite microphone seems to be a Senheiser 421 angled in around 3-6 inches from the head. Put the mic through an API or a Neve pre and you got yourself some big ass toms on your record.

Keith Moon

2008-08-16T17:39:00.000-04:00

Study: Drummers Are "Top Athletes"

2008-08-08T09:54:00.002-04:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7518888.stm

Chawlie Talks About His Kit

2008-08-06T13:11:00.001-04:00

Great insight from Charlie Watts about his legendary Gretsch kit and cymbals. Enjoy.

For that BIG sound

2008-08-06T05:30:00.003-04:00

So for all of you that have asked, here's the kit I bring whenever a producer wants to get a really big drum sound...

That's old pal Brad Smith and I beating out our version of "When The Levee Breaks" with invisible sticks. The kit resides on the grounds of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's superlative 12 day music orgy known as Summerfest.

Call To Preserve @ The Outpost

2008-08-06T04:51:00.005-04:00

Hardcore heroes Call To Preserve made the pilgrimage from Melbourne, FL to Stoughton, MA and The Outpost to record tracks for their new record "From Isolation". A grand time was had by all and Mike Aviles did a great job with his fast and furious sticksmanship. These boys ROCK!
We used the old standby setup: Eames 9x13" and 15x15" toms, Pearl Steve Ferrone 6.5x14" snare, and the beat-to-hell but still great sounding 16x22" Yamaha kick.

Drumstick Spinology

2008-07-28T17:21:00.000-04:00

Gone Fishing!

2008-07-25T10:22:00.004-04:00

From the left holding massive striped bass, that's Paddy Seacor (drummer,Scissor Sisters), Chad Smith (drummer, Generics), Me, Paddy's girlfriend who's name I forgot.. We caught these monsters off Montauk, NY . They tasted REAL nice!

Gimme Danger @ The Outpost 6/23/08

2008-06-24T09:47:00.003-04:00

Spent the day at The Outpost with former Dropkick Murphys guitarist Marc Orrell's new project Gimme Danger. Marc is playing everything (including drums) on the album, so I set him up with a basic 4 piece kit. Turns out the talented axeman is also an excellent drummer, a real pocket player along the lines of Stan Lynch or Kenny Aronoff. Who knew?! We got great sounds, thanks to the expertise of producer Jim Siegel. I also had some help from upcoming drum tech/good guy Jimmy Pemberton, who tagged along for the day. This promises to be a good record so keep an eye out...

The Genius Of Tony Williams

2008-06-19T22:56:00.002-04:00

For my money Tony was the complete drummer.

2008-06-12T08:43:00.001-04:00

Chad Szeliga / Forever Ouevre Continued ...

2008-05-23T20:46:00.007-04:00

It was the second day of tracking with Chad Szeliga (Breaking Benjamin) for the Forever Oeuvre project. Chad is working from FO's founder Ronny Paige's demo's which had midi drums played on a keyboard by Ronny. To me they sounded almost impossible to replicate on the drum set, but that's exactly what Chad did. These are parts that would've made Danny Carey cross-eyed but Chad somehow made sense of them. He maintained a can do attitude and took it as his mission to make the parts work.
Been giving two new snares from Mapex a workout for a review in DRUM! magazine. We used the new 5.5x14" Black Panther SS Solid Steel snare drum on two songs today. It has a dry sound but tons of punch and never got out of control. The drum is made from a solid steel pipe then is routed out on the inside leaving "soundrings" on the top and bottom, not unlike glue hoops on a wood snare drum. Keep an eye out for my review.

Forever Oeuvre @ House Of Loud 5/22/08

2008-05-22T21:53:00.005-04:00

Spent the afternoon getting drum sounds for drummer Chad Szeliga (Breaking Benjamin) for the new record by Forever Oeuvre. More tomorrow...

Smartbomb @ The Outpost 5/19/08

2008-05-20T23:35:00.002-04:00

Worcester Ma punks Smartbomb exploded The Outpost and took no freaking prisoners, okay? Drummer Erik Perkins held down the fort on a DW kit with the rest of the band following his machine-gun fast tempos. Much ROCK was achieved.

More Morningwood...

2008-05-16T17:51:00.004-04:00

Morningwood @ Water Music, Hoboken,NJ 5/15-16 2008

2008-05-16T16:20:00.012-04:00

I'm at the George Augsburger-designed "Big Room" at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ with the band Morningwood , cutting drums on four songs for an upcoming EP on Capitol Records. MW's bassist, Pedro Yanowitz, is also an excellent drummer (having played for The Wallflowers among others) and did a fine job on the songs. Sam Koppelman (Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, Amy Winehouse) also played on the session.
I love the drum room at Water Music because it sounds great and you can track with a huge room sound but you also have the choice to tighten up the sound with gobo's and baffles. Producer Kato Khandwala had already tracked everything but drums because of scheduling issues, so the challenge was to fit the drums to existing tracks . We used the ubiquitous Eames 13" and 15" toms (which sounded huge in the room) and my one-of-a-kind 5x14" Drum Heaven Raw Brass snare drum, the Pearl Steve Ferrone, and Pedro's 1920s brass 7x14 Ludwig & Ludwig.

Drummer Fines - Updated List sent by Hal Blaine

2008-05-14T10:29:00.002-04:00

Setup / Equipment Offenses-

Brings a 26" bass drum - $25
Has more than one bass drum - $100.
Brings an 8" deep snare (for a solid back beat) - $50.
Brings more than 2 mounted toms - $25.
Has a tubular chrome bar that holds all his mounted toms - $50.
Brings more than one floor tom - $25.
Uses extra floor tom for ashtray & drink holder - $75
Brings more than two crash cymbals - $25.
Doesn't bring a ride cymbal - $250.
Brings a 46" Chinese gong (for big endings) - $75.
Brings two timpa ni (for really big endings) - $100.
Brings extra splashes (Just in case) - $25 each
Doesn't own any brushes - $300.
Owns brushes but can't play them - $500
Has a hi-hat that is welded shut - $250.
Asks leader where he can plug in his headphones - $200.
Asks Guitarist for help with unloading drums - $150
Wears dirty white Nike sneakers on tux gig - $50.
Tunes snare drum during the benediction - $175.
Tunes snare drum - $10

-Miscellaneous Offenses-

Is first in line at the party's buffet -$50.
Asks where the "to-go bags" are at the buffet line -$100.
Asks the bartender for 3 "Purple Shooters" - $50.
Says to the bride "You've got a nice set of hooters" - $25.
Says to the brides mother "Hey this is a f#%*in' good party"- $150.
Is ten minutes late for the next set - $25.
Is twenty minutes late for the next set - $10.
Never shows up for the next set - $1.
Excessive Sweating - $5000
Hits on singer's girlfriend - $5
Hits on club owner’s wife - $1000

-Drummer Crimes-

Bringing a mega kit to a multiband gig. - $100
Breaking that kit down on stage after set. - $250
Asks bassist to move rig so third floor tom will fit onstage - $50 (per Sq. Ft.)
Extra logo stickers on bass drum head - $75 each.
Stick holders - $10
Drumming Shoes - $100
Drumming gloves - Dismissal
Double pedals - $500
USING the double pedals. - Dismissal
Wearing Zildjian T-shirt onstage. - $50
Roto toms. - $50 each
Extra deep kicks and toms. - $50 each
Glow in the dark drumsticks - $500

No Harm Done @ The Outpost, Stoughton, MA 5/7/08

2008-05-08T14:06:00.005-04:00

I worked with Orlando, FL's own No Harm Done at The Outpost yesterday and really enjoyed their fast-paced melodic punk songs. Producer Jim Siegel who owns and operates the Outpost decided to track the band live and wanted a tighter drum sound so we moved the kit from it's usual front and center position in the room to the left corner. He put up a couple of baffles and mic'ed accordingly. Jim is one of the fastest and best engineers I've worked with and I learn so much from him at every session we do. The main tracking room at The Outpost is, for my money, the best drum room in New England. The room is very live all the way around without having any nasty standing waves or distortion. I've done more records there (Dropkick Murphys, Death Before Dishonor, Unseen, etc.) than any other studio and Jim and I always have some good laughs.
We used the house 22x16" Yamaha Recording Custom bass drum, my Eames 13x9" and 15x15" toms and the ubiquitous Pearl Steve Ferrone snare drum.
Drummer Tommy Cantwell and the band were completely prepared and knocked off about 19 tunes in a couple of days. Tommy looks like the kid next door but hits the drums with the authority of a seasoned player. Keep an eye out for these guys on their next tour.

3 Year Old Drummer Is Badddddddasss!

2008-05-05T15:37:00.003-04:00

Check out this article from the Detroit News. His website has some excellent clips. The kid looks like a natural. Watch out Dennis Chambers... Thanks to Tom Donati for the heads-up!

2008-05-04T16:36:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Hal Blaine for sending this one.

Kids In The Way @ Water Music, Hoboken 12/06

2008-04-30T18:58:00.006-04:00

I had worked with the young lads from Kids In The Way on a single in 2005 at Threshold Music and was drafted again by producer Kato Khandwala to tech for their full-length release "Love Hate Masquerade" which we recorded at Water Music Studios in Frank Sinatra's hometown of Hoboken, NJ, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. KITW's drummer Eric Carter had improved greatly since our first session and attacked each take with energy and power. Sadly, as is more often the case than not, the band broke up recently. Too bad, they were a nice bunch of guys.

And You Think Your Kit Is Big

2008-04-30T14:57:00.002-04:00

Here's a pic I took of Mike Portnoy's monster drum set at Avatar Studios in NYC in September 2006. Nuff said!

Badges?!? We don't need no stinking badges!!

2008-04-30T14:16:00.003-04:00

Call me a drum geek (go ahead, I dare you) but one of the things I like to collect are the badges from various vintage and custom drums. So in the spirit of drumspotting, here's some for your viewing pleasure.

Fall Out Boy at Chung King Studios 12/15/06

2008-04-30T07:59:00.007-04:00

Back at the end of 2006, my friend producer/engineer/pizza chef Scott Riebling asked me to drum tech on a session for Fall Out Boy at Chung King studios in NYC. Scott had been working for producer Butch Walker on various sessions and Butch was producing some songs for FOB's new record. We used Carl Plaster's 22" DW kick drum, my 9x13 and 15x15 custom Eames and went back and forth between a 6.5x14" Drum Heaven Galaxy snare drum (the first one I ever built!) and the Pearl Steve Ferrone. It was exciting to watch lead singer/composer Pat Stump write and demo an entire song and then see the band record it. The result "Don't You Know Who I Think I Am?" can be heard on FOB's 2007 album Infinity On High. The video is of Patrick Stump and Butch Walker laying down guitars.

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie spotted in NYC

2008-04-28T10:28:00.009-04:00

I was in NYC last week and stopped by Smash Studios for a private party thrown by my friends at Sabian. Lots of great drummers like Will Calhoun and Horacee Arnold were in attendance, but stealing the show yet again was the legendary Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. If you don't know who Purdie is, you owe it to yourself to check out his career and listen to some of the classic records he's played on including Aretha's "Rock Steady", Steely Dan's "Home At Last", and many others by Donny Hathaway, Joe Cocker, Hall and Oates, and of course the great King Curtis (see below YouTube imbed).

Bernard is the originator of the "Purdie Shuffle" best illustrated on "Home At Last" and copied by none other than John Bonham on Led Zeppelin's "Fool In The Rain" and Jeff Porcaro on "Roseanna".

Never the shrinking violet, Purdie hopped on the drumset at the party and gave a brief (and poorly recorded by me) but funky dissertation on his patented groove.