Over the past five years, I have built myself a recording studio with real guitars, basses, tube amps and microphones, all for the elusive experiment of finding tone nirvana.
But making music with real guitars isn’t much fun with sampled drum loops and virtual drum machines.
So off I went, to start building a little drum kit. I figured a full kit was too big, and what I was really after was the three main instruments that form the foundation of modern music: Bass, Snare and Hi-hats.
I bought a used Pearl Export bass drum, a DW 3000 pedal, a brand new Pearl brass piccolo snare, a cheap snare stand, and borrowed my brother’s Paiste 13” hats and his DW Hi-hat stand. I got it all set up in my basement studio - that 22x18” kick was huge - and started to snap out some funky rhythms. That night, I played from 6:30pm to about 8pm.
I repeated this again the next evening. I live in a semi-attached house and I knew I had to quit before any of my neighbours considered turning in for the evening.
Then I got the dreaded “I can hear your drums” email from the neighbour in the next house - not the attached neighbour - the one that is separated from me by a sidewalk! She said she could hear the bass drum all the way in her 2nd floor bedroom.
I didn’t need an upset neighbour. So that weekend, I brought the kick and snare back to the store with a frantic look of frustration. The drum dude there - a young John Bonham-like guy, took the Pearl gear back and said, “Jeff - Have you considered E-Drums?”.
I had tried them over a decade ago, but I don’t remember being very impressed.
But technology continues to move forward. And I was convinced within 30 minutes.
I came home with a Roland SPD-30 Octapad, a KD-9 kick trigger, a PD-105 snare pad, a CY-8 cymbal to use as a hi-hat and a FD-8 hi-hat foot controller, and became a V-Drums advocate from that day on.
But making music with real guitars isn’t much fun with sampled drum loops and virtual drum machines.
So off I went, to start building a little drum kit. I figured a full kit was too big, and what I was really after was the three main instruments that form the foundation of modern music: Bass, Snare and Hi-hats.
I bought a used Pearl Export bass drum, a DW 3000 pedal, a brand new Pearl brass piccolo snare, a cheap snare stand, and borrowed my brother’s Paiste 13” hats and his DW Hi-hat stand. I got it all set up in my basement studio - that 22x18” kick was huge - and started to snap out some funky rhythms. That night, I played from 6:30pm to about 8pm.
I repeated this again the next evening. I live in a semi-attached house and I knew I had to quit before any of my neighbours considered turning in for the evening.
Then I got the dreaded “I can hear your drums” email from the neighbour in the next house - not the attached neighbour - the one that is separated from me by a sidewalk! She said she could hear the bass drum all the way in her 2nd floor bedroom.
I didn’t need an upset neighbour. So that weekend, I brought the kick and snare back to the store with a frantic look of frustration. The drum dude there - a young John Bonham-like guy, took the Pearl gear back and said, “Jeff - Have you considered E-Drums?”.
I had tried them over a decade ago, but I don’t remember being very impressed.
But technology continues to move forward. And I was convinced within 30 minutes.
I came home with a Roland SPD-30 Octapad, a KD-9 kick trigger, a PD-105 snare pad, a CY-8 cymbal to use as a hi-hat and a FD-8 hi-hat foot controller, and became a V-Drums advocate from that day on.
Comments