The «Drum Series» Episode 0 – An Introduction

In the past months, I had the chance to set up, test and present multiple E-Drums. When I was a kid, I always told my dad that one day I want to own one of these things, as I thought E-Drums would be the future. So many cool sounds in one kit, easy compatibility, small footprint etc.

Well, fast forward a few years and I will pick an acoustic drum set over any electronic one, period. No electronic drum set feels and sounds like an acoustic one. Granted, they get close, but even if the budget is endless, nothing will match hitting a well tunes snare drum while sitting behind a wall of shiny cymbals.

And the best thing: it is very easy to get into drumming. There are so many good sounding kits that cost half of what a decent electronic drum set would set you back. So, in my opinion, leaving the noise-aspect out of the equation, there is no reason why you should go for an electronic drum set if you have the choice.

Acoustic Drums: a long-time purchase

But let’s start with a little background story: I started drumming as a child on an old Sonor Force 2000 kit. It was the drum set my dad played as a teenager and made from 9 ply poplar shells. When I turned 14, my dad told me to jump in the car, and we drove into the Swiss countryside to pick up a second-hand Yamaha Stage Custom. Obviously, the difference was night and day: full birch shells for maximum attack, well maintained hardware, beautiful honey amber finish… I was ecstatic. I liked the birch shells so much in fact, that 7 years later, I custom ordered a brand new 8-piece Yamaha Stage Custom from MusiX. It was gorgeous and sounded phenomenal. I had 4 rack toms (8”, 10”, 12” and 14”), two floor toms (16” and 18”) and a 20” Kick. I liked the drum set so much, I threw in the towel half a year later, sold all my drum-gear and stopped playing completely. Do not ask me why!

The point I am trying to make is, that I completely understand that a drum set is a long-term investment. It not only has big upfront and running costs, but it also takes away space. So, when purchasing one, you want to be sure that it will keep you happy for the next 5+ years, if not longer, as the example of me playing on my dad’s kit shows.

Introducing: the “Drum Series”

The goal of this series is not showing off my very limited and rusty skill behind the drums or showcasing boutique products a regular guy like me will never be able to afford. Instead, I want to give you confidence in your purchasing decision, so you and even your kids down the line will have a drum set that sparks fun and joy for many years to come.

So, guess what? I took EVERY single drum set model we have in stock at MusiX, miced it up and recorded an informational showcase/review video for all of them. Not only will you therefore get all necessary info about specs and hardware, but you will also hear someone talking honestly about setting the kit up, ease of changing heads and tuning stability, but also, I will give recommendations for accessories and the best settings to use the specific drum set in. And most importantly, you will get to hear the kit in action.

And when I say every drum set, I mean every drum set. We are looking at kits starting at as low as 500 CHF, kits made from all kinds of materials such as poplar, maple, mahogany, even acrylic. And of course, we are also looking at the higher end of the market with some REALLY nice looking and sounding drums. Making this series even gave me a chance to fulfil some small dreams I had when I was actively drumming, like playing a DW kit for example.

However, it is VERY IMPORTANT to mention that not a single aspect of this series was sponsored by any brand. Of course, as a MusiX employee, I am still aiming to sell you these drum sets, but if there was something that caught my eye, such as a drum not staying in tune, missing hardware, lack of packaging etc., I will tell you so in the video.

Ground Rules

To keep the variables of the sound demonstrations as controlled as possible, I put some ground rules in place for the videos. This also helped with keeping my boss happy, as it minimized the number of products I used up for this series.

Hardware and Heads

Let’s start with hardware: to make switching out drum sets as efficient as possible, I set up my trusty old rack system I still had from my active days. This allowed me to rely on multiclamps and boom arms rather than an army of cymbal- and tom stands. However, this also means that I did not showcase any hardware that would come with some of the drum sets, but do not worry, if that was the case, I mentioned it in the video.

For cymbals, I used the ones I still had left at home. That way I did not have to use up any from our stock and could hit them as hard as I did back in the day. Now, was it absolutely necessary to have so many cymbals and a four-sided drum rack? Of course not. Is it nice to have? YES! Filming this series actually (almost) re-ignited the spark inside of me as I realised how much fun it was to sit behind a big drum set.

All my cymbals are Paiste. I have always been a Paiste player as they were more affordable than other brands when I was expanding my drum set back in the day, while also sounding the way a cymbal should sound in my opinion. Plus, my two favourite drummers, Joey Jordison (Slipknot) and Eugene Ryabchenko (ex-Belphegor, Fleshgod Apocalypse) were/are both Paiste-Artists. Furthermore, my two favourite cymbals are also from Paiste: the 19” 2002 Wild China, for me the definition of a China sound (it is the one you can hear all over Slipknots “All Hope is Gone”- Album) and the massive 24” Rude Mega Bell Ride. I actually owned this one back in the day, but being the Idiot that I am, I sold it. Plus, the Paiste Alpha Metal Series is still my favourite ever cymbal-line. To this day I have a bee in my bonnet about Paiste discontinuing them, but that is another topic.

16" Crash Cymbals
14” Alpha Hyper Hat Top (I use it as a Bell cymbal due to its weight)
16" PST8 Reflector China
15” Alpha Rock HiHat
16” Alpha Rock Crash
12” Alpha Boomer Splash
18" Crash Cymbals
14” Alpha Hyper Hat Top on a Alpha Metal Sound Edge Bottom
20” Alpha Metal Crash
20” Alpha Rock Ride
18" China Cymbals
14” Alpha China

The pedals I used were the Tama DynaSync with the stock beaters. For sticks, I went with the Vic Firth 5BN. With their nylon tip they offer a pingy sound on the ride while delivering a tactile feel on the drums.

For drumheads, I went with Evans. Again, this is due to what we had in stock, and also to the fact that I have played Evans all my life and was familiar with their sound, tuning and feel across their lineup. Plus, it also meant that I did not damage any of the drumheads that come with each kit. This added HOURS in set up and tuning time, as I had to take off the factory heads, put on the Evans heads, tune them, record the video, take off the Evans heads, put the factory heads back on… It was a nightmare. But at least you can be sure that your drums will arrive in factory condition.

For the toms, I went with the Evans EC2 SST Clear heads. With their double 7mil ply structure, they have the durability to survive a beating across 15 different drum sets, while also being easy to tune and offering a great sound with nice sustain. The last part was crucial for me, as I wanted you to hear the resonance and characteristics of different types of wood at play. For the snare, I went with a UV2 head. Yes, I know, it is made primarily for toms, but trust me, try this one out on a snare. It is also 7mil double ply, making it very durable, but also, it allows for very high tunings, which I personally prefer. Plus, it is INCREDIBLY easy to tune.

To control the overtones, I used Moongel where appropriate. Meanwhile, I left all the resonant heads untouched.

For the kickdrum, I used a classic EMAD Heavyweight with the integrated dampening system, coupled with a Remo Falam Slam to create that extra attack.

Now, some of the drum sets did not have a hole in the reso head of the kickdrum. Since I wanted to mic the kickdrum from the inside, I used an EQ3 for these kits. For internal-dampening, I went with the pillow-thing provided with the Pearl Export kits, so every kick across the board had the same baseline, regardless of size or brand.

Some drum sets in this series come with a snare, others do not. If that was the case, I used my custom 48ply beast of a drum. Do not worry, I have disclosed this information in every episode if that was the case. It still used the Evans UV2 on top, but my snare is tuned to the absolute maximum. I like to have a contrast between my snare and my toms. Hence why I tune the snare extremely high while the toms are fairly low to create that boomy cannon-sound. This is of course personal preference, but this is the sound I grew up with, listening to a lot of heavier bands like Lamb of God, Slipknot, Belphegor and so on.

To ensure a nice, even tuning across the different kits, I utilized the Tama Tension watch. I have used a DrumDial in the past, which is basically the same system. And I can only recommend either one of them. They help finding a drum’s baseline very quickly before finetuning it. Plus, the provided table offers a good guideline for specific sizes and depths.

Recording Setup

Now, to make one thing clear from the beginning: I am by no means a professional sound/recording engineer. I have studied this matter for one semester, as I did my Matura-Paper on “how to record a 9-piece Drum Set”. This led to me achieving a better sound than the average social media drummer, but it will not rival a proper studio setup.

Most of the things I learned when it comes to micing and mixing a drum set I got from Glenn Fricker’s YouTube Channel “Spectre Sound Studios”. So, if you are looking for studio-gear reviews or to level up your mixes, look no further.

So, let’s start with the Interfaces I used. I went with Focusrite, simply because I was already familiar with how their control software and devices work.

I started with a Scarlett 18i16 MK4, coupled with a Scarlett OctoPre via ADAT to add 8 additional XLR Inputs.

The great thing about the Scarlett 18i16 MK4 is its auto gain-function. Just click a button, play for a few seconds and the interface will set the gain according to the source’s heat. However, after the first five drum sets were completed, I switched the 18i16 for a Clarett+ 8 Pre. I have always wanted to try one of these to see for myself if it actually keeps its promise regarding the extended headroom. And what can I say, it worked perfectly fine. I was able to record without using any extra attenuators or in-line pads (apart from those that were built into some microphones from the start) in the signal chain.

For microphones, I went with Audix and Lewitt. I utilized the Lewitt LCT 240 Pro to mic the toms, the bottom of the snare and later the overheads. For the rack toms, the D2 was clipped onto the hoop, while the floor tom was miced with a D4. If a drum set had two floor toms, I used the Audix D6 to mic that one. For the bottom of the snare, I used the i5 to capture that wire-buzz. All these mics worked great; however, I am not very fond of the clips Audix uses to clamp them onto the toms. They are very fiddly and not very sturdy, meaning I had to readjust the rack tom mics multiple times while playing.

The overhead mics were the Audix ADX51. With their built in -10dB pad and low-cut filter they worked like a charm and were a valid alternative to the Lewitt LCT 140 Air’s I used for the first half of the recording.

I love the Lewitt LCT 140 Air microphone. It is one of my all-time favourites, small, light, built in pad, low cut filter and air mode. It is so good in fact, that I use it in my Job as a videographer all the time as a boom mic for interviews or talking head pieces. The reason I switched them out for the Audix ADX51 after a while was simple: someone bought the stereo pair I was using for the videos.

I am generally a big fan of Lewitt microphones. Their DTP 340 TT tom mics are some of the best sounding, bang for the buck dynamic tom mics money can buy in my opinion. Plus, they can withstand a beating, as I have hit them during fills multiple times back in the day when I had them on my own drum set. And they sound great for guitar too. But sadly, we did not have enough in stock during the time I recorded these videos.

I also used a combination of Lewitt and Audix to mic the top of the snare. I do not remember where I learned this technique, it probably was Glen Fricker again, but I could be wrong. Anyways, I used an Audix D6 coupled with another Lewitt LCT 140 Air. This allowed me to get the initial attack from the dynamic Audix mic, while catching the nuances and “ring” of the drum with the Lewitt condenser.

For the kickdrum, I got to test a microphone which I have been itching to try for a very long time, the Lewitt DTP 640 Rex. With its dual capsule set up (kind of the same thing I tried to simulate with the setup for the top of the snare), I get two signals: a dynamic one for the “oomph” and a condenser to capture the attack. At least that is how I set it up. The microphone actually features a switch that lets you finetune the specific frequencies each capsule targets, making it very versatile and, in my opinion, the best kick mic on the market. Furthermore, it also features a built-in pad that goes all the way down to -20dB.

And finally, the room mic. While yes, usually you would go for two mics in an upside-down-configuration and aiming at the corners of the room behind the drum set, I went with only one room mic, as I knew I would build an artificial room within the mix anyways (a technique I also learned from Glen Fricker and transformed my drum mixes). So, for this series, I went with a Lewitt LCT 240 Pro. Small, reliable, cheap, but still a great sound. However, as I wanted to capture the room, I aimed the capsule away from the drum set.

Final thoughts

Across this series, I have gotten the chance to review multiple different hardware systems from different brands, play magnificent drum sets made from exotic materials and was surprised how well the entry level spectrum of the market can sound.

Something I will always recommend though, no matter whether you purchase a 500 or 10’000 CHF kit, are lug locks. Trust me, I am a heavy hitter and therefore more prone to a tom detuning mid-set, regardless of whether I have die-cast hoops installed or not. But lug locks genuinely changed my life as a drummer… and saved my custom snare from being thrown into the furnace!

So, stay tuned for the first episode of this series. We will have a total of 15 kits to look at together, so the next few weeks will be busy!

A new video drops every other day, accompanied with a magazine article such as this one on the website. The videos consist of a more informational part where I talk about specs and options, as well as of course a sound demonstration. The day after that, I will drop a little cover on my own channel, showing the drum set in action.