Well, most of my drum stuff is on the Drums
and Percussion Page. That page also contains links to most of the other
drums/percussion stuff on the web.
I’ll add more stuff as time goes on.
After cleaning, cymbals can stay clean longer by giving them a coat of car wax. Armor All attracts dust, so cymbals treated with it will only get dirty faster. Warning: Don’t use wax on cymbals that still have their lathe grooves (like a normal A Zildjian). It’s almost impossible to remove the wax from the grooves. Wax works best on smooth cymbals like Brilliant’s, A Custom’s, Platinum’s, Z’s, etc.
A more complete article on this subject.
I also used gloves for a few years. Nobody made drumming gloves at that time, so I used leather batting gloves from the Trophy Glove Company in Albia, IA. These are fantastic gloves for drumming. The have full leather stick contact, and the leather is nice and thin, unlike some Wilson batting gloves I tried. A pair of these generally lasted me a year and a half.
At some point, Beato came out with their drumming gloves (I think they
were first). They sucked. They were black, so the dye would stain your
hands. The leather was thick, so you couldn’t feel the stick. Worst of
all, they put the breathable nylon material on the
sides of the
fingers, precisely where the stick rests, making it impossible to hold
onto the sticks. Whoever designed those gloves should’ve been shot.
If the above applies to you, here’s your answer. Buy some thin wire cable, cable U-clamps, and some dog leash or boating hooks (those things with the spring-loaded eyelets). Devise ways to hook the cable to your bass drum (either to the spurs or to the pedals), hi-hat, and throne. Cut the cable to length and attach the hooks with the U-clamps.
What I did to attach the cable to my bass drums was cut a small section from an eye bolt (to make a sickle shaped hook), drill holes through the spur legs, and put the eye bolts through the holes in the spurs. Then on that end of the cable I use those teardrop shaped thingies that you use to make a loop at the end of a cable, so the cable would simply hook to the spurs. I did about the same with my hi-hat and throne, except my brother welded hooks onto them for me.
In all the years that I used this system, my stuff never moved away from me. At first I used nylon rope, but it was a bit too stretchy. TIP: Mount the cable as close to the floor as you can so you’ll be less likely to trip over them.
Equipment
Ensoniq EPS16+ sampler loaded with just a basic practice set; Octapud
in the "snare" position triggering snare and toms; 4 Dauz pads on the rack
(normally toms) triggering the cymbals; 2 DW EP-1’s triggering basses.
Recorded into the EPS’ sequencer (no magic applied other than fixing one
double-trigger); dumped to 4-track; dumped to Mac 8500 as 16-bit 44.1kHz
stereo AIFF; converted to .wav (then to an .mp3 in 2005).
Of course, I’m used to playing a totally different set, like with real cymbals higher than 3' off the ground and a hi-hat to my left instead of in front of me. :) So this isn’t a fair representation of my style. But it works for this little drum battle thing and it sounds good.
In 8th grade I met a guitarist. He knew another guitarist. We started a band called Black Diemond (yes, Diemond), butchering Kiss and Van Halen songs mainly. We did a few sock hops and assorted dances for our and other schools. There have been about 8 bands since ’82, all of them had at least one of the original members from the high school band, so we pretty much know how each other plays by this point. :)
My real love for drumming appeared when I heard my brother’s Rush album, Fly By Night. I’ve gone through big band and progressive jazz phases, speed metal and pseudo-punk phases, classical phases, etc. I’ve taken influences from each as far as my drumming goes.
Here are some of my favorite drum performances that are a good indication
of my style (in no particular order):
| Drummer | Band | Album | Song |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neil Peart | Rush | Exit... Stage Left | La Villa Strangiato |
| Vinnie Colaiuta | Sting | Ten Summoners Tales | Love is Stronger Than Justice |
| Stewart Copeland | The Police | Ghost in the Machine | Sprits in the Material World |
| Gene Krupa | Gene Krupa Band | The George White Follies movie | Leave Us Leap |
| William Calhoun | Living Colour | Vivid | Desperate People |
So, my style is a weird mix of odd timings over straight signatures,
lots of fills, busy time, double-bass galore (I can’t think of one song
we do where my left foot doesn’t wander over to the bass pedal), lots of
accents here and there, all in all over-playing. I hate to groove in the
sense of just laying down a beat. I generally prefer playing cymbals to
toms.
Click here to see a description
of my set.
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All software programs, images, sounds, and documents
contained within these pages are © Armpit Studios X by Steve Mills
(MuffinHead) except where otherwise noted.