In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I would pay homage to the products that I simply could not function without. Lets get right into it!
1) Vater 5B, and 5A Los Angeles Wood Tip Sticks
Vater 5B’s are my primary stick, but I value both of these sticks equally. I use the 5B’s for all of my heavier, rock type stuff, and the Los Angeles’ for anything lighter. I work with a lot of singer/songwriters and the los angeles’ allow me to play lighter with the same amount of control.
5B/5A Los Angeles
2) Moongel
I can’t say enough about this product.It’s simply essential for studio situations, and should be part of any studio musicians arsenal. This little gem has helped me out on many occasions, and allowed me to eliminate hours of tuning and tweaking in the studio.
Moongel
3) Remo Coated Ambassador
This is, I believe, one of the most versatile heads on the market. I have used it for many different tunings, and have gotten some great sounds with it. It is my go to head whenever I’m in doubt.
Remo Coated Ambassador
4) LP Softshake
I have used this shaker in countless musical situations. It achieves a great balance between attack and great tone, and Is a solid addition to anyones gear bag. It also tracks extremely well.
LP Softshake
5) DW 7000 PX Double Pedal
This is the best, and only pedal I have ever played. It was the first pedal I ever purchased, and having tried countless others in music school, and other random situations, still my favorite. It allows me to get the perfect balance between weight and tension for maximum control.
Josh Freese Playing with Devo in Chicago Nov 12, 2009
This is a great video of Josh Freese playing with Devo, who he has just recently come off tour with. This Video is of Josh in Chicago on Nov 12. Enjoy!
Matt Chamberlain just got off a short tour with Regina Spektor, and this is a little footage of them playing the Late Late show. The sound is great, and listen to Matt’s tones, aren’t they badass! Enjoy!
Great Matt Chamberlain Performance with Regina Spektor
I have always had trouble picking heads for different situations. Granted it does come down to preference, and to know what you like for certain things, you simply have to experiment. There are some heads though, that I always use as my default, and that I know will sound good in pretty much any situation. I am a Remo fan, but used Evans heads for a long time as well, and have some suggestions for both. I believe that the most versatile head that Remo makes is the coated ambassador. These heads always sound great, tune up well, and consistently allow me to achieve a great balance between attack, and warmth/tone. I use coated ambassadors for an alternative/indie band that I play with, and recently did a reggae/rock session with them the other day. They performed great in both situations. I am also a fan of the clear ambassadors, and the clear emperors. A clear head will give you more sustain, and tends to be brighter, as the lack of coating allows the head to vibrate more.
Remo Coated Ambassador
many people underestimate the importance of the resonant head, but it serves a great purpose than some might think. The resonant head is where most of your tone comes from. I prefer to use a clear head on the bottom, and pick which one depending on the situation. Most head companies make resonant heads specifically. I usually use clear ambassadors as my resonant heads, but a clear emperor will work great as well. I like a thin resonant head as it gives me more sustain to play with. Evans also makes a great resonant head called the Evans Resonant.
Clear Ambassador/Clear Emperor
As far as bass drum heads go, I used to use the Evans Emad head which I still consider a great head. It comes with it’s own dampening ring that fits in a plastic casing on the outside of the head and provides a good amount of dampening when paired with an inside dampening. the only bad thing I noticed about this head is it becomes a bit boingy when tuned high. It is definitely meant to deliver a low, rock punch and tone. The other head I have been using quite a bit recently is the Remo smooth white bass drum head. It also delivers a great deep, punchy attack while maintaining a fair amount of tone.
Remo Smooth White/Evans Emad
The bottom line when picking out a head is experimentation. Find a head that best describes you as a player, and helps define your sound. Its all based on preference, so have fun!
As I get more and more session experience, I learn more about how to get good tones in the studio, especially snare tones. The overall tone you get out of a drum is determined many factors, such as how you tune the batter and resonant heads, what type of wood, and the quality of wood the drum is made of, the quality of the head, how you hit the drum, and about a thousand others. It takes time to develop a studio tuning technique that consistently gets you good tones, and makes micing and finding tones easier for the engineer. It also takes time to learn certain tricks you can use to deaden an annoying, or obnoxious tone that you cannot seem to get rid of with tuning alone. These tricks come especially in handy when dealing with snare drums, because their are a lot more variables to deal with, mainly the snares themselves. There is one product that I rely on very heavily to help me with this, and that I never go to a session without. The product is called Moongel, and its a priceless little tool that you can pick up for about $5. The product is pictured below, and is nothing more than a small blue gel pad that you can stick on your drums to drastically reduce ring, and sustain.
Moongel
It looks tiny, but has a greater effect than you would probably imagine. I often use these pads on the bottom of my snare drums, in order to keep the overall tone of the drum but reduce the unnecessary rattle that the snares sometimes produce. You can also use them on the batter or resonant heads of you toms to kill some of the overtone. If you don’t have any moongel handy, and you are in a situation where you need to kill tone, there are some other tricks you can use to get the job done. Duct tape is a great deadening tool, and lots of drummers will tape various things like tissue, or cardboard to their drums to achieve the same thing. Try experimenting with different types of tape, and adhesive products that will stick to your drums, and deaden ring. Have fun finding your own studio tones!
There are a few drummers on the planet that virtually every other drummer knows of, and worships. It’s safe to call these guys legends, and among them is a person whos name has been synonymous with countless big name artists over the last few decades. Vinnie Colaiuta is one of the most influential drummers of our time, and few have appeared on as many recordings as he has in his career. Below is a video of him playing with Karizma, and the song is a straight rock tune called “I’m Tweaked.” Notice right around 3 minutes in, when Vinnie starts displacing the groove. It sounds like he’s moving beat 1 around, and cutting off notes in various measures, but in reality he is displacing the entire groove by 1 sixteenth note each time until he lands back on beat 1. For a fun counting exercise, try to count sixteenth notes along with Vinnie as he displaces the groove. See if you can keep your count right on until he comes back to 1! It will definitely give you a new respect for the musicians he is playing with who have to keep their place while Vinnie goes crazy. Enjoy!
Vinnie Colaiuta Playing the Tune “I’m Tweaked” With Karisma
Every now and then I will post a product review of something that I get the opportunity to use in my playing. I recently advised one of my private students on buying a new drum kit, and he could not be happier with his decision. After exploring a few options, and considering my advice, he went with a Pearl Forum series kit. Let me start off by saying that for the money, I believe that this is one of the best, if not the best beginner kit you can buy. I should also mention that my first drum kit was a Pearl Forum, and it worked great for me until I reached the point of upgrading. Below are a few pictures so you can get an idea of what this kit looks like.
Pearl Forum Series Drum Kit
Between the time I owned one of these kits and now, Pearl has made some fantastic improvements. The first thing I noticed after setting up and tuning this kit was the tone. The tone of these drums far exceeded my expectation, having known they were purchased for less than $600. The shells are 6 ply Poplar, but replicate the tonal quality of a decent Birch or Mahogany drum. Pearl has also improved their tom mounting design, as these drums are equipped with with Pearls integrated suspension system mounts. This system eliminated the need to drill holes in the shells of your drums, which greatly improves tone and sustain. They also now hook to the rim of the drum, (unlike the Pearl Optimount System,) which makes tuning your drums less of a hassle.
Pearl Integrated Suspension System Tom Mount
Appearance is also important when purchasing a kit, and now Pearl offers black hardware on a few colors in this series (as pictured above) providing the beginning drummer the opportunity to own a sleek, expensive looking set. Their new low-mass lugs also help to increase resonance. All of these changes make this kit sound much better than one would expect. I would fully recommend this kit for anyone looking to buy their first drum set. Happy shopping!
As you know I’m a huge Josh Freese fan, and not just because of his ability, but because of the demand that circulates around him. He works as much, if not more than any other session/first call drummer in the business, and is currently periodically touring/gigging/recording with Weezer among others. Weezer recently did a couple of nights on David Letterman, and Josh Freese was makin’ it happen as usual. The following video is of Josh playing with Weezer on Letterman the other night, so enjoy!
Josh Freese Playing with Weezer on Letterman on 10/29/09
Josh is a hard dude to keep up with as he works with multiple big name, legendary artists such as Weezer, Sting, Devo, and The Vandals on a regular basis. He is about to go on tour with Devo, so with any luck I’ll be able to snag some live footage of him with them soon. Keep checking back for the latest vids!
Moongel
Pearl Integrated Suspension System Tom Mount