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SPECS TALK contains some viewpoints, concepts and tips on handling gear.
TUNING / MUFFLING
"As far as my snare drum sound is concerned, I personally like a fast, responsive, crisp, rather classical snare sound with a nice lightnin` bark when I go for a accent or rimshot. Head and snare-tension are fairly tight (not choking though) to get that pitch and that certain "sweet" feel that I'm looking for. I hardly muffle my snare drum ever. If I do, I'll use one piece of "Moongel" at the "one o clock" position on the drum head. The small sized snare drums I'm using with NERVE I tune as high as possible. The head tension almost feels like concrete. I want that "Chipmunk" crack!
With the toms I go for a bright, wide open, tonally clear defined sound (as opposed to the "drop-tone","baaoouuu"sound). It has also been referred to as "The Cannon sound". I tune both batter and bottom heads to the same tension. I'm trying to get the smallest tom as high as possible (without choking the sound),and the largest one as low as I can (without loosing its tone). That way I get the most definition and separation between the toms. I also tune my toms a little higher than I would expect them to sound from behind the kit, but that way I found them to project much better in the audience. No muffling.
A similar approach is used with the bass drum; two heads (front head with 8" hole), wide open, kind'a "bonham thing", but with a 18" or 20" I get more of a "pow" sound. To get a little more "smack" I usually stick a Remo Kevlar patch on to the aera wich the beater strikes. Tuning on both heads is quite low, sometimes just tight enough to get the wrinkles out of the head. For the Jungle stuff I might tune the smaller bass drums a little higher to get more of a "Boink" sound. I try to use as little muffling as possible. Either I use the bottom half of a Remo-Muffle, or I tape a small, rolled-up towel on to the batter head (from inside the bass drum). I'm looking for the right balance between a "dirty roar" and a "chesty punch".
ELECRTONICS
Besides my Protools / G4 powered hard-disc homestudio, outboard gear, and synth's, i've frequently been using electronics in my live set-up such as: Roland Octapads, Ddrum 4, samplers, and various outboard gear. "Generally speaking, I am more inclined towards acoustic drums, but electronic drum and percussion sounds are definitively omnipresent in today's studio productions (Drum n` Bass, Hip-Hop, House...blah, blah, blah). Although I've been using lots of E-drums and Triggering in the past, I stopped to use them a while ago mainly due to the fact that I was always the first one to show up to the gig and the last one to leave. The "high-maintenance" nature of utilizing a lot of these devices in a live situation, have occupied my mind to such an extent, that I felt a overwhelming relief when I first got do a gig with "just" a good sounding acoustic kit AGAIN!
Nevertheless, NERVE producer and sonic alchemist Roli Mosimann and I are currently researching new ways to incorporate electronic augmentation and real time audio processing (via mixing board) with my acoustic live set-up at Prohibited Beatz. The results we've been getting with this new concept ("real time audio deconstruction") are very promising and exiting.
