EquipmentDW Drums (and Hardware/Pedals) I believe there isn’t a company anywhere that tries to make a more perfect product than Drum Workshop. John Good, Don Lombardi and the entire staff has won my heart with their constant efforts to make a better drum. DW Drums have been copied and imitated, but there is only one original! Lately, I'm enjoying the Short Stack series toms so much...they are like Ferraris - 0 to 60 in 4 seconds! A really fast drum with tone that flies out into the room! John Good is our drumming friend, no matter what brand of drums you play - because he is always trying to raise the bar in drum design. My favorite things lately are the woofer. Engineers almost explode from joy at the low frequencies the woofer will produce in a studio. Also, there are so very many sizes and different woods available. DW is truly a custom drum builder willing to make a kit that you won’t have to adjust your playing for. I've been using Evans drumheads for quite some time now and still truly love their consistency as well as the way they make my DWs sound. I started trying them when I was touring with Joan Osborne and they sounded great and were totally reliable night after night. My snare heads vary depending on the drum. On my louder, wilder snares, or to get a drum to pitch a bit lower/deeper, I’ll use the ST coated (sometimes ST Dry) on my snare drums. Many times lately, I’m using the reversed power center head on my snares. All of ‘em have the 300 Hazy snare side underneath. The bass drum is an EQ4 batter side and EQ3 resonant with the Evans pillow/muffling system. (the new EMAD batter bass drum head is totally cool for converting one bass drum to many sounds easily. So it’s the cheapest way to have several bass drums!) On my toms, I mostly use G2 coated heads on top because of their durability and I feel that the sound works well with the DWs, which are so willing to speak. (sometimes I use the G1 coated). On the bottom heads of the toms, I use either the G1 clear or Resonant heads. These heads are trustworthy, consistent and great sounding. We have all used Shure mics since we were in garage bands. They’re everywhere! Recently, I've checked out their more serious recording mics and am truly impressed. The Beta 52 is my (and most of my engineering friends') favorite bass drum mic. After trying the Earthworks hyper-cardiod, the Sennheiser 431, and others on the snare, I came to the conclusion that, for rejecting the hi-hat and recording the snare, the beta 57 was my favorite mic. Now that I endorse Shure mics, I've had the luxury to try the KSM 44, a large diaphragm condenser with multiple pickup patterns. This mic is quiet, smoooooooth... wonderful. So I'm hooked. All the Shure condensers are good, and I’m happy to see a mic that sounds good and doesn’t cost 10,000 bucks! Best drumsticks ever! Zildjian’s been making cymbals for over three hundred years, and they’ve been good enough for Baby Dodds, Big Sid Catlett, Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa, let alone all the musicians that play them now. Their cymbals have a little “something extra”, which challenges me to be more beautiful with my” metal violins”! I’m happy to be playing them, and they are great people. I've been using Gator Cases' Protechtor Line Classic Series for more than twenty years now and they've taken care of my drums while traveling all around the world. They are very lightweight whereas flight cases are heavy (and twice I've had a fork lift plow through one of flight cases!). These Gators are a great choice because of airline restrictions on weight. If you look around at the best drum techs and cartage companies, you will see Gator Protechtors. I'm proud to own them and relieved to know my drums are safe. Line 6 makes processors for guitar players that actually sound amazing on vocals, drums... you name it! Sometimes I practice (playing) with their Delay Modeler (the little green one). I just start playing and it repeats what I’m doing... then I can improvise along with it. It’s a good time/mechanism playing aid as well. Truly great fun! The Pod is an amazing device to “dirty up” a drum sound and make it a bit nastier, or crunchier. They also have other modelers that can take drums and send them into vintage Leslies, or other types of modulation devices. Really cool creative stuff. Obviously great for a guitar player, but I believe these things are under-rated as a drum device. I Love their “Hat Tricks”- with brass jingles. They mount on the hi-hat stand. Sometimes, I remove some of the jingles (or, in the studio - I tape them up a bit) to determine the exact volume of the sound. Also, the Rhythm Tech “Canz” are excellent. If you step on them on each side, you can then hold them and use them as you would a stick! Geoffrey Daking Mic pres, limiters and consoles I’ve been recording with these mic pres and limiters at my studio for more than 7 years now. They are discreet, like Neves - but they are BRAND NEW, so they sound good - and they will sound good for a long time. Mine have never broken down. Now I’m using a little 8 X 8 console of Geoff’s, along with four of his limiters. Really tactile and fun to use. Groove Guide by Drum Perfect This is a digital device that you can mount easily within site on your kit, and it is easily readable onn any stage no matter the intensity of the lights. After placing a “trigger” on the kick or snare (or both) it will print out immediately the time between “hits”. Therefore, if you are playing at 120 bpm, each 2 and 4 will read 60 if you are “in time”. This is so very helpful when tempos are being discussed in your band. Highly recommended. Some old cymbals sound better when they’re dirty and I’d never clean those. But it’s nice to keep my new Zildjians looking good, so I use this stuff.
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