Drummers!
 

-----DRUMMERS--------
I do hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but........A good drum kit is made in such a way that all the drums are of similar volume. Woods are used and/or combined to create consistant tone and volume. So consistancy is a good thing. Imagine a guitar having an "A" string that is overwhelmingly loud, that guitar would be on the repair bench in a heartbeat. Then why, oh why do some drummers develop a techinique of constenty using rimshots on a snare. This technique throws the drum kit out of balance. A rim shot is striking the skin and the rim of the drum at the same time. This produces a loud sound and is great for coloring up a fill or accenting a hit. But the constant use of rimshots creates problems in recording and to a lessor extent in live sound. In recording, mics are used to capture the sound of the kit from above, these are known as "overheads" and mics can also be placed further out in the room, these are known as room mics. When a snare is too loud, these mics need to be turned down or compressed to achieve a balanced drumsound. The result is a drum sound that has too little cymbles from the overheads or ,with compression, a drum sound with a super squished snare with no snap. In addition to this problem, rimshots in my opinion sound thin, piercing and don't sit well in a mix. Now, I realize that the "constant rimshot" technique was most likely developed in rock music as a way to get heard above loud guitar amplifiers during rehearsals. The solution to loud guitar amps during rehearsals is to raise the speaker cabinets to ear height and place them next to the guitarist. Soon you'll discover you have decent rehearsal levels. Sorry if I'm being harsh, but I thought you may want to know.

DRUMMERS...part 2
 

--------DRUMMERS II (the sequel)---------
OK, so whilst I'm addressing the drumming community, I may as well add my other drumming concern.... "Dribble Foot". Dribble foot is my term for unintended kick drum rumble. This usually occurs from the following: When a drummer plays the kick drum and lets the beater rest against the head, thus the beater rides the rest of the drum resonance and bounces against the head, or when a drummer leaves the beater on the head and keeps time or subdivisions of time lightly with their foot. The resulting low end rumble causes a lack of clarity in the bass region. This lack of clarity will most likely end up in a reduction of low end in a live mix as the live sound engineer franticly tries to "clean up the mud". Alternatively In the recording studio, the bill gets higher as the savvy audio engineer tries to clean the mud by editing out the offending dribbles. And this is a LOT of editing! So as a concerned "music citizen" I offer this advise: When playing a kick drum....."Hit it and Quit it"...... No, not the groupies, the kick drum. he he

I don't think having it being in two parts constitutes for two different threads. This could have been much better in a single thread titled "Drummers".

Yep, I merged them. No need for two threads here.

i don't know where you're getting your info on rim shots, but in my books i call bullsh*t.

first, rim shots don't damage you're drum... unless you're playing a drum made out of really soft wood... and it's been sitting at the bottom of a pond for a week. what happens to drums on which rim shots are played is a detuning of the drum (which is not damage), as every time the rim is struck it goes down and the tension rods have room to unscrew themselves, which would be happening in only one area of the rim. to calculate the amount of unscrewing going on, you'd probably have to use a scale of one-thousandths of an inch per strike.

second, good drum kits comes in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. it's up to the drummer to learn the subtleties of their set-up, mesh it with their band, and proceed to rock it good.

third, rim shots serve the purpose of whatever the hell the drummer sees fit. to say that they serve the purpose of cutting through loud guitars is utter bs. listen to some jazz. you'll hear rim shots being played during the moments where you can barely hear any other instruments at all. listen to latin and you'll hear rim shots being played in clave patterns which are actually being played quite lightly.

fourth, if you're a sound engineer, and you're not willing to get creative about capturing the sound of what's happening in the studio, on behalf of all recording musicians, i say you should f*ck off and get a new job you lazy prick. there's more than one way to skin a cat.

and fifth, don't apologize to the internet's biggest music forum for informing us all of something which has just slipped by thousands of drummers and sound engineers since the invention of the microphone. apologize instead for being a hack.

did you really think drummers worldwide are just going to stop playing rim shots because some sound guy said they're a pain in the ass to work with? "sorry if i'm being harsh, but i thought you may want to know" that they'll just pay someone else.

lulz