good luck

[the 13 year old engineer]

well we all have different opinions.;) dw makes a company called parcific.
there just as good a dw kits(mosty) i play a cx-series drum set by pacific and i think they sound great. the cx-series are about $700 but the have a better series with maple shells for arould $1000.00. but i still don't play the snare that came with it. i bought a piccilo snare and i use a
early 70s slingland snare. with there money that left over you can buy you some good cymbals(zildjain,sabian,ect,ect)


hope you get a good set whatever be the brand name!:cool:

[the 13 year old engineer]

damn!damn!damn! i hit the tread buttion instead of the reply buttion!!!!!!!



sorry!

[drumguy]

Dude.. I play Dw's and I have a young friend with Pacifics.. and Pacifics don't compare AT ALL To DW's. The difference is INCREDIBLE. No way can you compare a $700 set of Pacifics to a $2500 set of DW's and say they sound the same. Maybe you should listen with a more descriminating ear. I could tell the diff between a $1400 set of Taye Maple studios and my DW's.. and the DW's still blow it away!!! Only get the real deal!

[cmchamp]

Dudes . . . . just remember one thing. A poorly tuned set of $2500 DW's can sound just as bad as a well tuned set of $200 Sonlights. If the drums aren't tuned well, with good new or fairly new head, it doesn't matter how much you spent on them, they'll still sound bad. The 13 year old engineer, as well as anyone else reading this post, should take serious time either learning how to tune a set well, and practice tuning a set well, or find someone who can tune a set well. All too often I've had sets come through my studio that I can spend hours tuning, and they still sound - - well, - - eh, and it's because the heads are dead. At the same time, take a '70's 5 piece Pearl set, well tuned, with heads a week or so old, and a drummer who doesn't beat the living daylights out of his drums and knows how to tune them, and man, you'be got a pretty darn good set of drums.
Just like guitars, horns, strings, and any other instrument out there. If they aren't tuned right, they don't sound good.

[michaelhoddy]

Agreed. I'd say at least half the sound is in the heads and tuning. I'd say that at least half the pro drummers I've come across don't have a very schooled approach to tuning as far as using it to establish and vary timbre. Instead they say that certain drums are "great" or "crappy" when the primary differences are in tuning.

Poor tuning and dead heads are one thing, but another interesting phenomenon is drummers who have good kits and new heads, but the wrong head combo for the style of music and sound they're after. Also, the shells have a dramatic effect on head choices. For instance, I hate Remo Pinstripes on maple toms. I actually like them on Pearl's birch toms.

What really made this whole argument interesting was a few years when DW didn't yet make their own shells and used the same Keller maple shells as everyone else. Hence, the drums sounded similar to everyone else's, forcing a lot of esoteric justification on the part of DW players as to why their kits sounded "better." DW drums sounded great then, and still do now with DW's own shells, but so do a lot of other drums.

I think that any top-line kit, well-tuned with the right heads, will sound great in the right room with the right mics through the right preamps. Heck, even most mid-level kits these days can sound great with some close attention to detail. Pearl, Tama, DW, Sonor, Premier, whoever. No one can make a crappy mid-to-top level drum kit these days and last long, so it's kind of a matter of semantics anymore as to who you choose.

[cmchamp]

Hmm: Something to think about Michael.

I can tell you one thing. Students coming out of 90% of school music programs won't have a clue. I was a band director for 10 years and learned 90% of intstrument maintenance, including drum tuning, from my band director. That was becuase I was an odd kid and wound up spending 3/7 of my day in the band room.

Anyway, colleges don't teach proper drum tuning to education majors, as well as to private percussion lesson students. I'm a horn player, and do a fair job on a kit, but have had many compliments on my drum tuning. It takes time to learn, and someone with an excellent ear and technique to teach. Maybe we should come up with an instructional video?:lick:
Great to have your reply so quick.

[Ted]

Bob Gatzen actually has a great instructional video out on drum tuning. You'd look at it and wonder "how could somebody fill up an hour-long video talking about tuning drums?", but he does it and makes it interesting...

-Ted

[Foreverain4]

i think that drum tunning is an learned art. just like a buzz roll and paradiddles. i have a friend that really has it down. i usually have him come over and tune drums for all my sessions. i am learning slowly, but it takes work and expirience. most people think they can just pick up a book and BAM! they can tune drums perfectly.

[drumguy]

Well, uh, yeah guys. Duh :-)

When I was responding to the sound of the drums.. I was assuming they were both tuned, hehe.
But back to my original thing.. there's no way that TUNED pacific drums will keep up with TUNED DW's. That's why DW makes the pacific line, and makes it very affordable. Yeah they're decent drums, but they don't hold up to the maple collectors series DW's.

And yes.. any top of the line tuned kit will still sound great in a good studio. I'm also a fan of Premier Artist Maple kits (but still like my DW's better, hehe).

and yes.. a well tuned kits that's cheap does better. I was able to get my old cheapo no-name (literally had no name.. was from the 70's) kit to sound better then some un-tuned mid-grade kits that I've had to play on.
But nothing beats a well tuned top-of-the line kit!!!

So tune well, and buy good kits!!!