ACOUSTIC OR ELECTRONIC?

ACOUSTIC OR ELECTRONIC?

FEATURES

THE CREEM GUIDE DRUMS '85

Scott K. Fish

OK. You’re a teenaged kid. Either you don’t own a drum set, or the settle-for drum set you own (a settle-for set is when you don’t have the bread to buy what you really want, so you settle-for something else) is beaten to death. It’s 1985 and you’re ready to shell out perhaps thousands of dollars to upgrade your present gear, or to buy your new dream drum set. Panic sets in. One of the decisions you’ll have to make is: should I buy an acoustic drum set or an electronic kit? Once you’ve made up your mind on that issue, you’ll have another decision to make: which drum set is best for me? Both acoustic and electronic drum sets have advantages. Our purpose is to give you some guidelines on the good, the bad, and the ugly of both kinds of drums, so that you won’t get burned.

Considering the trend of rock drumming on records over the last 20 years, the evolution from acoustic drums to electronic drums makes perfect sense. There was a time when it was commonplace to distinguish a drummer by the sound of his drums—almost every drummer had his own way of tuning drums. A drummer’s “touch”—-how he struck the drums and cymbals—also played an important part in the individual’s sound. In rock, that individuality started changing during the early ’60s. Many musicians in ’60s rock bands could musically cut it on stage, but they weren t experienced enough in recording techniques to play on their own records. There were a handful of studio drummers—like Hal Blaine, Gary Chester and Earl Palmer—who played on more hit records from that era than you might believe. Drummer Bruce Gary has said that one of his biggest disappointments in life was finding out that a dozen of his favorite drummers were Hal Blaine!

A mystique surrounded these studio drummers and their drum sets. If a producer couldn’t get Hal Blaine for a record date, the next best option was to try to rent Hal’s drum kit. They believed that they needed that sound to make hit records. On the west coast, at least, up-and-coming studio drummers would be hard pressed to find work unless they could sound like Hal Blaine. This quest for that hit record drum sound eventually led to the “studio sounding” drums. In essence, this was a dead sound. You took the front head off of your bass drums and shoved a blanket inside of it. You took cloth, napkins, tissue or paper towels and taped then onto your snare and tom-toms. Presto! One dead sounding, studio sounding drum set, which effectively killed any drummer’s individuality irt touch and tuning.

1 Once the producers and engineers had all the drums sounding alike, the next step was to demand that all the drummers play alike. “I want to use the same lick that soand-so used on that other hit record.” In fairness to the studio drummers, they were being paid to give the producers what they asked for. But, as young drummers heard that studio sound on nmore and more records, they started asking questions. “How do those guys get their drums to sound like that?” Then, like a plague of sameness, every drummer in every garage band stuffed and taped their drums to death.

Next, these kids discovered a new problem: a major decrease in drum volume. To compensate for the lost natural resonance of the acoustic drums, drummers began miking their drum sets, just like the studio guys. Now, at least, they had loud dead-sounding drum sets, the volume being created electronically through microphones, amplifiers and speakers.

The logic behind electronic drums was to eliminate the hassles involved in doctoring up acoustic drums. And nine exit of ten times, the sound of electronic drums in rock music

is simply a cleaner, more defined version of the miked, deadsounding acoustic drums.

Until very recently, the main competitors in the acoustic drum market were few, and they were ail American companies. Ludwig, Rogers, Gretsch and Sfingerland were the heavyweight contenders, and they sold two basic lines of drum sets; professional models and student models. In less than five years, the drum industry has turned right around, and the new champions of acoustic drum sales are all Japanese companies: Tama, Yamaha and Pearl. The reasons for this turnaround are beyond the scope of this article, but it does raise a serious question. Are Japanese drums necessarily better than American drums or vice versa? No. And the acoustic drum market is by no means limited to the United States and Japan. Canada, Taiwan, The Republic of ChinafllgH England are in there swinging, too. Pearl, Gretsch, D.W., Corder, Ludwig, Rogers, Premier, Slingerland, Trak, R.O.C., Cosmic Percussion, C.B., Emerald, Maxtone, P.T.S., Milestone, Europa, Sonor, Eames, and Yamaha—-these companies are all in the ballpark.

Another major change in the drum industry was the death of the “more-is-better” philosophy. In 1977, one drum company ran an ad campaign featuring a 22-piece drum set! Not only were these mammoth sets impractical for the average kid-on-the-street to haul around—he just couldn’t afford them. The Japanese and Taiwanese came out with five-piece drum sets that listed for approximately $1,000 and blew the lid off the multi-drum market. These kits are absolutely outselling the pro-line drums, and most acoustic drum companies sell them now.

■Instead of getting into a super-technical and boring description of acoustic drums, let’s look at the pros and cons...at what to look for and what to look out for, at what works and what doesn’t. It’s important to use your eyes when investing in an acoustic drum set, but it’s just as important to use your ears. My first drum set was—I thought—a used Gretsch set. Months later I discovered that the bass drum was Gretsch, and the rest was plywood junk. I got suckered because I was overty-enthusiastic. I didn’t see the set for what it was; part Gretsch/part junk. I saw an authentic Gretsch drum set because that’s what I wanted to see. So, the first rule is to know exactly what you’re looking for. Some stores won’t let you try out their drums. That’s usually to discourage nerds who have no intention of buying anything; all they want to do is impress their co-nerds with so-called “hot licks.” If | you’re ready to buy a drum set, there is no reason why a storeowner shouldn’t let you try the drums. And if a p.-dH storeowner won’t, then go to another store! Now, let’s go over some things to consider before you make your selection.

VERSATILITY One of the most versatile drum sets is the standard fivepiece set with 8x12 and 9 x

13 mounted toms, a 16 x 16 floor tom, a 20 x 14 or 22 x

14 bass drum, and a 51/2 x 14 snare. This kit will sound good in a rock band, a jazz band, a stage band, a concert bandin almost any musical situation. By contrast, you might be thinking about buying a fivepiece set with a 26" bass drum, 10 x 14 and 14 x 14 mounted toms, an 18 x 18 floor tom, and a very deep, marching snare drum. Fine.

But realize the latter drum set is basically designed for loud rock ’n’ roll situations. For most other applications those drums would be too big and loud. I’ve seen drummers try to compensate for their big drums by over tightening and/or over-muffling them. That doesn’t give you a smaller drum sound—it gives you the sound of choked and deadened big drums.

Many drummers who favor rock ’n’ roll are also Interested in playing other styles of music. So, unless you have the bread to own two or more drum sets buy yourself a set that's versatile. The standard five-piece set is a good choice. If you want deeper-sounding drums, then consider 10 x 12 and 11x13 mounted toms, a 16 x 16 floor tom, a 22 x 16 or a 20 x 16 bass drum, and a snare drum not deeper than eight inches. This would still be a versatile drum set with more depth to the drums.

OPTIONS & RESALE VALUE

Don't think in terms of buying a drum set. Think in terms of investing in a drum set. What’s the difference? Well, when you buy a can of soda, you drink it and throw the can away. When you purchase a record album—unless you’re an idiot—you try to take care of it so that you can have it for a long time and re-listen to it. That is an investment. It’s spending your money on a product that will retain its value, increase in value, or will at least allow you to make some money by using it.

■Ideally—and there are always exceptions—you want to choose a drum set that’s (a) versatile, (b) that you can add extra drums to later on, (c) that’s well-made, strong and sturdy, and (d) that you can resell in case you want or need to sell it later on. How can you be sure that your drum set is going to retain or increase its value? There are no absolute

guarantees, but there are considerations that will help you. I’m not going to win friends, maybe, by saying this, but if you decide on anybody’s $1,000 list set, don’t think of it as an investment unless you’re looking for a drum set to learn on, or going to be using the drums on paying gigs to save up for pro-line equipment. You won’t get your money back from those sets on a resale or a trade-in, even if the drums are in good condition. ;

The $1,000 list drum sets are designed to meet the budget of the average-kid-onthe-street or his parents. They look nice. They have the same brand names as the pro drums that the rock stars use, and some of them are really decent kits. They cost less than comparably sized pro drums, because the manufacturers had to cut corners somewhere in the construction. As we go through this article you’ll be able to see where the corners were cut.

Be aware of “trendy” drum sets. Ludwig’s Vistalite and Pearl’s Vari-Pitch series are good examples. Both are out of production and replacement parts might be hard or impossible to find. You won't be able to order new out-of-production drums from the manufacturers. If you want to add to your set, you’ll have to find used drums. This is not to say that Vistalite, Vari-Pitch or any other out-of-production drums are bad drums. (I’ve had students who loved the Vistalite drums because John Bonham used them.) But, if you break a shell, if you need to replace something, or if one of your out-of-productmn drums gets stolen—you’fe outta business! There are drums from defunct companies that are in great demand and are probably worth more now than when they were new. Slingerlandffaadio Kings, Leedy, early Cameo and early Gretsch drums are good examples. Trixon made oddshaped drums that are also commanding a good price. Vox made odd-shaped drums too, but I haven’t heard that they’re as in demand as the Trixon drums. See how it goes?

Wood shell drums Jhat aren’t too radical in size or color are probably your best bet for retaining their value. There are many different woods be-

ing used—we’ll look at them next. Also, try to stick with a reputable company. (The difficulty here is there are companies with reputable names because of the drums they used to make.) Other companies are making one line of great drums and another line of dogs. Still other companies are making great drums, but their hardware stinks. Read on as we uncover the clues for successful drum investing.

SHELL MATERIALS

Drum shells are made from just about any material that can bend or be molded.

Maple, birch, mahogany, ash, rosewood, bubinga, Cyprus, ebony, cordia and beech are all being used today. Maple and birch ate most commonly lused in the higher-priced drums. Cordia, rosewooafS|ubinga and ebony also are used in higher-priced drums to a ' lesser extent. The rule of S V‘ thumb seems to be that the less expensive a drum set is, the more it’s apt to be made of mahogany or woods that the company hasn’t specifically named. I’m not suggesting that mahogany is bad wood...some companies use a wood called Philippine mahogany, which according to the Sonor drum catalog, is not Mf a mahogany at all. It is actual^ ly called Red Lauan.

Although there have beert§g metal drum sets in the past, the only metal drums made today snare drums. The more expensive metal snare drums are made of stainless

steel, steel, copper, brass and bronze. These specific shells are made to resist rust and corrosion, and the actual tonal quality of the shells is superb. A snare drum that’s listed as a "metal” drum is made of an alloy of any two metals.

Fiberglass shells are fine, too. Of course, the bottom line on any drum—regardless of what it’s made of—is how does it sound? And how it sounds is due mostly to whether or not the shell is perfectly round and what kind of a bearing edge— where the drum head touches the shell—it has. An expensive, out-of-round drum with a lousy bearing edge is going to sound horrible and an inexpensive drum without those faults can sound pretty darn good, as long as it has decent heads that are tensioned properly.

TOM-TOMS

You have a choice of conventional sized or power toms; single-headed or doubleheaded toms, or roto-toms. (Products like Dragon Drums and Tama’s Octoban drums aren’t included here to keep our focus on the basics of drum set selection.)

Having spoken with hundreds of professional drummers about their preference' I’d have to suggest that you invest in double-headed tomtoms. The only possible exception to that rule are the very small concert-type toms. A double-headed tom, though, will give you the option of using two heads or one. Most drum companies will only mount tuning lugs and rims on the top of single-headed drums. That makes sense, right? If you do buy singleheaded drums and later on want or need double-headed drums—you’re stuck. Your only recourse is to have the shells drilled and fitted with lugs, rims and heads by the company or a drum shop, and that ain’t cheap! Also, a drum with two heads on it is more likely to stay round, and they offer greater tuning possibilities than their single-headed counterparts.

Some young drummers are buying roto-toms because they’re less expensive than conventional drums. There’s nothing wrong with that, but understand what you’re buying. A roto-tom does not and will not give the same options that a conventional, doubleheaded drum will. Yeah, I know that a roto-tom is not meant to do that. I just hope you know that. Roto-toms make an excellent addition to a drum set with conventional toms, but if it’s one or the other, the vote here is for conventional tom-toms.

SNARE DRUMS

The snare drum is the heart of the drum set. If you have a good snare, you can squeak by on a gig with some fairly inexpensive tom-toms and bass drum. For years the standardsized snare drum was 51/2 x 14. Recently the 6" or 6V2" snares have all but displaced their predecessor, and are fine, all-around (versatile) drums.

There are a few parts to a snare drum that you should look over. One is the snare strainer. Some of the best snare strainers in the world are very simple construction, like Ludwig’s old warhorse, the P-85: it’s simple and it works. Some strainers look like they were somebody’s physics project, or like someone was try-

ing to figuratively reinvent the wheel, the theory being that a complex strainer will offer finer snare adjustments. Be honest with yourself. If you’re really going to pay attention and be meticulous about fine tuning your snares, then consider the more complex strainers. If you’re just looking for something that works, check out the simpler ones. Keep in mind you should have easy access to the strainer. It should lock into the on position and stay put, even under heavy playing, and it should fall easily into the off position just as easily and efficiently.

Rims are also very important to a drum’s sound. Diecast rims are definitely the best, although some people— generally those who don’t offer them—will argue the point. Gretsch was the forerunner in diecast rims, and drummers who don’t play Gretsch drums still buy Gretsch diecast rims to replace their own. And most of the people I’ve spoken to who either custom-build drums and/or rebuild drums for commercial use prefer Gretsch rims. Tama and Ludwig offer diecast rims for their snare drums, too. A diecast rim is usually truer in round, which creates a more even or consistent tension on the drum head, allowing for more accurate tuning. Diecast rims are also nearly impossible to bend under normal playing conditions, and they’re less likely to chew up your drum sticks. The number of tuning rods/drum lugs on a

drum will also give more (or less) accurate tuning. Either eight or ten lugs on top and bottom is good.

As for the snares, some are set up to lie flat on the snare head, within the circumference of the rim and others are designed to extend beyond the shell. This is determined by the snare strainer. I don’t have a preference, and have never heard it discussed much by professionals. Try them both and choose whichever suits your taste.

BASS DRUMS

The same rules in selecting tom-toms can be applied to bass drums. The greater dilemma in choosing a bass drum seems to be “what size should I buy?” Know, initially, that 20" and 22" bass drums are far and away the most common sizes. (An analogy can be drawn between a piccolo and a tuba in a symphonic setting. The tuba is a much bigger instrument than the piccolo, but you can always hear a piccolo above a tuba because the notes are higher.) Just like a tuba, big bass drums (24", 26" or 28") often get lost on a bandstand because they produce very low notes. A 20" or 22" bass drum will produce a nice, meaty, midrange note that cuts better than the bigger drums.

HARDWARE

I’ve never understood the overanalyzations of cymbal stands and tom mounts. Each one has a simple, basic function. The cymbal stands holds the cymbal in a position that’s comfortable for you; the tom mounts serve the same purpose for tom-toms. No hocus pocus. There are straight, halfboom, full-boom, telescoping-

boom and shell mounted cymbal stands. Sit down at a drum set, experiment with your cymbals where you want them. Double-braced stands are recognized as better than single-braced, and nylon sleeves are a definite asset. If you invest in a drum set that comes complete with stand,

obviously your choices are more limited. On the higher priced packages you might have some latitude in deciding which type of stands will be included in a complete set. Tomtom mounts come in shell mounted types or on floor stands. Be certain that you select tom mounts that will enable you to position the tomtoms where they’re comfortable. Don’t be conned into thinking that you can adjust to something that’s “not quite” the way you’d like it.

Hi-hat stand and bass pedal selection deserve special attention. They each come with solid footboards or split footboards. Is one better than the other? No. What’s best is what works best for you. A bass drum pedal has five basic components: the footboard, the strap, the tension spring, the beater and the pedal support. If you habitually break any of those parts of a bass drum pedal, then look for one that’s stronger in that area,-or go get some drum lessons, because bass drum pedals should not be habitually broken! The same rules apply to hi-hat selection: choose one that has enough height adjustment and proper spring tension adjustment. If you’re really a leadfoot, you might do bet-

ter with a chain instead of a strap connection to the floorboard.

ELECTRONIC DRUMS Electronic drum sets cannot be split into components discussions like acoustic drums. (I was relatively ignorant about the real ins-andouts of electronic drums, so I called up some professional drummers and some retailers who handled the drum sets. So, thanks to Barry Keane, Michael Shrieve, Bob Gatzen at Creative Music, CT, Doug Swan at Brian’s Guitars, CT and both Gary and Steve at Manny’s Music instruments, NY. I couldn’t have done this without them.)

Many drum companies are jumping on the electronic drum bandwagon. Simmons, Tama, Gretsch, Cano, Ultimate Percussion, E-mu, Dynacord, Pearl, MPC (and probably others) are all offering electronic drum sets. So, what’s step number one? “These things are all instruments,” says Michael Shrieve, “(with) options that are available to us. That’s all. The main thing is for kids to know what they want. They have to be responsible enough to try these different things oOf® and run into the problem of asking themselves ‘What do I want? What do I need?’ It’s just like buying a computer. The salesman asks you what you want to do with it. And you say ‘I want you to tell me what I can do with it. I don’t want to tell you what / need.’ But, that’s not it. You’ve got to know what you need, so there’s work to do before you buy an electronic drum set. No one instrument is just right. Just because something is right for me doesn’t mean it’s right for you. You just can’t buy everything, and you just can’t go buy what’s popular.”

There are electronic drum sets best suited for home practice, others that can be used for practicing and live performances, and those that are designed for the professional performing/recording drummer. According to many drummers and drum company executives, the Simmons SDS-7

is considered to be the current best in electronic drum sets. It is not without faults, however, and there’s no way of knowing if and when another electronic drum set will knock the SDS-7 out of the top slot.

The world of electronic percussion has a language all its own. Understanding the basic terminology is important before investing in a drum set. For example, there are modular and non-modular drum sets. Every electronic kit has a set of “brains”—this is the electronic box where you adjust your sounds. Drummer Barry Keane has done a great deal of recording with the Simmons SDS-5 and SDS-7. He explain! the advantages of having a modular system. “Imagine that the ‘brains’ of a Simmons unit consists of a rack with 12 blank holes. You fill these holes with modules. The advantage to having modules is that you can customize your own kit much easier. My SDS-5 had spaces for seven modules. Five modules come with the kit. I wanted to have four tom-toms, so I bought another tom-tom module and plugged it into the empty space. Buying modules for your electronic kit is like buying more drums for your acoustic kit. If something happens to one of your modules, you can take it out, send it to be fixed, and in a meantime, you can plug in a new module. But, if something goes wrong with a non-modular ‘brain,’ you’d have to send the whole unit out for repair.”

Two more important terms to know are analog sounds and digital sounds. ‘‘Digital sound,” Kean says “is like having, for instance, the actual sound of a snare drum on tape. And every time you hit a pad, you’d actually hear the sound of that real drum. Analog sound is a synthesized sound. It might come close to the sound of a real drum, but it’s not a real sound.”

As of this writing, three companies offer digital sounds from electronic drums: Simmons, Dynacord and E-mu Systems, Inc. The reason the SDS-7 has become so popular is partially because it offers a combination of analog and digital sounds. The Dynacord drums and the E-drum Digital Percussion Module are strict-

ly digital instruments. All other electronic drum sets are dealing analog sounds. One sound is not necessarily better than the other, but you ought to be aware of what they can or cannot do.

One aspect of investing in electronic drum sets that’s been skimmed over in ad campaigns is the amount and cost—of equipment that you must have, over and above the cost of the set itself. All electronic drum sets include the pads, chord and brains. Marty of them don’t include the stands you’ll need to assemble your drums. Let’s say you want to buy an analog/non-modular set like Tama’s Techstar. The list price is just under $1,300 and that includes pads, cord and brains. You’ll need to invest in a couple of cymbal stands to mount the pads on, a bass drum pedal, cymbals and hi-hats—if you plan on using conventional cymbals— and stands to set your cymbals on. Then you’ll need some microphones and mike stands for your cymbals: one for the hi-hat, and one or two overhead mikes for the crash and ride cymbals. If you’re going to play your electronic kit in a band, you’re going to have to invest in an amplifier. Even if you plan on plugging into the P.A. system, you’re still going to need a monitor. The amps best suited for electronic drum sets are keyboard amps with a 15" speaker and a driver horn.

“Electronic drums also need

outboard gear,” Michael Shrieve says. “They don’t sound good by themselves. Electronic drums are another synthesizer. Synthesis is a processed sound: therefore, it sounds best when processed more. It only sounds good when there’s reverb, echo, delay and everything else on it. Never buy an electronic drum set just by hearing it flat with no reverb and no echo. If you’re going to be playing clubs, you’ll especially need Outboard gear. Anything that you hear on records is not

straight, so let’s not kid ourselves being frustrated at home, with an electronic drum sound, hearing it like it is and asking ‘why doesn’t it sound like the big boys?’ Make that extra investment in a low-cost reverb and delay unit. Yamaha makes a nice digital/reverb unit—Model R-1000—that sells for $600-$650. There are any number of digital delay units you can look for in the $50Q-$600 price range. I’m being honest here. A drummer who’s entering into electronic drums should be entering into sound. That’s important.”

Barry Keane adds: “It’s gotten completely nuts. The other day I walked into a recording session with a Dr. Click, a MiniDoc, a LinnDrum, the Keane Machine, my SDS-5 drum set, my SDS-7 drum set, my delay unit, phaser, my Simmons Sampler, my flanger and a bagful of cords that would’ve made a guitar player jealous.”

Try to select a drum set with comfortable pads. Keane notes that an acoustic drum will sound like it feels, tf it’s tuned low, it will sound low. If it’s tuned tight, it sounds that way. But, with electronic drums, you might play on a pad that feels tight and be hearing the sound of the largest, loosest drum in the world. “Tama Techstar has the best pads,” says Shrieve. “They’re real drum heads that you can tighten or loosen. While the tension of the heads have no relationship to the sound of the instrument, they do have a relationship to the

feel, which is important.”

Some pads are more sensitive than others. An acoustic drum will produce a sound no matter how lightly you strike it; regardless of where you strike the drum head. There’s variation in the sensitivity of electronic drum pads. When you’re testing them, play loud, medium and soft on all areas of all the pads. The pads should have as much of the sensitivity of an acoustic drum as possible.

Check over the construction of the pads and the strength of the stands. Particularly on the “practice sets.” If you buy one of these, intending to use it as a practice set, you shouldn’t have any problems. But, if you’re trying to get something for nothing, and expect that a practice set will have the same durability as a professional set—forget it!

Initially, drummers were attracted to electronic drums for the analog sounds. Today there’s an interesting trend taking place. The pendulum is swinging toward the digital sounds of the Simmons SDS-7, the Dynachord drums and the E-mu Digital Percussion Modules. Drummers are getting excited about the acoustic sounds they can get through digital electronic drums. So, why not just use acoustic drums? Referring to the Dynacord drums, Michael Shrieve says, “You can plug these drums directly into the mixing board, and they’re not affected by the sound of a hall. Your drums can really sound like they sound. There’s no tuning problems during soundchecks because of the hall. You don’t have to change tuning everyday. If you like, you can have a real acoustic drum sound that will remain the same, every night, no matter what size the hall is. And there are no microphones.”

A digital chip is a small electronic piece that’s use to record the real sounds reproduced by electronic drums or drum machines. The SDS-7 was the first drum set to use digital sounds. Bob Gatzen says that “Basically, Simmons had three digital sounds: snare drum, tom-tom and bass drum.” But the Simmons SDS-7 brains enables a drummer to make all kinds of alterations to those three basic sounds. The latest fuss is over the Simmons SDS-EPB Sampler. The Sampler opens up a drummer’s options to record anything—from a snare drum to a car crash—and have that sound triggered by striking a drum pad. This process is called blowing or sampling your own chips.

Bob Gatzen explains the sampling process. “In order to blow your own chips, you need the Simmons SDS-EPB or Dynacord s Percolator. They’re basically analog-todigital converters. Analog information goes into the machine, which codes it into digital information through little cells of information, set up in numerical digits. Once the information has been con-

verted, the machine has the ability to burn the digital readout onto the chip. That chip will then compute to an exact sound. They take the sound you’re listening to acoustically and exaggerate it somewhat. So, if you have a good acoustic sound, you can get a dynamite sample.”

“I can now—just like the old days—take my drums out of my apartment to the gig, and they’re going to sound the same,” adds Shrieve. You might also like to have several different snare drums and, with the digital chips you can plug in or re-program a new snare sound, without having to retune or carry several different drums.

“One of the reasons that Dynacord is such a good company,” says Bob Gatzen, “is because they’re making great samples. When someone says that the Dynacord drums sound great, what they’re really saying is that the people who make samples for Dynacord know what they’re doing. The computers used and the technical knowledge for making samples is pretty standardized. That’s no big secret. The secret is in having real good samples. Dynacord is strictly a digital drum that is non-programmable. Instead of programming the drums, you change samples. That’s not as practical in performance. With the Simmons SDS-7, you can change from one kit to another with a selector pad. But, on the Dynacord, you literally have to pull the chip and change it. In one way the Dynacords are better, in another way the Simmons are better.”

“The Dynadrum is a whole different format,” says Shrieve. “For each pad you have a Read Only Memory (ROM) cartridge. You have digital chips that you put onto a box for each drum. Right now, they have about 60 different sounds of acoustic drums, electronic drums and ail kinds of percussion. The sensitivity is so great that I can play a press roll on them and it’s happening. So, the Dynadrum is like a Linn Drum except that you play them, and they have acoustic drum sounds.”

“Simmons takes it a step farther,*’ Bob Gatzen continues. “They don’t have a library of sounds yet, but

they’re building one up since the advent of the SDS-EPB. They not only let you draw up these sounds and play then, but they give you certain parmeters to program them so that you can alter the sounds. You can’t alter the sounds of the Dynadrum. You get the straight digital sound, and you’ve got a pitch control that goes up and down, and a volume control. With the SDS-7, you can add analog sounds to digital sounds. You can add certain synthetic effects like modulation, where the sounds of the toms goes up and down as you’re hitting them. Or, you can get two simultaneous pitches from one tom-tom. You can shorten the length of the decay; add white noise, attack and resonance. From the three samples they give you, you can get a whole other world of sounds.”

Perhaps Michael Shrieve best sums up the basic attraction to the feelings about electronic versus acoustic drums. “I’m tired of having acoustic drums that feel good when you play them,” he says, “but, don’t sound anything like you hear them out in front. There’s nothing that’s ever going to replace the feel and sound of acoustic drums. But I’m all for having more control over the sound, and I’m willing, ready and able to take the responsibility for checking into that. That means that every drummer—aside from learning the rudiments, and learning all about time—is going to have to take a new responsibility into the sound aspect of things,

and to learn about all of these things that are right in front of us.” And Bob Gatzen agrees. “I’m more aware of acoustic sound now than I've ever been, because whatever the acoustic sound that you want is, that’s what’s going to be on your digital chip. Now that drums are being digitized, drummers should pay close attention to acoustic sources of sounds, because that’s what everybody is going for now.”