Not many audience members comment on the sound, but the other nite, at a family friendly venue a little girl about 9 years old came up to me after the gig and said "Isn't that a different drumset than you usually play?" Blew me away. She was right!

Actually, my Downbeat is 12/14/20, 3-ply with an 1/8" ply of poplar sandwiched between two 1/16" plies of maple (but some have mahogany instead of maple for either or both plies). So, the shell thickness is 1/4", plus 1/4" reinforcement rings (some people think that makes a difference in the total perceived thickness, so I mentioned it), plus however thick the wrap is.

My DW is 10/12/14/16/22 and has 6 plies of maple, but the shells are 3/8" thick, plus another 3/16" for the reinforcing ring, and however thick the wrap is. The DWs are thinner, so the shells resonate more fully (and that's obvious when you hear them), but they're not quite as "woody" and "warm" as the Ludwigs. Plus, I tune the Downbeat higher in its range than the DWs, so the difference in sound is enormous. But, alas, I don't think that anyone in the audience would think, "Gosh, he should really tune those drums to sound more _________!", or, "Wow! Those drums sound better than his show we saw last week where he played his other kit."

Drums are just drums to non-drummers/musicians. But to us, shell make-up, sizes, cymbal types, etc. really make a difference, and that impacts how we play, and that's what matters, IMO...

Good thread!

I've had many drums including DW's(some sound good others don't IMO) but I always come back to my downbeat Luddys'. It's just what I'm the most comfortable with and I seem to play better on them for that reason. I have a friend who does a lot of recording and swears by the Yammy Recording customs...nice sounding drums but they lack a certain amount of character...almost like they've gone through a compressor and a ton of EQ-and thats before anything was added. I think the last 30 years engineers have sold us a bill of goods of what a drums should sound like and manufactures have pursued that sound. I've never used any muffling/tape on a drum. I believe they should resonate warts and all to reflect their character not be contorted into sounds they weren't destined to make. I honestly think the 3 plys with rerings make for the best authentic drum sound. I know when I go see bands and I hear something that commands my attention more often than not it's a vintage kit with straight up one ply heads on the kit.

Just my opinion.....

Cheers

generally yeah, I can talk to my guitar player (we are both vintage gear guys) about my cymbal & snare choices and the nuances of each forever - but for the most part I know all the audience hears is "crash" or "crack".

I would also go as far as to say that for the most part most folks don't even "see" your kit really - they see "DRUM SET" and unless it looks really wrong or really different somehow from the trained "what a rock band looks like" visual they have in their mind they really wouldn't know or care if you had sparkles or WMP.

I've had more people comment on the visual aspect of my drums than the sound. I play a Jazz gig every Sunday night and Switched drum sets, I had been playing a Gretsch Catalina Club 18/12/14 for about a year, then I got the '69 Ludwig Standards 20/12/14 and several regulars noticed. Most commented on the look and color (the Gretsch were white marine, the Luddy's Ruby Strata)

Although the bartender told me they sounded great, much better than the previous kit, I got a similar comment from a patron, I don't know if she was a musician.

Oddly no one in my quartet said a thing.

I'll be able to test this theory in about a month and a half when I acquire a set of Slingerlands and take them to their first practice.

My band is used to my fire-engine red Yamaha RC's (and credit to them, they can hear a difference on the rare occasion when I have to practice with my backups, a set of Mapex Pro-M's).

The Slingerlands will be black chrome, so there may be some visual bias.

Oh yeah...someone that ain't afraid to tell it like it is. My brother used to fight with the sound guys, and would always win. We don't care what the "engineer likes", we want our drums to sound like OUR DRUMS, not some generic drumset. If they want that flat, souless souind, let them use a drum machine, it will make whatever generic thud or plop they want. I can't stand it when the drums from every band sound the same from every era the last 30ish years, they just sound flat to my ears, many times. Too much studio tweaking, eq, compressing....let them sound like MY drums, not Joey Jordison. I like hearing the sound of drums, not the sound of a slap on the head with a wet leather strap....

Why don't sound techs listen to drummers, not music city execs? Who cares if Johnny's drums sound the same as Freddie's drums, I don't wanna sound like Freddie!

These guys need to learn that we, just like the Guitar Gods, want to be heard as unique and original. Guitar Gods always get to be heard the way THEY want to be heard, why not the drummers? I say we start a revolution...anyone hear that sound coming on....got the revolution, got the revolution....

"I say we start a revolution...anyone hear that sound coming on....got the revolution, got the revolution...." - jonnistix

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Right On! I'm with ya, Bro!

Just come back home from out of town and checked out the later responses. I feel I can add to the issue of sound engineers in this respect: I always bring the engineer onto the stage to listen to the drums acoustically. I then demand that they sound the same out front through the PA and I have another band member play them while I go out and check. Some engineers are simply too inept to achieve this - addmittedly, it is not easy - and I have to live with the best they can do. The engineer works for us. I have many friends who are professional engineers and have been one myself in the past and they are more than happy to give me whatever I want. Don't be afraid to demand what you want.

As for the sound engineers: I like the way they modify the sound of my kit, because it hides the fact that I can't properly tune the bass drum x-mas3