Re-setting of drums after gig

[Colquhoun]

Had my first practice outside of my house with my V-drums. Everything went great from the take-down and set-up at the practice. Drums felt a little weird, but overall, the placement of everything was tolerable.

Tonight I go to set up everything back in my basement. I spent at least an hour trying to get everything where I had it...or close. I guess I'm a little picky, but I could not get the set to feel right. AT ALL.

The toms felt funny, the snare is wrong, the kick drum is off too much to the side, etc. In order to get it to feel even remotely like it was, I had to extend the double pedal distance like 4" further apart than I used to have it...now the hi-hat pedal is way too far to the left....blah blah blah.
WTF?
I gave up, still feeling like it is someone ELSE's kit.

I guess I need to mark on the carpet exactly where everything goes, but even then, I'm not sure it will all feel the same. I remember the same sort of thing with my acoustics, that after breakdown and setup, it took forever to get the right comfort level of everything where it SHOULD be.

Or am I just crazy ?!?!?

[TNT]

Or am I just crazy ?!?!?

I don't think you are. Had the same problem myself at first.

I put small marks on the stand, mounts, and carpet with a black Sharpie marker. Just big enough for me to see.

Now, it's easy to get everything "just right" every time!

[hampis]

Colq......

u need to get used to this i did it twice a week and took me just 10 min to set up.I don;t think it's such a big deal if u need to move everything a bit.This is what mounts are for

don't forget that one if the plus of vdrums is that u can carry them

so yes i think u are a liitle bit crazy

edit: of course if i had a lernaen hydra kit i would move it from the basement only in special occasions i.e a gig in wembley stadium

[saku]

On the other hand, i am always adjusting my kit...never seems to be perfect...probably depends on how well stretched out I am that day...but the hhat pedal is NEVER right....etc---

[grog]

What TNT said: Make little marks on the stand.

Also, practice some with the kit "just not right". You'll find that you adapt. It also makes it easier to get over the "princess and the pea" syndrome of having to have everything within a millimeter of "right" and still be able to play. I've found that by doing that, I'm much more flexible in terms of where stuff sits.

https://www.myspace.com/rubberuniverse

[Michael Render]

I use a drum carpet and position the legs so they hit certain marks. Once the legs are right, everything seems to into place. I also use the sharpie trick for some things.

[evil1rox]

I use double tom stands, never adjust the snare stand.. and that's about it.

I take the toms off, shorten the stands, but litereally never really move the balls joints etc.

The cymbals though...all over the place.

Grog makes a great point about the placement. As long as they are within reach you will get used to them within an hour or so. (As long as they aren't in a spot that's way to high to reach comfortably etc.)\

I know what you mean though...I had that feeling all the time when I used the rack.

E

[hampis]

On the other hand, i am always adjusting my kit...never seems to be perfect...probably depends on how well stretched out I am that day...but the hhat pedal is NEVER right....etc---

That also happens to me Saku with the pedal,i can;t stop moving it all the time,i think it's like a tic tic after every single track i have to move it.i was so used to it that i nearly done it at the studio on a real stand

[AdamCooney]

I'm not sure about my TD-20 as I've never moved it since it's just my practice/recording kit. But as far as my acoustics in which I play here as well as play out with, here's what I did:

Basically, I'm a very OCD kind of person and like things as near perfect as possible in a lot of aspects. So for my A-Kit here's what I did and you might be able to translate into your E-Kit.

I have all DW 9000 series hardware so everything has memory locks, all I do for breakdown is just take the longer bar out that holds my cymbal then fold up the legs, again, both have memory locks so when I set up it's just a matter of putting them in and it goes to where it needs to, exact same setup every time. That works the same for all my cymbal stands, as well as my double tom stand (all I do is remove the part with the ball joints that goes into the bigger part of the stand, and I never adjust the ball mounts ever). It's the same for my snare stand, just fold up the basket and fold in the legs. Again, same with hi-hat stand.

For the floor toms here's what I did. I spent $25 on a 'Brother' label maker. I got all of my floor tom legs exactly how I wanted them. I made 3 printouts of solid dots. One is just "." one is ".." and one is "...". I put them on the inside of the hoop (well on the outside where you can see it, but I've got regular 2.3mm hoops so where it 'indents' right in there) above each tom leg mount. Then I printed out 3 more labels with arrows and the dots, example: "<---- 14" Tom Leg ." "<---- 14" Tom Leg .." "<---- 14" Tom Leg ..." I cut the sticker and lined up the arrows dead center to where it just touches/meets up with the mount. I did the same with my 16" floor tom. It's basically the same as a memory lock, you just have to look at it vs. having it go on it's own.

I'm going to switch out my stock hardware with the DW tom mounts (already did that with my rack toms) so I can have the beefy 1/2" legs and the memory locks for the floor tom legs. Then I'll just have to keep the dots and what size floor tom on them, no arrows or whatnot, that'll be even easier.

And as far as bass drum placement and acutal cymbal stand placement, that's the last piece to my puzzle. I bought a 9'x6' carpet (just holds all my stuff with 6" or so on all the sides to play with. I'm going to spend a good few hours at least setting it up on there so everything's as close to perfect as possible, then mark around all the legs, etc. on the bass drum, snare, tom stand, cymbals, and hi-hat stands. So that the leg fits inside the 'outline'. But what I'm going to do so the marker doesn't wear out is get a thin but durable piece of black material and cut it so it's just bigger than the outline, then cut the outline out in it, and have my mother sew it all directly into the carpet.

Then the 'marks' won't ever go away because their permanent, and you'll be able to have it a little more dead on with going inside the outline vs. just a solid dot. Sewing it I'll still be able to roll it all up and take it with me to shows without anything getting ruined out out of place. I got a thin carpet from "Ocean State Job Lots". It was the lightest color I could get which was a light tan/beige for $40. It's also pretty light in weight too, as I didn't want a thick berber or dark color carpet so I can easily distinguish all of the marks.

It's a lot of work but trust me once you have everything done, it's just a 1 time deal doing it the first time. What I also did was label all my parts too for example "Right Cymbal Stand" "China & Ride Cymbal Stand" "Right Bass Drum" "Left Bass Drum" "Right Kick Pedal" "Left Kick Pedal" "Rack Tom Stand" and you get the idea.

I'm sure you can translate it over to your E-Kit, at least for the rack. Also try making a mark on each of the tubes that you "swivel" in when you fold it up so that when you open it up they both line up. Just use a dremel and grind out the paint so nothing faces away, or again, use the label maker idea. And you can do things like "Right Cymbal Boom Arm" "First Rack Tom Arm" and stuf of that nature.

Hopefully this helps you and anyone else wondering how to get everything as close as possible. If you need pics of anything let me know and I'll take em' for ya.

[Colquhoun]

Thanks Adam, and to all that replied with suggestions.
I think what I'll do is buy a laser, and plant tiny reference mirrors all over the kit. That way, I can get it set up down to the millimeter.

Who says GAS has to stop with just drum gear?

[Hercules]

There's an easier way Colquhuon...just keep your eyes open when you play - that way you know where everything is.

Sorry, just couldn't resist......

[jammin777]

magic marker marking the carpet works very well. i also use memory locks for all my cymbal booms along with gibraltar clamps. i dont collapse the boom arms just remove them from the rack. numbering all the boom arms and alphabeting the tom arms left to right
I havent figured out memory locks for the roland toms yet. my DIY kit has memory locks for the toms. i had a huge A kit years ago with a gibraltar cage and my first gig setting up that kit was a total nightmare! being in a original band where you have 15 min. to change kits, get miced up, soundck. wow!
you bet i was armed and ready for the next gig. I bought memory locks for everything spent alot of time getting it down to a science and was blessed with a groupie that wanted to be a drum tech which became a good one.
now my tdw 20 kit at home is huge but my road DIY kit is basic. getting lazy for my old age going to church tonight for rehursal carring only a stick bag priceless

[Biff]

colquhoun

Yes. You are crazy.

Okay, not really. I'm really picky too. I use a four sided rack with no legs (or 'feet'). Just the uprights and cross bars. I put a piece of red duct tape on my 4' x 6' rug where each upright goes. By going 'feetless', my rack folds up real nice to transport. I put Gibraltar SC-RBA's on top my my three 43.5" uprights. Then I can put my cymbal boom arm into the top of my uprights. Leave the boom arms as you want them and just take them out of the uprights when you transport your kit. I use a small memory lock on my boom arm so it's the same height each time. No cymbals stands to mess with! NICE!

Put small marks on the rug for the rest of the stuff that isn't part of your rack.

Good Luck!!

- - - Biff

[cstoliker]

My wife use some fabric paint she bought at AC more.

http://www.cstoliker.com/Drums/New%20Drum%20Pics%20058.jpg

Where the legs attach to the curved center bar I drilled holes and put bolts through. All clamps are marked with permanent marker.

http://www.cstoliker.com/Drums/

['lectric drumma]