How many kits do you use?

[Pleiadian]

I was just wondering...

How many distinct kits do you actually use while performing?

I am currently not in a band and have never performed for an audience with my v-custom. However, I frequently have jam sessions with friends. During those sessions I may use 20 different kits, but if you perform live this is probably a nightmare for the sound engineer.

So... do you mainly use one kit which is completely fine-tuned to your liking, or do you switch kits during a performance?

Rob

[GRRAVEE]

i use three kits about 90% of the time.for recording i use three kits and roughly 806 sounds lol

[Pleiadian]

Originally posted by GRRAVEE
for recording i use three kits and roughly 806 sounds lol

How many pads do you have

[postnuklear]

I use loads and loads. But I have to change each one's settings every time I switch to a different sound system. My master EQ is always flat though, makes things easier.

[GRRAVEE]

i have two dauz 6" above my hihat.1 pd7 above the 2 dauz. to th right of that i have a pd100 then 1 pd9 then a pd100 and pd120 then a pd9 ,a cy ride15 then two more pd120's then the last pd9 hart pro snare,kd7 and hi hat pedal. that's going clockwise from hat to floors and pd9. i gotta get some pics.

[Jaay]

I like to use pretty versatile sounding kits. Stuff that will work decently for just about everything. For ballads (and I mean rock ballads), I'll use longer sounding drums, but that's pretty much it; I generally switch between those two types. I'll switch out snares more than anything. The only exception is a practice kit I have set up in my module. For my full e-kit, I'll take two Gibraltar cymbal arms off of my A-kit rack and clamp them to the Roland rack for my cymbal pads. But if I didn't want to go through that (say for just doing a late night practice or something), I'll set up a kit where I have a four-piece with a crash-ride, so I only have to use the hardware that's on the rack already. So, about two or three different kits with my full setup, and one for practice or otherwise scaled-down purposes.

[puttenvr]

In use 3 different drum kits. Found out that with head phones on every sample sounds different but live not. Same as with acoustic drums: can you hear the difference between a miked maple and birch kit?

[cpgrossman]

At home i use 3 (tdw-1,808,bebopdlux) all tweeked. At shows about 10.

[Zigs]

I use about 10 different sets. However, most of them have the same bass snare and tom setup etc. I mostly switch sets for different effects on my aux pads. Like Tambourine, cross stick, hand clap, triangle etc. I also have a couple of sets with different sequences set up on them. I simply mark the set number on our song list before playing and have no problem changing the kits during a gig.
Rob

[Boingo]

2 things to consider.

1) playing too many different sounding kits at a gig can get on your (and the audience) nerves. It's not natural. I normally keep it to 2 or 3 and may get up to 5 on occassion. Typically I'll use a medium snare or a deep fat snare and occassionally a piccolo kit. Tom's use 1 set up 90% of the time with 1 or 2 alternates at most. Cymbals are the same as the toms. Not much variation. Even on professional CD's, you normally don't get much variance between kits from song to song. Also, it's nice to get known for a certain sound, like an identity.

2) some people can deal with several kits set up differently and easily transition from one to another. By this I mean vary one pad from kit to kit so it's a crash on one, a splash on another, tamborine, etc. It wouldn't be so bad it it looked like what they sounded like, but having 4 PD-9's staring at me and having them constantly change sounds makes me go, I don't know, maybe boingo is a good word to describe it.

Anyways, I think less is better for the player and the listeners. The comments about just how much difference the public can distinguish seems valid too. Works for me, anyway.

[Ranman]

I mainly use two - and the only difference between them is that in one the snare is a tom ... as if I've removed the strainer. I do have a couple of special ones that are a copy of the one with the snare, but with different goodies assigned to my home-brew triggers. I rarely use them, though. On the two main kits the T-Bar is set to cow bell and tamborine, which works well in most cases (for me).

[Rythmstik]

I'm like Ranman. Pretty much the same kit, but I'll change it sometimes for different effects on my home-brews, or maybe to add a tambourine sound to the HH, somewhat different snare, or bass. Essentially, the same kit, though, when I'm playing with my band. When jamming, though, I'll go crazy with the kits!

[FloridaDrummer]

I use 3-4 sometimes 5, however we play cover tunes ranging from the 50's thru modern day. I try to use a kit that matches the era and one kit is just the same as my modern kit with some bongos added.

[TomLandin]

At church on the TD-6: use 3-4 different sets

Band #1 (Contemporay Original Christian) TD-10exp:
1st CD (9 songs) used 7 different sets
2nd CD (11 songs) used 8 different sets
All total (CD's and yst to record - use 18 different sets

Band #2 (Rock Original Christian) TD-10exp:
Use 10 - 15 different sets.

Some songs just beg for a different sound, bass feel, cymbal sounds, etc.