HEY THERE! I haven’t made/typed out a blog post in awhile. I’ve been super busy with life, health issues, the usual BS that everyone pretty much goes through on this planet. Life has taken me in different directions as of late, and I’m doing my best to catch up with it.
If you recall the last post I made with the White Pintech RARE kit that I spent weeks restoring, I’d planned on using it and a TD-30 for the module. Well.. the kit’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with it, but I miss the REAL FEEL of REAL drums. I started this little studio a few years back with a Pearl Decade Maple kit and I was all about PEARL DRUMS etc. Well I don’t like their expensive pricing, the hardware I’m not really a fan of to be fair I don’t like mounting TUBES, I’d rather have the L-Rods that the rest of the industry uses etc. and so on and so forth.
I did have a Pearl Roadshow JR kit that I’d fully converted to electronic, using the convenient smaller sized shells etc. for a compact 5 piece drum kit. Problem? …the hardware was cheap chinesium crap, and it didn’t hold up at all. Tension rods would snap, Lugs would shift and tear the wood shell which were thin and cheap ’cause let’s face it they’re for kids right?
Basically START ’em out on this cheap crap and if they stick with it, then invest more money into something better etc. So that’s when the Pintech kit came into play. I’d been using Pintech products all the way through their last FOUR owners, and several different restructuring times. The owner of Pintech now, is super busy and while a nice guy to do business with, I wanted to play REAL drums again, but in my small room studio where LOUDNESS is NOT OK. Basically only due to the size of the room and treatment would make it much smaller.
I’ve searched EVERY brand you can think of for small BOP or JAZZ kits for small venues where the shell sizes and much smaller, but the sound is still big. I mean literally over a dozen brands. I then realized I also use ROLAND electronic drums and have been using ’em for over 2 decades here and there. Modules, triggers, pads, cymbals etc. Well guess what?!
Recently ROLAND Bought out the drum company DW. yes that expensive AF “everybody plays DW” if they’re in front of a camera or live company. I’ve ADORED their bass/kick drum pedals for decades (they started with those first and then started making drums later)
Bottom line? I wanted DW quality, but NOT DW prices, for a small acoustic kit I could convert to electronic using external triggers and mesh heads, preserving the acoustic properties in case I want to play the drums acoustically later! DW’s small bop kit is over $1,500USD! I wasn’t about to pay that… Enter PDP (Pacific Drums ‘n’ Percussion) They are a California based subsidiary, owned by Drum Workshop (DW) that makes drums and hardware, and are even used by many famous artists around the world. Does that matter to me? Yes, but only for the fact of QUALITY, longevity, and last but certainly NOT least, PRICE.
The PDP New Yorker 4-piece kit was around $500! It’s the kit you now see in my studio.
I bought the specialized mesh heads some 4 ply some 3 ply for more realistic feel like Mylar heads do, from Dolby Drums here in the USA. I have the Roland Cymbals, the Roland Hardware I built the Stealth/Low rack system out of, and the Roland RT-30 line of acoustic triggers, paired with a TD-27 Module of which has Digital ports for me to later upgrade to the Digital Ride, Snare and HiHats! I’ll be paying all this off for a while, but it was much more affordable than my first kit I converted and ended up having to sell ’cause it was too big and loud anyway, The Pearl Decade Maple kit. (in redburst it was gorgeous and it was the 7-piece kit)
So. if you’re still reading all this, thanks for stickin’ around. I plan on having 2-3 camera angles, one overhead, one front and one foot camera, and streaming live on twitch to people’s
song requests, using youtube links, and the video will be playing behind me on the green screen while I play over the songs etc. Lots of Drummers on Twitch.TV do this already, and I’ve got different goals in mind than most of them do.
I only want to stream live to share my love of playing drums, music in general and share that it can be done through a small 12’x9′ basement room/studio/bedroom and make it happen!
I don’t care if I gain popularity I’m more shy of that anyway, and I won’t be worried about making money doing it. I might setup a voluntary donation link or something just in case peeps WANT to support the Studio and my shenanigans, but we’ll see what people think of me, my personality on camera, and my drumming ski… well ability first, then go from there.
be sure to check out my twitch channel if you’d like to see some drumming and request some songs to see if I’m able to play ’em, or at least try to! I’m not streaming YET, but I will be as soon as the studio is ready! My Twitch Channel
Thanks for reading!
D
