Hi there! I’m Derek Frampton!
Soon I’ll be posting things about myself,
probably adding video covers of my favorite songs on drums,
possibly some drum techie stuff, video game stuff etc.
Pardon the mess as I’m working on setting this new site up, but please Stay Tuned!
(THE NEXT POST UNDER THIS ONE IS ALWAYS MOST CURRENT)
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It’s been almost a year since my last post, literally last May.
I’ve had surgery on my cervical spine. It went well, and thankfully I have no issues other than some general stiffness once in a while.
Here’s the kicker: I went in for lumbar pain and debilitating ER visits (to stop them) and came out with a $130k 3-level ACDF at C3-C4-C5-C6 on September 18, 2025.
(ACDF = Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion) They go in from the front, rip out bad discs, grind out bone fragments and growths known as osteophytes, then put in spacers. Once that happened, they literally drilled eight (8) screws into my spine, with an almost 5-inch titanium plate holding my cervical vertebrae together. It’s massively crazy.
As far as the reason I went in—the lumbar pain—and why I’ve been to the ER twice after having to be picked up off the floor ’cause I could not move…
I still have excruciating pain daily, and if I bend wrong, lift anything, move in bed, or walk wrong, my tendons/muscles in my spine will pull/tear due to herniated and protruding discs in my lumbar spine that I went in for in the first place.
These drums and my entire room, including the gaming PC I built in November of 2024 (OMG), are still sitting here a year later, untouched and covered with dust.
I’m struggling to recover day by day, but while the strength is coming back, I cannot sit anywhere but the mattress on my bed due to the firmness yet support it provides. If I lie on my side, my hips are pushed sideways, and that directly affects the bad discs, and it’s a huge problem.
Frankly, it’s been a nightmare.
I spend my days and nights using a 2018 Mac mini with an Intel chipset running Windows 11 Pro 25H2 and no bloatware, no spyware, no AI bullshit, and it runs clean AF.
I can only play older id Tech engine games like COD up to COD10 (Ghosts) and a few other 2D puzzle games, etc.
I have to re-arrange my entire room to get my desk in the right place to set up my gaming system, etc. But not being able to do it on my own has been quite depressing.
ANYWAY, I will still be online with the Jizzcord I set up for my gaming clan athttp://jizzcord.outcastsnipers.us
andhttps://OutCastSnipers.US
AND I will try to be more active here on my personal site.
I’m out for now, and I hope whoever decides to read this is having a great day!
D.
This is what my MRI looked like pre-surgery and you can see the discs pressing into my spinal column and main cord…
Now here’s the finished product of what my neck looks like under the skin with the hardware after surgery
Right side:
From the FRONT
YEAH pretty crazy right? These pics were taken the 19th of September 2025 so there’s been much bone growth and fusion since then and it’s working out so far. I go back in July for an almost 1 year follow up.
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
There’s a LOT to unpack in this update.
This drum kit was found on eBay in pieces and in VERY HORRIBLE condition.
The only saving grace was the white powdercoating was in great shape.
After 60+ hours of cleaning,(literally scrubbing in the bath tub with soap, a sponge and a tooth brush) and rebuilding after ordering new rims, lugs, tension rods, heads, piezo elements, wiring, foam for the piezos, and bolts and so much more, It’s finally put together! The cables for each pad, and module need to be plugged in/hooked up etc. The stream PC, Audio Mixer for the drums, music and a microphone for me to chat with my Twitch viewers are here, just needing to be hooked up as well. I’m in such a TINY place every 1/4″ counts, and that’s not exaggeration! I’m currently trying to figure out how/where to put the stream pc, even though it’s an apple iMac MINI, the monitor, keyboard,mouse and whatnot are too big to fit in that corner. I originally had bought that stand you see with wheels but as you can see it’s REALLY encroaching on the space; so badly I can barely walk behind the kit.
I give you, The RARE 2004 Pintech Tour Elite in WHITE 6-piece electronic drum kit.
(The pads only) In refurbished condition as CLOSE to original as possible using official Pintech replacement parts, DolbyDrums rims and clamps and a 2 Roland TD-4 Racks put together with Roland Cymbals and Roland TD-30 Drum module. I added top of the line PDP Hi-hat stand, snare stand and direct-drive pedals for this build.
There’s so much more to say but for now, here’s the current pictures from front and overhead.
I’m am GETTING CLOSER to streaming live on Twitch! Stay Tuned, and THANK YOU for being here!
Hello, All!
It’s been… 84 years…
ok ok so not that long but it seems like it since the last time I posted here.
I’m not really sure how frequently I’ll be posting, but I can assure you I’ll probably start and see where this goes at least once a month with updates etc. It’s hard to do this ’cause I have to take pics from my camera, and upload ’em and blah blah. but maybe it’ll be worth it someday.
So far I’ve got my new desk that I had to cancel the first one, then wait for the second one 6 weeks!
So it’s HERE at least. The box wasn’t in too good of shape, so I looked for damage and we’re good. Now to just get the energy to set it up!
(I will also be building a brand-new PC and streaming on Twitch PC games as well as drums!)
Stay tuned!
I’ve been working on Playing drums to a live audience, but not in person.
I can play drums to songs that viewers request, or a predefined playlist.
I will be doing this from my small bedroom studio, on a tight budget.
HOW?
Streaming LIVE to Twitch.TV/DerekFrampton_ .
Doing so using this streaming platform allows me to interact with a live TEXT CHAT audience through my vocal mic, typing in the chat myself and reading what viewers type back to me etc.
There are many other perks, IE too many to mention here so go check out Twitch.TV for yourself! You can click my link to watch or follow my channel if you wish! Thanks!
Last but not least:
I’m finishing up some last min. settings in the broadcasting program so I can get started.
I’m not sure what to expect, so this website is a placeholder to begin with for the drumming stuff. My musical tastes are quite diverse from the 1920’s to current, and in multiple genres.
Rock, Rap (old-school Gangster Rap Think Dre, Snoop, MC Wren, etc.) , HARD Rock, METAL, Orchestral Metal, Jazz, Fusion Jazz, Texas Blues, Chicago Blues, EDM, and MANY Sub-genres of the aforementioned.
I hope you’ll come along with me on this new journey as I will be updating this site with the ability to create personal logins and accounts with personal profiles to interact with comments, message boards, etc.
Stay tuned!
D