Acrylic Drums

I’ve got a great RD acrylic kit that I use specifically for the Bill Mike Band (you can see footage of this kit in the RD video lessons). The dimensions are pretty extreme, but I like that.  I actually just ordered some additional toms to go with the kit (15″ rack and 18″ floor) so I can use it for studio stuff beyond just BMB music.

Anyway, last week I found a great article on acrylic drums.  It’s a good read for anyone who’s interested in the history of drum building and why certain shells sound the way they do.

The Jeremy Sanoski Band

Jeremy Sanoski is a dude I’ve been playing with for a few years now. He’s a super cool guy with a GREAT voice, and the band is what you would call a typical power trio (me, Jeremy, and my friend Phil Hicks on bass). Jeremy has a very “classic rock” sound, and the music we play ends up feeling like a cool combination of AC/DC, Foo Fighters, and Green Day.

Anyway, we’re tracking a full-length album this week at Hewitt Studios, which is where we recorded the episodes for the Risen Drums Video Lesson Series. The very boss Matt Berry is producing/engineering. I’ve got the big kick drum from the orange Bill Mike kit in the saddle for these sessions, with some other acrylic toms in standard sizes.

Man, the acrylic sound has really been growing on me… especially in the studio. You can crank them WAY down to get some serious depth and spank, but you don’t lose any tone. I guess that’s because their more dense, right? I don’t really know. Somebody help me out if I’m wrong here, but I think the SOUND of the drum comes from the drum head, and the shell just causes that sound to bounce around a little more or less depending on the density. Well, acrylic seems to get the sound moving quite a bit, even at a low tuning.

More from the studio tomorrow…