Hi. Any drummer here can advice me which drum kit is the best to buy? I started playing drum for about 1 and a half year already.
I search over the net and saw they said tama,pearl is best for beginner to buy? Also.. i am curious about how the size of toms and snare will affect the sound?
Once again, please give me some advice on how to buy or give me a refrerence~ Thanks ^^
You should ask DaCheat, he's THE man, when it comes to musical equipment.
Here's something i wrote to kyle on this very topic (some of it might not make sense out of context but all the info is there):
it sounds kinda simplistic, but with intermediate kits you pretty much can't go wrong if you stick to major brands like Sonor, Mapex, Premier, Ludwig, Yamaha Tama etc. Theyll all have good workmanship and should hold up to being moved around if you have some decent cases. The one brand whose intermediate kits I'd stay away from is Pearl, as they use pretty bad wood (100% poplar, as opposed to the standard maple or birch) and their drum mounting hardware is clumsy and infuriating to work with.
basically the hardest thing about recommending drums is that pretty much everything is down to personal preference. what youll notice when looking at drum kits is that they generally come in rock or fusion sizes, rock typically being 12, 13 and 16 inch tom sizes, and fusion coming in 10, 12 and 14, and then a choice between a 20 or 22 inch bass drum. Don't let the names fool you, you can definitely play rock on fusion sizes (in fact these sizes are far more popular these days) but the bigger drums of the rock sizes will definitely give you a 'fatter', more 'classic' rock kind of sound, whereas fusion sizes are arguably more versatile because theyre not quite so geared toward one range. theyre also easier to set up and cart around. if possible try out both at a music store or wherever and see which you prefer. but for bass drums, I'd go with the 22" every time. 20" can be pretty wimpy for rock, but 22" are still controllable enough for blues
While the diameter of the drum effects pitch, the depth effects resonance. generally the deeper the drum, the longer the note will last when hit. The Tama kit you posted will have a relatively 'dead' sound to it because of the shallow sizes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. it means the sound is easily controllable so it's good for recording or simply if you like the sound, but bad in a live setting as the sound doesnt cut through as much. basically, shallow drums = attack and and response, deeper drums = tone and resonance.
But whatever kit you get, the most important thing is finding the right drum heads (skins) and tuning. Almost any kit can sound good if its tuned well with decent heads.
http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/
this guide is long, but its pretty much the be all end all of tuning guides. Put simply, tuning drums properly takes bloody ages, but have patience and it'll all be worth it when you have a great sounding kit. As far as choosing drum heads goes, the two main options are coated (white) and clear. Coated heads give a warmer, fatter sound while clear heads are more bright and cutting in character. Both types are used across all genres so again it's best to try them out, but the next best thing is to find a drummer whose sound you like and see what they use.
note: a lot of people who are new to drumming love to eliminate any ringing or undertones whatsoever from their drums with muffling rings or patches etc. dont do this! If the undertones are genuinely unbearable, it's probably a tuning issue. but more often than not it's just what drums happen to sound like up close and unmixed. it's the ringing that carries the sound. Let those drums sing, maaan.
With all that said, the kit I would most highly recommend would still be the Mapex M Birch. It is I believe the cheapest 100% Birch kit you can get (birch being basically the ultimate wood for recording with), plus the free high tom is a bonus as even rock sizes will become versatile with the addition of a 10", albeit a bitch to set up (I don't know if everywhere still does the free tom thing but wembley drum centre certainly do). also I don't think I've ever seen anyone be dissatisfied with a Mapex kit.
Blargh nearly forgot about cymbals. the bad news is, unlike drums, cheap cymbals will always sound like cheap cymbals. the good news is, when playing live nobody will ever notice anyway. Kits usually come with stock cymbals that sound terrible even compared to beginner cymbals, so if you want to upgrade here's a basic guide
decent cheapy cymbals:
Paiste PST 3 or 5
Sabian B8
Zildjian ZHT/ZBT/ZXT (these.. are actually horrible. I'd stick with the first 2. but then again, personal preference...)
Wuhan for china cymbals. you can find them cheap as hell on ebay but they're like the secret standard for china cymbals
Meinl do some too I think but I can't remember their name
Mid range:
Dream Cymbals (these are pretty interesting, they're cheap but they don't really fit in with other cymbals on the scale of noob to pro. they're hard to find off the internet in the UK and pretty unique sounding, being entirely hand made.)
Pasite Alpha
Meinl Classics
Higher end cymbals that cost a bloody fortune but are oh so worth it:
Zildjian K, K custom, Avedis, A custom etc
Sabian AA, HH, AAX etc
Pasite 2002, Traditionals, Signatures etc
Meinl Byzance, mb20 etc
Istanbul - genuine turkish cymbals that are really love/hate
Meh, it depends what type of size you need and where you live. Depends on if you want to put price over quality.
Why thank you!Originally Posted by Unleashed Hell
In any case you just need to go store to store, and try everything out. Don't bother listening to whoever is trying to sell, because that's all they're trying to do, is sell it. As far as what vannaroth said, tuning, dampening, and choosing which drum heads to use is very important.
People can say what's good and what isn't. You can spend $100 or $10,000 on a drum kit. It's all about what sound you want. I'm a jazz drummer so I have a Sonar Custom Maple kit with a Yamaha Brass Piccolo snare. I've put a lot of money into it, and it's starting to give me the sound I want. (btw that brass piccolo snare is bad ass...) here's a pic of what one looks like.
Reply With Quote
