People are constantly telling me they like the sound of my 26" kick.

I have never found that big drums are louder than small drums. I actually don't get that. To me they are lower, not louder. Is an acoustic bass louder than a piccolo because it's bigger? Doesn't the drum volume depend almost entirely on how loud you hit it?

Also, people mistake "bad tone" for volume. A great sounding warm drum will rarely be considered loud compared to a plastic trebly sounding drum. It's all about tone. I've found that when people say something is too loud, what they usually mean is that the tone is inappropriate for the song.

So for a small club, I'm even more inclined to use a 26" kick because that's where you really need beautiful tone. But louder than an 18" drum? It's no louder, although maybe it has the potential to be, but it isn't any louder, it's lower. In general, lower is less offensive.

It's all in how you play it. Sounds like you have a good touch and can finesse life out of your bass drum, which is great! In general, larger diameter drums have the potential to be louder than smaller drums (larger skins can move more air). Doesn't mean they have to be.

Also, the perception of what drums are louder/quieter is thrown off by the pitch and overtones...lower pitches simply don't seem as loud and cutting as higher ones. I'd imagine that you could get a louder volume out of your 26" bass drum than you could with an 8" bass drum. Everything between the two is just fractions of that difference...

I have 18, 20, and 22 inch bass drums and I feel that my 20 x 14 when played similarly to the others has the most volume, or actually punch, because it's not terribly deep, it seems to pack a wallup. I have a 22 x 18 which has a wonderful deep tone, but most likely because of the depth of the drum and the low tones it emits, in some rooms it doesn't seem as loud.

I use the 18 for Jazz gigs and use a soft fluffy beater but on rare occaisions when I have really hit hard it has a higher sound but doesn't seem any louder.

I do find when you use the right drum for the music and play somewhat skillfully you usually will get compliments on the sound of the drums, but can you really seperate the drumming, from the visual, from the band, from level of intoxication of the audience member?

Some sound guys really help you project your actual drum sound, some actually make your drums sound better (rare) but many have a sound in mind and really give you a hard time about going in a different direction.

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Well.....when my band plays gigs where I need to mike the kit, WE are the sound guys.....I tune my drums for an open sound and mike them using a simple time proven method......one on the bass and two overheads....thats it. Most of the rest of the time I'm unmiked. So no sound moron to tell me I need to cut a hole in my front head or stuff a gigunda pillow in there or eq them all wrong or worst of all......put gated reverb on them! The last guy that tried that got fired on the spot for our set and he actually learned something by watching US! Oh, and as far as the guy who said I needed to cut a hole in the front head of my Jazzette bass drum with its ORIGINAL front head from 1968 nearly got his head blown off! I've mellowed a bit over the years (yeah hard to believe!) but anyone who suggests that to me still gets "the look". Funny Post

Deja Vu!

and I'm a Purist myself, valves are where we seperate the "fool's gold" from the diamonds.

and yes, I know your pain from long-suffering the sonic tonality of a drummer who doesn't know what a drum-key looks like...or doesn't know the difference between vintage ludwig yellow-jackets and a westbury starter kit.

it's agonizing.

I know drummers better than me who I have to "drum-tech" for.

most of whom, bitterly resent your suggestions as some kind of threat to their "style" or ability.

it's a sad sad world my friends.

I don't argue with someone about the do's and don'ts of balancing and even "Seating" their heads, etc.. anymore, it's simply better to take it all in stride...especially if your recording and "producing" a track for someone who will insist on using "c-note" drums (100 dollar starter kits) for the foundation of their recordings, there's a lot of great ways to ruin a sound that falls on deaf ears for all it's usually worth anyway! to achieve a well balanced "live" sound usually takes a well oiled machine, and no one to notice the difference.

Duuuuude! you Rock, could you come with me on gigs and give sound guys, (not all just the narrow minded ones), "the look", for me. Unfortunately when there is a sound guy at the type of gigs I play it's usually not someone who works for us but for the venue. My jazz gigs are usually un miked, but I will sometimes do the overhead condensers thing if necessry. I love your bravado, keep it up man, so audiences can hear real drums the way they were meant to sound!

Sound guys and engineers hate me i too fight to sound like me and Cleveland Rogers have a sound all to themselves maybe imagination but they just have more. boom for the buck and i like em... i also like my maple classic Ludwigs in 26 14,16,18. yeah they boom too.. :)

I would love a set of Rodgers, but can't afford. Thinking of a set of 22, 13, 16 luddys for my blues gigs, or even a 20,13,16 but can only pay 3 - 500$ I don't want anything in show condition, I'm buying for sound and I'm going to gig with them but I'd like them to look decent. Any suggestions.

Nobody ever comments on the quality of the sound of my '72 Rogers; they all say it looks great (I have it wrapped in psychedelic Union Jacks at present, see gallery) but that is all. Back in '73 it was the best sounding kit any of us north British rock drummers had ever heard. However, when I gig my Gretsch Centennial (regularly) I get a lot, and I mean a lot, of comments about how they sound. I obviously get a load of comments about how they look as well, and this is mainly from women (I've actually had women - more than one - ask if they can come up and stroke them; I kid you not!) but that is to be expected. I don't think I've ever played a gig (I've been playing pubs and clubs, un-miked, for the last decade) where I haven't got at least one person praise the sound; and I'm not talking about only musicians either. I play in fairly loud bands, so it's not a question of predominance. I do use light sticks however (7A) and rim most of the time - even on the toms, and this combination of light sticks on die-cast rims around super thin DeQueen shells makes a noise that I simply adore; and so, it seems, does everyone else. They are, co-incidentally, the loudest drums I have ever heard; 24,16,14,13,12,10,14x8.

Another side of this is that I've had so many times when it sounded like total garbage and people came up and said it sounded great and other times when I know it sounded great and people said nothing... or worse! CryBaby So in the end, hate to say this, but I don't really put a whole lot of stock in what other people say compared to what I know, if that makes sense.

Also, music isn't really about sound, it's about feel, and it can sound great and feel rotten and vice versa.

You don't have to have much music education to realize that feel trumps sound any day of the week.

Ideally of course, it should both feel and sound phenomenal! :2Cents: