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A (Somewhat) New Hobby of Mine

So you may remember (but probably don’t) that at about this time last year I wrote an article about Rock Band 2. In said article I mentioned that the only instrument I ever used in the game was the drums, and that I got pretty decent at them. Since that time my interest in drumming has moved on to the real thing. After playing on the kits of a few friends I got my own a few months ago at Christmas. Several hundred dollars later I have what I consider to be a complete and pretty awesome set up, which looks like this:So massive I couldn't stand far enough back to get it all in one shot.

And here is my collection of broken drumsticks, I’ve gone through a significant number in the few months I’ve been playing. I think it might be more the sticks than it is me, but they only cost $2.50/pair, ship for free, and come with candy in the box! (Sweetwater is the best store ever.)

And it sounds like this:

Bass, snare, and toms are all from a company called Drumfire, if the logo didn’t tip you off to that already.
Cymbals are (Camera’s perspective right to left):
Meinl HCS 14″ Hi-hats
Meinl HCS 16″ Crash
Zildjian ZBT 10″ Splash
Zildjian ZXT 16″ Rock Crash
Wuhan 18″ China
Meinl HCS 20″ Ride

I now plan on going through each of those items and what I like/don’t like about each. If you’re not interested, which chances are you aren’t, you can skip to the end.

I like the bass, and I like the snare, that’s about all I can say about them. The toms are about as close as I’ve ever come to actually liking toms, they sound kind of harsh without the headphones on, but with them they sound pretty good, and I guess also in the recording.

The hi-hats are kind of heavy sounding, if that makes any sense. Very low pitched, as are all of the HCS cymbals. They get very loud when you hold them slightly apart. Those really aren’t black and white pros and cons, more personal preference kind of thing. I like them.

The HCS Crash has almost exactly the sound I want from a crash, except it doesn’t have quite a long enough sustain, almost seems to choke itself, and it’s a little to0 quiet. When playing with the hi-hats open you have to hit it really hard to get it to stand out as separate.

As far as the splash goes it’s quite simple, I love it, end of story.

When I first hit the ZXT Rock Crash I was taken aback by it’s incredibly high pitch and long drawn out ringing sustain. I almost didn’t like it. After using it for a little I have come to really like it, it’s high pitch makes it stand out and I think the only reason I was at first shocked is because the HCS’s are all much lower pitched than is average.

The Wuhan China arrived today, and I haven’t formed an opinion on it yet. It sounds like I expected it to but I’m not sure I really like that as much as I thought I would. It works well as an accent to the snare, maybe occasionally as a contrast to the crashes, but other than that it’s a little too trashy for me and the music I normally play.

The HCS Ride is far better sounding in the recording than I think it is in real life, although that’s still pretty good. Ride cymbals are my favourite and I’m pretty picky about them, or would be if I could afford to. Unfortunately ride cymbals are incredibly expensive, you’re looking at $200 to get anything above very basic entry level stuff, and you could easily spend $500 for something top of the line, which I probably will, someday.

And that’s it, sorry if this wasn’t very interesting to most people, but it’s interesting to me, and that’s what this site is really about.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 at 9:03 pmand is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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