Josh, how much acoustic coupling occurs in the shell vs. in the air between the heads? Some research from 30 years ago suggests that the latter is dominant. Ultimately the amplitude of head vibrations is going to be way larger than shell vibrations.
It's surprising that more metal drums aren't on the market. All I can figure is that manufacturers aren't willing to risk the expense. These are just about the perfect sizes, IMO.
I love the look and weight of the aluminum. Sound-wise, they were just a touch below the two wood kits, but not terribly so. In lower tunings, that might totally change. My concern would be with repairability: if you bang a bearing edge while changing heads, for example, or if you get a dent. Dents in wood either stay localized or crack the shell; aluminum might lose its shape more easily. I'd be curious about those things before I pulled the aluminum plug. But I'd go aluminum over acrylic every day.
Josh, have you considered any mods to the BR3 mount to make it less of a leaf-spring sort of design? I find that when using the BR3 for a mounted cymbal, there's quite a bit of bounce in the BR3. It's not terrible, but I suspect something anchored at both ends would eliminate a lot of the bounce. For vibrations parallel to the mount, like with floor or rack toms, the issue isn't as pronounced, but with vibrations normal/perpendicular to the mount, the BR3 is basically a leaf spring, with all of the design characteristics that implies.
thnaks.. SO tired of DW viedeos claimin it matters how the shell resonates without hardware mounted! I have been building drums for 15 years and the only thing that matters is: how does it sound with hardware and heads mounted. Period.
I appreciate what you mentioned about mass. I feel like there's a trend in high end, boutique drums to be really high-mass, heavy and dense woods+metals, with bulky hardware. I like drums to be easy to activate, dynamic and warm. Often student-model drums (Acrolite etc) are what I keep around.
I like that you are addressing drum sound using the physics of modal vibration. But I don't think you've identified the shell mode that is most strongly excited when you strike the head, and thus is the greatest modal contributor to sound. The shell is forced by tension variation in the batter head. When the head is struck in the center, it deflects downward and tension is increased. This pulls the bearing edge slightly toward the central axis of the drum. Then the restoring force in the head pulls it close to flat and back up higher than its initial (quiescent) state, which again increases head tension and pulls the bearing edge inward. Like the guitar string example, this oscillation continues as the "note" is sustained. Interestingly, the inward forcing on the bearing edge occurs at twice the frequency of the head vibration, as the edge is pulled inward twice for each oscillation of the batter head. Of course this is a simplified explanation; there are many modes excited when the head is struck, and I've reduced the complexity by stating the head was struck in the center so the vibrations are concentric. This symmetry is broken if the head is struck elsewhere, but most of the energy is still in the symmetric fundamental mode. So the shell mode that is excited is primarily that which responds to forcing at the bearing edge, which is similar to a vibrating beam mode, think glockenspiel. Most industry marketing is bogus but the concept of nodal points where some drum makers mount lugs to minimize energy transfer to the hardware does have some merit. Whether it affects sound quality is debatable but at least it is logically consistent and experimentally verifiable. -amateur drummer, professional physicist
I was one of the lucky buyers of the pre-production samples. I love this throne because the throne was the only component of my gigging kit that weighed more than everything else. This throne design is still great after a year. I only have a few suggestions for slight improvement - will post a follow up video soon!
What I need is a way to attach a double tom mount to a bass drum that doesn't have a mount. I find that I can set up a drum set faster when the Tom's are mounted on the bass drum since I will then always have them in the same place. I also prefer bass drum mounts to racks.
work on not clapping your hands while you speak. It's distracting. Otherwise, keep up the great work and design. it's great to see people that like to solve a problem and make a high quality product.
I was at a PASIC convention 15 years ago, working light & sound for the Hyatt Regency, holding the event at the Convention Center here in Columbus OH. Anyways, I was standing behind a Ludwig Drums family member and Johnny Carson’s old drummer, Ed Shaunessey, when Bill Ludwig said “a drum is a drum is a drum” - meaning - we’ve been stretching animal skin over logs and hitting them with tree branches for hundreds of thousands of years. There’s only two drums: good sounding drums and bad sounding drums. All the peripherals? It’s just so much “stuff” - now, were they drinking at the bar when all this was said? Yes. But a drum is a drum is a drum. The good ones sound best. It’s ALL subjective.
Quite familiar with Ludwigs snare bed! (I was in charge of product development there for 5 years). This takes that a bit further- smooth curve around 100% of the shell, no flat area. It makes it easier to tune and gives a bigger tuning range.
I'm sorry, but these drums can give any other drum kit, in the same sizes, from any other drum company, a run for their money, especially that kick drum.
Turns out I liked the walnut the best in all three rounds an the tulip the least. Didn't dislike any of them and the difference wasn't huge, so all in all the type of wood doesn't matter that much, but at least it tells me there is a difference.
I love to hear your thoughts on the Peavey Radial Pro 1000 kit. No longer in production but utilised a very racial design over conventional drums. I would assume most of the principles you've discussed here will still apply but golly, those drums exploded when you hit them hard. The most impressive sounding drums I have ever heard. They looked weird which is probably what they didn't take off. Also, the Welch Tuning System Drums have applied some really interesting concepts about tuning, and they sound fantastic too.
