I just want to say how much I appreciate Drummers Review and all of the wonderful demos they do. I think that on RU-vid we have a diverse and energetic group of drummers who make up a wonderful drumming community. They offer a diverse range of relevant media and topics. Thanks to DR and all of the RU-vid drumming community.
Just bought a 7 piece performance series. Love them. I haven't played a lot of other kits, save what I could demo at guitar center. What I can say is that I've experimented with different heads on this kit, as one should do. So much much tonal potential in head choice. This kit can do a lot more than the stock heads would suggest. Something to keep in mind...If it sounds ordinary or safe to you, try coated single and double ply or clear double ply, etc...Once I put an Evans ported black reso head on it, the boominess diminished a bit and more character was revealed. The review correctly makes note of this. I definitely confirm that the snare is insane! Glad I got it in my arsenal. Its interesting to see a review on a kit I actually own. In my studio space, I hear more more mid and high detail.
I picked up a set of these a few years ago in pewter sparkle. My sizes are 18x22, 8x10, 8x12, 12x14 floor, 14x16 floor, 6.5x14 snare. Yes, my 12 inch Tom is 8 x 12 not the normal 9 x 12. The store I worked in had two kits come in in the same color and I was able to switch out for the 8 x 12. I’ve owned a ton of drum sets (DW collectors, pork pie, SJC, Tama Staclassic, Pearl Masters) and I would compare these with any of them quality wise. I got these as a gigging kit so I didn’t have to take my lacquer pork pie kit or my satin finish SJC kit out to small bars and other gigs. These have absolutely surprised me for how good they sound and how they are holding up. Fantastic purchase.
I have the Collector's Purple Heart kit (7 piece), so I bought this kit (same configuration) for gigs. I was STUNNED by how nice this kit sounds, very close to the PH kit. And the finish is definitely an opinion thing, it's honestly my favorite finish I've ever had. I love the reviews though, so please, keep it up!
@@shadowwraith4958 Oh, I totally beleive you. Those Purpleheart are the dream. Every hit, tap or step is like a thud in the chest. Perfect. Enjoy them. I really do like my Performance Series though. No complaints
The snare was the highlight out of the bunch, sweet attack. The toms were also great to my ears, though that kick was ok to my ears at least.. Good review! 🥁
Hey Nolly! If you can get your hands on a set, I'd like to see/hear a review of the Pearl Master's Mahogany Limited Edition kit. I like maple-mahogany shells but I cannot for the life of me find a good recording of this particular kit.
I have a cherry stain Performance set, 7 piece. I added a 24X18 bass drum. The whole package is killer. You are spot on with your review on the Performance Series.
I have to say these drums make him sound even better than usual! I've been interested in these drums for some time, the price is something I just can't abide though, I'll have to settle for used drum deals. I do love that finish, I've been hoping to see someone come out with this old Slingerland finish again.
I compared the Performance series and Design series and I opted for the Design series - less shell & finish options, but they had exactly what I wanted anyway. They sound just like this with proper heads, as they're similarly constructed shells. Well stated review in that they are "safe", and what most drummers have in their head. I'd be one of those drummers. These sound like how I want my drums to sound.
The “safe” sound is probably more suited for rock, jazz, country, etc…..The more exotic wood sounds is probably more suited for bands that will feature drum solos or possibly prog rock types
The kick issue is with their stock heads, which I passionately believe they should do away with. I'm a DW guy through and through but would NEVER play a show or a session with those heads on the kick. They're useless.
ALL of those heads are garbage!! They make the drums sound plastic-y!! Don't ask me why in the world Neil Peart ever used them, year after year, tour after tour??? I loathed these heads since their inception into the drum head market. Tonal and total garbage!!!
Dw spent a lot of money designing,and testing heads B4 they gave remo the green light to produce these heads.the ring around the kick head is narrower than say a PS3.this allows this head to work with low volume applications without sounding flabby. This combination with the front head having the small vent holes and there pillow they supply give a beautiful sounding drum when tuned properly.Sorry you folks don't like them.I happen to love there heads that remo produces for them,and have been using them for over 40 years.They also make a 2ply smooth coated version that are unbelievable for toms and bass drums for people that hit really hard,check them out. Happy Drumming!!!!!
I play the natural laquer edition in 10/12/14/20. I play a Mapex Black Panther snare that blends in perfectly. Also the Gibraltar hardware Tom platforms do the job and provide lots of options. Remo coated emperor on top, clear Ambassadors on bottom. Love my kit!
I have Remo Coated Ambassadors on my DW Perf. toms and the sound absolutely comes to life! Even the snare sounds better with a coated Ambassador. Lots of body and more attack than stock heads, IMO.
@@AudioheavenDenmark that is quite the statement, Drumeo has a video here on RU-vid where Jared visits the Tama factory, pretty cool to see the process behind the product.
Great thing about these drums is you can buy a single separate Tom Tom drum to add on to your kit. This is useful in the studio. Maybe a particular song will sound good with a DW Tom and then you can switch back to your regular drum brand for another song
Nolly...... love the channel and love the reviews of all the kits. I have an original DW Design Series kit from when they were first launched but would love it if you did a review on one of these. In regards to the colour of this particular kit \, I love it but as you rightly suggested, it is subjective and down to personal taste. With regards to heads on the DW drums, I have tried the stick heads on my own kit and even bought a set of coated/clear heads for the toms. Again subjective, but I have always reverted back to my Evans heads (EC2’s / G1) combinations for my drums and find that you get so much more tone and quality sound this way...... definitely worth the extra investment. Keep up the good work guys and that Design Series review would be most welcome in my book. Cheers! Bren
I used to have two configurations of DW Performance 24x18 13x9 16x14 with 14x8 snare, and 20x16 12x8 14x12 with 14x6.5 and 13x7 snare both sets in Ice White. Honestly talking, I used to like them. However, they were not my dream maple kit sound. Change to Ludwig Keystone in the downbeat sizes, (I know they are maple/oak) 20x16 12x8 14x14 and 14x6.5 snare and they defenetely sound much better than DW to my ears with same Aquarian studio X coated heads. Finally, I changed the 24 Dw Kit for a Ludwig Classic Maple FAB 22x14 13x9 16x16 and Legacy Mahogany snare 14x8, and I surely won't ever regret. Best wishes and thanks for your reviews. It's nice to listen to your neutral opinions about the drum sets you've reviewed so far. GBU
@@adamwatkins3313 Thanks for the comment. In case you are looking for that vintage maple sound I can tell that I couldn't achieve that with both of my Performance drum sets. I tried diferent heads, clear, coated, 1 ply, 2 plies, etc. The only sound I could get from those toms was modern and punchy, but not that lovely vintage sound at all. Maybe from the DW Classic series can be achievable, However, I am not personally sure about that, because I decided to go for specific matchless Ludwig sound. Best wishes.
Put a chrome Kickport in that resonant head and you won't just hear the difference, you will FEEL it. I can literally feel my bass drum rumbling more since I installed one, and refined tone is A+++ 🔥🔥🔥💨💨💨🤘🤘🤘
I understand the higher cost of the Collector's because of the many options available, but in reality you're paying for what you CAN get as opposed to there being any difference in what you DO get compared to the Performance series. In other words, same drums, just more options vs fewer. This makes the Performance a no brainer to me, as long as there are sizes and finishes you want.
Not bad but not particularly great. I think I might use a more harsh word than safe, I’d say maybe even a bit bland and compressed. Especially the bass drum, but we all seem to be in agreement about that. Plus I’ve never been a fan of the drum heads with the dampening rings built in. If I want to dampen I can do that myself afterwords; I’d prefer a more honest representation of the natural sound out of the box. I guess for me the name recognition that Nolly mentions might give this kit an edge in the competitive market just isn’t enough for me to want one or for me to fork out the amount of money they demand... I’d be happy with the mapex armory kit you guys demo over this kit any day and that costs 1/3 the price ... That’s just me though, each person got a different taste
I agree, I think my Mapex Saturn kit has much better tone to it. Then again, it does have hybrid shells (maple/walnut) so I guess that would be apples to oranges.
My 22" x 18" DW Performance Series bass drum has a much better sound than this, and I'm using the stock head and muffling setup because I've found that I prefer that setup. I don't know why the bass drum in this video has this ugly sound.
to my taste, it look better than the collector's series because of the smaller lugs and i like the sound better also for the same reason. smaller lugs= smaller mass on the shells. if i had to buy a dw product, i would buy this or i would have a collector's kit customized with the performance lugs.
Nolly, I love your honest reviews, I was going to sale my Tama starclassic performance b/b drum set to buy a DW performance series. I would love to hear what you have to say about the Tama starclassic b/b kit. if its possible to do a review that will be great if its not possible and you have personal knowledge or experience with the tama star classic I would appreciate any input from you. by the way your drummer its great.
These drums are alright.. I think the snare is the star 👍🏻 I’d love to see you guys cover some of the higher end Tama kits. The Star series or the new Walnut/Birch Starclassics
@@habit1979 Design Series is made in Taiwan. It's a small but worthwhile distinction. The Design Series are on par with these, but made overseas instead of in the USA.
The hardware is indeed great, the sound average imho. There are a lot of kits out there who cost half the price and sound the same or better. DW to me is more pleasing to the eye then to the ear. And those stock heads are a mystery to me: Remo Ambassadors will sound so much better!
I owned this kit for a while and honestly I was incredibly disappointed with it for how much it costs. The Performance snare drums are amazing however, and that was the one part of the kit I hated to send back. The toms do not like higher tunings at all, as they choke. I went with a Tama Starclassic Bubinga instead that I got a bargain price and it really feels like you’re getting more out of it for the money. The Collectors drums are great, but I’m not a fan of these at all.
I don't care for that finish either. I like natural woods or maybe a brilliant white. Blue sparkle. Green Sparkle. I much prefer the 1/2 scale turret lugs vs the oversized and heavy DW collectors lugs.
I had a set of Pearl master custom they were great no complaints but wanted something different so I bought the dw performance series they sound great but I changed the heads of the Tom's with emperor heads, and also used my Pearl master custom snare. I also have the dw perf snare too. just to change the pace awesome thank you.
SuperNick090 if you look online at Reverb.com, there’s a company called Cymbal Fusion selling them in 3 & 4 pc. configurations in Indigo Glass which is a dark blue. DW makes special colors for certain distributors every year just for the Performance series. That company being one, and Memphis Drum Shop being another.
That floor Tom in particular, yeah. I just think that’s kinda how DW’s sound. They tend to give off a ‘modern’ sound, which I’m not a big fan of. You’re right, though. It could just be the choice of heads many DW drummers choose for their drums.
Stock heads are not very good at all. First thing I did was change them to single ply Ambassadors on the batter side and clears on the resonant and they opened up big time. These drums are excellent and can suit any style of music depending on head choice.
I purchased a DW design frequent flyer, 10/10 for compactness and for moving around. Unfortunately the kit was not a 10/10. The toms were just so awkward to tune. And every time I took the kit out again to rehearse/gig I was having to re tune the kit. After 4 months I sold up and got a Mapex Saturn and my god what a difference. Also had DW pedals break on me and snare drum stands. A very overrated brand in my opinion!! Love the channel and reviews by the way 👌
Probably the most overrated of them all. DW relies on name recognition and its a shame so many drummers are duped by that. I remember the first time I played a yamaha birch absolute series or a mapex orion series and just being blown away by the quality and how bland DWs sounded in comparison.
All of their drums sound the same. DW crafts some absolutely beautiful drums but they all sound similar. The only ones that didn’t were the Romanian River Oak kits. When they feature new kits they typically all have the same sizes, drumheads and similar tuning. The only DW kit I liked the sound of was Neil Peart’s Snakes & Arrows kit but very many people have a bazillion dollars laying around for a drum set. Maybe that’s why DW drums are so expensive; they have so many product endorsers.
Have a look at the Design Series. Essentially the same drums but made overseas so much less expensive. North American maple, STM mounts, graduated hoops... just like the Performance Series.
So, I bought this kit (white w/ black snare) about a year ago, liked it but then went into the studio to record an album and after I was done tracking I went right to my drum dealer and traded them in! The sustain was uncontrollable on the toms and unbearable because of it. They sound good live but recording was a nightmare
mgdrummer78 that’s interesting? What Heads were you using and how were they tuned? I was in a studio that had them, and they had clear Emperors on them. Very punchy with just the right amount of sustain.
@@drumfanatik316 coated emperors with clear ambassadors and on the 12 and 16 inch toms we had to use 5 moon gels on batter side and 4 pieces of gaffer tape on the resonate side and they still had crazy sustain!
@@traviswoodall6547 I tuned them the way I do my classic maples (which are what I had before the DWs and quickly after LOL). It was mostly a sustain thing, but overtones were an issue as well. The thing is, I didn't want to de-tune the bottom to the point of slop -shouldn't have to do that!- so as to why I traded them in immediately.
@@traviswoodall6547 Yup, Ludwigs just simply feel and sound better!!! I've always gotten the most compliments from sound guys and techs with Ludwigs, plus it's nice to not have to tune after every show....Ludwigs simply rule lol
Solving the sustain problem is easy, the triple flange hoops of the Performance series change for (Dw True Hoops) and heads (Emperor Vintage Coated) and if you want to use moongel it will be controlled even more. I am constantly recording in studio and this controls the overtones of the snare and toms and gives more projection and round sound.
At THIS TIME MARK BELOW you can CLEARLY SEE the major major QC issue that should NEVER leave the factory. The plies are out of line and almost coming apart or will come apart. You can see right here at the top on the bearing edge AT THE SEAM: 1:04
Didn't realize that American made Remo heads were not name brand. The only head I had a huge issue with on mine was the bass drum batter head. Changed it right out for a Powerstroke 3.
I love DW heads.Have even bought them to put on other kits. Actually they cost more than remo ambassadors.John Good had remo make these for the collector series special,was not satisfied with regular single ply ambassadors. As far as the kick drum heads he even had remo cut the Richey ring down compared to the ps3.otherwise as low volume it sounded like a shower curtain. Those bass drum heads with that small hour glass pillow if tunned properly are just DYNOMITE. Them 6 little holes around the reso head give a lot of punch.People still love porting bass drum heads,it's just something I haven't done since DW created this winning combination tunned properly.
I agree, however if they simply roll it out lightly that would be enough. Is when the drum cuts out or sounds like an ugly little Tom or starts pinging that we get mislead because no one wants to show how ugly it really sounds. A good snare sounds good all the time even with horrible tuning ideas.
I know this is sacrilege but dw just doesn’t really do anything for me. Don’t get me wrong they do sound good, but so do everybody else’s drums and for comparable sound and fit and finish everybody else’s drums are cheaper. But my biggest problem with them is their fanbois are the most insufferable gear snobs there are.
There must be something about DW that triggers the haters because I was called a brand whore when I bought mine. By the way, I'm not a gear snob by any means, I just appreciate the fine craftsmanship. I've been a drummer for 40 years and just recently bought my first DW.
Adam Watkins not a lot. Performance Series are 1400 for toms and snare only, no bass drum 🤔 and made in China doesn’t mean anything, they are spectacular quality drums
Yeah because of the fact their now made in China Yamaha was able to pour a ton of money into a state of the art facility and more money into R and D so their drums are actually better than ever.