I think a lot church’s make the mistake of buying equipment without consulting their musicians. Musicians that have been playing for a while have a certain sound that they like and church’s have a nac for buying cheap drums and cymbals or going with what the sales person recommends. Each drum company has their signature sound and each drummer likes what they like.
My previous church uses the drummer's kit as their main kit. It's a nice kit, and the drummer can't play it in his flat because of space and neighbours.
I totally agree. I'm lucky my church consults me whenever they buy any drum gear because I play almost every week. I still like to bring some of my own gear though =)
BRO EXACTLY! I tune my drums to my liking and everytime the guitarist or someone else grabs my tuning key and tunes the drums differently or tried to tell me how to play🤦🏽♂️
Hi..I transitioned to playing drums from playing bass not more than a year ago and I'm really grateful that this channel dives deep into important information that sometimes might be otherwise ignored. I use the exact kit but with a 18inch kick drum
I think that if you are on a tight budget spend great amount of it on cymbals. You can tweak the sound alot on shells with different heads, muffling and tuning, thats my personal experience.
I can’t say enough good things about Noah. What a journey! He loves Jesus and loves using his craft to disciple people. He puts so much time in and is as real as it gets. Thank you! I can say the same about Jake ! Also, if you guys haven’t heard or checked him out yet, JR Ezeugwu is another drummer who is an awesome human who loves Jesus and stays slaying on the kit. Seriously , 🔥...
I love this kit. I’m a worship leading drummer who has sort of specialized in low volume drumming. The mahogany help so much with that. I have identical for my church and my self. And I’ve helped at least 8 other churches get one, too. I’ve also landed on Meinl Byzance Extra Dry cymbals. Very dark and responsive at love volume with a cool complex texture.
Shoutout to Noah! Great job man! As a drummer of over 15 years playing in churches from one thousand something people to churches with 20 people, the most important part of the church drum set and sound is CYMBALS! Usually when people complain about the drums being “too loud” they probably aren’t referring to “volume” (decibel level of sound output) but harshness/loudness, which largely comes from the cymbals. Obviously this is dependent on the room and acoustics but if you have a pleasant sounding set of cymbals generally people won’t complain haha. Invest in the cymbals best for your venue and sound and budget the rest of the kit around the cymbals.
I play in a worship band in a small church (the sanctuary is small floor area with high ceilings). The drums are not mic'd at all. The drum kit I use (it's mine left set up more or less permanently in the church) is a Ddrum 'SE Flyer' small bop sized kit (14 x 18" kick, 8 x 12" rack tom, 14 x 14" floor tom, 5 x 14" wood shell snare). I replaced the OEM snare batter head with an Evans '56 Calftone batter head to give it a warmer tone. Cymbals are 14" Zildjian A New Beat highhats, 14" Zildjian A thin crash, 18" Zildjian A medium ride, 16" Zildjian A thin crash, and a 10" Sabian B8 Pro China Splash for effects. The kick drum batter head has a built-in foam muffle ring (forgot the exact brand). Snare drum and rack tom batter heads have no muffling; the floor tom has a small piece of folded duct tape on the batter head. This combination works out perfectly for the church I play in if lower volume is called for I use regular wire brushes, 'Ed Thigpen' signature plastic brushes, or plastic 'Blastick' bundle rods depending on the tune. We only have a trio: percussion, piano, vocals, and an acoustic guitar so volume control is important. My cymbal selection runs counter to those suggested in the video but I've found with judicious application of volume control they work quite well in our church setting. My favorite sticks in the church setting are Regal wood-tip 7A jazz sticks but I use Vic Virth Dave Weckl signature sticks nylon tip for more contemporary 'worship rock' tunes. Also use wound cloth yarn headed cymbal mallets for cymbal washes and soft tom passages. All this I arrived at after much experimentation with drum sizes, cymbals and stick selection works well in our church but each church is different so the gear has to be selected for the venue. Great informative video.
You need to learn how to tune by ear, its an invaluable skill if you plan to play drums for any length of time. Just like tuning any other instrument, you NEED to train your ears. Technology is great, but you need the full range of the skill of tuning, learn to tune properly
This was a much needed video for new worship team drummers and EXPERIENCED worship team leaders. I plan to sit down with my team leader, watch this with him and advise some changes. Thank you so much for being thorough and covering all the bases!
Whoa, what a collab! Two of my favourite worship channels! Thank you Jake, Noah and the entire Churchfront team for making this amazing guide, it's so well structured and everything is explained in detail, but in a simple enough language for wide audience to understand!
Here’s my guide... Drum kit: Get a Yamaha Stage Custom and just be done with it. I have a 20” kick and it’s perfect. You can also add an extra 14” or 16” floor tom later if you want. The DW Design Series brass snare is awesome too. Cymbals: Dream Vintage Bliss are probably the best worship cymbals I’ve found. They don’t make hi hats in that series but just look around for a good 15” or 16” pair. But go AS THIN AS POSSIBLE. Drum heads: I like Remo Pinstripes for their versatility (and they’re a little more forgiving when it comes to tuning). The Remo Powersonic Clear is the best kick drum head ever made honestly. Hardware: Look for used stuff on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. As long as its in good shape, just go for it. Microphones: Samson drum mic kits are great. They’re about as budget friendly as possible and will give you acceptable live and recorded sound (maybe get a slightly better snare mic). Dampening: Gaff tape and some folded paper towels are your best friends, but just make sure the drum is tuned well before you start adding stuff.
I have the same setup: Birch Stage Custom Mark 1 and 20" and 22" dream vintage bliss crash/rides; I use 17" istanbul xist dry dark hi hats. It's the perfect combo and was put together for about $800. I've owned Sonor 3005, Mapex Saturn, and Pearl Masters and while they were great, the first gen SC birch can do it all and I got mine for $275. You just can't beat Yamaha quality and sound. I use vintage coated emperor over coated ambassador. I also have a set of 98 stage customs that sound amazing in their own right. I use frosted ec2s over coated ambassador and they have a perfect vintage sound. Got them for $100. Gretsch is great but that Catalina line feels like it's made of balsa wood. They do sound good but I'm not sure they are as bulletproof as the Yamahas. I'm sure the Renowns and up are excellent. Oh, both sets I put 2.3 mm hoops on the toms. THAT IS KEY!!!!! In my opinion, with the higher lines you are just paying for a nicer looking finish, most of which will look outdated in a decade or so. Just sink your money in cymbals, the higher lines truly make a difference.
Oh last thing take any snare put a name brand snare side head on it, 30 strand puresound snare wires, and a hydraulic head on it and steve's donut big fat snare drum or just a studio ring and you have the fat snare sound. Tune bot to 130hz or 200 for a higher fat crack. No $600 snare needed although they sure are nice.
I have one too and love it when it’s a tuned properly and allowed to sing. But one doesn’t need a Black Beauty for “that Bethel sound”. Any heavy-duty cardboard box with a few steel BBs or some loose nuts and bolts laying loosely inside and wrapped with duct tape will give you the same sound for a whole lot less money.
@@dragonheart2403 They are actually some of the thinnest in the K line And they work great in our church. They are a really nice mix of not super bright but not so trashy either. I think people see mega churches using 24” crashes and think that’s that what every church setting should have but that doesn’t always work if you’re not in a huge venue
I think the sizes of the drum set at which he’s sitting, are perfect. You can’t go wrong with a 12, 14 & 20 setup. I prefer a 13” snare, but that’s not critical.
Back in my day of worship drumming we used to build much bigger kits because we didn’t play any tom driven songs like now. Which there’s a lot of. We had a lot more cymbals and more than two toms. Now in every church I see the same size 4 or 5 piece one up and one or two down three or four cymbal set up.
I started on a tama superstar that was a 10 piece you don’t need to go with a specific kit for worship you need to play to the church and the congregation
What an amazing video! Thanks so much for sharing. I really love the way Noah explained and detailed literally every part of drums. I'm really really satisfied!
Re phasing: the wavelength of a 1kHz tone is about 12 inches. Therefore to cause complete cancellation, one microphone would need to be 6 inches further from the source than the other. The distance is greater for lower tones and less for higher ones. The problem is worst with double micing a snare, because, as the top skin moves down (away from the microphone) the bottom skin will also be moving down, but towards the microphone
My mom's maiden name is DeBolt and is from the San Joaquin Valley. DeBolt is not a super common last name; so, perhaps Noah and I are related. Nice video :)
Much better video this time around! One thing I would have liked more - he plays in mostly large settings, which is great. But most churches are small to mid-sized (look at Barna research for more info). I'd much prefer to see a video showing something like "here's how to do it in a church with 1-200 on an average Sunday." With the equipment you already have. No one's micing the bottom of the snare in those settings! Just sayin!
David, great point bro!! This setup still works great in those environments (I talked about it when I mentioned the room size as being a big factor), you just may have to adjust the drum/cymbal sizes a bit for smaller rooms. But the values behind the tones still remain the same! ⚡️❤️
Do not place the D6 in the kick like seen on the video so the capsule is on the same plane as resonant head. It will die really soon. Move it few inches inside or outside or tilt it a bit.
How to build a church kit: look at trends and follow them. Make sure the shells are an obscure brand and the snare is a different brand if they are the same brand Jesus will hate you. No more than 2 toms (so you can see the drummer) and the driest cymbals you can find. Then go over them a couple times with 60 grit sandpaper and apply corosive chemicals with a rag to make them even dryer!
I disagree with what you said about a 14x8 snare being a one trick pony. I'm playing a DW performance series steel 14x8 and I haven't found a bad way to tune it.
I can totally see the need to give basic advice for certain genres, but I think going too specific is sort of pointless; I'm sure for every opinion you can find a reasonable counter-opinion. I for example play Paiste 13" Dark Crisp hats, and feel they sit pretty well in a worship setting :)
be interesting to see how the kit sounds when not miced up as there are many churches that dont have the budget (or a room size big enough to even consider micing)
Will you share the tunbot settings you use for each drum? I saw 144 on the floor tom batter head. I'd love to know the numbers for all the heads (top and bottom) on each drum. Thanks!!!
Do you gents have a good recommendation for worship tuning? Like, a couple of examples of going from poor tuning to good including preferences for batter head/resonant head tightness? Tone? Moongel vs tape? Examples with popular remo or evans heads? I feel like there are such a plethora of "what to buy" and "how to mic" videos, but not enough "drum tuning for dummies and worship leaders," that especially focuses on tone and frequency. I get it that tone is more within the opinion category, but a good guide would nonetheless be valuable! :)
Go to Rob Brown's website. He has a simple, accurate, quick, easy way to tune. Having said that, you tune for the style of music and the acoustics of the room. There's no one-size-fits-all.
I play drums at my church and we play the typical rock worship songs. But I buck this trend of having everything pitched low on the kit. Jeff Porcaro (drumming legend) said that when a snare is tuned low the groove lacks the bounce you get when there’s a stronger pitch contrast. Add the cymbals to that and it creates flat grooves that lack energy and drive. That sound is very uninspiring and overdoing the low end is only found in worship drumming. Listen to any of the great drummers today outside of worship music and they all have pitch contrast throughout their kits regardless of the style they’re playing. I think the worst thing you can do is have the entire kit pitched low. A groove is created by having contrast within the pattern. That contrast can come from pitch, dynamics, or timbre. When you have the whole kit pitched low you really only have small timbre changes and dynamics. Great drummers have strong dynamics and can make this work but weaker drummers will sound very flat and stale without the additional pitch contrast. Just my 2 cents.
You don’t have to go that big with the cymbals if you are looking to purchase a kit. 20, 18, 14 is totally fine don’t ever feel pressured by these popular norms to get these massive ultra expensive cymbals when they are already expensive by nature.
Totally bro ❤️ I am less into them for the trendiness, and more into them because they work really well in our mixes. The smaller crashes and hi-hats just tend to poke through more than we want, but they can still work beautiuflly.
@@DeBoltDrumming I just wanna reach out to the audience who are in a budget. You pointed out a lot of great info and I see a lot of similarities with my approach to drums.
I would like to add tbat the cost of heartbeat cymbals is SIGNIFICANTLY better then the big brand names. I’ve been drumming in church for over 10 years and have been playing for over 30 and I can tell you the one place you don’t want to cheap out is cymbals. I know it may be tempting to buy the 5 pack of Sabian XXR for 200 bucks va spending 300-350 on a quality ride such as the epics he is playing on but it will not translate as well. I would even say if you have to choose between saving money save it on cheaper drums and buy better cymbals. I can make a 500 dollar export kit sound massive and tonal with good head selection and tuning but the cymbal sound is what it is out of the box. Very little you can do to change that If you have to save longer go with less cymbal quantity.
Great video and gear breakdown! But referring to "Grandma Bertha at 65" hearing issues.....c'mon, that's age discrimination....I'm 67 and a worship team member.
Great! Some sweet info here. Following Noah for a while now. Great drummer. One thing I wanne note: I believe that the oh mics are panned wrong? I hear the ride going on my right while it’s left on my screen. Or is everything panned from the drummers perspective? Thanks again for this amazing video! Love to see more content with Noah! Cheers
Instead of labeling this a “Worship Drum kit”...why not call it a “The Christian Rock” Kit basics?? There are endless options to put together...algorithms, room size, heads, stick tips...I could go on and on...this personal preference IMHO. If they like it I love it.
@@parsabbaluca21 I agree 100%! It comes down to the maturity of the drummer, song selection and personal preference. I play a 6 piece...and we do a VAST array of songs at my church from Hillsong to Kirk Franklin. This video is what is the “fad” these days...skinny jeans, a flip da do hair style, saying Like 413 times in a sentence...LOL
@@parsabbaluca21 what does that exactly mean? Most of these “worship” bands are normal cover bands, following the flow of the chart through an Ableton built click, stem and backing tracking. So if they prefer a kit, that isn’t tuned, with super super dry cymbals...to exact carbon copy their favorite worship team...if they like it, I love it!
I had wanted to know that also from other worship drummers. But after a lot of research, I found that tuning toms off of perfect 4th chart until I hear the tone that is optimal for my drums and my recording is the best route. As far as the snare goes, 400hz bottom and 220 top is an insider “secret” sweet spot.
@@spencerlawrence8318 Wow, thanks! Now, that you have already been so helpfull I feel encouraged to ask you another question... How about the bass drum, especially when there is dampning on the head, what do you do there?
Great video! I’m currently using a 20” Sabian HHX ride which is fairly washy but I’m in a constant battle with sound techs around the volume.. so I’m not sure a 22” or 24” would help? It’s a reasonable sized room with a 1000 person capacity but a bit of a nightmare to mix in. Any tips? Our team have ruled out a drum shield. The songs we play demand intensity and playing lighter is challenging! Thanks 😀
Bigger or lighter cymbal = lower fundamental pitch (all other variables being equal). Washy can be fine if the pitch isn't so piercing and competing with amplified instruments. But a tiny bit of gaffer's tape on the edge of the underside can work wonders. Also, I know how hard it is to play "intense" or fast passages at low volumes - but it can be done and is a skill that takes practice :) But good on your team for ruling out the horrible plexiglass cage :D
Use a lighter ride; HHX is meant for dark projection so they make them medium/heavy at least in their rides. You want dark, but not dark with projection. Get a dream bliss crash ride or vintage bliss crash ride.
Hello, I had a quick question I have a 21 inch k sweet ride I want the rest of the cymbals to be a bit bigger what would be the numbers for the hi hats and Left, right crash? And in the future I will be adding a 19 inch k custom adry trash crash
And the kick drum was blasting me in the face when he added his EQ and compression. I normally welcome that sort of experience, but it felt kind of excessive in this situation. But hey, just a small detail. I thought the video was great! I've been struggling with how to get the best sounding drums in our broadcast mix and this was super helpful.