Why does Rob only have 27k subscribers? There is loads of great info on your channel. I've learnt heaps from your videos. Your tunning videos are the best.
Ha! How to make your cheap kit sound awesome? Spend a truck load of money! -- Sure we've all done it, but still... If I were starting all over again, knowing what I know now, I'd have kept my $100 used kit, watched your tuning videos, and just work on my playing. I'd be saving up my money for an upper-intermediate kit, rather than upgrading an entry-level kit like I did. It was educational, but otherwise a waste of a bunch of money.
I got my first kit for Christmas of '95. It was a made in Taiwan Sunlite brand kit. Simple black wrap, no badges just metallic stickers, mounted into the shell tom mounts and simple disappearing spurs on the bass drum. It was okay, I loved having it anyway, but here's where it failed me. 1. Cheap heads. Super thin one ply heads same top and bottom, including a thinner bass drum head that all dented really easily. The logos flaked right off. 2. Horrible hardware. Everything was simple low tech student stuff. Super thin cymbal stands, like in the sixties vintage style, with no gear tilters. Just bent metal strips with a wing nut adjustment that would stick. Spring in hi hat broke. Both hit hat and bass pedals had no bottom plates. Just a thin strip of metal that tightened with a small wing nut. The beater would rock from side to side as the all in one bearing/cam was not wing or drum key tightened to the pedal and the foot boards would move side to side as well as they would not tighten in place. Cheapest pedal designs ever! I upgraded to a Gibraltar Prowler bass pedal and it was the best thing I did at the time. 3. Pressed brass cymbals. The cheap ones. Brass is not bronze. I upgraded to Zildjain A customs cymbal by cymbal as needed. 4. The snare was okay but the tension screws cross threaded in the lug nuts. And the plain phillips head screws for the snare strainer and butt stripped. Cheap metal style. After the bass pedal I upgraded to my favorite snare I still use everywhere, a Pearl brass Sensitone. It was a birthday gift and a very important upgrade.
Thumpification. Ha ha ha! Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoy your channel. The info that you put out is superb and always easy to understand. Even though I am not a beginner I still enjoyed this video. Great tips to get those who are new on the right track. Keep up the good work!
Great advise as always, brother. I, like you have a few older drums from past kits and have loved experimenting with them. If it goes wrong or not like I wanted, I can toss it with no regrets. Thanks for helping us fellow drummers, Rob. You do a lot of good.
I play bass but I also watch all the drummers out there to be a better bass player. But I have to say "maximum thumpification" 9:33 is a concept I can totally get behind. Great vid as always Mr Brown!
I've already done all of these tips and still sounds like a crap.. Next step I'll make them pots to grow vegetables in them. This is the only use that is think about
Damn I've actually had the same kit for 4 years and its from sonix with some remo heads and i haven't changed a single thing since opening the box and it stilllll sounds sexy, idk how
picked up some Gammon 3 piece set hihat stand and zildjian ZBT 13 in. cymbals and a cymbal stand with a 20in. zildjian ride for $100 . the drums had those shitty clear plastic heads so I put new remo coated heads on the 2 toms and bass where you hit and it instantly sounded better. the drums didn't have mufflers so I used tape on the toms but they still need to be muffled more, for the bass I cut a strip of towel 3in. wide and put it across the head which improved the sound a bit. as for the drum wood material am not impressed but that's to be expected, so right now am trying to get rid of the 13 in. ZBT hihats and looking for some 14in. with a better sound. I also picked up a nice but different S series Wuhan 20 in. ride but their getting hard to find am also looking for a Wuhan 18 crash and a 16 crash hen will be set.
hey man... I also have a Yamaha Gigmaker and i hate the crappy stock heads, so I want to buy new heads for the Toms. I really liked the remo pinstripes and the EC2s, but i don't know which ones i should buy. I want to get rid of all the overtones but I don't want my toms to sound muffled. Please help me! Which ones should I buy?
+Alex Pon The Gigmaker shells have pretty weak projection. So choose a head that's more open without any built in muffling, then just use a gel or dot if need be. I'd recommend no thicker than 12mil. Evans UV1, G12 or G2 will all sound good.
The tips to improve the sound of an inexpensive drum kit are valid. I agree with your advice to: Change the heads, mounting if necessary, invest in a great snare drum, cymbals, pedals, hi-hat stand, stands in general. Thanks for the video and information to improve the sound and encourage better playability.
Yep bought a Mapex V Series in 2004 which was one step above the bottom at that time I done pretty much everything you said in the video, I have been tuning my kit with Drum Dial for 7 yrs now until I seen your Tom Tuning video LOL I took my Toms off last night and did like your video and dang got more Residence out of them this way than I did with the Drum Dial I had a 1964 set of Slingerland in the 80's for about 3yrs everything about that kit was trashy the Cymbals were cracked the heads were beat up my dad mad me get rid of them cause he was tired of me making noise well spent 2yrs without and catching up every since been playing since 2004 and hit the stage the first time in 2011 in a friend's band all though my kit has never hit the stage love playing others Kits Thanks alot for all your info
I find that the longer I play for, the better I can make any drum sound. I’m not great, but I’m now loving squeezing out great tones out to cheaper drums that I, 2 years earlier, didn’t like! Super cheap brass cymbals are not good, but anything bronze (B8, B10, B12) will sound OK in a mix if you hit it well, use dynamics, loosen your grip, think about your stick height etc. Some really good advice here from Rob, sure helped me with my first Pearl Roadshow kit.
Pdp is killing the mid level market! Those PDP CX or M5 etc. man! Those were great. The X7!!!! Get outta here! 3 rack toms and 2 floor toms! By no mean am I a huge kit player. I like 4 piece kits. But those series were great to sell when I worked at GC
Thanks, Rob. I have a Mapex Meridian Birch kit in "Honey Amber" of which appears kind of orange in color. Orange is my favorite color by the way. A color quite hard to find in the better/higher end manufactured drum kits. For example, Tama doesn't offer it in their Bubinga line of drums, nor does Yamaha in the "recording custom" line. My first two choices for the future UPGRADE never to be an issue again once purchased (that being either mentioned). I have everything you mentioned in your video excluding upgraded snare drum, hi-hat stand, and base pedal. Already have great Zildjian cymbals (K, and A series). I'm sounding pretty darn good though. Thanks for your insight Rob.
I've had my Orbitone performance kit(I think?) which is mad me of cheap swamp ash wood(the wood itself isn't cheap, just the manufacturing), for about 9 years now. I spent $200 on it from a friend, its a 5 piece.
Hey Rob I absolutely love your videos because it's honest and sincere content. So let me tell you my story. I bought a gretsch catalina maple five years ago approximately. I had a lot of fun with it for five years and i got used to it ! When you said, " change the front heads after a few week , i kept mine for more than 2 years ! So i change the front heads it's nice but still not it. Of course, comes the time when i'm tired by the sound of it man . (I got some cheap orion viziuss cymbals with it, it's a brazilian brand, and those cymbals really suck ). So i started wondering, "Man why am i so lazy with the tuning, i'm sure I hate the sound of my drums because i'm not really taking the time to learn how to tune my drums !" So ,I try, i try without never really getting deep into it but i really try. Then I buy my first cymbal ! , a beautiful Crash/Ride Sabian HHX Evolution 20. It really upgraded the sound of my drums but then i'm getting tired of it again. So since approximately 2 months 'i'm not practicing my drums anymore ! I'm practicing guitar more since i'm way less experienced ! don't know if that's because i'm just lazy with tuning ? Should i change the reso heads ? Should i buy a new set of drums ? Should i play the guitar as my main instrument ??(This one is for the drama ^^)
One thing I see all the time...even higher-end DW kits DON'T come with tom mounts. Virgin kick, and customers expect to have tom mounts included. It's annoying, but they do that so you can choose the best mounting option for you.
I have an old set of Pearls made in 1965. Just switched out about three years ago. I had recovered them about 1980. I wish I had all the money I made with those drums. Always good heads and cymbals. Also upgraded hardware little by little.
I gotta say you read my mind on those tips, awesome job definitely I'm going to follow your advice, got a started kit from pdp drums, and just have a small question.. I play in my room and want to upgrade first toms then cymbals the question is that there a new drumheads silent stroke from Remo and silent zimbals from zildjian, are they worth jumping o silent or just get Evans g2 and normal cymbals rather than muffled/silenced? Thanks! Awesome video!
+David Durant Gibraltar is your best choice for hardware upgrades. Those folks make every piece of hardware you could imagine. And their hardware is solid.
Hello, I recently found and subscribed to your channel and have already learned a lot from your tips ( Thank you ). I just replaced the heads on a Pearl Rhythm Traveller Pod Kit with Evans Hydraulic Heads and the 16" Kick with an Aquarian Super Kick II and it sounds great. I have a better kit but I would really like to have this kit sounding as good fas possible for use in tight spaces. The kit comes with an odd sized 12" Snare that I am currently experimenting with a 12" Evans Hydraulic Tom Batter and G1 Clear Resonant. ( Evans doesn't make a 12" hydraulic snare head ) I have a better sounding 14" Snare that came with my Yamaha Stage Custom Birch Kit as well as a 13" Ludwig Chrome Snare that I could and probably should be using but I haven't given up on the cheap 12" snare yet. Do you think the hydraulic head is a bad idea for the snare ? ( Especially being that it is a tom batter and not a snare if that makes a difference ). Lastly, I noticed that it is hard to get a good cross stick sound on the rim and thought about replacing the hoop/s with better ones but the odd 12" size is again causing me confusion as all I am finding are Rack Tom Hoops in 12" diameter. I'm assuming that this doesn't matter but would appreciate your input and opinions on my upgrades to the Rhythm Traveller kit. Thanks, M.
I cut a piece of 1 1/2" egg crate foam padding for my kick. Wraps the interior circumference. Works great, stays in place and doesn't look weird. Hell, you can't really see it.
as always a great video.. Tom sound: one thing to try .. that is free... to get better tom tone, resonance, sound: mount the tom so the tom holder only JUST holds on to the end of the tom arm!.. it will make the drum sound almost as good as using RIMS or cymbal stand mounted toms.. i use this on my vintage Rogers toms.. its simply amazing how much tone and sound you get with this simple trick.. just thought that needed to be mentioned :-).. also works miracles on Yamaha recording custom (or any yamaha series) and Pearls horrible system.. allthough Pearls tom arms still destory way to much tone.
Thanks for the video... i am not convinced that isolation mounts make that much difference. The other point I would make is heavier drums sound better. Drum companies try and tell you that low mass lugs allow the drum to resonate more freely. Maybe true, but the low mass lugs take away sound depth and projection. I have a ton of weight on my Rogers Big R kit and it makes a big difference even though they are Rogers.
My first kit was a First Act kit from toys r us for $150 and i used that kit for about 6 years for gigs, recording and playing in church i threw on some remo heads and bought a zildjian zht starter pack and it really does work tou dont need a million dollar kit to sound great what you do need is the time and dedication to develop your skills practicing in excelling constantly is what will make your cheap kit sound better more than the equipment you have
Some of the non-big name companies won't use big name drum heads so the resos will be trash too. I changed out the resos on my friends kit that I bought for 50 bucks and it made a huuugge difference.
You suggested replacing the Drum Heads but does updating the bottom skins affect the sound as well, so should you change the top and bottom heads from the stick items?
One thing I did to my starter kit snare was replace the batter head with a Remo reverse dot coated head and replaced the snare wires with some prosound snare wires and man it made a HUGE difference and sounded pretty damn good
I’ve been playing drums for seven years now, and I’ve had the same ddrum starter kit that entire time. It’s worked fine for me. I fact, it was only a few months ago that I went ahead and replaced the stock batter heads and started cycling out the old cymbals. I replaced the hihat, got a ride, and a little china splash. I’m trying to replace that trash can lid of a crash/ride now.
I've had my first since 2003 and it still sound good and haven't Change the heads since the only thing I did to make it better was New snare and cymbals but I do plan to get my first high end kit soon.
Hey rob great vid LIKE ALWAYS. I have a question about this snare im interested in. (Tama starclassic B/B) birch and bubinga wood Dir cast hoops. 14x7. Sounds like the total package to me. Have you ever come across one?? Or anybody in the coments?? Thanks a lot
I was gonna get the yammaha gigmaker for my birthday but they stopped making and selling them in Australia so know Im gonna get the rydeen series whats your opinion on the rydeen series
+alex sauceda valdez I avoid them whenever possible 😑 Thankfully I haven't encountered them too often but sometimes you show up at a gig and it's just what's there. In those cases you just tune it up as best as you can and let it rip
Rob Brown 10 years ago I toured with a college jazz band. The high school where the gig was at said that they would supply the kit turned out they had a lot of mixed matched kid level drums sets. Me and the other drummers outraged but managed to get one of the bass and snares sounding decent. But I dare not struck any of the toms during performance out of respect for the band mates
I went out and bought a PST-7 (heavy rock) set based on a video you made a while back and they sounded so good, I went out and got another PST-7 thin crash as an add on...best bang for the buck on the market IMHO, thanks Rob!
It's such a great video and I love your channel. I've been playing for 11 years now and I only got a Mapex Armory 2 months ago. I've been playing on my first kit for 10 years and 10 months
Thanks for the video and the tips, but i have a problem with this differences between "good/bad"-"cheap-expensive" thing. This is my issue with drums: i have a mediocre drumset, not great but not the cheapest, i take good care of it, its in perfect conditions and the heads are the best in the market for my country. Now, my brother bought a used, no brand, hoops cracked and bend all over the place, dirt cheap heads (with marks and even holes), not tunned drumset. Well... after playing separetly and together, the thing is, his drumset sounds a lot better than mine, has more punch and less overtone...maybe mine has a little bit more sustain i feel...but in general..his set is a lot better. So idk why or what the problem is, but i feel that the price and even bramd sometimes doesnt even matter.
If you saw my last video, you'd notice that I agree with you. Tuning is everything with drums, man. It can make a cheap kit sound great or an expensive kit sound crappy. Granted, high end kits can and will in fact offer a bit more in terms of projection and fullness, but any kit head fitted, tuned and hit the right way will sound great.
Rob, you should have 10 times the amount of subscribers! Tons of great info on your channel! I’ve learned a ton of stuff from you. From practicing to just general info! Keep up the great videos!
WHAT!? You mean there is something better than Meinl HCS cymbals? :) Rob, I loved this message. The only thing I would add is upgrading to better hardware, especially the pedals, bass and hihat. Everything else, I totally agree on. I bought a Tama Imperialstar five years ago. I am on my third set of Evans heads on the toms. G2's now. I love the ST dry for the snare. An EMAD 2 is on the bass. I have a mix of Sabian AAX and HHX cymbals, except for my AA reg hats. I love my starter kit. I have abandoned the matching snare (it does sound terrible) and have an Acrolyte and a Pearl LE Maple. I play the crap out of this set. I don't plan on upgrading to a second tier kit. I think I'll just keep getting better on this one and later get the a pro level kit when I'm ready. Great channel. Thanks, Russ
Nice. That's how to do it, man. I don't want you guys to get the impression that I have something against high end kits. I love my PHX. But not everyone out there has PHX money. Hell, I didn't even have PHX money. Right place, right time, 2 huge discount and a trade in made it possible. One of those unicorn trifectas. But I park it in my studio and gig with a Stage Custom Birch and friggin love it.
hey, loved your video, became smarter. Since i'm new to drums, I don't know what specific heads i should buy. I purchased a Yamaha Gigmaker studio version and i'm thinking of replacing the heads. what should i get? Of course it comes down to preference and what I can say is that I don't like an echo-y bass drum with a long sound, rather a fast kick to it, it also doesn't have to be too low sounding and it goes pretty much the same with toms, though i like a really low sounding floor tom. I really got specific there, though what i'd like is just some suggestions for quality heads for a beginner. oh and i like prog if it matters haha
Well, from my own experience with the Gigmaker, these shells don't offer a ton of projection so going with any kind of pre-muffled heads on the toms might close 'em off a bit too much. You can try an Evans UV1, G2 or G12, or if you're a Remo guy, clear or coated Emperor. I have Onyx heads on this kit because I just had enough of them layin' around. As far as the kick, you can never really go wrong with an Evans EMAD. Aquarian SK2s are pretty tight , too.
the drum set in the clickbait was my first kit. I'm still using it. I've used it for 5 years and I'm now upgrading it to a gretsch Catalina club or Catalina maple. it actually sounds pretty good when you replace the heads with two ply heads for the Toms. putting dampening in that kick drum will help to. the snare is actually a 6 lug snare so it is very hard to tune so I switched it out with a pearl vision sst maple snare. btw, the kit in the clickbait is the CB drums SP series
