MEINL DRUM FESTIVAL 2012 - Matt Halpern - Part 2 

Those cymbals are just hanging on for dear life.

People that are complaining about the audio although I do agree with you this video was actually filmed for a LIVE audience. So if you were in the crowd I'm sure the mix was spot on to hear everything. If this was all purpose for just a video I'm sure a studio mix would sound alot better but this was just for live demonstration.

where is the V-neck ? that's not matt halpern ...

When some people write music, they only hear their parts response to the other instruments playing, what i love about Matt is that not only does he listen to the other parts, he knows what those parts were wanting to create energy wise, and he fills the spaces the originals part wants to have filled. listening to him, it feels like he's truly contributing to the music as a whole.

Great quality video and mix. Really shows Matt's skills. Farrrrrrrrrrtttttttttttt.

as someone who has worked for matt and periphery i can tell you, he hits REALLY hard

After the intro, it gets a lot easier. There's one solid pattern that repeats in different ways throughout the song. Once you've got that down in your memory, it should get easier to figure out the parts he's playing over them.

The specific felts that he uses (I think they're Mapex rubber felts) are shaped in a way that allow the cymbals to spin (duh), which helps the cymbals to breath more and not break as fast. Not a foolproof way of keeping your cymbals alive, but they help. Plus, seeing big cymbals move around so freely is always cool to look at, just so long as you have wing nuts.

The song is "Make Total Destroy" by Periphery off their album "Periphery II - This Time It's Personal"

the vid we've all been waiting for. love you, matt. sick performance.

How to be as legendary as Matt Harplen- keep every cymbal swinging without sounding like shit.

I'm not a drummer, but fuck! this guy just absolutely fascinates me every time

SSSSOOOOOO MIGHTY. I could watch this all day..

He's a lot of fun to watch, and you can learn a lot by just doing so.

As someone with bad hearing, I enjoy the kick drum mixes.

Excelent drummer ! Excelent band !!! Periphery !!!!+

Whenever i see Matt play i always want go right to my kit and practise.

man, this guy is such an inspiration for me. Im not gay whatsoever but jesus, big fucking love for this dude (and his band)

Meinl. Please upload more from the Halp's performance!!!!

i love the intesity in wich he play's! awesome!

his cymbals move so freely. great show

The face Matt makes when he plays drums. So awesome.

what a unique mix choice of cymbals for this genre. Benny's Sand hats, Dark Ride and the rest Byzance and Mb20 They sound great though!

I'd say that this version doesn't even have drums in it, so I would say that it's totally made for this specific clinic for Matt to have something to play with :)

Solid technically. I'm not really familiar with Matt or Periphery but I'd be interested to hear Matt play in some tracks or bands that are more straight forward bc there are segments within this track where he has a really solid pocket for a few bars. Sounds like this guy can really lay down a groove just as well as he can play some really complex patterns and odd time signatures. If you're on here @Matt Halpern, I'm curious to know your theory on the loose cymbals. It seems to work for you.

I didnt realize it was that song. Thanks!

I think he was playing the Falcons with strap drive. Regards, Oliver

it's actually really entertaining watching the cymbals spinning and wobbling as he plays

is this an actual song or just a track made to jam to? i want it. He does such a good job of making the drumming colorful, it's an experience to listen to this

Correct. Also, because that's his preference. He explains in a video talking about his new Mapex kit.

Meinl/Imperial cymbals are fairly similar, particularly the Byzance/MB20 lines - they're all made in Turkey, and most Turkish cymbals sound relatively similar, regardless of brand.

Guys when he recorded this dog it was with a snare and one floor Tom. Watch the music video

i love that dude and his playing.

Thoroughly enjoyed that.

Definitely want to see some more of his vids from the festival. He is amazing. Btw everyone complaining about the mix, it is a MEINL festival therefore they don't care what the drums sound like, they are showcasing the cymbals so quit bitching and enjoy!!

Halpern is great! Is anyone else anticipating Benny Greb's performance video?

At the drum clinic I went to that Matt was doing, he made/wore his own one!

dude...that fill after the 2:50 mark is beyond sick. In terms of pure musicality thats next level shit. It was literally perfect in every sense

I give the man props on learning to play with his cymbals that loose. It would make setting up your kit so much faster if you didn't have to tighten your cymbals down with anything.

One hell of an amazing drummer.

to make the cymbals sound better, cause this is a video/festival for meinl cymbals.

You know Matt Halpern's playing the drums when all of the cymbals on the kit are quavering.

Omg, so huge set-up to Halpern!

Little known fact, upon completion of this song, the building crumbled and the festival came to an abrupt end :P

Actually being a drummer myself i like them both. I love matts flow he puts into songs. Tony does have chops but have you ever seen him play with his band. Hes grooves are insane. The both of them are great drummers. As far as skills i'm sorry but tony has matt on that one. I'm sure he would not deny it either. They both do play different styles of music and i'm sure if they got together they could each show each other something and not be fighting like you little girls are.

Thumbs up if you were singing along to the video, we'll watching Matt beat the shit out of the drum set!

I love this so much

There's the metric modulation at the end, which basically works on polyrhythmic concepts.

I WANT THE STACK SO BAD!!!! SOUNDS AMAZING!!!!

just because he's in your favorite band doesn't mean you have to side with halpern every time someone says another drummer's better than him

The song in the descrition is wrong its not Totla Mad this is Make Total Destroy just for everyone interested who doesnt know. :)

i think a lot of the ghost notes are used for helping him with timing. the polyrhythms though would be the style of music that he is playing for.

Excellent skills. Really wish I could have heard the kick more and the toms seemed real dead. Overall pretty darn talented.

We have the same Vans! Yes! I'm gonna be as great as Matt Halpern now. :)))))

Do i spy matt using the direct drive falcons? Everytime i hear that metric modulation at the end i love it!

his hi-hats are awesome

listen to erised by periphery (if you haven't before). it's not simple but it's pretty chill for periphery and matt in general

thats actually wrong when he tours its with 2 floor toms, bass drum, snare. when he records its a similar setup to the one in the video if i remember the old videos correctly.

everytime i read that the sound of meinl videos is terrible i need to tell you : it's the FOH mix, it's not for listening on small home hifi stuff. I was there and the sound was awesome. of course they could remix and -master it like on every live dvd you can buy, but for me it's still cool that they make the clips available this fast

They already have an instrumental version of their first album out.

Those background clean guitar parts sound sick without the distraction of Spenc

try the remo black X head. best ive ever played, and brilliant for this style of music.

Possibly because he usually just rolls with the snare and floor tom, none of the extras. Mad grooves.

awesome, thank you very much!

Okay, fine, Matt. You win drumming.

The entire video is just Matt playing to the instrumental version of their song "Make Total Destroy"

No I thinks it's the Mapex rapter or something like that. It's direct drive like the pearl pedal but its cheaper.

This shit rocks! I only knew one Periphery song before this, but I think I'm a fan!

fair enough, seems ok on my speakers but you're right could do with being a tad louder perhaps for this style of music!

You'd think, with all of this basically being a giant Meinl promo, that they would have SPECIFICALLY put some effort into mixing properly! This video does justice to neither the player nor the cymbals.

Yep you guys are right!

BTW, nice playing, I've checked your video. Is that your song?

@SarcasticGherkin @HCDrummer7 BTW it is released.

he probably removes the cymbal felts because of the way the cymbals play differently. they tend to open up a lot also when they do not have any restriction. it does nothing really for the cymbal to be frantically swinging around but it may be how it feels to him that he likes it better. i've recently removed mine and i actually like the feel of them moving more freely

Matt still sounds like a freaking beast!

okay...matt halpern? a 5 piece kit? serious stuff here dude

Awesome playing! This is almost compensating my urge for an instrumental version of the album :) Pretty unbalanced sound for a miked kit though (and for being recorded at a 'drum festival')...

? They didn't make an instrumental version though...its just bass and guitars so Matt can drum to it. They don't have all the instrumentals of the songs on P2 just sat on a Mac not releasing it...

sounds like a personal problem. it helps some, not all. doing polyrythms it helps me keep my hands on time without having to think about it and i can concentrate on my feet.

Probably because he usually uses a snare, kick, and floor tom is why he asked the question.

This is actually standard drum setup - 5 piece drum set - Two crashes, 1 pair of hats, 1 ride, 2 china type of cymbals. The only thing not standard is having another china cymbals, (this could be debated as not standard but I think it is more then standard than it is to much so to speak )

I love Spence's vocals, but seriously, you made an instrumental version and aren't going to release it? That's just low.

I totally agree. Alex is an insane drummer, he's a machine, but I really love Matt's style.

I'm not a fan of m.shadows, but I do like Walker's and Spence's vocals; to each his own!

What is the idea behind not using any cymbal felts? Personally I would find it a bit annoying to have my cymbals wobbling all over the place.

i'm not fighting about it back and forth. I was giving you my opinion along with some facts and details. music is all about opinion

Thanks a bunch man

Yeah exactly I really think the album is great as it is, I just hope they release a tab book or something.

man I could have easily out together a a better recording than this one, both video and audio...and here I am in Brazil, unnemployed

absolutley amazing :)

sounds alright to me man, what speakers you using?

That last progression was to sick

He plays a rack tom on the recording of Periphery 2 according to his front page issue in a drum magazine

clever! you seem very intelligent, thanks for the great reply!

Removing vocals for a backing track isn't making an instrumental version. (yes, sounds weird but that's different). Besides why don't you ask them to give you the whole pro tools file when you're at it?

i remember you you commented on that video with that dude covering for MAtt.

Maybe one of the fucking best drummers actually.

So can anybody tell me why he has cymbals with none of that soft things? What good is the cymbal being so loose and frantically swingin around

lol they kinda had an instrumental version cause at SOME point they recorded it without vocals you realize... right?

Please, Matt rips more on this 3 piece than Royster Jr. does on his entire set.