Dienstag, 1. September 2015

Gear Rig - Seasplash Rig Talk

Gilles' Drum Rig


Over the years, I have changed my drum set constantly. First of all, I want to talk about the drum set, then I give you some specs about it, some adjustments I use and last but not least all the gear stuff to make the drum sound great.


Drum Set
Since the beginning of Seasplash, I use a Pearl ELX Drum Set in black. It's pretty standard and solid. Standard here means, Snare, Bass drum, High-Hat, 2 Cymbals, one Ride, 2 mid-Toms and one Floor Tom. The wood's got a full sound, even though the ELX serie is not Pearl's flagship. However, over the years I stucked the drum set up by having made the exactly double version of the standard set, but with different sizes of Toms. Since then, I'm varying my drum set depending on what we are going to need for recording sessions and differently for live session. But normally for live sessions, I stick toghether 2 Floor Toms, one Snare and Bass Drum with a double bass pedal, 2 High-Hats (one left and a open High-Hat on the right), one ride (normale size), 2 Mid-Toms (13" and 15"), 4 crashes, one china cymbale and one splash cymbal. This set up gives me the flexibility to play any song we've got. This is actually one quality thing about Seasplash, we are able to play every Song live and have played every Song live.
Besides my main drums, I added some percussion stuff too. For example do I play some Bongos though haven't used them yet in a song. But its a nice to have. Other stuff like a bell or a nice sounding bar-chimes, rattels, and so on.

Specs
Mostly for my Toms I use Remo hides. They sound really rocky and live more or less long. Exclusevly, I play woodsticks because of the sound though I vary with thickness and wood quality. I change also the label of the stick from time to time, just to test some new things.

Electronic Gear
I have amplified my drum just like every one else does. Perhaps more old fashioned. So I use normally condenser overheads which are set up in A/B positions. A SM 57 for my High-Hats, a Beta 52 for my Kick, a Beta 98 AC for my Snare top, on the bottom I've got a Shure PG 56. For my mid Toms I've got also two PG 56, for the Floors two PG 52. This is actually my live stuff which surprisingly works great though the PG Series isn't strong in delivering, but it goes well with my sound. However, in our experience a tight live drum sound is depending on the mix of the drums. That's why I have my drums compressed, gated and limited. But more important, my drums are paneld in stereo range only 45 degrees on each side. This gives us room for the guitars to sound more clear.
Of course it isn't just the sounding and the mixing that makes the drums cool and tight, it is also my playing. I've been always a passioned player and played along how I feel the stuff. But for studio sessions I had to learn playing with click. That wasn't easy at the beginning. Today, and I think that's what actually makes my drumming for Seasplash specially, I play tight on click while feeling the stuff live. So this combination is perfect.
Monitoring is more or less the same as the other Bandmembers have got. Though I have added a 15" floor monitor to hear the low frequencies better. The in-ear system, which I do not always use for live gigs, depends on the spl on stage. Because I play very hard and loud, I need to protect my ears by plugging them. To make the on stage sound more comfortable to the others, I use a custom made plexi panel wall in front of my drums.

Now I have given you a view into my work and hope you enjoyed reading it.
Stay tuned and keep rockin'!

 

Keine Kommentare:

Kommentar veröffentlichen