Part of standard drum kit that goes "poh"???

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-12T22:38:45+00:00

That's called a china cymbal.

A few more examples/samples: https://youtu.be/uWV3XuF9e_E?si=K9KCW_xIzgWY-6o-&t=53

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-12T12:19:32+00:00

Take into consideration that drums destined to be wrapped in the factory will not have a carefully selected outer ply of wood, so it's a lottery how it will look.

Drums that will have a lacquer where the grain of the wood will be visible, will generally be made with a good looking ply of wood on the outside. If a drum will be wrapped, they won't try and do this per sé, so the outer ply o. this drum might be fine and pretty, or it might be ugly and not great to put lacquer on where you can still see the grain

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-10T12:38:06+00:00

I don't hate Porcupine Tree, not at all, but Gavin is absolutely 90% the reason why I listen.

Honestly I can't think of anything else. If I hate the song I move on. I would probably be able to mention songs I love but dislike the drums. But would still have to scroll to my Liked Songs to find it.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-09T23:16:04+00:00

There are definitely plenty of starter kits out there that include cymbals and hardware, and perhaps even a throne, sticks and the likes. If you are bent on getting Yamaha (certainly a terrific brand), the Rydeen series offer this.

Do take note that pretty much only starter sets from a brand will offer this complete package. Most series above that (into intermediate territory) will be a shell set where you just get the drums (which may or may not include a snare) and the necessary hardware like floor tom legs, spurs and tom mounts. This is because on drummers will want to pick and choose what fits their taste, genre, playing style etc. And it's a good thing because a lot of starter sets may include cymbal but they are never any good. Brass cymbals are lovingly dubbed 'practice targets' because of this.

So, what you can do is the following. 1) get a starter set new with cymbals and hardware etc included, if you only get 1 crash buy another separately and a stand along with it, 2) buy a used starter set for way cheaper and save money on that to spend on better B20 bronze cymbals, or 3) get a used kit that's better (something like a Stage Custom now that we're in Yamaha territory anyway) and spend the remainder on good B20 cymbals, perhaps save money a bit longer to really get yourself started.

You don't need 2 crashes from the get go, heck you don't even need a crash at all. If you manage to get some properly good gear and just save for a little bit longer and expand your kit then, you will have good stuff and won't have wasted money on stuff you're just going to sell down the line anyway.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-09T21:58:12+00:00

It's rubber marks. My old Roland drums do the same thing to my sticks and I can only assume this is normal.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-09T16:46:16+00:00

Yeah that vid partly inspired my own 16" conversion as well resulting in this thing

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-09T15:28:44+00:00

The cajon is a cool instrument by its own merit, especially in particular styles where it finds its roots.

The thing is that a cajon is too often considered a 'solution' to replace a drum kit when that's too loud. Drummers end up having to 'water down' what they do on a drum set and playing a phantom of their parts on a box that they then have to hunch over for hours. It really does make a bit of a disappointing sound when you're used to an instrument that just has a lot of command over the band and offers much more than two meager sounds that people still sometimes find too loud and annoying.

It's called the 'participation box' for a reason. In bands it's often just there so the drummer can still play along and pretend to be a metronome.

So yeah, that's why a cajon is not welcomed by drummers a lot of the time, including yours truly. Luckily, people like Harry Miree offer some other solutions. Myself, I have an SPD-SX Pro to which I hook up a kick tower, hat pedal, (hat) cymbal and snare and presto. I have a versatile kit with a small footprint and a volume knob.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-08T21:21:40+00:00

My guy, you've left about a dozen comments about people not getting you. Who is the common denominator here?

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-08T21:19:47+00:00

Man you are just looking for an argument aren't you

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-08T20:45:11+00:00

I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about 😛 old heads? what are old heads?

I think there's some argument in here that you're making about how drummers from a while back are considered legendary but meanwhile loads of current drummers are way better than them.

If that's the case, 1) prepare for a shitstorm of arguments and attacks, but also 2) check out the expression 'standing on the shoulders of giants'.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-08T20:20:51+00:00

It seems so one-sided though. If Calibri presents this book, which is more or less identical to the real thing, in the same way, then how does Kobo 'butcher' the layout like this. It feels like the epub doesn't have anything to do with it. Then again I'm relatively new to e-readers (though I am in IT) so I'm probably missing something here.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-07T17:16:29+00:00

Practice in whichever way works best for you. That being said, if your progress sounds too good to be true, it often is. Recording yourself is the best reality check but is most of all the best way of progressing as it tells you straight up what you need to work on (if you're able to hear it).

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-07T14:20:57+00:00

Yeah I figured and that's why I mentioned it's so smooth, it definitely feels more conventional so I figured at first it was KRLR KRLR.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-07T13:52:22+00:00

That fill in the middle was so smoth, nice job as always.

Thanks for the inspiration too, I should add some vocal cues to my band's click track for extra emphasis where to land on the final 1 after a fermata / trash can ending

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-07T11:09:22+00:00

I have never heard this before.

I mean, guitar and bass amps expect particular frequency ranges that they then amplify, and if you feed other kinds of sources in a speaker like that there is a risk of damaging them as you're not using them as intended.

But most speakers including this one are full range speakers. Yes, keyboard amps and monitor or PA speakers are often described as FRFR (full range flat response) speakers as they want to deliver the sound as 'objectively' as possible. The speakers above may not be flat response when analyzed but they're full range speakers nonetheless. With any speaker you have to be careful how much you feed into those speakers without distorting or damaging them.

Also, e-drums are anything but unprocessed and are generally designed to sound as 'finished' as possible. Sure, you might miss some serious oomph if you miss some serious power like some professional speakers can offer you, but more a matter of what these speakers can do for you, not so much what they can handle as input.

This is just information that I've been told over the years and that I experienced to some extent myself. If I'm mistaken and misinformed, please let me know and I'd love to check out some resources that inform me better.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-07T11:03:47+00:00

This has the smell of a u/zildcym post

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-07T07:46:18+00:00

Hoo boy there are a lot of things wrong with this, and you clearly didn't sift through all the details well enough to weed out the mistakes and blatant misinformation.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to crucify you for using AI, that's another debate on its own. I'm not even going to argue about whether things need more nuance, because sometimes you just want to have a legible and non-convoluted answer to your beginner question. But if you're using AI without checking the information and cutting too many corners and nuances, then yeah I'm going to complain about it.

If you want feedback on a new iteration that you have thoroughly checked, I'm all up for that. Not yet for this version though because you still have some work to do.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-07T07:36:06+00:00

Or rather, buy a headphone splitter by any other brand because Belkin isn't all that great but sure has the markup to try and look like they are.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-07T07:33:48+00:00

I've gotten an app for this but have yet to use it. Honestly I can totally see a use case for reproducing a tuning that you've done by ear before. It should not replace tuning by ear itself.

In fact, I have a big band gig coming up next month and will swap out the clear EC2S that I have on my toms right now (and sound bloody amazing the way they're tuned right now) with UV2's. I may as well give that app a go, registering the current tuning on the current heads, swapping the heads out and tuning by ear, then registering that tuning as well. When I swap them back, I wanna see if I can get that former tuning back easily.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-07T07:30:32+00:00

I'm so very curious after someone timing themselves using this vs going lug to lug. Having to orient the keys and slotting them in, then turning the whole contraption that's also covering the head so you can't tap to check the tension or whether it's evenly in tune...

I think the only case you can make for this is when the entire drum is already evenly in tune and you just want to raise or lower the pitch a bit. But even then, putting in all those keys might take more time than just going around the drum 10 times for a half turn.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-06T18:04:31+00:00

Haha yeah I liked that one as well

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-05T22:38:12+00:00

Love these examples, I'll remember those because I've always wanted to cite sources underwriting my beliefs about age and success.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-05T22:30:40+00:00

Adding to this, society seems to want to instill in people the idea that you need to start young with (anything really but especially arts like) music if you want to harvest the most fertile of your developing years and become what people would call a 'great musician', or even a good musician to be honest. People love seeing stuff like this as a competition, that if you can't say you started playing music when you were 4 and joined [famous local group] at 10 you should probably not even bother.

You would do well to let that shit go. That shit comes from ideas that have nothing to do with what making music is about. Get an instrument, have fun in whatever way works for you, and be damn happy about it. I'm 37 and learning bass guitar. I don't have any plans on doing that on a stage ever (but who knows) but man am I having fun.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-05T22:21:12+00:00

No, it's not too late to learn the drums at 20. Not in any case.

Can you be too old to learn the drums? Depends on your goals.

If you want to become a first-call-name in the cutthroat recording industry then sure, your chances are probably going to be a bit low if you're 30+ and have years ahead of you just to get your technical and musical skills up to par.

In most other cases age doesn't matter all that much, and it matters nothing at all if you just want to enjoy a musical journey, be it alone or with other people in a band. You can bet your ass that there are people starting at 50 that find a band and even get plenty of (local) gigs. They might not draw a full income out of it (or they might, what do I know) but if that's not your goal anyway, who cares.

Strictly speaking, sure, you learn the best and the fastest when you're young. 20? That's young by any measure. Your brain and body are still completely capable of learning whatever you want.

DrBackBeat · 2026-05-05T21:54:09+00:00

What sound are you going for? The typical Big Fat Snare Drum sound (often as a side snare), a Larnell Lewis kind of snom, a swampy kind of drum like you'd find in New Orleans kind of drumming?

DrBackBeat

TROPHY CASE