New Drums

I have a few new drums that have already been used on tracks for the new record. I’m gonna try and post what drums I use throughout recording for my own sake (my memory is pretty useless) and to give anyone who cares a little breakdown.

We played about a month ago at a church in Austin where a good friend of ours is the pastor. I used the church’s kit that night and it had a Yamaha Copper Snare. I loved it. All the attack and “crack” of a Ludwig Black Beauty but with warmer tones and a little lower pitch. This copper drum was on ebay pretty cheap so I couldn’t resist. The hammering and cast hoops only makes it darker and warmer. It was immediately used on the first two tracks we did “Can You Feel It” and “For A Thousand Tongues”.

Dan Hamilton of The Robbie Seay Band has an old Rogers Wood Dynasonic – Superten hybrid that has been a staple of Crowder records. I think it can be heard at its finest on “All Creatures” on Illuminate, but it has been used on numerous tracks over the years in many, many different ways. It’s basically a wood Dynasonic shell with Superten hardware, which I’ve read was a common thing to do in the seventies. It sounds fantastic. Anyway, I wanted one bad but thay are hard to find and pretty expensive, so i had Kieth at Risen Drums build me a clone. Ten Ply maple shell with reinforcement hoops, with a completely round bearing edge. It’s 14×6.5 and I think it really compares well to the original Rogers. We used it on “Glory of it All”.

I should also note that Kieth at Risen finished the drums from “A Collision”. We were gonna do a cloth wrap that was gonna look very vintage (like they had sat out in a barn for a hundred years) but it didn’t work out. So we did this kinda 70’s retro green fade with silver sparkle which looks crazy good. It has 24×16 and 26×14 kick drums (very big) and 12 14 and 16 inch toms. he also made a 14×8 snare to go with it.

Modular Circuit Bending

Here’s a short video of the keyboards kinda acting out a little song. I kinda lose control there at the end but for my first attempt i think this is kinda fun. I’ll have some better pics of the building process and final layout soon…

Modular Circuit Bending Project

Here’s a photo of my latest circuit bending project. I wanted to build a MOTM Modular synth after hearing a friend’s System 700 but decided that doing a more circuit bent version could offer me more of the sounds i wanted. This is the first part in a series of units that will all integrate together. This unit consists of a Casio SK-1, SK-5, and a Yamaha VSS-30. All bending points are banana plug with 1/4″ ins and outs. Its about 90% done at this point and will hopefully be finished for beepcon.

I’ll post a lot more pics when it is finished…

other inspirations:
http://www.anti-theory.com
http://highlyliquid.com
http://frederic.letaconnoux.free.fr/cpg135/thumbnails.php?album=27
http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=76364#76364
http://www.jz-server.de/forum2/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?233