CAN ACOUSTIC DRUMS = Effects?

The drumming world is an amazing place these days. There are gadgets galore and something for everyone. Never have we beenmore spoiled for choice than in 2023, and it’s awesome to have so many options.

One area of growth is that of electronic drums. This field is now a massive one and it’s common to find drummers experimenting with ways of hybridising their drum kits with some form of electronic aid/effect, or even going fully electric! Sounds like the car industry! But there’s also a lot of drummers who prefer to have a manual gearbox and keep smashing the acoustics. So, what about effects for acoustic drums?

At a basic level, if you think about it, a drum kit is actually just a selection of chosen and designed sound effects. Clearly, we have standard sounds in mind for a drum kit – kick, snare, toms, cymbals. When you think of the drum set, you think of these things. But there’s levels to taking it up a notch and applying/ creating effects – acoustically.

Checking out new cymbal options would be my first go-to.

Back in the day, a China cymbal or a splash were the only real choices for effects on a kit. Now, you have things such as trashy ride cymbals, cluster crashes with inverted bells and odd hammerings, EFX crashes or trash hats with deliberate, crazy cut outs and even square cymbals, un-lathed and deliberately left out of shape – all the in name of disrupting those sound waves and creating an effect or new sound. Cymbal stacks are perhaps the latest and greatest thing. Chucking a bunch of cymbals on top of each other to simulate hand claps or other short-accent type effects. You’d be surprised what sounds you can get by just layering some cymbals together. Experiment with how tight you have the felts for shorter or longer decay times.

Snares are another killer way to apply some effects to your set up. Either, by having multiple snare drums (Chris Dave anyone?) or by having options to apply to one drum. This is my preference when trying to keep a small footprint and I always have some things with me on a gig or in the studio. One recent invention is from the guys at Big Fat Snare Drum. The idea is to put, effectively, another drumhead on top of your snare drum which in turn, produces some serious low end – instant 70s/80s vibes. There are degrees of ‘phat-ness’ too. I use one called the Donut which has a cut out and maintains a little more of the direct tone of the drum. There are even jingle options. Very cool.

Alternatively, you can use thin towels over all the drums for a dead sound. Either fully covered, or part covered. This isn’t anything new, but it’s one hell of an effect and a very usable one. I’ve also seen some great results by just detuning one or two lugs completely – can get pretty gnarly! The complete opposite is no dampening at all. Wide open tones, including the bass drum – also a cool effect. Finally, if you have a splash cymbal, try putting it on the snare for a serious drum ‘n’ bass effect. Depending on how liberally you restrain the splash on the drum will depend on how much it moves around and how much effect you get. Check out musician Louis Cole for some cool splash/snare action. Steering down an electronic but still acoustically-minded theme – there is a cool product from Yamaha called the EAD-10 (Electronic Acoustic Drums) that uses a stereo condenser microphone to capture the sound of your acoustic drums/cymbals and then apply effects, via a module. You can then blend these two signals in the mix. It’s a seriously cool thing to play around with – either just for practice or in a live setting. You can also use triggers with the unit. My favourite thing is applying what Yamaha call a “fill sample”. Basically, the sample has some of the low/mids or just missing frequencies of a snare drum that then gets blended with your acoustic sound. Cool and a fresh idea on creating and blending hybrid drum sounds.

Effects are very possible on acoustic drums and in that realm, there are indeed so many possibilities, so check out the options and use your ears to lead the way. What a sonically rich time to play drums!

BY ADRIAN VIOLI

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