I wonder if Ryan puts cotton balls in his floor tom like Gene?

Aaah, right, that's an interesting question. I think it would especially have suited his more epic, bombast and not that much over the top-drumming on AE pretty well. Maybe Ryan will tell us soon

Nope.....no cotton balls in the Floor Tom for me. Usually when you do that, it's for the bigger floor toms like an 18". I've done alot of drum teching on the side and the cotton balls help calm down the massive resonance you get out of bigger toms like an 18" floor tom, so you get a thunderous sound that does'nt ring on forever.

As far as the drumming compared to AE, we actually went for a tighter drum sound for source sounds anyways. The drumming is way more progressive on this album. Lots of double kick, some fast stuff too and lot's of very cool fills and creative beats (ghost stroking, time signatures). This album is the opposite of AE drumming wise and music wise in many ways. I'm very proud of this outing and the drumming on this album represents my style of drumming way more than AE did. This is going to kick ass !!!

RVP

Your ghosting now? You didn't tend to do that in the past did you?

I liked the sound you got on AE, and I am assuming that you had the drum tunnel for the bass drum on that one as well.

I tend to like the resonance that the floor toms give, so I never tend to put any cotton in them or muffle them for that matter. I like all my toms to sound really natural and resonant. I just find the tone where the drum resonates the most and leave it there. From the pictures, it didn't look like you muffled your tom at all. What heads did you use for the recording? At my brief viewing of the picture I thought they looked like Pinstripes..

Your ghosting now? You didn't tend to do that in the past did you?

I liked the sound you got on AE, and I am assuming that you had the drum tunnel for the bass drum on that one as well.

I tend to like the resonance that the floor toms give, so I never tend to put any cotton in them or muffle them for that matter. I like all my toms to sound really natural and resonant. I just find the tone where the drum resonates the most and leave it there. From the pictures, it didn't look like you muffled your tom at all. What heads did you use for the recording? At my brief viewing of the picture I thought they looked like Pinstripes..

First of all, welcome to the board bro.....

To answer your questions......

Your ghosting now? You didn't tend to do that in the past did you?

Yup, there is lots of "Ghosting" on Synchestra, hopefully the final mix is'nt compressed to hell so you can't hear all the cool "Ghosting" I do on the album..... On AE I did'nt do any "Ghosting" cuz it did'nt call for it. It was pretty much a straight up rock album.

As far as "Ghosting" over the years with my drumming.....Dude, I can't stop it ! It's all over the session's I've done over the years and I did tons of it in my old Metal band God Awakens Petrified. The most recent recording other than "Synchestra" would be Lalu's "Oniric Metal" which is a Prog Metal record. There is tons of "Ghosting" all over that record ! It's so fun to play !

From the pictures, it didn't look like you muffled your toms at all. What heads did you use for the recording? At my brief viewing of the picture I thought they looked like Pinstripes

I almost never muffle my Toms, especially on recordings that I drum on. I love getting a beautiful resonance going on, nice and deep The only reason Cotton Balls were ever used on any teching gig I've done is for a huge Tom like an 18" Floor Tom. If a Tom that big is used for Metal music, you'll find the producers want to get rid off the long resonance and keep the deep, punchy sound of the drum.

First of all, I use all Evans Drumheads......love 'em bigtime ! The Batter heads I used on my Toms for the "Synchestra" recordings were G2 Clears and I used Evans Resonance Heads for my bottoms. For my Snare I used a G2 Coated on top and a Hazy 500 for the bottom. The kick drum I use EMAD's which are hands down the best Kick Drum Heads I've ever used !!!!

Hope that answers everything for ya' !

RVP

[Blazingmonga]

Just curious...but what is 'ghosting'?

Just curious...but what is 'ghosting'?

Hey, I was going to ask this question

On a side note, Ryan: Yesterday I had some mp3s running in the background, when all of a sudden a song kicked in which easily caught my attention with its sharp guitar riffs and the reeeally powerful drums. Don't spank me for not recognising it at first (also since there are other guys here who enjoy spanking much more than I do... Right, Lars?), but it was Personal War from the upcoming Non-Human Level! So, again... Great drumming!!!

Wow... My side note is about 90% of the whole post

Ghosting is those quiet notes, which you can hear between the "normal" louder strokes. They are usually played with a snare drum. You can hear this a lot for example on Opeth albums, in the mellow parts of the songs.

Ghosting is those quiet notes, which you can hear between the "normal" louder strokes. They are usually played with a snare drum. You can hear this a lot for example on Opeth albums, in the mellow parts of the songs.

Bang on Brutha' !

RVP

Thanks for the answers and the welcome Ryan..

Chris and Blazingmonga: If you want another good example of ghost notes, listen to 311's "Music" album. Sexton ghosts up a storm in those songs. I love his snare sound on that album.

Ghosting is one of the most fun techniques to aquire as a drummer. Once I started learning how to do it effectively and fluidly I couldn't stop. It is kind of like learning how to use a double kick as well. It is hard to go back to normal after that.

Evans.. great choice. I also use EMAD's and I have a G2 coated on my snare also. Gives it a great high snap that I love from snare drums. My only beef with it is that it tends to wear out faster than usual. Or I just might hit it a little harder than normal. I also tried the Aquarian Super-kick head on my bass drum before and those sound great as well. I guess you really can't go wrong with those two choices..

Ghosting is those quiet notes, which you can hear between the "normal" louder strokes. They are usually played with a snare drum. You can hear this a lot for example on Opeth albums, in the mellow parts of the songs.

Right on.

[Blazingmonga]

Cool, thanks for the info guys. You learn something new every day!