Gavin Harrison here!

Gavin, thanks so much. Believe it or not but the things you said really did the trick for me!! When I think about "twitch" and "not moving much" it works extremely well and without any effort. I was trying to slide and swivel around all the time - its completely unneccesary. But its taught pretty much everywhere like that...(and for some it obviously works but not for me.)
Ask a Pro and you get a simple answer that does it. :) Thanks again for the possibility that you gave us here in that thread.
 
Hi Gavin - Great to read all your posts over the years. Such a refreshing atmosphere you create about your career, love of music and, of course, drumming. Hard work, determination and the ability to express yourself, not just play drums, runs through the 337 pages here. You’ve cost me a bucket of money over the past few weeks, i.e. Protean snare, Kelly Shu, duck feather pillows (they are heavier than goose. smaller feathers, so it’s takes more of them) some extra microphones and those Vic Firth batons, you designed. It’s been wonderful....lol! Not only am I loving it, but my wife, who doesn‘t mind that I practice/play for couple of hours everyday, enjoys it too! I’m working on Rythmic Illusions - so cool! Thanks again for being you. Hope to see you one day when you come to the states again! Cheers - Phil
 
Hi Gavin,
So there is a video on YouTube of you doing a soundcheck for Remo drum heads and the drums sound really, really good. All the comments on the post state how great the drums sound and beg for a tuning video to show exactly how you get that sound. From a past post of mine that you were so gracious to answer, you said that you weren't really concerned with specific intervals, but did have the toms tuned to notes which I believe ended up as some in fourths or augmented fourths. For those of us who are tuning geeks, I have two questions. One, are the bottom heads tighter, and if so, can you say how much...1/2 step, full step, more?.... and is the interval between top and bottom heads consistent with all the toms? Also, the largest floor tom is tuned pretty low and sounds really nice. There can't be much tension on the tension rods....do you have that drum or any other drums tuned as low as they will go? Thank you so much in advance for your reply. Cheers!
 
Hi Pavel

Which British drummers would you choose as the best currently?

I don't really know who's best (or have any favourites other than ones from some time ago like Simon Phillips and Tony Beard) nor am I really in touch with the younger players on the scene these days. Sorry for the boring answer.

Hi Phil (KeithEnglish) - thanks for the nice message.

Hi cdrums21

So there is a video on YouTube of you doing a soundcheck for Remo drum heads and the drums sound really, really good. All the comments on the post state how great the drums sound and beg for a tuning video to show exactly how you get that sound. From a past post of mine that you were so gracious to answer, you said that you weren't really concerned with specific intervals, but did have the toms tuned to notes which I believe ended up as some in fourths or augmented fourths. For those of us who are tuning geeks, I have two questions. One, are the bottom heads tighter, and if so, can you say how much...1/2 step, full step, more?.... and is the interval between top and bottom heads consistent with all the toms? Also, the largest floor tom is tuned pretty low and sounds really nice. There can't be much tension on the tension rods....do you have that drum or any other drums tuned as low as they will go?

Thanks - I do get requests about making tuning videos - and I am considering it. I think it goes a bit beyond the drums/heads/intervals etc and more into an overall concept about sound. Anyway I did check the intervals for you and I can tell you that the bottom heads are always tighter than the tops. On the kit I have in front of me at the moment the toms are 8x7 10x8 12x9 15x13 18x15 the intervals are as follows:

8" tom. Top head = E. Bottom head = G
10" tom. Top head = B. Bottom head = C#
12" tom. Top head = F#. Bottom head = A
15" tom. Top head = B. Bottom head = C#
18" tom. Top head = G. Bottom head = A

*some of these notes are a little bit flat or sharp of the mark.

I do just tune by instinct - I've tried many tuning devices but I didn't really like the results better than what my ears were telling me.

I would say that the last two toms are tuned in a way that is very hard to play a double stroke roll on (the 12" is a bit hard as well).
Something else is that they are tuned for this setup. If I were to take away the 8" drum and move everything to the left and add a 13" (so the rack toms would become 10",12",13") I would tune the 10" and 12" higher than they are in the list above.

cheers
Gavin
 
Hi Michealg

but to be devils advocate , the Stones "honky tonk woman" starts and ends in two very different tempos. What do you take away from the drumming on that record ? Personally i think if it feels good,

That is an interesting one. I think that at the time they recorded it (late 1960's) there we not trying to speed up - it just happened and folks were not so sensitive to it. The guitars are very pushy and with everyone playing together - and with some lack of control - the whole song just got faster. I really don't think it was intentional and they were most likely surprised at how much it did speed up - but it doesn't feel bad. It certainly starts out with a really nice feeling rhythm. Might it have felt better by not speeding up? It was a different era. Interestingly when I checked a live version of the same song from 1998 it doesn't really speed up at all. "September" by Earth Wind & Fire speeds up - that feels pretty good as they all move together. The rhythm feels tight all the way through. It doesn't have to be perfect to feel good - but (with modern ears) there comes a point when a song might start to feel bad to you.

cheers
Gavin
Interesting discussion – thanks Gavin for sharing your thoughts on this subject! And thanks for all your inspiration throughout many years! I hope you're doing well musically and personally!
 
Hi Pavel

Which British drummers would you choose as the best currently?

I don't really know who's best (or have any favourites other than ones from some time ago like Simon Phillips and Tony Beard) nor am I really in touch with the younger players on the scene these days. Sorry for the boring answer.

Hi Phil (KeithEnglish) - thanks for the nice message.

Hi cdrums21

So there is a video on YouTube of you doing a soundcheck for Remo drum heads and the drums sound really, really good. All the comments on the post state how great the drums sound and beg for a tuning video to show exactly how you get that sound. From a past post of mine that you were so gracious to answer, you said that you weren't really concerned with specific intervals, but did have the toms tuned to notes which I believe ended up as some in fourths or augmented fourths. For those of us who are tuning geeks, I have two questions. One, are the bottom heads tighter, and if so, can you say how much...1/2 step, full step, more?.... and is the interval between top and bottom heads consistent with all the toms? Also, the largest floor tom is tuned pretty low and sounds really nice. There can't be much tension on the tension rods....do you have that drum or any other drums tuned as low as they will go?

Thanks - I do get requests about making tuning videos - and I am considering it. I think it goes a bit beyond the drums/heads/intervals etc and more into an overall concept about sound. Anyway I did check the intervals for you and I can tell you that the bottom heads are always tighter than the tops. On the kit I have in front of me at the moment the toms are 8x7 10x8 12x9 15x13 18x15 the intervals are as follows:

8" tom. Top head = E. Bottom head = G
10" tom. Top head = B. Bottom head = C#
12" tom. Top head = F#. Bottom head = A
15" tom. Top head = B. Bottom head = C#
18" tom. Top head = G. Bottom head = A

*some of these notes are a little bit flat or sharp of the mark.

I do just tune by instinct - I've tried many tuning devices but I didn't really like the results better than what my ears were telling me.

I would say that the last two toms are tuned in a way that is very hard to play a double stroke roll on (the 12" is a bit hard as well).
Something else is that they are tuned for this setup. If I were to take away the 8" drum and move everything to the left and add a 13" (so the rack toms would become 10",12",13") I would tune the 10" and 12" higher than they are in the list above.

cheers
Gavin

Holy crap Gavin! That's exactly the information I was looking for! Thank you sooo much for sharing that with us all. My suspicions were correct in your tuning method and I understand completely about your comment on the concept of overall sound. All the best to you and continued success in all you do!

Clint
 
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Hi Gavin - Did you say that you use S Hoops on the top and bottom of your toms? BTW, I have your Sonor Protean Snare Drum, I love it. It is absolutely the best snare I have every played. The crack, coupled with the sensitivity is amazing. Your years of experience have given us, mere drum mortals, a wonderful instrument....Thank you! - Phil
PS - I have since done a search and read your past reply, that you only use S Hoops on the tops. The search option can be your friend, I have found.....:) Thanks for all your music over the years. I'm sorry it took me so long to find it. It's truly wonderful!
 
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Hi Gavin - thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions...you could do a whole course just on the practical awesome things learned in this thread.

Did a very quick search and couldn't quite find an already given answer, so I apologize if this has been specifically brought up before.

My question - I know you attach most of your microphones to the rack itself. This obviously produces some shake and wobble in the mics, and potentially even audible vibration? I wonder, do the shock mounts you use on the mics generally take care of this? I have a pretty neat set up where most of the mics are attached to my small Gibraltar rack. I love the convenience, but do notice that crashing the cymbals can produces a very low rumble in the attached mics, due to the cymbals being attached to the same rack. Not cymbal noise, but a slow decaying rumble as the rack vibrates. This is almost immediately fixed for me using a little gate and some compression, and I'm curious if you do anything post-recording to negate this, or if you are rumble-free going into the board. I also notice some neat cymbal 'shock absorbers' that you discussed recently. Does that play any part in negating this?

Thanks again,
-Mike
 
Hi Phil

Did you say that you use S Hoops on the top and bottom of your toms?

yes in recent years I have been doing exactly that.

Hi MGC101

I know you attach most of your microphones to the rack itself. This obviously produces some shake and wobble in the mics, and potentially even audible vibration? I wonder, do the shock mounts you use on the mics generally take care of this?

Sometimes they do - it depends how 'isolated' and how efficient the suspension of the mic shock mount is. The H85 AKG ones I use are very good at suspending the mic away from shock through the rack as the mic is held via elastic bands.
Screen Shot 2020-02-14 at 12.33.24.png

...however that may not be enough - especially on say a snare top mic that might have a lot of compression assigned to it.
I found out about the Cymbal Resonance System (CRS based in Norway) and the owner was kind enough to send me some for trail. I was very impressed how well they worked.
These drastically reduce shock through the hardware.

Screen Shot 2020-02-14 at 12.29.06.png
it's hard to see from that picture so head over to https://www.crsnorway.com/ for more info.
You might find out that only one or two of your cymbals are creating an audible 'bang' through the rack hardware and so they might be the ones to have some 'shock isolating' device such as the CRS. To be on the safe side - I'm using both the CRS and the AKG mic mounts. Happy days!

cheers
Gavin
 
Thanks Gavin. Spent the morning looking at the CRS website and this would be the exact solution to my problem. The language on the site describes it as a 'wooing' sound, and that is spot on. The snare (an i5) was the biggest culprit, as the crash above would cause a very distinct warping rumble sound as it vibrated into the i5. Think I'll start with one CRS and go from there. I don't mind a traditional tripod mic stand for the snare if it comes down to it, but I'm thinking this will allow me to continue micing it from the rack.

Thanks again Gavin! Looking forward to seeing you sometime this year.
-Mike
 
Yeah I may very well resort to just using the tripod stand as it isn't nearly as obtrusive as the other mic stands would be. The goal was to have literally everything hanging off two Gibraltar stealth racks on either side of the kick, which would leave a very clean floor space free of the dozens of both cymbal and microphone tripod legs. And minus the aforementioned rumble, it works even better than I hoped. It's worth noting how sturdy this Gibraltar stuff is...it's almost hilarious seeing how many things are hanging off these two very low bars, looks almost like there isn't a rack at all.

Ordering a set of the CRS tomorrow. Thanks again for the insight Gavin!

-Mike
 
Hi Gavin - Thank you for all the wonderful drumming and inspiration for the rest of us!! I've read through your thread as much as I could, so I apologize if this has already been asked and I didn't catch it. For your second floor tom, how do you pick which size to follow your 15 (between the 16 and 18)? Thanks!!
Jorge
 
Hi Gavin - Thank you for all the wonderful drumming and inspiration for the rest of us!! I've read through your thread as much as I could, so I apologize if this has already been asked and I didn't catch it. For your second floor tom, how do you pick which size to follow your 15 (between the 16 and 18)? Thanks!!

Hi Jorge,
For a long time I used 14" and 16" floor toms. I moved to a 15" floor tom because I couldn't really get the sound I wanted from a 14" (plus for some reason I always had a LOT of sustain from a 14" in the tuning range that I wanted). The 15" was magic ! So then I played 15" & 16" - but to get a good pitch difference between the two I had to tune the 16" super low and that affected the tone and feel of it - so I switched to an 18" as the second floor tom and I love it. So for the last 8 years it's been 15" & 18" all the way.

cheers
Gavin
 
Hi Gavin,
I'm a big fan and forever grateful for all you do as an artist.
I have a question about your signature sticks. I'm having a hard time finding the original, but I'm close to getting one.. I was wondering if there is a way to tell if it's SHAR or SHAR2? On product photos somehow the blue looks lighter on the old one. Is it? I am curious how the second version happened. Were you unhappy with the original, what exactly was changed? Will there be a SHAR3?

Dora
 
I have a question about your signature sticks. I'm having a hard time finding the original, but I'm close to getting one.. I was wondering if there is a way to tell if it's SHAR or SHAR2? On product photos somehow the blue looks lighter on the old one. Is it? I am curious how the second version happened. Were you unhappy with the original, what exactly was changed? Will there be a SHAR3?

Hi Dora
the shape and size of the stick is identical. The only thing that changed was the grip material. Originally it had 'Vic Grip' (that they put on a few of their models) - however because it was a relatively new thing VF didn't know what the long term effects of 'Vic Grip' might be. It didn't store well under extreme temperatures so they stopped making it. So I switched to a kind of matt type paint (slightly different shade of dark blue to the original) and we called it SHAR2. There's no plan for a SHAR3.

cheers
Gavin
 
Hi Dora
the shape and size of the stick is identical. The only thing that changed was the grip material. Originally it had 'Vic Grip' (that they put on a few of their models) - however because it was a relatively new thing VF didn't know what the long term effects of 'Vic Grip' might be. It didn't store well under extreme temperatures so they stopped making it. So I switched to a kind of matt type paint (slightly different shade of dark blue to the original) and we called it SHAR2. There's no plan for a SHAR3.

cheers
Gavin

Hi Gavin. Thank you for your explanation! Amazing sticks!

Glad to see the news about the tour and album, can't wait! I hope there'll be some US dates, too...
 
Hi Jorge,
For a long time I used 14" and 16" floor toms. I moved to a 15" floor tom because I couldn't really get the sound I wanted from a 14" (plus for some reason I always had a LOT of sustain from a 14" in the tuning range that I wanted). The 15" was magic ! So then I played 15" & 16" - but to get a good pitch difference between the two I had to tune the 16" super low and that affected the tone and feel of it - so I switched to an 18" as the second floor tom and I love it. So for the last 8 years it's been 15" & 18" all the way.

cheers
Gavin
Thank you Gavin!!! I appreciate all the help and replies in this forum. You are a role model of a drummer and person!! See you at the show!!

Jorge
 
Hey Gavin,

Just a quick thought that popped into my mind reading the conversation about your stick models;
Do you find a difficulty in the gripping of the Matte paint style? I've tried your sticks and VF sticks with the Vic Grip and there's a huge difference - to me the matte slips too much, just wondering how you get on with that as it must have been a fair change!

Alannah
 
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