THE DRUMS.

Steve Albini’s own words on the selection of drums recorded during the Alt-Rock EZX session.

LUDWIG CLUB DATE.

This is a ’60s Ludwig kit with thin shells, sized 20″, 12″ and 14”. The Club Date design uses a single central lug on each shell that accepts a tension rod from each head rather than two separate lugs, so the shells have less weight and fewer mechanical attachments. Though it was designed to lower the parts count and cost, this feature makes the drums slightly more resonant and lively than shells made with separate lugs. We kept it skinned with Remo Rennaissance heads, which have an elastic bounce with fewer high overtones than other single ply heads, while still having a strong fundamental pitch and clear sustain. The toms are tuned with the bottom head slightly higher in pitch than the top heads, which causes a slight rise in the pitch as the drums sustain. The additional drums added to fill out the compliment of toms are other Ludwig toms from the same era, tuned similarly. The bass drum features a full front (resonant) head, which provides a singing sustain with extended decay. The snare drum is a WFL 3×13” piccolo with a calfskin batter head. This drum has a short, dry and percussive midrange-voiced sound that is most expressive at the lower end of the dynamic range.

DW COLLECTOR’S SERIES.

This is a thoroughly contemporary kit made with modern materials and processes, so the tolerances and behavior of the drums are both predictable and consistent. The kit has large sizes (24″, 15″, 16″ and 18”) and Remo Emperor batter heads to control the irregular high-harmonic modes of the larger heads (and Remo Ambassador heads for the resonant side). These drums are characterized by a strong attack and fundamental tone with few overtones and a smooth fast decay. These drums are tuned with the resonant head slightly lower in pitch than the batter head, which causes a slight drop in pitch as the drum sound decays. The bass drum has a Superkick II head for strong attack with quick decay and the resonant head has a hole in it. The the decay is fast and suitable for quick patterns, despite its size. The DW 5×14” snare drum is the same shell construction as the rest of the kit and has a Remo CS batter head and a Diplomat-weight snare bottom head with a 2″ strainer. It has a modest amount of shell tone and a quick decay.

EXTRA KICK AND TOMS.

The extra kick and toms are ’70s Gretsch but updated with cast hoops and minimally-invasive mounting hardware. They all have Remo Ambassador batter heads and Evans resonant heads. The shells are slightly thicker with a plain lacquer finish, so the natural pitches of the drums are slightly lower than the same sized drums on our other kits and resonances are not damped by an external wrap. These drums have the batter heads and resonant heads tuned to nearly the same pitch, so each drum has a long, consonant sustain and a definite pitch. The bass drum has Remo Ambassador heads and is lightly damped.

“THIS EXPERIENCE IS DEFINITELY ONE OF THE TOP MOMENTS, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE OF HOW PERSONAL THIS PROJECT WAS TO ME…”

PAUL SZLACHTA ON THE ALT-ROCK EZX SESSIONS