DAVE WECKL - The thread about Dave

[Cymbalfeltfetishist]

Watching the Lee R. clip where they are shooting Weckl from behind makes me realize how hard I really hit the drums - even the bass drum...whereas Dave it hitting very lightly - I mean he is definitely heard with the music he is playing. I forget how lightly he hits. Always sounds big of course. I hit way too hard...not where it hurts my hands (I play trad) but I am really trying to match the volume of the band I play in. I try to encourage those guys not to play as loud but you know how that goes....I just want to play lighter than I am sometimes. Any of you guys play really hard? Do you notice if you were playing lighter you could do more?

[Lucas Ives]

Yeah, that's part of the reason for the monitors *in addition* to the in-ear mix .. so that he can maintain the light touch and still compete SPL-wise with amplified instruments.

[Kurtis]

Cool Lucas. Why beat yourself up when you can have mics do it for you and still sound like a million bucks power wise. He plays a lot. Good thing he's looking out for his hands and wrists. We need Mr Weckl to keep playing into his 90's like Roy Haynes.

[Paul Marangoni]

Any of you guys play really hard? Do you notice if you were playing lighter you could do more?

I don't play "hard" or "loud", but the band I've been rehearsing with for the last few months has been forcing me to play a lot quieter. I find it much more difficult to play with intensity and precision at a quieter volume.

[Niles]

Any of you guys play really hard? Do you notice if you were playing lighter you could do more?

I don't play "hard" or "loud", but the band I've been rehearsing with for the last few months has been forcing me to play a lot quieter. I find it much more difficult to play with intensity and precision at a quieter volume.

That is for sure... I’ve been working on that a lot lately - what’s working best for me is thinking more in terms of stick heights. So playing lower, not quieter...

[bensdrums]

I've been playing a lot more small combo jazz stuff over the past couple of years and had to get volume under control. One thing I noticed was that lower stick heights also changed how I needed to tune the drums, less velocity meant I could tune a bit fatter, and higher/tighter tunings would sound somewhat brittle at lower velocity (snare drum was the biggest offender in this case). Being able to swing on the ride at up tempos without getting too loud was also a technical thing I had to work out a little bit.

The audio production that goes into a drum sound can definitely be deceiving when you're watching/listening to a final or sound-reinforced product. I played for years in an in-ear monitoring, pro sound environment, and switching to small combo jazz situations were it was more or less the sound of the kit in the room was more challenging that I'd thought. There were a lot of limb balance and control issues I could fix with a fader that became bad habits when I went back to the straight up acoustic kit setting.

[Old Pit Guy]

Watching the Lee R. clip where they are shooting Weckl from behind makes me realize how hard I really hit the drums - even the bass drum...whereas Dave it hitting very lightly - I mean he is definitely heard with the music he is playing. I forget how lightly he hits.

That was a big factor for some guys in the 80's Vinnie vs. Weckl fan wars after you saw them live. It was like the difference between tapping bumpers in the parking lot and a Nascar pileup comparing the relative intensity and physicality of their styles.

[Juan Expósito]

From 2011 Drum Fantasy Camp. Chris Coleman and Dave:

[Julián Fernández]

Dave is so locked it´s scary...

[Juan Expósito]

In my headphones those drums sing !!
What a sound. I assume it´s direct from the mixer.
Dave, some days ago.