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Matus wrote: Funny you mentioned that, Yamahaplayer, since my teacher also studied with Dawson back in the day and he had me work on that just because But I think it's always benefitial to work on them, as every single movement variation gives you a whole different sound. Makes you deeply understand the snare drum sound.

So true man!! That's a huge part of the beauty in playing for me, so many sounds from the snare drum alone. Do love me some brushes!

Brad Schlueter wrote:Matus,

Make sure the sound man isn't gating your snare!

Brad

Actually, we make sure the drums are mixed properly. Since we're playing mostly auditoriums we can make good soundchecks and the musical director will go outside to check on what our PA engineer is doing. For monitors, I go and work with him on the mix because we're all using in-ears and any monitoring "trick" can result in a painful performance. No gating is allowed on the snare.
It' just me having lost some touch with the brushes. I can make them sound good in a jazz setting but I can't figure out the right stroke for those songs in a concert environment, where some extra beefiness is needed. Sort of an acoustic jazzy country thing, that kind of fat backbeat.

Matus wrote: It' just me having lost some touch with the brushes. I can make them sound good in a jazz setting but I can't figure out the right stroke for those songs in a concert environment, where some extra beefiness is needed. Sort of an acoustic jazzy country thing, that kind of fat backbeat.

Maybe need something a lil beefier then brushes? Rutes, Rakes, HotRods, etc?

I'm trying to avoid that, been using Regal Tip plastic rods for ages because of oversized acoustic sets (playing brushes for 5000 people, sure) and I'm sick of it. For this one I wanted to get back to real brushes, as we're trying to replicate the original track. I guess I'll try to focus on that for the next soundcheck

Matus wrote:It' just me having lost some touch with the brushes. I can make them sound good in a jazz setting but I can't figure out the right stroke for those songs in a concert environment, where some extra beefiness is needed. Sort of an acoustic jazzy country thing, that kind of fat backbeat.

You're probably already aware of this Matus, but just in case you've forgotten about it you can get a nice, fat backbeat by dropping the right-hand wrist so that the top part of the handle, where the wires join, clips the drum head as well as the wires. I think Louis Bellson used to call this stroke the 'bomp'. Difficult to do with the left hand using trad grip, but playing palm-down it's possible (having said that, I often use matched grip for more poppy stuff).

And finally (until I get my hands on some proper equipment...stop tittering at the back!), here's my third vid of the week - I must be on a roll! (pun intended, sadly):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OqsrVq-2oA[/youtube]

Gerry wrote:

Matus wrote:It' just me having lost some touch with the brushes. I can make them sound good in a jazz setting but I can't figure out the right stroke for those songs in a concert environment, where some extra beefiness is needed. Sort of an acoustic jazzy country thing, that kind of fat backbeat.

You're probably already aware of this Matus, but just in case you've forgotten about it you can get a nice, fat backbeat by dropping the right-hand wrist so that the top part of the handle, where the wires join, clips the drum head as well as the wires. I think Louis Bellson used to call this stroke the 'bomp'. Difficult to do with the left hand using trad grip, but playing palm-down it's possible (having said that, I often use matched grip for more poppy stuff).

Yeah, thanks man. I'm using either that or a rimshot with the brush deep into the drum, hitting rim with the middle of the handle if not closer to the butt end. The "bomp" stroke gives me a more pleasant acoustic sound but the fat rimshot does it as far as cutting through the mix goes. However, next time I'll try to have someone sit at the audience spot to see what works best and try to work on that on monitors. It's weird enough to play brushes with in-ears, so I better do it properly!

Matus, if you want a bigger brush sound with all the capabilities of a wire brush, try the Fat Cat by Regal Tip. Here's a link to it on their site: http://www.regaltip.com/phpshop2/?page= ... 44677a8107

I used to play in a band that had some brush tunes, but I had a hard time getting my Vic Firth Jazz brushes to come through the mix. I tried the Fat Cats and loved 'em. You can still do some nice sweeps plus there's an added snap for backbeats. Not bad. Check them out!

Mike

I tried plastic brushes a looong time ago, then switched to wire and never went back so I might be missing something. If they're good for sweeping then I might get some of those if everything else fails. Thanks Mike!