Looks interesting. I'd be worried that you will only hear the shell's resonance, and not the stick attack, or the head's actual sound and harmonics. Also, what would a rim shot sound like? A wood block? :wink: .

The isolation benefits seem beneficial, but this would require very isolated drum mounting to eliminate crosstalk through the hardware (which would likely be accenuated with this type transducer IMO).

Also, once you attach it, you are stuck with that placement's particular sound w/o removing the head, and retuning before you even know what moving the transducer sounds like.

I'm thinking it would be like the difference between micing an acoustic with a nice condensor versus using a Piezo bridge saddle pickup. I know what sounds better, and I know which one has more isolation. More isolation does not automatically = better sound...

You also have the May micing system, too...

Could be cool, could sound like ass. Who knows?

Thanks for the link :cool:

I agree, my main concerns were exactly that. I mean...if these things rock I'd buy a nice house kit...maybe a 5 piece DW or Yamaha Custom and pretty much place the transducers to get a nice balanced sound. Not too much stick attack or boom. When the metal bands come in I'd have to EQ the hell out of the kick and toms anyway for the clicky sound or just send the audio through my trigggers.

The whole isolation factor is what is selling me right now. I have a small room that is really dead, but I still have issues with it. This seems to take the room out of the equation a little bit even though OH's still have to go up.

If the drummer was going to be doing rimshots I'd throw on a 57 or see how much comes into the OH's.

We'll see what happens with these over the next few months....the idea kicks ass, but a lot of bad ideas start out sounding really good.

Why are they making a peizoelectric pickup sound like a new invention?

hmm... interesting... a piezo on a drum... they work everywhere else just about...

It is not a Piezo Crystal, but polypropylene! I'd like to hear an AE's opinion on these. The link stated "the sound is more natural than how a mic picks up through the air" or something. How could having your ear shoved against a piece of wood sound more natural than listening to the drum "through the air"? :shock:

:cool:

David French wrote: Why are they making a peizoelectric pickup sound like a new invention?

For people to think it's a 'neat' idea and support it. Or the author just didn't know of it before. But anyways, how many products come out that claim to 'change the way someone does something'... it happens all the friggin time and almost everytime ends up simply BS. You'd think people would just wait until these 'innovations' have been time tested, but no, people need something new to goo goo gaa gaa over. That's just the nasty of technology in general IMHO, a bunch of bored people looking for something to be excited about - and it's only human :)

Piezoelectric pickups are also polypropelene. The difference in these is that they use air instead of crystals inside the charged polypropelene film. The principles are the same; its the same concept and technology except they use different materials in the transducer.

Like I said....I'm not sold until I hear them. Piezo's aren't new obviously....but this is the first time I've seen it in this application.

Should be interesting to hear if nothing else.

I'm hoping for the best.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst :?

I'm still thiking the Acoustic Gtr Piezo analogy I mentioned above will hold true... I dunno

:cool:

wow

This is like the "objective vs subjective" debate in audio. Is it a drum or is it a slicer-dicer? It sounds like it sounds. Its cool technology. If it sounds good do it. What I want to know is: What does it sound like? ted.

I can imagine these might be great for live work - where the air is still in the equation but the drums need reinforcement through the PA.

Although I guess you'd still need overheads for cymbals - maybe that's all the air you need in addition to these things.

I think everyone should use them

...i'll make a mint in comparison!! 8) :lol: :roll:

B-band has a great line of products and their acoustic guitar systems are really sweet. They sound wonderful. But this statement ("The sound is more natural than that obtained using microphones." ) is ridiculous.

Piezo's will never replace microphones in the studio.

Duh! :?

Some 'unknown' by the name of Fleetwood was using this technology as far back as an album called "Rumours"....The blurb at the time was that they were using some kind of 'technology to record the shells of the drums with a pliable strip used in measurement of large vessels'.....same old same old.....and it really really works.

Davedog wrote: Some 'unknown' by the name of Fleetwood was using this technology as far back as an album called "Rumours"....The blurb at the time was that they were using some kind of 'technology to record the shells of the drums with a pliable strip used in measurement of large vessels'.....same old same old.....and it really really works.

Right you could be...you never know until you try..and doing things unconventionally sometimes yields the coolest things. Experimentation rules!

P.S.

BTW don't throw away those drum mics.....send them to me!!

(I know , I know..but some one had to say it) :lol:

haha....my mics aren't going anywhere....even if I buy these new drum "mics" and they rock.

i would have to say that i wouldnt mind puting a nice phaser inline into a 4x10 and 1 x18 ampeg bass amp setup for a live show. this could reviel some new interesting setups.

also letme say after reading this. this is not peizo it actualy sounds like it could be a new more sesitive capasitor based mic element.

Don't know how it sounds

None of us know what it really sounds like yet. Maybe sounding "more natural" is a bad way of putting it. We naturally hear all sound through the actual air vibrating. However it may bring it some resonance in the shell or something cool sounding. At the very least it'd be useful for shows, and even tho a properly placed mic sounds better on an acoustic than a piezo (IMO), that's not to say you can't make an acoustic electric sound good on a recording. I think the same may apply here. It's not what we're used to hearing, however it could work in a lot of applications. Might make some crappy garage bands sound a bit better who knows.

Good idea, I see practical applications here. I'm not knocking it yet but I won't put down the money till I've heard it. Until then I'll stand by my mics.

Re: Don't know how it sounds

yeah..well i'll just go out on a limb here and say that it's BS. Nothing got any better sounding than an 80 series neve to 2"..it hasn't gotten better sounding since then. period. end of story. So I'll just put my money in the bank towards my kids education, and make great sounding records with the same old stuff i've been using for years. It's the songs and the artists hands that make the biggest changes. Just because someone comes out with square tires doesn't mean you have to try them.

Re: Don't know how it sounds

RecorderMan wrote: yeah..well i'll just go out on a limb here and say that it's BS. Nothing got any better sounding than an 80 series neve to 2"..it hasn't gotten better sounding since then. period. end of story. So I'll just put my money in the bank towards my kids education, and make great sounding records with the same old stuff i've been using for years. It's the songs and the artists hands that make the biggest changes. Just because someone comes out with square tires doesn't mean you have to try them.

This should be the standard answer to all questions ever posted ...... 8-)

No, this is nothing new...didn't Barcus Berry or someone have something similar out fifteen or twenty years ago?

And the article itself is full of gross overgeneralizations, if not flat-out incorrect statements, like:

"Miking up a drum kit is complicated and time consuming, as each drum must be miked separately."

Sure, it can be complicated and time-consuming, but each drum doesn't necessarily have to be miked separately...

"The sound is more natural than that obtained using microphones."

Of course it's note. There's nothing more natural than using one or two microphones at a distance. Of course, "natural" isn't always (or even usually) what we're going for...but to market contact pickups as sounding "natural" is just plain stupid.

-Duardo

The first thing that bothers me about that article is the spelling of mic and miced .. (mike and miked). That's a pet peeve of mine. The word mic comes from microphone (as in tiny speaker). Now in German that's mikrophone ....see no "e" after mik .... where the f&%k does "mike" come from?

It seems as if you would get a lot of sustain with no attack ... and as mentioned in the article, you will not hear things like the strings on the bottom of a snare drum or the difference between a wood, plastic tipped stick or the butt end of a stick.

But .... as is often pointed out to me when I make statements about things I have never heard, perhaps at least one of us should hear these things before we proceed to tear them to shreds?

Then again, I remain skeptical ...and I'm keeping my drum mics too!

Personally I always mic and use the D-Drum triggers, These triggers use XLR connectors and the snare trigger is actually 2 triggers, one for the head, and one for the rim. I record the signal from the triggers. If I need to enhance the drums, I will take the trigger signal and run it thru an Alesis D-4 drum module, and pick and choose any of the 99 kick , 99 snares, or 99 toms and the Over heads will bring it all together. Lately tho I have been slideing the ext drive out of my HDR and put it in Tracktion and use the plug in called drumagog
http://www.drumagog.com

i think that this in combination with some good overheads could sound really cool. personaly i would like them to come out with a nice hiz drum mic. that way they could plug there snare into an overdriven marshal stack.

If you wanted that, you can still use a lowz mic. Just use an inline transformer.

yes but using a mice ( :) ) is to mutch for a drummer to think about.