RUN FOR YOUR LIVES 2025 Tour Thread *SPOILERS INSIDE*

Aggelos said:
I am no drummer and have no idea of music theory or whatever but I am not yet deaf. Nicko had a big kit, rolls, fills, everything sound different in a big kit, in Simon's small kit it's like the sound does not change. No matter the roll or the fill every hit sounds the same. Might be wrong, but the songs sound different to me.
Click to expand...
Bands in massive shows use triggers (prerecorded samples that fire when you hit each drum) or in some instances a combination of trigger and live sound. So the size of the drums and the kit is largely irrelevant.
 
BludBrutha said:
Bands in massive shows use triggers (prerecorded samples that fire when you hit each drum) or in some instances a combination of trigger and live sound. So the size of the drums and the kit is largely irrelevant.
Click to expand...
Pooch is using triggers only to open/close mic gates. That's why the playing style has a massive influence on the sound. If you hit harder that causes different opening/closing of the gate. And this is why the sound changed from 2022 to 2023.
 
Prowler said:
Today, I was at a bar in Athens to see Alice Cooper's band members live.
The size of the drum kit doesn't always matter. Glen Sobel ( the drummer of the band) played in a small kit (not his own) and he killed it. I haven't seen a better drummer live. In general the band was so tight. They played everything from Metallica and Motorhead to Alice Cooper and Cheap Trick and some punk.
Click to expand...
Of course this is true for many bands, but Nicko had such an array of toms and cymbals, that without those options there the dynamics will be different. Being able to roll across those tiny toms or do a bottom end roll going to the floor tom just hits different, because the drums are a different pitch. The Trooper fill should sound different to the Powerslave fill, but they sound the same because Simon has the same range of pitch to play with.
 
BludBrutha said:
Bands in massive shows use triggers (prerecorded samples that fire when you hit each drum) or in some instances a combination of trigger and live sound. So the size of the drums and the kit is largely irrelevant.
Click to expand...
Yes and no...it really depends how the kit is used. The more toms you have the more range you have so the fills are going to sound a bit different hitting different toms versus hitting the same tom (or just two or three instead of five or six). Maybe for some, it won't sound that different but as a drummer, yes it sounds a bit different. Per example, my drumkit is a "basic" one with two toms (medium and high) and a floor tom so when I try to do some Nicko fills (the classic on The Trooper per example), they sound different, they do not sound "wrong" but you can clearly hear the difference. So the size of drums might be relevants depending on how they are used.
 
Belshazzar said:
Of course this is true for many bands, but Nicko had such an array of toms and cymbals, that without those options there the dynamics will be different. Being able to roll across those tiny toms or do a bottom end roll going to the floor tom just hits different, because the drums are a different pitch. The Trooper fill should sound different to the Powerslave fill, but they sound the same because Simon has the same range of pitch to play with.
Click to expand...

you said it a lot better than me. thank you.
 
BludBrutha said:
Bands in massive shows use triggers (prerecorded samples that fire when you hit each drum) or in some instances a combination of trigger and live sound. So the size of the drums and the kit is largely irrelevant.
Click to expand...
Maiden has never used sample replacement live. In the studio, yes- but never live. As others have said, the triggers are to automatically open and close noise gates.

Belshazzar said:
Of course this is true for many bands, but Nicko had such an array of toms and cymbals, that without those options there the dynamics will be different. Being able to roll across those tiny toms or do a bottom end roll going to the floor tom just hits different, because the drums are a different pitch. The Trooper fill should sound different to the Powerslave fill, but they sound the same because Simon has the same range of pitch to play with.
Click to expand...
This is true, but another important factor to consider is how the drums are headed and tuned. If you listen to Nicko playing Maiden songs on a smaller kit, it still sounds notably more "lively" and diverse in pitch/tone than Simon's kit. Here is Nicko playing Trooper on a kit very similar in size to Simon's (his kit here has 10", 12", 13", 14" toms, 18" floor, 24" kick. Simon's kit has 10", 12", 13" toms, 14" and 16" floors, 22" kick):


Nicko traditionally uses single-ply heads (either coated or clear with a center dot) and tunes his drums medium-high and wide open with no muffling (save for a small pillow in the bass drum). In a live setting, this can create issues with overtones and extra resonance, but it makes it much easier for the audience to differentiate each drum because the sustain of each drum is more pronounced.

Simon is using double-ply coated heads, and is tuning his drums significantly lower. Not only does this contribute to the tone of each tom sounding more similar to its neighbors, but it makes it harder to discern the difference in pitch because there is very little sustain, and what is there is lower in pitch and more difficult to discern over the attack of each hit.
 
Lego said:
Nicko traditionally uses single-ply heads (either coated or clear with a center dot) and tunes his drums medium-high and wide open with no muffling (save for a small pillow in the bass drum). In a live setting, this can create issues with overtones and extra resonance, but it makes it much easier for the audience to differentiate each drum because the sustain of each drum is more pronounced.
Click to expand...
I actually think you might be onto something here. Nicko switched from Remo to Code at the end of 2022 (Barcelona show) and Simon is also using Code. It could be that they sound more muddy.

I still think Nicko with Sonors and Remos during LOTB 2018 and Pooch at FOH was the best live drum sound Maiden ever had.
 
Is it rly that complicated to properly tune a drum kit? The only 2 thing you can clearly hear in IM drums nowadays is the bass drum and the snare. Even in that proshot from lisbon. This is sad.
 
Lego said:
Maiden has never used sample replacement live. In the studio, yes- but never live. As others have said, the triggers are to automatically open and close noise gates.


This is true, but another important factor to consider is how the drums are headed and tuned. If you listen to Nicko playing Maiden songs on a smaller kit, it still sounds notably more "lively" and diverse in pitch/tone than Simon's kit. Here is Nicko playing Trooper on a kit very similar in size to Simon's (his kit here has 10", 12", 13", 14" toms, 18" floor, 24" kick. Simon's kit has 10", 12", 13" toms, 14" and 16" floors, 22" kick):


Nicko traditionally uses single-ply heads (either coated or clear with a center dot) and tunes his drums medium-high and wide open with no muffling (save for a small pillow in the bass drum). In a live setting, this can create issues with overtones and extra resonance, but it makes it much easier for the audience to differentiate each drum because the sustain of each drum is more pronounced.

Simon is using double-ply coated heads, and is tuning his drums significantly lower. Not only does this contribute to the tone of each tom sounding more similar to its neighbors, but it makes it harder to discern the difference in pitch because there is very little sustain, and what is there is lower in pitch and more difficult to discern over the attack of each hit.
Click to expand...
Always loved that cymbal fill Nick did
 
matic22 said:
Pooch is using triggers only to open/close mic gates. That's why the playing style has a massive influence on the sound. If you hit harder that causes different opening/closing of the gate. And this is why the sound changed from 2022 to 2023.
Click to expand...
I've felt the sound carried over from Legacy 2.0 to Future Past for the drums and was the same for each tour. At least I didn't notice any discernible difference.
 
onurb said:
Is it rly that complicated to properly tune a drum kit? The only 2 thing you can clearly hear in IM drums nowadays is the bass drum and the snare. Even in that proshot from lisbon. This is sad.
Click to expand...
Yes. Because drums are not a "pitched" instrument, it takes a lot more experience and skill to tune them well. It's not like tuning a guitar where you can just use a tuner or a tuning pedal to instantly get bang-on to a specific pitch.
 
I do think there's something to be said about just how fucking well-tuned Nicko's kit was. It's no small feat, it's a massive setup with nine toms to tune and yet it's like Nicko found the perfect pitches for all of them. He didn't even trust the tech with it back in the day, he was well into his IM career before he relented on tuning the drums himself.
 
Ruflux said:
I do think there's something to be said about just how fucking well-tuned Nicko's kit was. It's no small feat, it's a massive setup with nine toms to tune and yet it's like Nicko found the perfect pitches for all of them. He didn't even trust the tech with it back in the day, he was well into his IM career before he relented on tuning the drums himself.
Click to expand...
Yep, I believe it wasn't until Charlie came aboard in 2005 or so that Nicko stopped tuning the drums himself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top