Doctor J

I'd side with the drummer. When I go to see a band I want to hear music, not listen to jibba jabba. Play the bleedin' songs. If you absolutely must have cheerleading, do it over intros. Give me 27 minutes of songs and go, I don't need the extra 3 minutes of "IS EVERYONE READY TO GET DOWWWWWNNNN?" From a band perspective, we'd always cluster songs together. Do two or three songs, segue one into the next and get on with it. Nobody comes to hear your singer talking. That's why they're called a singer 🙂

Firstly, congratulations and welcome to the club. Drumming is a lot of fun. There's no one right way, it's whatever is comfortable, but I'll show you how I set my drums up and tell you why they are the way they are. I picked up this Yamaha last year as a replacement for my old 5-piece Export kit and, even though there are more drums, followed the same principals of setting it up. I try to play from the wrist, not the elbow and not the shoulder, and economy of movement factored high in how I originally arrived at this kind of setup. I'll see if I can find any pics of the Export setup. Also look at youtube videos and pictures and you'll see every drummer sets their kit up differently, so find what's comfortable for you. First, see the snare as the centre of the kit. You've got a double pedal, set that up so your legs are comfortably apart with the snare between them. Don't have your legs rubbing off the snare and don't have them so wide you're straining yourself. The kick, as a result, will be off-centre to the right. Imagine you had a second bass drum and you'll see what I mean. Get your stool height, snare height and position and bass drum position done first. Get comfortable with those before you add anything else. They are the foundation of everything and you'll use them the most. I'd recommend getting started without the second kick pedal. You need to learn how to play the hi-hat with your left leg, maybe give that some time before adding double-bass playing into the mix. For stool height, find a height comfortable for you. I don't like to be down too low. I'm tall, with long legs, so being down low would make playing uncomfortable. The height of the snare is entirely set on how high I sit. Just measuring, the top of the stool is 60cm, the top of the snare is 73cm, but that was set up entirely on feel. I like to keep the snare quite horizontally flat and, at these heights, I can comfortably play, do rimshots and fills with my wrists in a neutral position and without hitting myself in the leg with my left hand. The toms are set up with economy of movement in mind, they close together and follow a natural arc of movement when I rotate. You shouldn't need to look for them, they should fall within your body's natural range of movement when you are sitting on the stool. The height of the small three is not far above the snare, the two floor toms are level with the snare. This is what feels comfortable to me. I don't have to stretch to reach anything. I try to hit the toms with the stick at as shallow an angle as possible, almost like playing a rimshot. It makes ergonomic sense and you don't put great big divots in the skin. Don't have them too close and don't have them too far away. The height and distance of the floor toms means they're just a flick away from the snare, they feel quite natural where they are. After all that is comfortable, I worked on cymbal height and position. The hats will go outside your second kick pedal so make sure the distance is comfortable for your leg and your hand. I have the hi-hat and the ride roughly the same height as each other and the rack toms. That whole economy of movement thing again. It takes some practice to have the hats this close to the snare, though. Lots of sticks hitting each other until I got my technique together. They're at a level my arms are comfortable at and I don't have to travel great distances to reach them. I think it's important to not have to stretch to reach anything, to not have a lot of movement going through the shoulders. I play the ride in different ways, not just pinging off it, but also like a big washy cymbal, and use the bell. This setup allows me to do this with minimal effort. After that, the other cymbals. Again, keep them at a comfortable height. They need to be able to move without hitting off anything but don't have them too high. Keep the bell of the ride unobstructed and make sure you can hit the toms without a cymbal getting in the way. I keep my cymbals quite horizontal, just a personal preference, I prefer the feel of them that way. Some like to angle them inward. I raised the crashes by about 10cm a few days ago, just to try something different, see how I got on with them. They're still below shoulder level, though. In terms of tone, there are some who set the cymbals up from left to right in terms of pitch, mirroring the drums, but it's not essential by any means. That's pretty much it. Keep things close to hand, follow your own body's natural movement arcs and set up so it feels good rather than looks good. The Export tom arms are handy in that you can put the short bit in the kick drum and the long bit is long enough to hang that 13" like a floor tom. Experiment and find the setup which works for you and don't fight your setup evolving as you learn what you like and don't like. Our bodies are different so there is no one right way. Edit -> found a pic of the old Export kit. Same idea in how it's set up.

Tony Choy Steve DiGiorgio Sean Malone Robin Zielhorst Jeroen Paul Thesseling

Kreator - Renewal - they ditched thrash for something dark and unique, then lost then plot entirely The Cult - s/t - Astbury moving on from pretending to be a Chief. Expansive, interesting rock in a post-grunge nu-metal wasteland Living Colour - Stain - angry, aggressive, low on funk, high on character.

The seller's six other reverb accounts, perhaps trying to make it appear desirable at that price?

@BigRedX probably has a decent idea of the vinyl pressing process

If the seller isn't playing ball I would contact them and let them know that the situation cannot be resolved without their input and, should they not respond, the order would be cancelled and a paypal refund request submitted.

Count Basie/DC perhaps?

Yes, Guy Pratt on a Guy Pratt.

She's class, but I'd put my money on Rufus

Travis is also exceptionally good

Josh Freese is foooken amazing. If he is the new guy they have made an excellent choice.

Omar Hakim 😅 I'll get my coat! I didn't recognise him.

This new guy is superb but, as if I didn't realise it before, Peart was utterly sublime.

Compare the static Wembley crowd to the near-riot on the Rush In Rio video 😀 Well done to Grohl for giving them some decent set time ☺️

YYZ. Amazing

90 more minutes of this, please.

Exceptionally cool.

There poor event junkies in the crowd have no idea what's going on or who these people are 🤣

Grohl playing for Rush is pretty focken cool, I'll be honest

These very decent musicians butchering The Police really highlights how skilled Copeland, Sting and Summers really are.

Cabronita?

These people have never heard the James Gang and are only applauding these pensioners because Dave Grohl told them to 🤣

Ah The Pretenders were fantastic, well worth checking out. The young people call it "deep diving". Whatever. Give them a chance. Great songs. Great bass.

Years ago, I decided to never go to a concert which costs more than €50 to get into so, as a result, I miss all the large "event" gigs like this. It's interesting to see technology hasn't yet cured the latency between the performance and what shows up on the big screen. That discrepancy between audio and visual is still a thing. Interesting.