Gear

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I LOVE this kit. It was Roland's Flagship model a few years back when I purchased them.  It's a generation old now with Roland's TD-50 being their current "Flagship" model but it STILL ROCKS HARD!

It does EVERYTHING and sounds amazing. Those of you who play electronic drums know the TD-30 and how killer it was AND IS!

Like most of us these days, my recording studio lives in my house and although I am a drummer, I do understand that NON drummers ears can get very fatigued hahaha by hearing banging all day. 

When will they ever understand :) 

I use the TD-30 for all my drum tracking in the studio but I do use it live as well for gigs that require a diverse sound set. There just so cool and I really love them.  

My Roland TD-8 kit served me well before I got my TD-30 kit. I used it for many years since it first came out live and in my studio. It's a very "old dog" now but in it's day it was fire.

I still beat on it once in a while when I'm feeling nostalgic.. It was a great set and truth be told I still route through it once in a while in the studio for some retro sounding drums.

Ahhhhh now were talking throw back. This was my first electronic drum kit the Simmons SDS7 kit. It was the Simmons flagship for many years after it came out. 

I'll never forget how crazy excited I was after I saved enough money from gigging to buy this kit. This Kit opened a lot of doors gig wise for me as back in the early 80's ALOT of music being made had the "Simmons Drum Sound" on the tracks. At that time when I would go to audition for a band the group always seemed to want electronic drums as they were the rage at the time (At least for the many top 40 and pop bands I went through back in the day to make some money)

I lost out on a lot of gigs because I didn't own an electronic kit so I had to jump in. Also, in truth, I was at that time (And still am) a  HUDGE

Bill Bruford fan and being that he was a champion of electronic drums and he played the Simmons SDS7 (until he moved up to the SDX) well, the choice was obvious to me. 

Now a days this kit sits more as a piece of art I look at sometimes and smile remembering the feeling of when I first got this kit!

This trusty old piece of kit has seen way to many bars and clubs throughout my career. I sometimes still use it live when there's a need to trigger samples and I don't have my TD-30's. 

For the most part Its used now for me to beat out some percussion ideas before I lay the parts down. These days when I need to supplement my TD-30 live I pull out my Roland SPD-SX Sampling pad but the OG PAD80 hangs in there. 

My main kit as of the last 4 years is TAMA Starclassic 7 piece kit. I've basically played TAMA drums forever starting back in the 1970's when I got my first TAMA  Imperialstar kit. 

Most all the wood shelled kits I have owned and still own have been maple shells, my current Starclassic kit have birch shells. The birch really resonates and projects and I love there warm sound.

Don't get me wrong, as warm as these shells can sound, they also can cut and rigout when I need them too. It's a great kit and fun to play. 

This set of TAMA Artstar II drums was my main kit before I got the Starclassic kit. 

They have a beautiful finish in birds eye maple. I always received so many complements on the finish when ever I took these drums out on a gig. 

They had a great sound and the toms always sounded huge. I miss playing this kit a lot maybe I'll pull them out again someday to drum the dust off of them. 

Ok lets face it, what drummer didn't have a set of Ludwig Vistalites back in the 1970's?

I have them in clear and although they may have a few scratches on those clear shells, they still sound as great as they did when I first got them.

We all know the sound, classic 1970's big rock sound. Ya gotta love it. 

This Remo kit is a blast. I bought this kit when I was living in Florida for a while and gigging 6 nights a week. (Yes there really was a time when you could play out every night. I miss those days)

A lot of the clubs I played back in those Florida years were beach clubs, basically right on the beach and the a lot of the others had long stairs going up to the club.

It was great to have this kit that my bass player Harold dubbed "The Clams" to work on the beach and so nice to load in to the clubs that had a lot of stairs.

Truth? Ok they didn't sound great on their own but with the right tuning, muffling and mixing through the PA, I'll be honest, FOH they sounded killer and big for a travel kit.

It for sure wasn't my main kit but it really did me right when it was asks too.  

And BONUS, all the Drums fit in that one gig bag stacked inside each other. 

I love Paiste cymbals and have used them since 1975. I love their high end and their ring. The ping I get from my 22" ride is unbelievable. 

I have literally had many musicians come up to me after hearting that ride cymbal offering to buy it. NO WAY !! it's mine for ever. 

Iv played a lot of different Paiste cymbals but I'm big fan of the tried and true 2002 series. You all know the legendary sound of the 2002's no need to go into it here. 

Of course I love my Zildjian's as well, but give me a Paiste 2002 any day. 

Truth is, what can be said other than, their Zildjian enough said. 

I have some A's that I love but when I use my Zildjians I lean towards my  custom darks.  Just a great sounding legendary cymbal. 

Most of the time if the house isnt providing  drum mics, i'll use my AKG's. Simply put their not the best or the worst but they always do the right thing.

I also use a set of Shure drum mics that you cant go wrong with. All in all, both my sets of drum mics do their job and have proven to be very reliable out on the road. 

This thing rocks really hard. I have found so many uses for it that It would take forever to list them.

Suffice to say, it kicks butt when I need a sampler for live triggering or even in studio applications. It's fantastic as being the bands Keyboard player when ya don't have one at the time. 

Really love playing with it.

I have listed this piece of gear here next to my Roland SPD-SX Sampling Pad because this Roland S50 was my sampler for many years before the SPD.

I bought this when it first came out and it was HOT at the time. You could plug in a monitor to see and edit and draw your own wav files with the digi pen, it was really cool at the time. 

I'll be honest it was a pain to bring on the road for live gigs but I'll never regret doing so. 

Today, its mainly used in my studio as a midi keyboard when I'm feeling nostalgic. 

Not much to say but thought I'd share my sticks of choice. 

I have played many different sticks and for a time like most back in the day I played mainly Pro Mark sticks. But they always seems hard on my hands. I was always looking for something they felt like it was working in my hands but I knew was rock solid.

When My good friend and Drum mentor Steve Luongo turned me on to Vater I never looked back. (Thanks Maj) 

Amazing feeling in your hand to play with. 

Like most of you out there, I have worked with many different DAW's over the years but settled into Pro Tools for a long time now. 

You all know the deal, it's Pro Tools you get it.  I do use other DAWs at times when I need to for whatever reason but I'm a Pro Tools guy at heart. 

It runs on a custom built Windows 10 computer I built for my studio, I wont bore ya with the specs its a HOT system. 

This is an old controller I have used for many years now. It serves its purpose for my needs.

It's one of the pieces of studio gear I'm looking to upgrade but until I do, it works just great. 

There are so many great control surfaces today, I'm gunna pull the trigger and upgrade soon. 

My Two Roland VM3100 Pro Digital Mixers are long in the tooth but they serve me very well when there called upon. 

There packed with features and for small gigs where I need to control a sub mix of my live gear before it hits FOH they are bomb.

They have been hanging around with me since the mid 1990's. There dated for sure but for what I use them for they kick. 

For my main studio monitors I use a pair of Event 2020's. I've hade them for a long time. There are better monitors out there for sure but these still sound great. 

I also utilize a pair of M-Audio BX5a's that sound pretty damn good for what they are. 

I'm shopping for a new set of monitors just to change things up, I'll post here when I pick a new pair. 

I really stand by this interface, I have used so many in the years gone by but I find this one to be rock solid and sounds AWSOME for the price. 

Does everything I need in my little studio, great sounding Pre's, has a lot of I/O and routing capability. 

Just a killer little interface. If your looking for an affordable audio interface you cant go wrong with one of these. 

Another Older piece of gear that kicks ass. Iv had this a long time but never felt the need to upgrade to any other Midi controller. 

It does everything and more. But, that being said, I am going to upgrade to a Native Instruments Komplete Control only because Pro Tools latest version 2021 has amazing integration for the Komplete Control, so I guess I'm jumping in.  

There are so many great sounding studio headphones to choose from. My ears have grown accustom to the sound of AKG's so there my go to headphones at this time. 

Another little mixer I use when I need a small mixer. The Mackie Onyx Is great Live and in the studio. Its really clean and has a lot of features. 

Most of the time I track by myself in my studio but, there are times when I have other players in the studio. 

When need be I use my Behringer Power Play Pro 8000 headphone distribution amp for everyone to monitor the session. 

Very basic but does what it needs to do and for the price sounds really clean.

As I am sure you all know and agree with, we can never get enough of our beloved VI's (Virtual instruments) and/or Plugins. 

I have several but my go to right now are all the great sounding VI's from East West.

I mostly relay on their Pro Collection utilizing the hard drive that shipped with it to store all the VI's. But I have many other EW products I love as well 

Another Great Software package from EW. Has it all and does it all. Great Sounding.

I use it mostly for its broad rang of VI's it has a little bit of everything you need and doesn't focus on one sound set.

Great software to run to when your looking to flesh out a new piece of music. 

After hearing the great sounding VI's and plugins from EW, I could help but subscribe to their Composer Cloud. 

Whatever else I may need as far as VI's go, if I don't already own it, I can download it from the Composer Cloud.

Its amazing, anything you can think of in VI's at your finger tip when ever you need it. 

Highly recommended. 

What can I say, I am a Beatles nut. When I saw this set of VI's from EW I had to own it.

It has all the VI's from any Beatles session ever, its too cool! When I'm in the mood to sound like the Beatles, this is where I run too. 

Another Great software package that has EVERYTHING. I use it all the time. So many great sounding VI's I get lost trying to find the one I need for the song.

It really has EVERYTHING and sounds FIRE !!!!

I'm a big SSL fan. It's my first stop when setting up a new track in Pro Tools. Just so great sounding. you guys who use any SSL hardware or plugins, I'm sure you agree. 

Another "go to" plugin bundle. The API plugins from waves are really great. I really love the sound of them and use them all the time. 

The V Series bundle from waves, really cool emulations of some great comps. They sound great on drums.

A lot of great stuff goin on in this bundle. The name says it all really doesn't it?