I managed to fit yet another piece on my kit. A couple months ago I got the Black Pearl 14" hats (left side) and I loved them so much I ordered a 13" top to go with an old Antique series 13" bottom hat. I just got it in, and placed that on the right. Well, I still have two other sets of very nice 14" hats, and wanted to add a low, dark set of X-hats so I figured out a way to mount my 14" Turk series right in the middle, move the splash over it, all using hardware I had sitting in a pile in the closet.



Then a used DW 5000 double pedal I got off a friend of mine came in.  I usually play Axis pedals, but the one thing they lack is power vs a traditional chain pedal.  I'm getting ready to record that rock/hair metal project and I want that chain drive feel.  Also, since I am not planning to trigger the kick or sound replace, I wanted to just mic one kick drum instead of two and free up some inputs on my rig.



The feel of DW 5000s is great.  I do like them more than my old Tama Iron Cobras.  They are nowhere near as precise or fast as my Axis, as you would expect from a direct drive pedal vs a double chain drive, but the feel for steady rock beats is awesome.  It's been fun playing with them.

I'm well aware this kit is overkill for this upcoming project, but I'm not about to tear it down just to record, not when I don't have to.  And it's fun cramming more toys on it and thinking up stuff to do with it

So the outside pedals are for the left and right hi-hats, respectively?  How do you have the middle hats set up if there is no pedal for them?
Are you going to keep the left kick drum as part of your kit even though you're not using it?
The new hats look pretty sweet.
 
 


 

So yes, the outside pedals are the left and right hi-hats respectively.  The middle hats are set up as "X-hats" which usually means they have no pedal and are mounted in a fixed position.  So they are open or closed, and there's no adjusting them as you play.  Remote hats (like the one on the right) are fairly pricey hardware-wise.  I'd love to set the middle hats up that way, but to be honest they are only there to be played open so it's not really necessary right now.

I'm going to leave the left kick drum there.  This is a temp setup with the DW 5000 pedals specific to this one project.  After that I'll go right back to the Axis pedals on two kicks.  I'm really not much of a fan of double pedals.  But they are nice if you plan on miccing, because you can just mic the one drum.  I will be doing very little double bass on this album.

Cool. I've always liked the idea of a fixed hi-hat ever since an old friend got one for his kit. It just makes sense to have one or two.

I see a lot of guys (most probably) who fix it in the closed position.  Helpful when you're doing fast double bass rolls and want to play accents on a closed hat for a quick 'bark'.

For this application, I wanted the low wash that the partially open hats in the center offer.  If I can find the space I might add that 4th set of hats in an X-hat mount in the closed position tho.

The two pedal operated hats on either side are very cool.  In that configuration, having one be right foot operated, you can do some very cool patterns between the hats and kick drum pedals.