I know this is technically a "wacky" insturment but I feel like the potential with these drums with practice could lead to some really interesting compositions. Would love to see them come back in the future!
It would look cool for the tenor players to change pitches as they ran around them or like Tony G said, other people tuning them. There is a lot of musical and visual potential here. I am looking forward to EMC editing together an ensemble of them.
What if you used something like 'four-mallet' technique for two sticks on one hand, and the other hand is left to tune, and then you only have two or three of these toms?
Good morning! I got confused when you said "we don't need this aluminum stand since we want our frame to be all metal." I get it now, but I thought at first you were saying aluminum wasn't a metal. Lol
@@dansv1 : Aluminum is easy to weld, just requires more gear to do so. I have been inspecting welds since the early 1970's, and have seen plenty of aluminum along with all sorts of other metals. Now, if you want to see some interesting welding, look up plastics. Hot air, heated roller fusion welds and ultrasonic welds in varied plastics are commonplace out there.
@@pesty4592 Not if you used a drum trigger to detect when the head is hit. Technically if you stayed in the pattern and corrected a beat, it would keep working.
The Bridgemen marched roto toms back in the day. Larger drums though. And they won top drums several years as the snares played on rotos during the drum solo.
Back in the 80s my drummer and I occupied the rear of usually small stages, and during his drum solos I would reach over from behind my keyboards to turn his Rototoms as he played them.
This was a fun project. I have a friend who really likes Roto-Toms as part of his drum kit.... although they aren't my style. Thanks for the entertainment.
I have thought of doing this before, while testing just how much you could crank the 6" up to a typical spock pitch with Evans System Blues, but of course today I open my RUclips feed and see that Eric has brought a full set to life, and thought "yea, of course he would!" 🤣 I love this channel.
This was attempted in gold 2015 but it was only done with 2 drums. You on the other hand have done a significantly better job and put a lot more TLC than we ever did putting a set of rototoms together
Madison Scouts marched a set of Roto-Toms in 1977. The drum solo was "America" from West Side Story. You can see them during set up concert style on the harness around the 8:00 mark.
Dennis Delucia was the drum guy for The Bayonne Bridgemen of Bayonne, New Jersey back in the day, and he Loved Roto-Toms, would probably Killed for these back then. Likely would still if he was still teaching and arranging, and if Bayonne still existed as a unit. Sorry, I'm an old ex-New Jersey Drum Corps., kid from back in the late 70s & early 80s. I was a baritone player as part of an NJ, "Little Corps.," from 1976 till 1987, and Bridgemen were one of my All-Time faves., back then.
Actually, I played marching roto tri-toms in high school in the late 1980’s. We finally added a set of real tenors (still tri-toms) my junior year, and a set of quads my senior year (retiring the roto-toms).
Keep making great content bro. I'm also a fellow devil dog who marched in DCA since 2003. I've long since retired from competitive corps and continue to play in the Skyliners Alumni. I love your videos and a lot of drummers are blown away by your content. It would be great to meet you hopefully sometime soon and talk shop.
My high school, J. Frank Dobie out of Houston, TX (Pasadena ISD), marched a pair of differently-sized Roto-Tom tri-toms that had been hand-made for the band back in 1977 and 1978. They put the tunability to good use in our shows, too.
Follow up video: add some foot pedals and knee levers to change the tunings of the rototenors on the fly. Bonus points if you can do it on the marching rig!
Dude, Bayonne Bridgemen marched roto toms in 1979. I played xylo right next to him. Check out the closer, the civil war medley where the south wins. DCI finals, Birmingham. You can hear them as the corps goes backfield. Dennis DeLucia used them for years.
This is awesome! I recently joined my high school's marching band but I found out that tenors were too heavy for my back so I am doing snare. Keep Making Awesome Stuff Like This!
Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, guys, but this was common back in the day. Marching rototoms were actually very common between about 1978 and 1983. We had an "effects" sub-battery for parades and for Contest that consisted of two guys marching timbales and bongos who carried a lot of Latin toys (this was in San Antonio, so playing Latin and Spanish music was a given) and we had a pair of roto-tri-toms. They got some wicked cool effects with those things on some of our Santana charts. For some things, the cymbals would stand in front of the roots and tune them up or down during rolls. Very, very cool I am not sure why this did not become more popular. Of course, this was in the days of Rodgers or Slingerland snares (TDRs with the slapshot strainer, baby!) and 40" marching basses in a section of five with the smallest one being 24" and crazy shit like cut-down marching chimes and other suicidal back-breakers. I miss the old marching rototoms! [SIDEBAR] I think the Hawthorne Caballeros (senior) and Muchachos (junior) corps both use them in VFW/AL/CYO contests in the late 1960s.[/SIDEBAR]
The Hawthorne Muchachos taught by Dennis Delucia used them first in 1975 followed by the Bridgemen from 1976-1979 carried by a marching member of the drum line. They were also used by the Long island Sunrisers. Afraid your thoughts of innovation are about 48 years too late.
So happy to see some pentatonic scale representation! That little scale that you said defiantly wasn't major ( 8:59 ) was a Gb minor pentatonic scale! :D
I actually saw some marching rotos back in the 1980's at the Tulsa State Fair Parade when I was marching in our Jr High band. Only set Is ever seen. Still a cool video fellas!
3:26 Bass clarinet mentioned 🎉🎶🎷 My only experience with tenors is seeing them being played in my high school marching band (and, thus, at a high school skill level), but i can see these being tuned between pieces/cadences for different sounds (akin to timpani). My initial thought is taping front facing arrows for specific targets pitches for easy tuning on the fly. Kinda hope this is experimented with more and gains traction!
I marched with a guy in an alumni band event who had a set of rototoms he used for quads. Not sure if it was handmade to fit his needs or if it was manufactured, but it worked.
Muscle and Lots of vaseline for tuning, also the trick is to retune during the snare lick....or that extended bass drum solo. Tony G on the tune...RESPECT!!
back in their heyday Remo actually sold Roto-Tom sets configured as 2, 3 or 4 drum marchable tenors (4 drum models were 8-10-12-14” like here minus the 6”), as well as mounting systems that allowed you to customize the sizes.
I see the description: "Oooooooookay" I see the finished product: "...actually this could work!" Nice job guys! I was thinking for the stand version having a series of rocker pedals on the floor which could be used to tune the individual drums up and down with servo motors... 🤔
Eric acting like a human midi cc on the roto pitch. Now I'm imagining it with midi controlled stepper motors for adjusting each drum by x semitones using some kind of pedal triggers and microprocessors... I love the idea of a piece written for player and coordinated tuners, too, I was actually thinking about it during the video (I used to love the roto parts in concert band, so the idea clicked during building). The scoring would be very interesting indeed.
Oh my god I just had a dream of me and you making a tenor drum on video and I wake up to a video of you and someone else making roto-tom in a tenor format!
I was waiting but it never happened....the most fun w rotos is when crank them all the way up! The 6 is insane w the right head! Used to use them as the upper register of my set toms.
“Tenors on a stand…. How they were meant to be played…” Meanwhile the snares throw their stands to the farthest reaches of the truck to never be seen until next audition season.
According to social blade’s estimation. You will reach past gabriel rodrigez EMC, and become the most subscribed EMC channel on June 26th. This is insane, and i just never expected for you to grow this fast.
this reminds me of marching band in High School, there was an awesome dude called Mark Hipsley who had the nickname Mark Tripsley because he played the trips, three toms mounted on the harness. He was a great friend of mine, wish there was social media 30 years ago to have kept in touch. I wonder what he's doing these days.
Dear @EMCProductions, First off this creating looks so FREAKING AWESOME! I bet it’s so much fun to play. Now to business: A) I love that the first thing Tony Master of perfect pitch did was play some spanks (skanks where I’m from) on the lower tom. b) I marched the first Pulse percussion quad line (2010) that played the Mario/ yoshi theme song… I would LOVE IT if you could play it in these roto toms. PLEASE? I can send you the sheet music! C) please with a Cherri on top 🍒
@@tomherbort7301 Since when are marching field drums mic’d? Genuinely wondering (I am less a marching percussionist, and more a drum set player, but I did do it in school)
When I was in the marching band in the 80s, I played the rototom quads. They were 6”, 8”, 10” & 12”. They were there in ‘82 when I joined the band in 7th grade. I played them in 9 to 12 grade. I never saw another set of marching rototom quads.
Alex Van Halen had a huge rototom kit early on mixed with early Simmons electrics. Ive got a set but are redundant now that I got some smaller toms (I still need a 6"" to compete the total replacement)
Looks and sounds good. They should make them! Give the drumline guys a break on the wight. Easy tuning and syncing everyone up. Might not have the same protection though.
Sorry to rain on your parade but Remo had marching roto Tom's in the late 70s. They came with very light polycarbonate shells. We ditched them because they had very little projection outside.
We had these when I was in the Lamar High School Marching Band back in the late 70's. They sounded great however could not be heard as we only had one.
I know this is technically a "wacky" insturment but I feel like the potential with these drums with practice could lead to some really interesting compositions. Would love to see them come back in the future!
It would look cool for the tenor players to change pitches as they ran around them or like Tony G said, other people tuning them. There is a lot of musical and visual potential here.
I am looking forward to EMC editing together an ensemble of them.
Yeah it could definitely work in a middle school drumline or college band
DCI?
Well okay all drums are wacky
What if you used something like 'four-mallet' technique for two sticks on one hand, and the other hand is left to tune, and then you only have two or three of these toms?
My high school marched roto tom triples back in the early 80's. They were still stored away in a closet when I attended in the mid 90s.
My school had a set too. Though I only saw the pictures. My guess is someone stole them and they never made it back to the equipment room.
Haha same, I think they're long gone now though
musicgearsupply.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/101-PBMRTT-1.jpg
dude, that's rad!
You wouldn’t happen to be from Altus, Oklahoma, would you? That’s where I played roto tri-toms in the late 1980’s.
Good morning! I got confused when you said "we don't need this aluminum stand since we want our frame to be all metal." I get it now, but I thought at first you were saying aluminum wasn't a metal. Lol
Wait, what’s the joke lol
Lol this was exactly what I thought
I think he was using metal to mean steel, and that it was a metal that was easy to weld.
@@dansv1 : Aluminum is easy to weld, just requires more gear to do so. I have been inspecting welds since the early 1970's, and have seen plenty of aluminum along with all sorts of other metals. Now, if you want to see some interesting welding, look up plastics. Hot air, heated roller fusion welds and ultrasonic welds in varied plastics are commonplace out there.
Now you need to add motors to them so you can either tune them to a song or just have them constantly turning for crazy licks
Yesssss!!!!!!!!!
Program the motors so they tune as you play the song--either it tunes with a track, or works with drum triggers so it tunes after you play the note
@@CerealSSBU it would completely screw up if you missed a note
@@pesty4592 Not if you used a drum trigger to detect when the head is hit. Technically if you stayed in the pattern and corrected a beat, it would keep working.
Love the “sus” tuning at 9:00
Was looking for this comment
I wasn’t the only one that noticed. That makes me feel better about myself
@@blacklightgamer97 same. It’s funny how he didn’t know
Gamelan vibes
The Bridgemen marched roto toms back in the day. Larger drums though. And they won
top drums several years as the snares played on rotos during the drum solo.
Black Market Juggler. 1982-1983
Black market juggler. Redid it in the last year of the senior corp in 2016x
I remember that show very well!!! Black Market Juggler, fun time!
@@scott414b - BINGO! We have a winner! :o)
It brings the "tuning" capabilities marching timpani provided. With the chops and finesse of quads.
The banter between EMC and Tony G never fails
Back in the 80s my drummer and I occupied the rear of usually small stages, and during his drum solos I would reach over from behind my keyboards to turn his Rototoms as he played them.
This was a fun project. I have a friend who really likes Roto-Toms as part of his drum kit.... although they aren't my style. Thanks for the entertainment.
This is literally the coolest thing I’ve ever seen! This is a marketable product!
I wanted these so badly in high school. Thanks for the opportunity to live vicariously through you!
I have thought of doing this before, while testing just how much you could crank the 6" up to a typical spock pitch with Evans System Blues, but of course today I open my RUclips feed and see that Eric has brought a full set to life, and thought "yea, of course he would!" 🤣 I love this channel.
This was attempted in gold 2015 but it was only done with 2 drums. You on the other hand have done a significantly better job and put a lot more TLC than we ever did putting a set of rototoms together
Madison Scouts marched a set of Roto-Toms in 1977. The drum solo was "America" from West Side Story. You can see them during set up concert style on the harness around the 8:00 mark.
You made a single metal bar mounted to a harness sound good, nice.
As a fan of the old-school, stanky, "hitting a metal trash can with a stick" tenor sound, I unironically love absolutely everything about this.
Dennis Delucia was the drum guy for The Bayonne Bridgemen of Bayonne, New Jersey back in the day, and he Loved Roto-Toms, would probably Killed for these back then. Likely would still if he was still teaching and arranging, and if Bayonne still existed as a unit. Sorry, I'm an old ex-New Jersey Drum Corps., kid from back in the late 70s & early 80s. I was a baritone player as part of an NJ, "Little Corps.," from 1976 till 1987, and Bridgemen were one of my All-Time faves., back then.
Absolutely love the idea and the build looks really solid!
Hey, always fun to see Tony G. And so cloooooose to number one!!
Actually, I played marching roto tri-toms in high school in the late 1980’s. We finally added a set of real tenors (still tri-toms) my junior year, and a set of quads my senior year (retiring the roto-toms).
Keep making great content bro. I'm also a fellow devil dog who marched in DCA since 2003. I've long since retired from competitive corps and continue to play in the Skyliners Alumni.
I love your videos and a lot of drummers are blown away by your content. It would be great to meet you hopefully sometime soon and talk shop.
Tony G. is the man !
My high school, J. Frank Dobie out of Houston, TX (Pasadena ISD), marched a pair of differently-sized Roto-Tom tri-toms that had been hand-made for the band back in 1977 and 1978. They put the tunability to good use in our shows, too.
Follow up video: add some foot pedals and knee levers to change the tunings of the rototenors on the fly. Bonus points if you can do it on the marching rig!
That is awsome. I had the 3 set of roto toms back in the day, sold them after graduating.
Dude, Bayonne Bridgemen marched roto toms in 1979. I played xylo right next to him. Check out the closer, the civil war medley where the south wins. DCI finals, Birmingham. You can hear them as the corps goes backfield. Dennis DeLucia used them for years.
The main point of the video: Interesting drum building and testing.
My sudden main point: _I want that green backyard!!_
This is awesome! I recently joined my high school's marching band but I found out that tenors were too heavy for my back so I am doing snare. Keep Making Awesome Stuff Like This!
No pain no gain ☠️ just gotta build up those back and shoulder muscles! As a freshman in HS I marched bass 4 at 5’1” so you definitely got this
Would be cool to see a roto tenor feature incorporated in an indoor marching show.
Agree
Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, guys, but this was common back in the day. Marching rototoms were actually very common between about 1978 and 1983. We had an "effects" sub-battery for parades and for Contest that consisted of two guys marching timbales and bongos who carried a lot of Latin toys (this was in San Antonio, so playing Latin and Spanish music was a given) and we had a pair of roto-tri-toms. They got some wicked cool effects with those things on some of our Santana charts. For some things, the cymbals would stand in front of the roots and tune them up or down during rolls. Very, very cool I am not sure why this did not become more popular. Of course, this was in the days of Rodgers or Slingerland snares (TDRs with the slapshot strainer, baby!) and 40" marching basses in a section of five with the smallest one being 24" and crazy shit like cut-down marching chimes and other suicidal back-breakers. I miss the old marching rototoms! [SIDEBAR] I think the Hawthorne Caballeros (senior) and Muchachos (junior) corps both use them in VFW/AL/CYO contests in the late 1960s.[/SIDEBAR]
Not a bearer of bad timings 😂 he made fun of it through the whole video
The Hawthorne Muchachos taught by Dennis Delucia used them first in 1975 followed by the Bridgemen from 1976-1979 carried by a marching member of the drum line.
They were also used by the Long island Sunrisers. Afraid your thoughts of innovation are about 48 years too late.
So happy to see some pentatonic scale representation! That little scale that you said defiantly wasn't major ( 8:59 ) was a Gb minor pentatonic scale! :D
F#*
“Look I’m Helping”… Classic :)
Love the inspector gaget and the end..l
I actually saw some marching rotos back in the 1980's at the Tulsa State Fair Parade when I was marching in our Jr High band. Only set Is ever seen. Still a cool video fellas!
Great idea but, some corps marched roto Tom tenors back in the 70’s. And pearl made a roto Tom snare drum as well
3:26 Bass clarinet mentioned 🎉🎶🎷
My only experience with tenors is seeing them being played in my high school marching band (and, thus, at a high school skill level), but i can see these being tuned between pieces/cadences for different sounds (akin to timpani). My initial thought is taping front facing arrows for specific targets pitches for easy tuning on the fly. Kinda hope this is experimented with more and gains traction!
DUDE YES!!! Play it while others are tuning!!!!!
"Drums are still cheaper than most instruments"
It's true [Cries in bassoon player]
Cries in Tuba
Cries in Trumpet
it's true 😔😭 if i wanna get a bass clarinet its 3k but a drum is only upwards of 500
Right cuz why is one medium soft reed 15$😭😭
@@kyoza5069 no drums do sometimes go into the low thousand
I marched with a guy in an alumni band event who had a set of rototoms he used for quads. Not sure if it was handmade to fit his needs or if it was manufactured, but it worked.
Muscle and Lots of vaseline for tuning, also the trick is to retune during the snare lick....or that extended bass drum solo.
Tony G on the tune...RESPECT!!
Needs a second 6" just tuned higher. And with a spacer to get them at the same height. I love it.
back in their heyday Remo actually sold Roto-Tom sets configured as 2, 3 or 4 drum marchable tenors (4 drum models were 8-10-12-14” like here minus the 6”), as well as mounting systems that allowed you to customize the sizes.
1:00 I LOVE PINK FLOYD AHHHH
I see the description: "Oooooooookay"
I see the finished product: "...actually this could work!"
Nice job guys!
I was thinking for the stand version having a series of rocker pedals on the floor which could be used to tune the individual drums up and down with servo motors... 🤔
the resurgence of the roto-tom starts here, with back bar man
Eric acting like a human midi cc on the roto pitch. Now I'm imagining it with midi controlled stepper motors for adjusting each drum by x semitones using some kind of pedal triggers and microprocessors...
I love the idea of a piece written for player and coordinated tuners, too, I was actually thinking about it during the video (I used to love the roto parts in concert band, so the idea clicked during building). The scoring would be very interesting indeed.
Tony G is the real MVP on these wacky builds.
Damn had to attack the bass clarinet like that 😂
Bridgemen 1976. They had a young fellow marching a set of roto toms.
I entertained the idea of doing this for Mardi Gras. Great work, yall totally rocked it
Oh my god I just had a dream of me and you making a tenor drum on video and I wake up to a video of you and someone else making roto-tom in a tenor format!
inspector gadget made this video so worth watching to the end! that was fun!
8:59 sounds like Jump in the Fire by Metallica!
Tony G, skanking on every drum: he knows the way to tennor players hearts.
I was waiting but it never happened....the most fun w rotos is when crank them all the way up! The 6 is insane w the right head! Used to use them as the upper register of my set toms.
“Tenors on a stand…. How they were meant to be played…”
Meanwhile the snares throw their stands to the farthest reaches of the truck to never be seen until next audition season.
According to social blade’s estimation. You will reach past gabriel rodrigez EMC, and become the most subscribed EMC channel on June 26th. This is insane, and i just never expected for you to grow this fast.
Super sweet drumming fun as always.
It's 1:12 am and I just realized it's Tony G's neighbors that are listening to this EPIC playing of The Lick!!!! 🔥🥁🔥
this reminds me of marching band in High School, there was an awesome dude called Mark Hipsley who had the nickname Mark Tripsley because he played the trips, three toms mounted on the harness. He was a great friend of mine, wish there was social media 30 years ago to have kept in touch. I wonder what he's doing these days.
My freshman year we marched roto-tenors, super old school!
What about some coated heads? This build is cool. Nice collaboration!
Dear @EMCProductions,
First off this creating looks so FREAKING AWESOME! I bet it’s so much fun to play.
Now to business:
A) I love that the first thing Tony Master of perfect pitch did was play some spanks (skanks where I’m from) on the lower tom.
b) I marched the first Pulse percussion quad line (2010) that played the Mario/ yoshi theme song… I would LOVE IT if you could play it in these roto toms. PLEASE? I can send you the sheet music!
C) please with a Cherri on top 🍒
This Should be standard for marching, the toms Could then be pitched to match each songs key. And they sound better IMHO
Could be interesting, but I think it misses a lot of projection.
@@chrissop projection doesn't matter these days when everything is mic'd and running through the PA....
@@tomherbort7301 It will when the energy apocalypse comes though
@@tomherbort7301 Since when are marching field drums mic’d? Genuinely wondering (I am less a marching percussionist, and more a drum set player, but I did do it in school)
TONY G!!!
Check out the Bridgemen from the late 1970s. They had a marching Roto-Tom player.
We need more roto-tenors. My high school had a set of 3 for the jazz band drum set, and I always loved their sound.
8:59 It sounds like minor blues mixed with domainant phrygian.
New tech project: automate tunning roto-toms before each hit to the needed notes for a song.
So I can totally see some WGI groups doing this next year now
When Eric walked around the roto-toms I said well there is the Cavies drum solo for next year.
I want more tony g
When I was in the marching band in the 80s, I played the rototom quads. They were 6”, 8”, 10” & 12”. They were there in ‘82 when I joined the band in 7th grade. I played them in 9 to 12 grade. I never saw another set of marching rototom quads.
Alex Van Halen had a huge rototom kit early on mixed with early Simmons electrics. Ive got a set but are redundant now that I got some smaller toms (I still need a 6"" to compete the total replacement)
I kept hearing notes from the Miami Vice sound intro song in there, when you were marching around.
Inspector Gadget! I had this same idea, thanks for the vid
Do octobans next!
I had some clear acrylic ones on my kit when I was younger. Always wanted roto-toms.
So did a friend of mine, Heiko Kallenbach. He marched with Madison Scouts.
When I was in High School, I played a triple set of marching Roto-Toms. They were light weight, but did not project hardly at all.
My high school had marching roto drums back in the 90’s too
If Neil Peart was in marching band:
8:59 I'm not the only one who heard it right
ඞ
I marched with them in 1979 and they were heavy. The mount for the harness really sucked. I loved the sound and enjoyed playing them
Very cool, nice work!
8:59 I heard the among us dead body reported sound lmao
Those are sooooooooooo Cool.👍🏿🥁🤗💯😎
9:03 it may not be a scale but it is kinda sus
Looks and sounds good. They should make them! Give the drumline guys a break on the wight. Easy tuning and syncing everyone up. Might not have the same protection though.
The “this is not a drill” shirt is priceless
HAHAHA I SAW THIS COMING!
Sounds cool!! Kind of a pan drum sound to them.... Now I want to spend 400 bucks...
$15 for a set of roto toms!? That's the bargain of the century!!!
Only 9 more videos until the beautiful majestic beard of EMC lays to rest inside of its casket 🥹
Sorry to rain on your parade but Remo had marching roto Tom's in the late 70s. They came with very light polycarbonate shells. We ditched them because they had very little projection outside.
9:10 kinda sound like tetris for a bit (around there) also you shouldve it sounds like what tetris sounds like
We had these when I was in the Lamar High School Marching Band back in the late 70's. They sounded great however could not be heard as we only had one.
Only part way through the video, but I had to comment: I am sure Eric was definitely 1:21 feeling frisky 😜🔥🥁🔥
my morning is now Good
Dude I have no idea if you’ll ever see this but you should make snare drum quads. Like strapping a bottom head and snare wires to a full set of quads
Nice ditty 7:28