The birch has more attack at low volume. That's the primary difference I hear. Is it just me or does anyone else wish that the toms were tuned to the same pitch for this comparison?
After playing a beginner poplar wood kit for many years it was time for an upgrade. I narrowed it down to either a Tama Silverstar Birch kit for $699 or Gretsch Maple kit for around $899. It took me weeks to decide. And after much debate I decided to go with the Tama with birch wood. Not only was I gonna save $200 but the bass drum sounded monstrous and the toms were a lot brighter. I felt like the maple Gretsch kit sounded a bit flat and didn’t have enough punch which I needed!
Maple can be tuned much lower and still sound great in my experience. But Birch still sounds really nice, more focused with a quicker decay. I like em both. A comparison with Beech would be nice as well.
Thank you just what I needed having hard time tuning my sq2 beech’s sometime but when right hard to beat but than again i have all heavies can’t get rid of that paper sound guess that’s the Sonor sound but I like them paid enough lol
@@elwoodwhite2499 paper sound rly? Which kind of heads do you have on? Did you try tuning the resos up about a full turn higher than the batter heads? App feedback because I was considering heavy beech shells.
20 plus years of laying DW collectors maple and maple mahogany. Just picked up an SQ1 birch fusion kit. Should be here tomorrow....can't wait to play her and see/feel the difference
@Mirror 4U maaaaaaan let me tell you. I've never heard such amazing sounding drums with the SQ1's. The tones, resonance, and frequencies just warm you from the inside out. I'll never play anything but Sonor again
Die-cast hoops help birch to tame tone and bring some lows, also coated remo emperors on top will bring some lows (at the cost of some muffling to tame overtones). On maple, die-cast hoops kind of bring some wood tone back, but it's only a little.
Thank you for the face to face sounds, for my first drum kit at my 49 years old and my budget absolutely I’m going for a birch drum set. Maybe Mapex Armory 6 pieces with Sabian Cymbals, any comment or response will be appreciated.
I like both Mapex and Sabian. If I may be forward enough to give you an advice, I would definetely buy cymbals with your ears, not lock on one particular brand.
I prefer the birch both in this video and at home. I own a birch kit and a maple kit and usually tour with the maple and record with the birch. There are certainly exceptions to that rule but in general that has been the case though I will say that my birch kit has seen toured a fair amount too where my maple has only been recorded a couple times.
I hear a difference and prefer the birch in that one 10 inch tom size at least. The birch had a lil more definition to the fundamental note where the maple had a bit more highs mixed in that take away a bit from the fundamental note. Both sound great and both work for everything, but if you want to be super precise, or picky I’d lean towards maple for jazz, Latin, light rock and birch for rock to metal but both would of course work great for anything.
The ten inch is a bad example. Anything small like 10” and 8” will respond better to birch. 12” inch sounds amazing in maple. As does 14” maple snares. And 22” and 24” bass drums are fatter. What pearl reference series does for its shells is a great example. All maple 12”. They add plies of birch for smaller shells. They add plies of mahogany for larger sizes.
I played on an sq2 maple with scandinavian birch vaneer. sounded amazing!. If you can compare maple vs maple with vaneer scandinavian birch vaneer. Will be very helpful. Maple has a brighter but lower sound and less focused, more suitable for shows/gigs, birch has a darker and higher sound and is more focused more suitable for reccordings. Just like Stein sais, you cant tell the difference , between them by ear. only when mics are involved then you can hear the difference.
@@MrSonorbakken it's not so easy to be able to try the same drum kit (same configuration, same dimensions..) in both woods in a shop... I personally own a Sonor prolite in thin vintage maple shell with a birch snare, and it's a pretty good mix i think! And what's your favorite wood for a drum?
marshall hammond For me the most versatile drum shell is maple medium. I have had birch, acrylic, and beech also, but the maple medium fits everything I can do on the drums. If I was rich, I probably would have bought a beech kit like the old Sonor Signature for classic heavy rock gigs, and maybe a set in birch for the more mellow acoustic gigs, but my current maple kit does the job more than good enough.
you should swap the heads tom to tom and compare again. And it is pretty easy to get an audio spectrum analyzer app like spectroid and show different sound shapes instead of all these drum buzz words that dont mean anything.
Muchas gracias por el video comparativo. Tengo una Mapex M Birch y pensaba cambiarla por una PDP Maple, me parece que me quedo con el Birch. Thanks a lot for the video, I'm thinking about to change my Mapex M Birch for a PDP Maple shells. I believe I´ll stay with the Birch!!! (I play soul, blues, pop) Muchas gracias Stein, desde Buenos Aires
The maple had more overtones. But maybe because it was tuned a bit lower than the Birch. But from the video it sounds like maple needs to be hit harder to focus the sound. When hit hard both sound similar. In lower level strikes the Maple had more overtones and less focus. Recorded the Birch was clean and clear. The maple had a bigger sound but less focus, a bit dirtier unless you hit it hard. Great video. Sonor Fetish is a wonderful thing. If I had a choice it would be maple. I feel it has more to offer overall. Birch was really nice but I get the feeling it is lacking something. Maybe it's too clean sounding and focused. Maple was more open. I think its more versatile.
Interesting I find the maple toned a lil higher and the birch having a lil less highs giving the birch a more articulate fundamental tone which I preferred here.
Completely disagree. Maple far and away projects better for one simple reason...Mids. It has mid range and is better balanced. Scooped toms may be fun from the driver seat for little while...but what about versatility? I always end up getting tired of birch. It's like a supermodel, sexy as hell and fun...until you shoot your load and have to have a conversation with her afterwards and there is simply is nothing there. Good maple shells never leaving me wanting
two toms sounds amazing...., i think i like here more the tone of the birch...., but like you say is a very small diference...., maybe the way to go will be birch toms and maple kiks and snare.., like some great drummers like paul leim does..., gavin harrison changes the maple sonor kit to a birch one..., toms sounds amazing but the kik for my ear dont have the power of the maple one he played before...., also his signature snare is birch and sounds amazig....., complicate to decide...., for a full kit i will go to maple...., simos phillips sounds so good with maple.....
If you used a single condenser mic about 1 feet away, it would be a better comparison. The difference is with two sm57 is "exaggerated". The sm57 will not sound the same, difference is minor, but they are not matched. Still a good vid.!
@@howtobeatadrum because two SM57 are not matched to each other. So one mic could color the sound brighter than the other. The comparison is a little "unfair". One mic a littler farther away would be better.
@@MrSonorbakken But you would not normaly play two toms of the same size and tuning on your kit. So this is a little wrong. The difference is probably minor, still not a "good" comparison. Not bad either... inartfully executed. 🤷♂️
I have played on Birch drum kits and Maple drum kits my whole life. Without a doubt, Birch is better and produces much better low-end tonal sound quality, very noticeable on the tom toms and kick/bass drum. With my professionally trained ear, I hear an annoying, sharp cut "oing-oing" sound from all maple drums (especially in DW maple kits). ALOT of people like that sound, but I prefer the warm "doom-doom" sound from birch kits. I do agree with Stein when he said you have to hit maple drums harder to get a better quality sound outta them. I am a Jazz drummer, thus a timid drummer. I don't wack the youknowwhat outta my drums. So BIRCH it is for me. We can all agree though that Poplar is GARBAGE!
Because each drum and each wood have a different tuning range that they sound best, if you tune them the same then you potentially take 1 drum out of their best zone.
Birch tuned around Bflat Maple around Aflat, birch drum is tuned better, maple has an uneven ring to it, I hear the note/ring more in the maple, I prefer the birch sound.
@@alanharfield2264 I didn’t tune the drums but I am assuming the guy did his best to tune them exactly the same. Maple is fundamentally unbalanced toward the low side so this could be what you are hearing
Birch has the brighter attack but for me personally, I always had trouble tuning them low and getting more sustain out of them (birch tends to decay very fast)...I think the maple is a better choice, unless you play very fast music (like speed metal, etc.), also maple just has more clarity, better fundamental note, more sustain, longer decay, and overall more resonance ("sing") imo
I agree on the wouldn’t hear the difference in a full band thing. However there’s also a certain character difference that was there in the snare and the kick too. It’s a subtile difference, but noticable in an open acoustic setting, and just a bit of difference in the top end of the attack that makes the birch just a little bit harder to make cut through a compressed rock mix. But if I heard one of them today and the other tomorrow, I would have a really hard time to tell them apart acousticly.
@@howtobeatadrum These are two different woods but with almost the same hardness which means they almost sound the same. You can't tell me that you're hearing much more of a difference than the overtones. That's on tuning. Woods don't matter as much as you think.
@@hannes1734 I would agree the quality of the drum construction is more important than the wood. However, fundamentally maple is unevenly weighted on the low end, and I hear that in this video. Birch is evenly weighted in the lows and highs, but mids are reduced.
The birch has more attack at low volume. That's the primary difference I hear. Is it just me or does anyone else wish that the toms were tuned to the same pitch for this comparison?
birch better for rock?
Yep @@adityarifqi5286
After playing a beginner poplar wood kit for many years it was time for an upgrade. I narrowed it down to either a Tama Silverstar Birch kit for $699 or Gretsch Maple kit for around $899. It took me weeks to decide. And after much debate I decided to go with the Tama with birch wood. Not only was I gonna save $200 but the bass drum sounded monstrous and the toms were a lot brighter. I felt like the maple Gretsch kit sounded a bit flat and didn’t have enough punch which I needed!
Maple can be tuned much lower and still sound great in my experience. But Birch still sounds really nice, more focused with a quicker decay. I like em both. A comparison with Beech would be nice as well.
If Sonor provides me with a beech tom, I'd be happy to make an even better comparison where I spend a little more time on tuning and different micing.
Thank you just what I needed having hard time tuning my sq2 beech’s sometime but when right hard to beat but than again i have all heavies can’t get rid of that paper sound guess that’s the Sonor sound but I like them paid enough lol
@@elwoodwhite2499 paper sound rly? Which kind of heads do you have on? Did you try tuning the resos up about a full turn higher than the batter heads? App feedback because I was considering heavy beech shells.
I like the Birch better.
Agreed. The difference is minimal. Mics will take out any difference you hear in the room.
20 plus years of laying DW collectors maple and maple mahogany. Just picked up an SQ1 birch fusion kit. Should be here tomorrow....can't wait to play her and see/feel the difference
@Mirror 4U maaaaaaan let me tell you. I've never heard such amazing sounding drums with the SQ1's. The tones, resonance, and frequencies just warm you from the inside out. I'll never play anything but Sonor again
Die-cast hoops help birch to tame tone and bring some lows, also coated remo emperors on top will bring some lows (at the cost of some muffling to tame overtones). On maple, die-cast hoops kind of bring some wood tone back, but it's only a little.
Thank you for the face to face sounds, for my first drum kit at my 49 years old and my budget absolutely I’m going for a birch drum set. Maybe Mapex Armory 6 pieces with Sabian Cymbals, any comment or response will be appreciated.
I like both Mapex and Sabian. If I may be forward enough to give you an advice, I would definetely buy cymbals with your ears, not lock on one particular brand.
Mapex birch may not sound as good as this SQ2 here. More important than wood is the build quality of the drums
mapex armory its not just birch.its birch and maple
The birch decay is quicker. The maple has more of a 'timpani' sort of sound. Which heads did you use? Single or double ply?
I almost always use Remo Emperor Smooth White.
@@MrSonorbakken I also hear a big difference but I'm listening on my phone so how reliable is that? Thanks for the demo.
@@Rick-m3c Thanks for watching
Excelente video, parabéns e obrigado, você deve ter tido trabalho.
Acho a diferença bem pequena, talvez no sustain.
For bassdrum I prefer maple. More low end and boommm
I quite often run birch toms with maple kick, works really well
I prefer the birch both in this video and at home. I own a birch kit and a maple kit and usually tour with the maple and record with the birch. There are certainly exceptions to that rule but in general that has been the case though I will say that my birch kit has seen toured a fair amount too where my maple has only been recorded a couple times.
I hear a difference and prefer the birch in that one 10 inch tom size at least. The birch had a lil more definition to the fundamental note where the maple had a bit more highs mixed in that take away a bit from the fundamental note. Both sound great and both work for everything, but if you want to be super precise, or picky I’d lean towards maple for jazz, Latin, light rock and birch for rock to metal but both would of course work great for anything.
That said I have two maple drum kits and no birch. Lol. My next kit will be birch though.
I completely agree about the tone of the birch. I chose maple.
@@MrSonorbakken maybe I’ll go with the happy medium and try beech. Have you tried the beech
@@larrytate1657 I’ve had Phonic and Phonic Plus kits in beech, and they sound incredibly good.
@@MrSonorbakken Nice! Prob go with a medium shell beech.
good video! I think you are on point with the description
Thanks. I chose maple, mostly because of the snare.
I like the birch here. I also played the maple thin sq2’s and woah what a sound! Win win but again here I prefer the birch.
The ten inch is a bad example.
Anything small like 10” and 8” will respond better to birch. 12” inch sounds amazing in maple. As does 14” maple snares. And 22” and 24” bass drums are fatter.
What pearl reference series does for its shells is a great example. All maple 12”. They add plies of birch for smaller shells. They add plies of mahogany for larger sizes.
I personally prefer the maple, very versatile. I use mine for Rock, Classic Rock, Pop, Blues, Jazz, Swing, Country, Gospel, R&B, and Soul.
Birch 👊
Very close, hard to tell. Thanks.
Will different size toms be the same outcome?
I’m not sure, but the difference in character of these toms are pretty much the same as I have experienced on other drums throughout the years.
Thanks!! Greetings from Chile :)
Never enough of more knowledge
my pearl vision birch bass drum is fucking awesome,it hits like a cannon
I played on an sq2 maple with scandinavian birch
vaneer. sounded amazing!. If you can compare maple vs maple with vaneer
scandinavian birch vaneer. Will be very helpful. Maple has a brighter but lower sound and less focused, more suitable for shows/gigs, birch has a darker and higher sound and is more focused more suitable for reccordings.
Just like Stein sais, you cant tell the difference
, between them by ear. only when mics are involved then you can hear the difference.
Can you do a comparison with maple and beech?
If I ever get a hold of a similar tom in Beech, I definetely will.
Cool video
Sorry but I can't hear any difference. Except maybe when you hit harder
Then it shouldn't make a difference to you wether a drum is birch or maple.
@@MrSonorbakken maybe playing for real (instead of just listening a video) behind the drum kit could be the difference?!
Yes maybe. The difference of a high quality drum og Maple and high quality Birch is so marginal that they both will work well no matter what.
@@MrSonorbakken it's not so easy to be able to try the same drum kit (same configuration, same dimensions..) in both woods in a shop... I personally own a Sonor prolite in thin vintage maple shell with a birch snare, and it's a pretty good mix i think! And what's your favorite wood for a drum?
marshall hammond For me the most versatile drum shell is maple medium. I have had birch, acrylic, and beech also, but the maple medium fits everything I can do on the drums. If I was rich, I probably would have bought a beech kit like the old Sonor Signature for classic heavy rock gigs, and maybe a set in birch for the more mellow acoustic gigs, but my current maple kit does the job more than good enough.
It's clearly birch for me on this one!!!
you should swap the heads tom to tom and compare again. And it is pretty easy to get an audio spectrum analyzer app like spectroid and show different sound shapes instead of all these drum buzz words that dont mean anything.
Muchas gracias por el video comparativo. Tengo una Mapex M Birch y pensaba cambiarla por una PDP Maple, me parece que me quedo con el Birch. Thanks a lot for the video, I'm thinking about to change my Mapex M Birch for a PDP Maple shells. I believe I´ll stay with the Birch!!! (I play soul, blues, pop) Muchas gracias Stein, desde Buenos Aires
Thank you, sir. All the best from Norway!
I couldn’t hear the difference. He was honest about that.
Birch
Za mene Birch/Bubinga 😁
The color is most important to me 🤣
The most important thing is the Tone color.
@@MrSonorbakken stop using meaningless terms like "tone colour" and start using frequencies of sound
@@krusher74 It was a kind of joke. With references to the tone wood debate in the guitar community.
You do realize they are tuned to different pitches? The Maple is tuned lower, you should have matched them for a real comparison.
excelent.... thanks... I from colombia
Thanks for watching!
The maple had more overtones. But maybe because it was tuned a bit lower than the Birch. But from the video it sounds like maple needs to be hit harder to focus the sound. When hit hard both sound similar. In lower level strikes the Maple had more overtones and less focus. Recorded the Birch was clean and clear. The maple had a bigger sound but less focus, a bit dirtier unless you hit it hard. Great video. Sonor Fetish is a wonderful thing. If I had a choice it would be maple. I feel it has more to offer overall. Birch was really nice but I get the feeling it is lacking something. Maybe it's too clean sounding and focused. Maple was more open. I think its more versatile.
I prefer the Birch- Using them live, they cut a little better, and have a bit more presence. The maple is toned a little lower.
Interesting I find the maple toned a lil higher and the birch having a lil less highs giving the birch a more articulate fundamental tone which I preferred here.
@@larrytate1657 Final tone of maple is higher than birch's. But starting tone of birch is higher than maple's tone.
Completely disagree. Maple far and away projects better for one simple reason...Mids. It has mid range and is better balanced. Scooped toms may be fun from the driver seat for little while...but what about versatility? I always end up getting tired of birch. It's like a supermodel, sexy as hell and fun...until you shoot your load and have to have a conversation with her afterwards and there is simply is nothing there. Good maple shells never leaving me wanting
BIRCH ... period .
two toms sounds amazing...., i think i like here more the tone of the birch...., but like you say is a very small diference...., maybe the way to go will be birch toms and maple kiks and snare.., like some great drummers like paul leim does..., gavin harrison changes the maple sonor kit to a birch one..., toms sounds amazing but the kik for my ear dont have the power of the maple one he played before...., also his signature snare is birch and sounds amazig....., complicate to decide...., for a full kit i will go to maple...., simos phillips sounds so good with maple.....
If you used a single condenser mic about 1 feet away, it would be a better comparison. The difference is with two sm57 is "exaggerated". The sm57 will not sound the same, difference is minor, but they are not matched. Still a good vid.!
I kind of agree. But I rarely mic my toms with a condenser 1 foot away. So I thought that this was what you most often experience.
@@MrSonorbakken Great point
Why is it exaggerated?
@@howtobeatadrum because two SM57 are not matched to each other. So one mic could color the sound brighter than the other. The comparison is a little "unfair". One mic a littler farther away would be better.
@@MrSonorbakken But you would not normaly play two toms of the same size and tuning on your kit. So this is a little wrong. The difference is probably minor, still not a "good" comparison. Not bad either... inartfully executed. 🤷♂️
I have played on Birch drum kits and Maple drum kits my whole life. Without a doubt, Birch is better and produces much better low-end tonal sound quality, very noticeable on the tom toms and kick/bass drum. With my professionally trained ear, I hear an annoying, sharp cut "oing-oing" sound from all maple drums (especially in DW maple kits). ALOT of people like that sound, but I prefer the warm "doom-doom" sound from birch kits. I do agree with Stein when he said you have to hit maple drums harder to get a better quality sound outta them. I am a Jazz drummer, thus a timid drummer. I don't wack the youknowwhat outta my drums. So BIRCH it is for me. We can all agree though that Poplar is GARBAGE!
Hi. What does poplar mean?
@@nanachmeuman275 Poplar is a cheap type of wood.
I prefer the SLIGHTLY more open warm sustain of maple. And I have a poplar snare that sounds absolutely killer
Poplar actually sounds good not garbage at all
You should choose DW -
Birch to me sounds stiff, Maple has more resonance that’s why I like Maple
Werent tuned the same
Because each drum and each wood have a different tuning range that they sound best, if you tune them the same then you potentially take 1 drum out of their best zone.
Birch for me!
Anything Sonor SQ2 and I am content
Definitely maple for me
I can hear a huge difference.
Birch tuned around Bflat Maple around Aflat, birch drum is tuned better, maple has an uneven ring to it, I hear the note/ring more in the maple, I prefer the birch sound.
@@alanharfield2264 I didn’t tune the drums but I am assuming the guy did his best to tune them exactly the same. Maple is fundamentally unbalanced toward the low side so this could be what you are hearing
Birch has the brighter attack but for me personally, I always had trouble tuning them low and getting more sustain out of them (birch tends to decay very fast)...I think the maple is a better choice, unless you play very fast music (like speed metal, etc.), also maple just has more clarity, better fundamental note, more sustain, longer decay, and overall more resonance ("sing") imo
fake exotic wood finish!!
The only difference I heard was a huge difference in tunings
I don’t think so
Maple ! No, Birch ! lol Seriously though ,maple for me.Thanks for doing this. Beautiul drums too.
I like them both, and if I heard one of them today and one of them tomorrow, I probably wouldn't be able to tell them apart.
Watch Ford drum video. There is no difference in shells.
Most of what you heard is just the slight difference in tuning. In a full recording eith a band you would never hear the difference.
I agree on the wouldn’t hear the difference in a full band thing. However there’s also a certain character difference that was there in the snare and the kick too. It’s a subtile difference, but noticable in an open acoustic setting, and just a bit of difference in the top end of the attack that makes the birch just a little bit harder to make cut through a compressed rock mix.
But if I heard one of them today and the other tomorrow, I would have a really hard time to tell them apart acousticly.
These are two different woods so it has to sound different, and it will sound different
@@howtobeatadrum These are two different woods but with almost the same hardness which means they almost sound the same. You can't tell me that you're hearing much more of a difference than the overtones. That's on tuning. Woods don't matter as much as you think.
@@hannes1734 I would agree the quality of the drum construction is more important than the wood. However, fundamentally maple is unevenly weighted on the low end, and I hear that in this video. Birch is evenly weighted in the lows and highs, but mids are reduced.
Sound like farts
Aside from being absurdly overpriced, the SQ2 drums have to have the ugliest mounting hardware I’ve ever seen. It’s atrocious.
Birch