Haven't talked to Dave Witte in over 20 years, back when he was in Burnt by the Sun. He's such a rare talent. A drummer who can make a kit sing. Rototoms are perfect for him. And my memkries of hanging with him were the same as yours. A really nice guy and a lot of fun to be around.
@@christopherpederson1021 He could have used a normal snare and even normal bass drum and rest roto toms. I have 3 rototoms added to my drums and they are so cool. They should make a proper 5 or 6 piece roto tom set
You can actually hear where a lot of 80s-90s drum samples came from. The snare, low Tom’s, and kick especially. When you lightly hit the snare it almost sounds exactly like an 808 snare.
@@PerfectSense77Indeed. But the fact that the Roto Snare resembles a drum synth is pretty cool. I have a set of Roto Toms arriving today. I lovev drum machines. So I am really looking forward to playing around with the Roto Toms and pairing them with one of my vintage drum machines from the 80s
Sounds so 80's. The drummer for my first band was very serious, we would joke with him about his drum stool. IT'S A THRONE! Worked every time. We opened for Bowling for Soup, The Distillers, Skatalites and more. Went fast, now I'm 43.
Honestly, sounds pretty good; way better than an all roto kit has any business sounding. Also, so awesome to see Dave Witte here! I got to see him drum for Melt Banana a couple of times, and he's one of the sickest drummers ever.
I shouted "Holy shit that's Dave Witte!" and jumped out of my seat. I didn't read the description so it was a total surprise. I've enjoyed his work with so many great bands over the years, esp. Discordance Axis and Black Army Jacket, and got to see him tour w/ Municipal Waste and Melt Banana. Keep shredding Dave. As an amateur drummer myself, your blast beats and just insane drumming overall has been quite the inspiration.
@@jefjaeger it depends on your use case but that roto Tom would be awesome for like 80s stuff (with a thick gated reverb) or like the electronic Prince stuff. I think it's cool 😀 Probably would use it as a second snare though 👍🏻
@@checkitout611 I think a snare drum is a very personal thing for a drummer. A huge part of a player's individual sound. I personally love 13" wood snare drums and would put that with almost any kit I would own as it is my personal favorite sound.
@@SyntheticFuture I personally hate gated reverbs in almost all instances. I like a natural reverb and set very low. If you can identify the reverb type, it is too much for me. That is a personal taste thing. Unless it is for an exact desired effect on a part of a song. I am an 80's kid, and I think a lot of that era's music - though many of my favorites in there - had way too much reverb, and it often dates those recordings and adds a cheesy element for me. A little reverb sounds bigger, but too much reverb sounds far away, washy, and just cheeses it up. Less reverb and effects = timeless recording, or closer to it (natural sounds are harder to date - effects are trendy). That's my two cents. I like Rototoms for any era. I don't think they have to be regulated to the 80's alone. Obviously, they were new and a bigger thing back then. But there are no rules in music, or shouldn't be. Being creative with sound should be limitless...
On my old set of roto toms I made some locks to keep them from de-tuning. I used square nuts and welded a handle to each to mimic the handle that locks the carriage bolt to the track. That way I could lock the bottom of the bottom drum casting so it can't spin and de-tune. This was useful when gigging/transporting. You always put up quality content. Now I want to buy some roto toms as I sold those old ones years ago.
@@hafibeat834 I’ve read he used a Simmons for the kick drum but you can hear roto toms as well so I guess there were also overdubs. The snare sounds acoustic to me. I think (not sure) that Al was using electronic pads around 82/83 when the band did the Diver Down tour along with his usual acoustic kit and then again for the 1984 tour. By the time 5150 came around, he was using electronic pads completely for the toms and acoustic kick drum and a snare. I think 1984 is his best drum sound. The snare is a killer.
Terry Bozzio used a Roto Tom kit but with actual bass drums when he was in UK with John Wetton and Eddie Jobson, as well as Missing Persons. Fun video!
Terry Bozio, as in husband to Dale Bozio?? Oh hey, you said Missing Persons in your comment. I'm only familiar with one of their songs, and it's an awesome song. Dale was the hotness back in the day...... Is a sentence I never would imagine I'd ever say in my life.. Lol
Terry got the idea from Bill Bruford, who used rototoms in UK before Bozzio. The original UK was Wetton, Jobson, Bruford and Alan Holdsworth. Well worth checking out the 1st album.
Holy shit man, you really should sample those drums, the toms as you mixed them sounds killer for a metal production 😀 I'm just so blown away how they sounded, it's its its just amazing, please put them up again and sample them for us home recording nerds 😅😅 Cheers from Sweden 🤘
Where's the "In The Air Tonight" fill? Honestly I was surprised at how passable the "snare" was, and the "bass drums" sounded killer once muffled and mixed! Loved it!
@@mdmorris6193 Any time you have more than four drums in your setup, no matter if they're concert, double-headed, roto, or electronic, I believe you're legally obliged to do that fill 🤣
I always thought about "what would a drumset sound like if everything except cymbals are rototoms". Thanks David for answering that thought. Quality content everytime.
Frankly, I think this is a brilliant idea. Modern drumming has no tone or melody. It can be so much more than today's digitally triggered rhythmic thuds. Especially in extreme music like death, grind, trash or any of the many -cores.
This kit has some awesome sounds! Didn't expect it to sound that good! Nice video, Dave! I think Danny Carey of Tool sometimes uses Roto Toms in his kit, istead of the 10 and 12 inch rack toms.
Love this video - this roto kit, in some ways, reminds me of my old Blue Stars drum instructor, Jim Keilly, who had a full roto tom kit back in the early to mid 80's. He had the 6-10in rotos very close but above the hihats - sawed off the top of the hihat stem so it didn't get in the way. Then the 12 and 14" over the kick with the 16 and 18" on the same plane extending over the floor tom. Because of the lack of the shells, he could really get these low so all the cymbals were within easy and very comfortable reach - even for younger drum students. He had the 12-18" rotos deadened with simple weather stripping on the bottom side of his pinstripe heads, following the circle of pinstripes all they way around the head. The roto toms had a beautiful melodic tuning. He had a standard 22" kick, with an 18" floor tom and a crack'n brass snare. He also had a set of Timbales and bongos set up to the left side of the hihats, he loved his latin percussion - also had a set of three congas. This kit was a work of art, and it sounded infinitely better than I ever thought it should. It kind of reminds me of this Thomas Lang video - but...very different in it's own way. Regardless, you get the gist... ruclips.net/video/b2UeQbdnUPs/видео.html ...FFFFFudge. This all makes me want to rebuild Jim's kit...
Got a set of Rototoms (generic not Remo) in 6, 8 10 sizes for Christmas and I love them! I swapped the heads out for Evans Hydraulics for a bit more thud and they sound great. These generic sets can be found for not a huge amount of cash and are essentially the same. Highly recommended as a fun addition to any kit!
I custom built 2 complete roto tom set 6-8-10-12-14-16-18. One of the set i use mesh drum heads on them for quiet practice. Same pitch range as the regular heads with the quiet cymbals. Awesome tunable practice set.
That snare sets me in mind of 'Prince and the Revolution.' Love that sound. You seem to be able to make any kit you touch sound good. You have a great ear man, really!
Especially if you used triggers on the bass drums (not necessarily needed) this would be a great way to gig with a massive kit. Pretty easy to transport and actually sounds pretty killer. Like how Danny Carey uses them for mounted toms but to the extreme.
I love roto toms!!!! When I saw John Farris.. the drummer for INXS using them on his kit live..I was blown away. I immediately incorporated them into my kit too..love'em!🤠
I was born in December of 1979. I love the 80s. That part of why I ordered Roto Toms for my first kit.the small Roto Tom set and an LP Trash Snare should arrive today.
Nice job David! Back in 2002 I custom made a blue Vistalite/roto-tom kit mounted with custom cut Gibraltar chrome bars. I always hated the flat slider bar Roto's had so I came up with my own solution and actually drilled holes through the bars exactly where I wanted each roto to "remain" (even though they were slightly adjustable due to small lengths of independent bars with memory clamps) and then hand filed out a square hole so the long carriage bolt wouldn't spin. I also used curved ABS bushings so Roto mounts wouldn't make noise. Funny, as I was watching this I was actually "telling you what to do" (invert kick bars, flip snare piece, etc.) to make it work before you came up with the "same" solution, so that was a surreal moment LOL. My Vistalite's were blue, so the whole kit had blue Evans hydraulic heads all the way around. The Vista's were my 20" kick with double pedal, a 13" custom made snare, and a floating 16" floor tom with Pearl RIMS suspension (both from a dude on eBay who cut and beveled tom shells in varying colors, depths and sizes). My Roto's consisted of 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 inch and I had 10 varying Zildjian cymbals. I also had a 10 and 12 inch Vistalite Deep Tom, but the last band I was in thought they were too loud! LOL Sadly, I parted with this kit in pieces in 2015 in a music store when my wife and I downsized to an apartment!
Love rototoms and concert toms!!! I like to use the remo black dotted drum head. The Alex Van Halen roto fills on 'Jump' were fantastic. I also recommend the Casey Scheuerell roto-drum fills on the great Jean-Luc Ponty's album, 'A Taste For Passion'. Listen to the record mainly from the fifth song onwards, where it starts to play in earnest.
I love rototoms for more tribal beats. They sound so different from normal toms and give the whole thing a more interesting texture. The original drummer for the band Minsk used a lot of them on their first three records. Check out the song "The Orphans of Piety" for instance. It has a lot of cool rototom accents in it.
Those hi-hats are incredible for the price! This kit sounds insane! Best option for the first kit of 2023 Edit: you don’t suck at double bass, especially compared to me lol
I've delivered to the Steve Weiss warehouse several times and every time I've gone they've been absolutely awesome. Even gave me advice on a drum set for a young child and what to look for. I didn't realize they were as well known as they are
Been in and out of love with Roto-toms since I got my first set of 6-8-10-12 to go with my Ludwig vistalite kit back in the 70's. Always thought they looked and sounded cool, especially Bill Bruford and Terry Bozzio with UK. What blows my mind about this video is the roto snare...what a great idea and it sounded awesome! Back in the 80's Pearl made a set of drums that was a roto-tom attached to a concert tom shell to increase sustain/projection, along with a snare drum version which had an actual bottom snare head. So many things to try! And kudos to Steve Weiss for offering them for such a reasonable price. they're not quite the quality of the original Remo brand, but once you get some decent heads on them they function fine (I purchased a 16" Weiss to go with a set of Remo 6-8-10-12-14). Now if we could get them to offer them in chrome as well as black :-)
Time traveling back to 1982, the drummer for the band Vandenberg, Jos Zoomer played probably one of the strangest kits ever - North Bass drums and all roto toms with a regular snare. Saw them open for Ozzy and that kit sounded incredible.
UK debut album in 1978' !!! A True Masterpiece the whole album !! With the Great Bill Bruford, John Wetton, Ed Jobson & Allan Holdsworth Classic Prog/ Fusion 👍 🎼🎸🎹🥁🎻🎤🎶
"Windows" by Missing Persons with that amazing drum solo by Terry Bozzio in the middle of the song. It culminates with Terry going from the 6" to the 18".
This looked like so much fun. Never would have thought of Roto toms being a full set lol. I can only imagine how long it took to replace all those heads. Favorite song with them is definitely the intro for the song Forest by System of a Down. Can't wait to see what's the next video about. Thanks!
Steve Weiss was a good guy. We lived in the same town and I would run into him at the grocery store before I started going to the warehouse in the 90’s. He was also silent partner and funded “Pro Drum music works” in Glenside Pa that had countless amazing drum clinics in the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. That place was awesome as well and the whole ceiling was drum posters!!!😊
I love this video, I built and played a roto kit in the 80s playing pop music on the road. This video brought back all the fun I had playing it. Thank you!
Your guest drummer there's got great feet! It always throws one off a bit to play a set up that you are not used to. Especially this beautiful contraption.
My favorite drummer, back in 87, had an electric bass drum, regular snare, regular cymbals, but roto toms. Maybe it was the drum kit if that festival, but it was cool
Had a kit like this in 1978 but with a 22" Slingerland bass and 16" Slingerlad floor tom, and a Ludwig Supra sensitive snare, but 6" through 18" Roto Tom's. I was happy to see Terry Bozio do almost the same thing as I shortly there after! Great minds, sorta thing! 😉 Of course, that was 40+ years ago. When they were first released.
Fun idea. For those who may not know... Rotos were made to be like timpani, in tune and changing it's pitch by turning as needed. (I was a Roto Tom guinea pig for Remo with the very first ones he made. They weren't chrome, just bad cast molded. Remo tried different types of shells to fill out the sound. Some of them worked to a degree but people didn't bother. You might want to try something like that!)
Curious... How old were you when you first got them? My grandfather (who worked at Remo) gave me a set (12, 14, 16) for my 7th birthday (I'm 54 now). And yes, the early cast versions were horrible/difficult to tune.
Love the sound of rotos. Sounded even better once the Pinstripes were on. Love Steve Weiss music. Glad to see them getting a shout out on your channel. They have so much stuff and have saved me on more than one occasion by having things that so many others didn't have.
In the 80s I had a complete chromed Roto kit...6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 (2) with plastic half-shells. I used a 22" clear Ludwig kick drum. It all looked great, but as you found out, just never sounds like an actual full shelled drum kit.
A rototom kit is great, especially if you have spare stands and poles and a hacksaw and a dremel, and a few weeks to set stuff up because rototoms lend themselves quite well to e-kit conversion and have a small footprint. You can use mesh or regular heads and save quite a bit of space. You can also mimic the "traditional" drum sizes with rototoms quite well. Once you sort out a permanent, solid kick pedal connection for your rototoms and a solid stand for the kick, which is the biggest issue, it then becomes a matter of cutting things down that need to be cut down and finding alternative mounting systems like what you did with the snare stand. At that point, you can grab some pinstripes like you did and have a great sounding acoustic kit, or grab some mesh heads and go full electro. All in about half the space of a full kit (sort of... some of the stands can make it bulky but a rack would fix that)
That kit looks too damn fun! Steve Weiss Music is my go to for cymbals. Their own branded crashes are really surprising for how good they are and they are really well priced.
Ok! Now here's finally someone who can show us how exactly each drum head type sounds without the shell! And with various tuning pitches! Do it! (Please :) )
Yesss ! I only got three. (in the 90s) Lol Tolhurst got twice that in the 1980's lovvve TheCure! . Learned something too when it comes to the mounting thing. . Thanx for the upload, thumbs up.
I've wanted to do this since the '80s, and have seen variations, but never quite like this. Thanks for letting me see a decades old curiosity. Now I just wish I had space to put my own together.
Just got a 12 and 14 from Steve. Already own 6,8,10 remo’s from the 90’s. Dusted them off and going to engineer a hybrid set with my Slingerland pop kit ( concert Tom’s and Bass) from the 70’s. I’m excited!!! Great Video as usual.
Whats the first song you would play on this drum set? 🤔
Pink Floyd-Time 😏
In the air tonight
@@DerTeufelskerrrl same
Land Down Under
Tom Sawyer probably 😂
King Gong approves of this content.
Sorry for the shedding.
@@jaymeramirez7435 we cannot guarantee wether there will or will not be gorilla hair in your order.
I am going to buy some stuff. Sold on the hats and 12, 14 rotos
@@DrDr-pg5br best to give us a call so we can match the hats similarly for you
Steve Weiss Music is a great company. A slice of Heaven for drummers and percussionists. Great people to deal with.
Dave Witte!!!! Damnnnn. My band opened for Municipal Waste in 2010 in Brazil and he was such a rad dude to talk to.
I absolutely love Municipal Waste!
i did not expect to see him on this channel lol i love that band
Haven't talked to Dave Witte in over 20 years, back when he was in Burnt by the Sun. He's such a rare talent. A drummer who can make a kit sing. Rototoms are perfect for him. And my memkries of hanging with him were the same as yours. A really nice guy and a lot of fun to be around.
Dave Witte was at his best in Discordance Axis imo
They opened for my band a couple times and I let him use some of my gear. He was a really nice guy
I’m blown away by how good this sounded.
Snare sounds terrible
@@christopherpederson1021 He could have used a normal snare and even normal bass drum and rest roto toms. I have 3 rototoms added to my drums and they are so cool. They should make a proper 5 or 6 piece roto tom set
I agree
@@christopherpederson1021 no
so good I bought the exact same kit from Steve Weiss and had it shipped to UK! 😆🤣
50 years ago I had a clear Vistalite kick and 7 rototoms, a really versatile, musical kit and compact to transport.
I had similar but only three Roto Toms 6", 8" 10".
I had a remo quadura one
That's fucked up
Nice
You can actually hear where a lot of 80s-90s drum samples came from. The snare, low Tom’s, and kick especially. When you lightly hit the snare it almost sounds exactly like an 808 snare.
808s were not sampled. They were done with analog synthesis.
The TR-808 did not have any samples
@@PerfectSense77Indeed. But the fact that the Roto Snare resembles a drum synth is pretty cool. I have a set of Roto Toms arriving today. I lovev drum machines. So I am really looking forward to playing around with the Roto Toms and pairing them with one of my vintage drum machines from the 80s
Love how musical and expressive the rototoms are, the floor toms sound way better than you’d expect! Bring this vibe back
Imagine playing in the air tonight on this kit, and also adding more snares to the snare
Now I really want to hear that. Would sound amazing
Your double bass chops are better than you know. Perfect quintuplets at 8:57 🔥
5s are easier for me to play for some reason haha
Shawn! Fancy seeing you here!
way better than that other guy !!
Sounds so 80's. The drummer for my first band was very serious, we would joke with him about his drum stool. IT'S A THRONE! Worked every time. We opened for Bowling for Soup, The Distillers, Skatalites and more. Went fast, now I'm 43.
I love how they sound, its like a drum with built-in reverb
Honestly, sounds pretty good; way better than an all roto kit has any business sounding. Also, so awesome to see Dave Witte here! I got to see him drum for Melt Banana a couple of times, and he's one of the sickest drummers ever.
I hope he gets better soon : )
I just saw Melt Banana live last November, it was AWESOME but it's a shame they didn't have a drummer with them :')
Nice
When it cut to Dave Witte I literally jumped out of my seat. Absolute legend.
I let Dave borrow my double pedal at a show back in the early 2000s. Super nice dude!
I shouted "Holy shit that's Dave Witte!" and jumped out of my seat. I didn't read the description so it was a total surprise. I've enjoyed his work with so many great bands over the years, esp. Discordance Axis and Black Army Jacket, and got to see him tour w/ Municipal Waste and Melt Banana. Keep shredding Dave. As an amateur drummer myself, your blast beats and just insane drumming overall has been quite the inspiration.
The pedal work on those base is incredible! So much fun to listen to. :)
Roto-snares need to become a thing 😂 Pretty solid kit honestly. Even the bass drums turned out better than expected.
The bass drums were surprising to me (in a good way). I would definitely do a real snare drum though. Cool kit...
@@jefjaeger yes ... a normal snare and it's pretty awesome and the only change needed! Maybe a Piccolo snare with that type of set?
@@jefjaeger it depends on your use case but that roto Tom would be awesome for like 80s stuff (with a thick gated reverb) or like the electronic Prince stuff. I think it's cool 😀 Probably would use it as a second snare though 👍🏻
@@checkitout611 I think a snare drum is a very personal thing for a drummer. A huge part of a player's individual sound. I personally love 13" wood snare drums and would put that with almost any kit I would own as it is my personal favorite sound.
@@SyntheticFuture I personally hate gated reverbs in almost all instances. I like a natural reverb and set very low. If you can identify the reverb type, it is too much for me. That is a personal taste thing. Unless it is for an exact desired effect on a part of a song. I am an 80's kid, and I think a lot of that era's music - though many of my favorites in there - had way too much reverb, and it often dates those recordings and adds a cheesy element for me. A little reverb sounds bigger, but too much reverb sounds far away, washy, and just cheeses it up. Less reverb and effects = timeless recording, or closer to it (natural sounds are harder to date - effects are trendy). That's my two cents. I like Rototoms for any era. I don't think they have to be regulated to the 80's alone. Obviously, they were new and a bigger thing back then. But there are no rules in music, or shouldn't be. Being creative with sound should be limitless...
This is one of the best 80-est sounding kits I’ve ever heard in my life!
On my old set of roto toms I made some locks to keep them from de-tuning. I used square nuts and welded a handle to each to mimic the handle that locks the carriage bolt to the track. That way I could lock the bottom of the bottom drum casting so it can't spin and de-tune. This was useful when gigging/transporting.
You always put up quality content. Now I want to buy some roto toms as I sold those old ones years ago.
Have loved rototom sounds since Van Halen's '1984' album. Especially "I'll Wait". Such a cool tone to the drums.
this was the comment I was looking for! MUST play something from 1984!
Michael is a badass drummer!
Holy shit that’s why Alex’s kit sounds so different
Actually, what you here is electronic (Simmons)-drums, NOT roto-toms...!
@@hafibeat834 I’ve read he used a Simmons for the kick drum but you can hear roto toms as well so I guess there were also overdubs. The snare sounds acoustic to me. I think (not sure) that Al was using electronic pads around 82/83 when the band did the Diver Down tour along with his usual acoustic kit and then again for the 1984 tour. By the time 5150 came around, he was using electronic pads completely for the toms and acoustic kick drum and a snare. I think 1984 is his best drum sound. The snare is a killer.
whoa Dave Witte how is this possible!? mind blown 🤯
LOL, that was random as heck.
I love Phantomsmasher 🥰
They're both from/in Richmond.
Terry Bozzio used a Roto Tom kit but with actual bass drums when he was in UK with John Wetton and Eddie Jobson, as well as Missing Persons. Fun video!
He most certainly did!
Yes, spring session m
Also Alex on 1984 if I'm not mistaken.
Terry Bozio, as in husband to Dale Bozio?? Oh hey, you said Missing Persons in your comment. I'm only familiar with one of their songs, and it's an awesome song. Dale was the hotness back in the day...... Is a sentence I never would imagine I'd ever say in my life.. Lol
Terry got the idea from Bill Bruford, who used rototoms in UK before Bozzio. The original UK was Wetton, Jobson, Bruford and Alan Holdsworth. Well worth checking out the 1st album.
@@richardjohnson2331 Yes, a great record!
I can kinda remember Alex VanHalen playing a roto-tom kit in the 80’s with I think Ludwig 24” kicks. 🤔🤘🏼✌🏼
Holy shit man, you really should sample those drums, the toms as you mixed them sounds killer for a metal production 😀 I'm just so blown away how they sounded, it's its its just amazing, please put them up again and sample them for us home recording nerds 😅😅
Cheers from Sweden 🤘
Where's the "In The Air Tonight" fill? Honestly I was surprised at how passable the "snare" was, and the "bass drums" sounded killer once muffled and mixed! Loved it!
I think the “In the air tonight” fill might have been concert toms. But not 100% sure!
@@mdmorris6193 definitely concert toms.. but rotos are extremely similar in tone
@@mdmorris6193 Any time you have more than four drums in your setup, no matter if they're concert, double-headed, roto, or electronic, I believe you're legally obliged to do that fill 🤣
They were Gretsch single headed tom's!
@@centaurus5676 aka "concert toms"
A drum kit made from all Roto Tom's has no business sounding this amazing. Now I kind of want one.
I always thought about "what would a drumset sound like if everything except cymbals are rototoms". Thanks David for answering that thought.
Quality content everytime.
Frankly, I think this is a brilliant idea. Modern drumming has no tone or melody. It can be so much more than today's digitally triggered rhythmic thuds. Especially in extreme music like death, grind, trash or any of the many -cores.
Surprisingly normal, but not regular
This kit has some awesome sounds! Didn't expect it to sound that good! Nice video, Dave!
I think Danny Carey of Tool sometimes uses Roto Toms in his kit, istead of the 10 and 12 inch rack toms.
He does use roto toms, he uses them a ton on Fear Inoculum, especially Chocolate Chip Trip
Love this video - this roto kit, in some ways, reminds me of my old Blue Stars drum instructor, Jim Keilly, who had a full roto tom kit back in the early to mid 80's. He had the 6-10in rotos very close but above the hihats - sawed off the top of the hihat stem so it didn't get in the way. Then the 12 and 14" over the kick with the 16 and 18" on the same plane extending over the floor tom. Because of the lack of the shells, he could really get these low so all the cymbals were within easy and very comfortable reach - even for younger drum students. He had the 12-18" rotos deadened with simple weather stripping on the bottom side of his pinstripe heads, following the circle of pinstripes all they way around the head. The roto toms had a beautiful melodic tuning. He had a standard 22" kick, with an 18" floor tom and a crack'n brass snare. He also had a set of Timbales and bongos set up to the left side of the hihats, he loved his latin percussion - also had a set of three congas. This kit was a work of art, and it sounded infinitely better than I ever thought it should. It kind of reminds me of this Thomas Lang video - but...very different in it's own way. Regardless, you get the gist...
ruclips.net/video/b2UeQbdnUPs/видео.html
...FFFFFudge. This all makes me want to rebuild Jim's kit...
This looks like a kit that Bill Bruford would use!
Lol!!! One of my FAVORITE drummers and in two of my FAVORITE bands!
Or Neil Peart!
Ahhh great classic drummer
Yes, Bill Bruford's wet dream kit 😄
i was thinking Hal Blaine on acid
Holy crap this kit sounds INCREDIBLE especially with the reverb.
incredibly bad
I noticed the verb. It's a great sounding reverb I think.
Got a set of Rototoms (generic not Remo) in 6, 8 10 sizes for Christmas and I love them! I swapped the heads out for Evans Hydraulics for a bit more thud and they sound great. These generic sets can be found for not a huge amount of cash and are essentially the same. Highly recommended as a fun addition to any kit!
I custom built 2 complete roto tom set 6-8-10-12-14-16-18. One of the set i use mesh drum heads on them for quiet practice. Same pitch range as the regular heads with the quiet cymbals. Awesome tunable practice set.
That head change made such a massive difference
That snare sets me in mind of 'Prince and the Revolution.' Love that sound.
You seem to be able to make any kit you touch sound good. You have a great ear man, really!
Been using Rototoms since the 90s. They are my Favorite. Amazing!
This is your best video, hands down! The subject matter, the presentation, the guest appearance. Gold! 😜
Lol I wasnt expecting Dave Witte to appear at all. Amazing! His old band Discordance Axis was fucking great, so ahead of their time.
Nice job! This kit seems really fun to play!:)
By the way, when Dave suddenly popped in I was like "wait...what?😅
Really like the way the full kit sounds. I have always used the 6,8,10 set but am digging the bigger ones.
Especially if you used triggers on the bass drums (not necessarily needed) this would be a great way to gig with a massive kit. Pretty easy to transport and actually sounds pretty killer. Like how Danny Carey uses them for mounted toms but to the extreme.
I love roto toms!!!! When I saw John Farris.. the drummer for INXS using them on his kit live..I was blown away. I immediately incorporated them into my kit too..love'em!🤠
Maybe it's my late 1980's youth -- but I LOVE the sound of roto toms!
I was born in December of 1979. I love the 80s. That part of why I ordered Roto Toms for my first kit.the small Roto Tom set and an LP Trash Snare should arrive today.
The mixed sound of the kit is great! Love the bass drums and snare!
That kit sounds so good after the pinstripe upgrade! Wow spectacular, love the vid!!
This kit is insane dude! The snare and kicks actually sound good lol! Keep up the vids Dave!
Nice job David! Back in 2002 I custom made a blue Vistalite/roto-tom kit mounted with custom cut Gibraltar chrome bars. I always hated the flat slider bar Roto's had so I came up with my own solution and actually drilled holes through the bars exactly where I wanted each roto to "remain" (even though they were slightly adjustable due to small lengths of independent bars with memory clamps) and then hand filed out a square hole so the long carriage bolt wouldn't spin. I also used curved ABS bushings so Roto mounts wouldn't make noise. Funny, as I was watching this I was actually "telling you what to do" (invert kick bars, flip snare piece, etc.) to make it work before you came up with the "same" solution, so that was a surreal moment LOL. My Vistalite's were blue, so the whole kit had blue Evans hydraulic heads all the way around. The Vista's were my 20" kick with double pedal, a 13" custom made snare, and a floating 16" floor tom with Pearl RIMS suspension (both from a dude on eBay who cut and beveled tom shells in varying colors, depths and sizes). My Roto's consisted of 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 inch and I had 10 varying Zildjian cymbals. I also had a 10 and 12 inch Vistalite Deep Tom, but the last band I was in thought they were too loud! LOL Sadly, I parted with this kit in pieces in 2015 in a music store when my wife and I downsized to an apartment!
Love rototoms and concert toms!!! I like to use the remo black dotted drum head. The Alex Van Halen roto fills on 'Jump' were fantastic. I also recommend the Casey Scheuerell roto-drum fills on the great Jean-Luc Ponty's album, 'A Taste For Passion'. Listen to the record mainly from the fifth song onwards, where it starts to play in earnest.
I was like man this looks like Santa's workshop, and then the guy Dave shows up to help! You both did double bass well.
I love rototoms for more tribal beats. They sound so different from normal toms and give the whole thing a more interesting texture. The original drummer for the band Minsk used a lot of them on their first three records. Check out the song "The Orphans of Piety" for instance. It has a lot of cool rototom accents in it.
Those hi-hats are incredible for the price!
This kit sounds insane! Best option for the first kit of 2023
Edit: you don’t suck at double bass, especially compared to me lol
I've delivered to the Steve Weiss warehouse several times and every time I've gone they've been absolutely awesome. Even gave me advice on a drum set for a young child and what to look for. I didn't realize they were as well known as they are
Been in and out of love with Roto-toms since I got my first set of 6-8-10-12 to go with my Ludwig vistalite kit back in the 70's. Always thought they looked and sounded cool, especially Bill Bruford and Terry Bozzio with UK. What blows my mind about this video is the roto snare...what a great idea and it sounded awesome! Back in the 80's Pearl made a set of drums that was a roto-tom attached to a concert tom shell to increase sustain/projection, along with a snare drum version which had an actual bottom snare head. So many things to try! And kudos to Steve Weiss for offering them for such a reasonable price. they're not quite the quality of the original Remo brand, but once you get some decent heads on them they function fine (I purchased a 16" Weiss to go with a set of Remo 6-8-10-12-14). Now if we could get them to offer them in chrome as well as black :-)
Time traveling back to 1982, the drummer for the band Vandenberg, Jos Zoomer played probably one of the strangest kits ever - North Bass drums and all roto toms with a regular snare. Saw them open for Ozzy and that kit sounded incredible.
First band that came to my mind aswell.
Yep!
This is nothing short of awesome! Nicely done sir
When I think of roto tons, first things that come to mind are Time by Pink Floyd and any Queen drum outro.
UK debut album in 1978' !!! A True Masterpiece the whole album !!
With the Great Bill Bruford, John Wetton, Ed Jobson & Allan Holdsworth
Classic Prog/ Fusion 👍
🎼🎸🎹🥁🎻🎤🎶
This sparks joy. And a vicarious headache, just imagining the setup.
"Windows" by Missing Persons with that amazing drum solo by Terry Bozzio in the middle of the song. It culminates with Terry going from the 6" to the 18".
This is the kind of kit that Neal Peart would've had fun with too.👍 It's weird but I like what you made out of it.
Terry Bozzio's old band from the 80's: Missing Persons.😎👍
This looked like so much fun. Never would have thought of Roto toms being a full set lol. I can only imagine how long it took to replace all those heads. Favorite song with them is definitely the intro for the song Forest by System of a Down. Can't wait to see what's the next video about. Thanks!
Steve Weiss was a good guy. We lived in the same town and I would run into him at the grocery store before I started going to the warehouse in the 90’s. He was also silent partner and funded “Pro Drum music works” in Glenside Pa that had countless amazing drum clinics in the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. That place was awesome as well and the whole ceiling was drum posters!!!😊
More of weird drum kits or vintage drum kits content, LOVIN’ IT!!! 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽✨✨✨
David had too much fun making this. The giggles broke me lmao
1:31 “WE GOT SOME STEVE WEISS SWAG!”
*puts the red one on immediately in the next shot*
rdavidr is too wholesome for this world 🥹❤️
A full rotary kit!
Like a dog chasing a bus and then actually catching it!!
I love this video, I built and played a roto kit in the 80s playing pop music on the road. This video brought back all the fun I had playing it. Thank you!
Your guest drummer there's got great feet!
It always throws one off a bit to play a set up that you are not used to. Especially this beautiful contraption.
When you started jamming out, my fiance was like: "this is new Phil Collins? Thought he retired"
Danny Carey approves.
My favorite drummer, back in 87, had an electric bass drum, regular snare, regular cymbals, but roto toms. Maybe it was the drum kit if that festival, but it was cool
Had a kit like this in 1978 but with a 22" Slingerland bass and 16" Slingerlad floor tom, and a Ludwig Supra sensitive snare, but 6" through 18" Roto Tom's.
I was happy to see Terry Bozio do almost the same thing as I shortly there after!
Great minds, sorta thing! 😉
Of course, that was 40+ years ago.
When they were first released.
😱😱wow drawing🤣 yo's right 👍
Neil Peart's drum set:
All I hear is Phil Collins.
Fun idea. For those who may not know... Rotos were made to be like timpani, in tune and changing it's pitch by turning as needed. (I was a Roto Tom guinea pig for Remo with the very first ones he made. They weren't chrome, just bad cast molded. Remo tried different types of shells to fill out the sound. Some of them worked to a degree but people didn't bother. You might want to try something like that!)
Curious... How old were you when you first got them? My grandfather (who worked at Remo) gave me a set (12, 14, 16) for my 7th birthday (I'm 54 now). And yes, the early cast versions were horrible/difficult to tune.
That sounds absolutely AWESOME! Almost as perfect as an electric kit.
I'd definitely play something by Phil Collins / Genesis
Duke's Travels would be fun
Subscribed because you go through and show how the connections and stuff work. Most people skip it but that's the fun part
This sounds way better than I had expected it to! Very neat!
Love the sound of rotos. Sounded even better once the Pinstripes were on. Love Steve Weiss music. Glad to see them getting a shout out on your channel. They have so much stuff and have saved me on more than one occasion by having things that so many others didn't have.
In the 80s I had a complete chromed Roto kit...6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 (2) with plastic half-shells. I used a 22" clear Ludwig kick drum. It all looked great, but as you found out, just never sounds like an actual full shelled drum kit.
Fucking awesome that you had Dave witte come by, he is one of my inspirations for drumming.
As an 80's kid, this is the coolest thing I have ever seen!
what a dream kit!! something about that sound that always feels like innovation is in the works!
A rototom kit is great, especially if you have spare stands and poles and a hacksaw and a dremel, and a few weeks to set stuff up because rototoms lend themselves quite well to e-kit conversion and have a small footprint. You can use mesh or regular heads and save quite a bit of space. You can also mimic the "traditional" drum sizes with rototoms quite well. Once you sort out a permanent, solid kick pedal connection for your rototoms and a solid stand for the kick, which is the biggest issue, it then becomes a matter of cutting things down that need to be cut down and finding alternative mounting systems like what you did with the snare stand. At that point, you can grab some pinstripes like you did and have a great sounding acoustic kit, or grab some mesh heads and go full electro. All in about half the space of a full kit (sort of... some of the stands can make it bulky but a rack would fix that)
2:41 you can definitely pull off hats. You look great!
That kit looks too damn fun! Steve Weiss Music is my go to for cymbals. Their own branded crashes are really surprising for how good they are and they are really well priced.
More people need to play Rototoms, their sound is so beautiful.
Ok! Now here's finally someone who can show us how exactly each drum head type sounds without the shell! And with various tuning pitches! Do it! (Please :) )
The sound reminds me a lot of my days in marching band. Kind of like an all in one drum line. I really like it.
Far overdue since roto Tom's came out like 50 years ago ... Bravo !
That is very Kool! Totally 70’s drum kit.
Those sound AMAZING! I'd love a kit like this, seems just so fun to play on! Those remo's made a huge difference
Love the brightness in the tone of this set!
Boy, that sure looks like a lot of fun!
Yesss ! I only got three. (in the 90s)
Lol Tolhurst got twice that in the 1980's
lovvve TheCure!
.
Learned something too
when it comes to the mounting thing.
.
Thanx for the upload, thumbs up.
Man! What a set - great idea thanks,
And thanks for the Steve Weiss tip - you struck gold on that one!
Dope kit!!! Playing melodically and instantly tuning to a song's key must be cool!
Great video!
I dig your double bass drum playing!
I've wanted to do this since the '80s, and have seen variations, but never quite like this. Thanks for letting me see a decades old curiosity. Now I just wish I had space to put my own together.
Just got a 12 and 14 from Steve. Already own 6,8,10 remo’s from the 90’s. Dusted them off and going to engineer a hybrid set with my Slingerland pop kit ( concert Tom’s and Bass) from the 70’s. I’m excited!!!
Great Video as usual.