big fan of MM, but I would like to see him drop the extra bass drums on each side.
But there's a purpose to having that many kicks. Here is his explanation:
"Starting with the bass drums: there are four acoustic bass drums, one 26″ diameter bass drum to the far left on a slave double pedal so I can reach it. Two 22″ diameter kick drums in the middle on regular single pedals and then an 18″ diameter bass drum to the right on a righty slave pedal. So the far right and left kick drums are set up on slave pedals from the double pedal so that they can be placed where I can reach them. The purpose of the four kick drums is firstly that the two 22″ kick drums are the main kick drums for double bass playing, although I don’t use them in a typical fashion. In other words, I’m not always leading with my right foot; sometimes I lead with the left foot depending on the part of the song. With the 26″ kick drum and 18″ kick drums being far left, I am able to reach them both from the same stool which means that I can play a song like “Fatal Tragedy” starting out with the big 26″ bass drum to the left and then I don’t have to get up to go to the two 22″ kick drums; likewise I can do the same for the 18″ kick.
I have two hi-hats, but they’re remote cable hats. They are wired on opposite sides that I step on with my feet. For example, the hi-hat pedal that I step on with my right foot is on the left side of the kit. This means that when I’m playing on that lefty hi-hat, which is essentially a darker hi-hat sound, my left foot has to become the main kick and that is where I would use the left 22″ kick drum as the main bass drum. When I step on the hi-hat with my left foot, that cable stretches all the way to my right and the hi-hat cymbals themselves are struck with my right hand. What that means is that I play kick drum with my right foot so the 22″ kick drum to the right becomes the main kick drum. The hi-hat to the right is a set of brighter cymbals.
Basically the pedals thus far are four acoustic kick drums and two remote hi-hats. There are two more pedals: one to the extreme left and extreme right. They’re both also slave pedals. On my far right foot is actually a righty double pedal where I’m playing slave such that the beater connects to an E Pro Pad. Pearl has an electronic drum set called E Pro, and I’m using one of the pads to my far right. Similarly, on the far left I have a lefty double pedal, a slave double pedal that stretches to another E Pro. These I use for triggering. For example, with the upcoming tour, I have a giant concert bass drum for one particular tune with the right foot and I have a cowbell assigned to that E Pro Pad on my far left foot. With the new album, those two trigger pedals are triggering anything from timpani to cowbells that are tuned exactly to the notes that Jordan (Rudess), John (Myung) and John (Petrucci) are playing.
By having 8 pedals (4 acoustic kicks, 2 electronic ones and 2 hi-hats) they are arranged such that I can adhere to Mike Portnoy’s original drum track – be it a 26″ kick drum or a 22″ kick drum or a small one because Mike grew from having just a regular double bass kick starting with 24″s, I believe. I think he started out with two 24″ kicks and then went to two 22″s. At one point he put an experimental kick to his right which was a small bass drum, and I chose to use an 18″ because on the new album I actually use that 18″ in the same beat where I use the 26″, for dynamics. So in a non-heavy metal kind of a structure, I can get away with dynamic on one bass drum by hitting a note softer or laying the beater into the head to get a slap, but with a heavy metal situation, especially Dream Theater, I have to exaggerate everything. In other words, the dynamics kind of get lost and you really have to hit those drums.
Having an 18″ bass drum do subordinate notes while the 26″ bass drum fires off the huge downbeat is the way that I get dynamics. That’s an entire overview of the pedal scenario."
Topic: Future MM's drumkit (Read 4032 times)
