Rigged: MM takes you through his drum setup (EDIT: Part 2 Added!)

[chrisbDTM]

new 3 part article on metalsucks.net

part 1
https://www.metalsucks.net/2011/09/15/rigged-dream-theaters-mike-mangini-takes-you-through-every-piece-of-his-mega-drumkit-part-1/

When I contacted Dream Theater’s press folks for a Rigged interview with new drummer Mike Mangini about his new kit, I didn’t realize I’d end up publishing a book.

But that’s the kind of dude Mangini is; incredibly passionate, earnest, easy-going, and without a doubt one of the nicest guys I’ve ever spoken with on record. He’s also a gear nerd of the highest order, and the drum kit he’s hauling around with him on tour with Dream Theater is no joke. Mangini’s set up is so complexand his explanations so detailed, we’ve decided to split up this Rigged feature into three parts to avoid the dreaded wall of text. Drummers in the MetalSucks readership are gonna LOVE what we’ve got in store for you.

Up first: Mike takes us through his quadruple kick set-up, his pedals (8 total), hi-hats and snares. He also talks a good bit about technique as it relates to his drum setup and playing ambidextrously. Here’s Mike:


These two pictures were taken from Pearl headquarters. That’s it right there. That’s what’s being sent to rehearsal and that’s what I’m going to play.

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.

I have been nurturing this for the past decade or so and before I got a call to audition, I had a very down moment in my studio looking at my drum set saying “who the heck is going to let me use this?” It’s always someone telling me what to do, that I have too many drums and too this and too that. I swear, I’m just a kid at heart having fun and I don’t know why the world is such that we have to tap each other on the shoulder and say that you can’t do this or you can’t do that. It’s almost like somebody is talking to a kid saying “hey, stop having fun.”

It’s funny because I say that to my kids all the time, in fun of course. They’re acting their age, and I can’t go there and say “don’t act your age” or “stop having fun.” So I’ll say it in fun and my five year old gets the humor of that. That’s kind of how I see it. “Man, I got this set designed for orchestrating, and that’s what it’s for.” I’m a trained classical drummer, and I’ve got these skills that I’ve developed. Why can’t I just use them? These guys in Dream Theater are so secure and so pleasant to work with and so supportive that I’m still pinching myself going “how did this happen?”

Onto the rest of the kit. I have two snare drums. They’re both placed in the center as far as a left/right axis is concerned. The main snare drum, well there’s nothing much to say about that other than it’s a main snare drum. The mini snare which is dead center but up above my rack toms, is used for a few different reasons. Firstly, I use it for dynamics where I will play a pattern using two snare drums and a sticking. For example, drummers know what a paradiddle is. I might play a paradiddle between the two snare drums but by racking the back beat on the main snare with a really hard hit rim shot and having the subordinate notes be the mini snare just brings that paradiddle to life. It’s like nothing that I’ve ever heard before. It’s not that none of us can pull it off on one drum, it’s that it doesn’t work on one drum the same so why not have two. That’s one purpose. Another purpose is Mike eventually set up two snare drums, so I use that mini snare for backbeats in a song like “These Walls” and I turn it off for a song like the Great Debate. I can access it with either hand, and that’s the third thing: that when I make the decision to play lefty or righty (which I will explain very specifically once I get to my cymbal setup) essentially if I had my snare drum off to one side that would limit me depending on what side I’m using.

Almost every drummer that I know is either a righty or lefty, but my drum set is not set up that way. The fact that I’m not righty or lefty or ambidextrous or not ambidextrous has nothing to do with it. In fact, I’m not ambidextrous. I trained myself to play ambidextrously because I didn’t want my flawed, awful body to get in the way of my musical soul. I have a flawed body. It doesn’t do what I tell it to do. By my deciding for the right reasons (which would be musical reasons) that I would place this mini snare dead center and my hi-hats flipped lefty and righty, it means that I had to work my butt off to play “Back in Black” by AC/DC lefty. I’ll tell you what – it’s not an easy song to play.

I don’t care what anyone says. I think real musicians know . . . people that are happy, too, that are secure in themselves and happy, you can accept your own lack of skill in different areas because you simply see it as something you didn’t get to yet. It’s just not a big deal. You either do it or you don’t. My placing the snare drum dead center meant that I had to develop ambidextrous skills, although I am not an ambidextrous person.

COMING UP IN PART 2: Cymbal arrangements, toms, electronics and more!

- Mike Mangini / Dream Theater

[TheGoodDoctor]

everyone posting comments on that article is a severe douche.

[reneranucci]

everyone posting comments on that article is a severe douche.

This one was good:
*Asks Mangini for an autograph to determine whether he is right- or left-handed.*
*Hands him a pen.*
*He writes first name with one hand, last name with the other.*
Foiled.
 

[tri.ad]

everyone posting comments on that article is a severe douche.

I don't know why you would want to read them.

[The Letter M]

everyone posting comments on that article is a severe douche.

This one was good:
*Asks Mangini for an autograph to determine whether he is right- or left-handed.*
*Hands him a pen.*
*He writes first name with one hand, last name with the other.*
Foiled.
 

Nah, MM would totally grab TWO pens, and write his first AND last names at the SAME TIME with BOTH HANDS, starting and ending at exactly the same moment, creating a poly-rhythm of his signature (writing 7 letters over the time it takes to write 4).

-Marc.

[aXygnus]

everyone posting comments on that article is a severe douche.

This one was good:
*Asks Mangini for an autograph to determine whether he is right- or left-handed.*
*Hands him a pen.*
*He writes first name with one hand, last name with the other.*
Foiled.
 

Nah, MM would totally grab TWO pens, and write his first AND last names at the SAME TIME with BOTH HANDS, starting and ending at exactly the same moment, creating a poly-rhythm of his signature (writing 7 letters over the time it takes to write 4).

-Marc.

Depends... would he write Mike or Michael?

[TAC]

Can't get enough MM!
I'm ready for Part 2!

[ResultsMayVary]

Can't get enough MM!
I'm ready for Part 2!

and Part 3! 

[TAC]

Can't get enough MM!
I'm ready for Part 2!

and Part 3! 

So true!

[Kotowboy]

I still don't get why his hi hats are controlled by pedals on the *opposite* side.

[dongringo]

I just assumed that he was naturally ambidextrous. Fascinating.

[hefdaddy42]

I still don't get why his hi hats are controlled by pedals on the *opposite* side.

To mess with his drum tech.

[The Letter M]

I still don't get why his hi hats are controlled by pedals on the *opposite* side.

It allows for open-hand playing, rather than crossed or closed-arm playing, as most drummers normally do with a hi-hat on their left controlled by their left foot - their arms cross over each other, but playing open-handed allows more space between the arms and better motion control in certain areas, and it can make fills a lot easier to do.

-Marc.

[Kotowboy]

Playing drums growing up - i thought it was stupid when drummers played open handed on a kit - as a lot of the time they would go cross-handed to play the ride and it's really inefficient. Why not just play a left handed set up ? But in Mangini's case it works as he can actually fit a huge setup in a smaller space.

[The Letter M]

Playing drums growing up - i thought it was stupid when drummers played open handed on a kit - as a lot of the time they would go cross-handed to play the ride and it's really inefficient. Why not just play a left handed set up ? But in Mangini's case it works as he can actually fit a huge setup in a smaller space.

Technically speaking, Mangini DOES have a left-handed kit, since he's got double bass and double hi-hats

I think one of the better open-handed drummers out there is Carter Beauford, of the Dave Matthews Band, who plays with his hi-hats and rides all on the left, but his toms/bass/snare are set-up in a right-handed fashion, so he can play open handed but his feet are in a normal position for right-handed players. Watch any videos of him playing and you'll see how it can be beneficial to play that way.

-Marc.

[hefdaddy42]

Carter Beauford is amazing.

[Kotowboy]

I just love the *feel* of playing cross handed   

[chrisbDTM]

https://www.metalsucks.net/2011/09/29/rigged-dream-theater%E2%80%99s-mike-mangini-takes-you-through-every-piece-of-his-mega-drumkit-part-2/

On September 15th we published Part 1 of an epic Rigged piece, in which new Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini embarked on a quest to take MetalSucks readers through every single piece of his massive drumkit. It wasn’t our intention to have to split this Rigged feature up, it’s just that the dude’s got so. much. gear. that we simply didn’t have a choice but to split it up into three! So, without further ado, here’s Part 2:

So that brings me to the cymbal arrangements. The cymbal arrangement is setup where for the most part darker sounding cymbals are on the left side and brighter sounding cymbals are on the right — higher pitch right, lower pitch left. That determines whether or not I play righty or lefty. Let me give you an example: on a song like “Caught in a Web,” the musicians in the band change key signatures from whatever key signature that they’re in to one that’s up a couple of steps. When I go from a lower key signature to a higher key signature, I will often switch from my left side hi-hats (which are lower pitched) to the right side ones (which are higher pitched).

That is the one thing that is going to stick out as being distinctly different from me and everybody, and that includes Mike Portnoy. When it comes to playing Dream Theater songs, I’m not going to play on just one hi-hat. I’m going to be switching hi-hats when the guys change key signatures.


Since that is the root of where and when I choose to hit cymbals, that brings me to the rest of them: stacks, splashes, crashes, rides, and oriental/China types. I follow the same protocol there, such that when the key signature changes, on a song like “The Great Debate,” I know that Mike plays one part on a China type cymbal with his right hand the whole way through two progressions but since the band changes key signatures halfway between this, I switch to orientals. I think that’s going to be a very pleasant visual thing, not only the sound of it, but the look of it. People are going to be paying attention to everything I do, and I’m fully aware that people are going to be paying attention to everything I do.

I’m going to be able to present this to them such that I’m preserving Mike’s legacy with the parts, but I’m also taking care of my own self. I’m watching out for me and being grateful for my life, saying, “I want to do something, and I want to offer something to it.” This is my thing that I’m going to do that doesn’t compromise, corrupt, distort or hurt Mike’s original parts but brings it up that extra notch that the band noticed. This is a small tangent, but what does everybody think it is that they found in my audition footage when they reviewed my entire audition? What do you think they found? This is what it was. They knew that I knew every note. They knew that I learned their parts, and they darn well saw it in my drumming at that audition. When they went back and reviewed it, it must have hit them like a ton of bricks and that’s why it was a unanimous decision as far as the playing. Believe me, Dream Theater, the whole talk about me playing on James’ record, that I jumped onstage with Mike and that I’m friends with Mike and I went to the shows and got backstage and blah, blah, blah — let me tell you something: these guys do not mess around. If I didn’t show up and do what I did, they would have chosen someone else because they owe it to themselves and they owe it to the fans.

That tangent’s over, so now I’ll go back to the use of these cymbals so that when people watch me play, I’m not just hitting hunks of metal. They’re not hunks of metal, where gosh, I’m this limited righty drummer and my left hand is busy, so gosh, I’m going to have to hit a hunk of metal with my right hand. It’s not like that. I will switch halfway to hit the right cymbal with the right hand, and that’s what determines what side of the kit I’m using or what ride source I’m using.

I have two ride cymbals. On my far left is a tight earth ride (a real thick, heavy thing) and on my right side it’s a Zildjian 20″ A Custom cymbal which is a more open sound. It’s a very airy sound, not so much Alex Van Halen or John Bonham openness, but it definitely has more ring to it. I’ll choose one of those ride sources based on how much tightness or openness I want for the ride cymbal. That is kind of the way I choose an open hi-hat vs. a closed hi-hat.

Recapping this: the hi-hats chosen from low or high pitched depending on what the band is doing or depending whether it’s a verse or chorus. A closed hi-hat is more typical for a verse and an open hi-hat is more typical for a chorus. My ride cymbals are chosen on the tightness or the openness of it. My ride source, which is way up high, would be crashes or the China types that are chosen for the same reasons. They’re very specifically setup such that the main crash ride that I use is up to my front right. My far right is a bigger crash cymbal. Up to my front right (which is used for more of the crash ride parts) is a 17″ fast crash cymbal, and it really kind of explodes with a high pitch. The one that is far right has a little bit more of a lower pitch. It’s an 18″ A Custom Medium which you’ll see from the photos. What I do is I save that far, far, far right crash for big moments. I’ll do most of the crash riding on the 17″ fast crash, and then when it comes to the end of the song, I’ll go to that one to the right provided that that’s the part for crash cymbals. If I need a crash cymbal for the left side (which has a similar arrangement), my left hand front crash is also a 17″. It has a little bit more of an open sound to it. I’ll choose to use that on a song like “Sacrifice.” I’ll alternate main ride sections where I’ll hit one phrase of 16 bars with my right hand, and then I’ll move to the left hand 17″ crash to play another 16 bars because of the key signature changes. I’m adjusting for that.

On my very far left I have the biggest of all crash cymbals, which is a 19″ Rezo crash. That one is just a step up from my far right 18″ medium; when I say “a step up” what that means is that it’s slightly bigger, so it’s slightly deeper and that’s reserved for really special moments — not just the crash at the end of a tune but maybe for two parts in the entire 2-hour set. I’m only going to hit that thing for a crash just a couple of times in a 2-hour set, and I will also use it for the biggest impact crashes. For example, it’s all over the new album where on the very, very first crash I might use that one to have impact or I might lead in with a different crash and save that one for a lower tone like when the band modulates to a lower key. Again, and to reiterate this, all the metal on my kit is a frequency based thing to match the music.

Which leads me, finally, to the stacks. Mike typically had 3 stacks where he had 2 small ones to the front and a medium one with his right hand. I don’t know for how many years, it could be 2 decades, I’m not sure, I’ve used 3 stacks that start with the medium and go bigger. I added 2 smaller stacks to my setup once I started to learn the audition songs for Dream Theater. So I have 5 total stacks. The front 2 are used in typical Dream Theater fashion to emulate what Mike played, and the medium one, which is to my right hand (the same place Mike had it), that’s used in every place that he uses it as far as I know. [Laughs] If I’m learning the songs right. Then I have two lower ones: one to my left and one to my right. The reason I have those as stacks is because hitting an open Chinese type cymbal rings too much for me and has too much of a splash impact sound for my orchestral uses of it. For example, I’ll use the bigger stacks when I’m really looking for tone. In other words, if I hit them (and this is all over the new album) but if there’s a place where I need a stack and it’s within a section where those guys are changing notes all over the place, I change oriental stacks based on the notes being used. So if they’re playing three notes in a row that are going low, medium and high in a pattern of 7/8 that goes “boom, boom, Boom; boom, boom, Boom” I actually use those cymbals to match what those guys are playing. I don’t so much use those bigger stacks with the older catalogue, although I am using them a little bit here and there. That’s mainly Dream Theater’s future.

The final thing I want to say about the metal is the way that it’s arranged in pitch, because that will transition with the tom-toms. The way that the cymbals are arranged in pitch is neither from left to right or right to left. For example, the highest stack is with the right hand. The next one below it is with the left. The next one below that is with the right. The one below that is with the left, and the one below that (the last one) is with the right. So for 5 stacks, the physical arrangement is right, left, right, left, right from high, lower, lower, lower, lower and lowest.

The tom-toms are arranged like that in an apex shape from the middle out; they neither go from left to right or from right to left either. The center tom-tom is a 6″ diameter drum. To the left of that is the next one below it which is the 8″. So when I say the toms go 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 what I’m saying physically is: right, left, right, left, right, left, right and then the gong bass drum is with my right. That is the only part of this kit that breaks the protocol; that the 20″ drum isn’t all the way to the left just for the sake of me doing it for some reason just to do it. I’ll put the gong bass drum to the right because in the future of Dream Theater with me, I’ll use that gong bass drum as a connective orchestration tool between my toms and the kicks. Because it is a bass drum, I use it for some bass drum hits. It allows me to do that with my right hand which frees up my left hand for some other purposes. Here’s my point: the gong bass drum being next to the 18″ floor tom is the only part of the kit that breaks that protocol of right, left, right, left.

The way that I use the toms is extremely specific to the music. For example, there might be a riff in Fatal Tragedy where Mike does a regular kind of drum fill where a drummer starts on the snare drum and goes to the high drum and whips around the kit. Upon studying exactly what, for example, Jordan Rudess is playing, some of the transitions, Jordan is going up. He’s ascending in pitch, so I’ll use my drums to follow him. I’ll play the same rhythm that Mike played, but in this case specifically, I’ll change the notes that I’m hitting – the actual pitches of the drums so that it reflects a little bit more of what one of the band members is playing. I cannot do that if my drums are ascending or descending. I can only do that, and I think that any human is in the same boat as me, where you really can’t hit a drum set one note at a time from ascending to descending.

For example, if Jordan is ascending in a D major scale – he starts on a low D and ends up at a high D (he hits an entire octave), the way that I do that on my kit, I can start on the low drum and play it with the following physical picking going right, left, right, left, right, left right up the drums. But if I was on an ascending or descending pitch arranged tom-tom setup, I’d have to cross my hands over to do that. And I couldn’t. I just couldn’t keep up the speed like that. With the acoustic drums, the setup is very specific. I’m an orchestral trained musician that loves heavy metal. When I look at the band I’m in and check out the drum set, which makes me go back to that comment before, “who’s going to see this? Who can I work with that doesn’t tell me what to do all the time” or “that I have too many drums. Why don’t I groove and use a small bass drum and a small kit and just show up with 3 drums and a cymbal?” I have no problem doing that, and I enjoy it and love it but it’s not my potential. It’s not what reflects the thoughts in my mind and the feeling in my heart. I’m going to die one day.

I’m not going to be on my death bed saying “I can’t believe that I let others, who should have minded their own business, make me feel bad and change my drumming. Screw them.” I’m doing it now. I have done it for a long time. It’s just that when somebody hires you, you need to do what they need. As a hired guy I never opened my mouth. I just did what I was asked to do and found joy in it because I was composing many times. In this case, it turns out everybody in the band sees it. Everybody gets it. Everybody is secure. Everybody is so supportive of this growth of mine. I get inspired by them and hopefully my attention to detail and learning how to play this drum set can be inspiring to them and be positive all around. I don’t have to worry about those taps on the shoulder anymore. I’m in Dream Theater now. I can do this. When I sit back and say “man, that is a huge thank you for the entire organization” I think after this explanation it’s not hard for you to believe that I really mean it.

COMING UP IN PART 3: Electronics, octobans, more!

- Mike Mangini / Dream Theater

[ResultsMayVary]

YES!

BRING ON PART 3!

[SystematicThought]

That man has his drums down to a science

[Edan the Man]

I don't know a damn thing about drums, but this is still fascinating to read. Mangini is ridiculously skilled at what he does.

[johncal]

Holy Crap. This guy's the Einstein of Drums. It's funny, a lot of guys like MP are also really great but they don't know the theory behind what they do like this guy does. Being a drummer I know what he means about the tom arrangement. It's the only way to go up note by note without crossing hands over, but the skills to play the way he has it set up is sick. WOW

[dongringo]

I'm highly impressed.

[Bertielee]

I'm not a musician, but, Man, I'm impressed at MM's way of arranging the drums and presenting it to us in such a way a moron like me can understand it. I bow to you, Mr Genie!

B.Lee

[goldfalcon]

Extremely impressive how he uses his kit as a 'musical' instrument.  Ridiculously cool.

And oh yeah, Carter is pretty much the shit.

Alex

[3xodus]

Damn he is impressive. He gives me the vibe that he may honestly be a true genius, not like figuratively saying "Oh, that's genius." More literal than that.

[hefdaddy42]

He's the Jordan Rudess of drums.

[johncal]

Extremely impressive how he uses his kit as a 'musical' instrument.  Ridiculously cool.

And oh yeah, Carter is pretty much the shit.

Alex

I've always considered my drums a musical instrument.

[Dark Castle]

everyone posting comments on that article is a severe douche.

I don't know why you would want to read them.

I happen to frequent Metalsucks comment boards.  And a hell ton of people are just sarcastic fucks you guys..

[BlobVanDam]

He's the Jordan Rudess of drums.

Until there's an app for it. Then Jordan Rudess will be the Jordan Rudess of drums too.

[nikatapi]

The part 2 was really impressive, MM is an amazing talent and has great knowledge of his craft, if only the drum production of ADTOE was better, so it could me more clearly audible too...

[hefdaddy42]

He's the Jordan Rudess of drums.

Until there's an app for it. Then Jordan Rudess will be the Jordan Rudess of drums too.

lol

[Mbarak]

I actually use those cymbals to match what those guys are playing. I don’t so much use those bigger stacks with the older catalogue, although I am using them a little bit here and there. That’s mainly Dream Theater’s future.

I’ll put the gong bass drum to the right because in the future of Dream Theater with me, I’ll use that gong bass drum as a connective orchestration tool between my toms and the kicks.

Don't know why, but it felt good reading that. I'm really glad he speaks very confidently about being a part of DT's future.

[Kotowboy]

Also, in Metal Hammer mag, he pretty much said " This is permanent and there's just not a chance Portnoy is ever coming back."

Now, if *Mangini* can say that.....

[Marion Crane]

"and then I have this mini-toilet next to my drum throne. So when James Labrie takes a piss break during Ytse Jam, I want to be able to match his urine stream pattern. I have a pedal behind me that flushes it."