Gear
Drums
I play Sonor drums.
On tour I use a 6 piece white sparkle Force 3007 kit.
In the studio I use a 6 piece DeLite kit of the same sizes.
SONOR (studio kit)
White Sparkle DeLite : 22,10,12,14,16
SONOR (touring kit)
White Sparkle Force 3007 : 22,10,12,14, 16
Zildjian Cymbals
- 20" K Custom Medium Ride
- 20" K Custom Ride
- 22" A Custom Ride
- 21" K High Definition Ride
- 22" K Left Side Ride
- 17" A custom crash
- 19" A medium crash
- 16" A custom crash
- 15" A custom crash
- 15" A thin Crash
- 18" K custom dark medium crash
- 18" K custom dark crash
- 19" K custom dark crash
- 6" A splash
- 8" K splash
- 10" A splash
- 10" A Fast splash
- 14" A Custom hi-hats
- 14" K Custom hi-hats
- 13" K/Z hi-hats
- 16" Oriental China
Snare Drums
- 14" x 6 1/2" Pearl Ian Paice signature
- 14" x 5 1/2" Jarrah Ply Brady snare drum
- 14" x 5 1/2" Maple Pork Pie snare drum
- 12" x 6 1/2" Pork Pie custom snare
- 14" x 6 1/2" Steel Yamaha recording custom
- 14" x 5 1/2" Brass Mapex Pro
- 14" x 5" Pearl maple free floating
- 13" x 5" Maple Steve Gadd signature model
- 12" x 7" Pearl soprano
- 10" x 5 1/2" DW Pacific
Electronics
DrumKAT DK10 trigger module
Yamaha DTX 2
Studio
I record in a professional live end/dead end studio. I use a Neve Genesys console (see video) to track and mix the drum tracks and record to Reaper, Cubase, Logic or ProTools depending on the situation.
Mics
I have a large selection of microphones available. my preferred mics for a basic studio session are:
- Kick - Shure Beta 52
- Snare - Shure SM57 or Audix i5
- Toms - Shure SM98 clip on condensors
- Overheads - Neumann U87
- HiHat - Neumann KM184
Monitoring
I like to use Vic Firth Drumphones for monitoring as they cut out a lot of the ambient noise and make the drums sound very pleasing. I also use a 'Porter and Davies' BC2 drum system to allow me to hear and feel the low end of the kick (see the live section for more info on the BC2)
Live Sound
Mics
For live sound I use the following mic set up:
- Kick - Shure Beta 52
- Snare - Shure SM57 or Audix i5
- Toms - Beyer Opus 88 (great live mic!)
- Overheads - Audix
- HiHat - AKG
Monitoring
All the signals on stage are split. One side of the split is routed to my Yamaha 01v96 and the other is sent to the main mixer.
The 01v96 is used to process and submix the drums to a stereo pair. I then send that along with 6 channels of vocals, guitars and bass to a HearBack hub via ADAT.
The Hearback hub connects to individual mixers via Cat5. Each band member can then create their own in ear monitor mix.
My personal in ear monitors are ACS T2s. I can highly recommend these - they're very comfortable and sound great.
Finally, the BC2 drum stool has now become an integral part of my set up. It allows me to clearly feel/hear the bass drum in all situations. Live it's great because you never lose the bass drum in the mix. In the studio it allows you to feel the kind of low end that you normally only achieve in a live situation. Check out the video I made just after I got it - I was very excited!