TAMA Starclassic or DW Collector?

Gary Coreman

Member
Aug 13, 2009
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I'll just ask...

For a professional recording, which one of these two would you guys choose?

Both are all maple. The only main difference are the tom sizes. The DW is, overall, smaller than the TAMA.

DW Collector
Bass: 22"x16".
Snare: 14"x15".
Toms: 10"x7" TT, 12"x8" TT, 14"x10" TT and 16"x16" FT.

TAMA Starclassic
Bass: 22".
Snare: can't remember...
Toms: bigger than the DW's, all tom toms.

Any experiences? also, which heads would you recommend, Evans or Remo?
 
By the info you gave, I'd say DW.

Can't really say anything on the heads, though, as I use Remo but I've heard they've had a severe drop in quality control. ie heads breaking very early, and hazing coming off etc... Don't know if they've fixed it by now. Never had any problems with Remo heads myself, though.
 
Sorry, the style would be hardcore, more metal oriented.

I know most people tend to think of hardcore as a "clangy" drum sound thing... but this is not the case, at least. All I know is that recording that kind of "tin can" drum sound -which can be OK for live sometimes- definitively SUCKS for recordings, as you get no "bottom" (or whatever you wanna call it) with the sound. In other words that misconception of cheap "cool" drum sound is shit to me. And when you're in the mix, that shitty sound fucks everything up, so finally you end up replacing the snares because of its poor quality.

So, one thing for sure is that I want the snare to go like "BANG", and not "CLANG".

Honestly: I'm a drum ignorant. I just play guitar and don't really get to focus on these things til' the time for recording comes and we gotta deal with this. As far as I know, DW is supposed to be the best drumkit you can get, I've heard it played live a couple of times and sounds great... but this TAMA kit amazed me, the kick sound... I don't know, maybe it sounds a less bright, but sounded really neat to me. I don't have real studio experiences at hand because where I live, most musicians here don't really care about their equipment's quality, and are mostly closed minded when it comes to improve their sound.

I want those drums to sound sharp but not like a frying pan, and thick but not blurry in the end... like acoustic as they are, but with some serious power, and not end up replacing each single hit. I know it's gonna be edited to sound balanced in the end, but at least to get to record SOMETHING with it that appears in the final recording haha.

I know it might sound greasy, but I've been listening to the Metallica "Metallica" drum sound, and I'm digging it. Can't recall any specific drum sound from other albums right now, but I do want to keep things simple, I guess.

I hope this helps better now.
 
Acoustically, the DW toms will resonate and "sing" a bit more, the Starclassics are more controlled, due to die cast rims. My guess is that DW is a bit fatter and fuller sounding.
 
sounds to me like you'd do just fine with either and all the tone control you're describing can be achieved with different heads/tuning configurations. but definitely DW if you can afford it.
 
i had both in my studio... first i had Tama Starclassic Maple all the sizes you mentioned for the DWs ... they were cool but to thin IMO... so we tried out DW Collector series... same size but not so deep like tama. The sound was fuller and warmer... we used the same heads on both.
Now i always stick to the DW's ... they just sound amazing!
...in the end both drum kits sound amazing... it just depends what you like more. I like DWs ;)
 
I would get "fusion" sized drums, meaning 10", 12", 14", 16".... versus the traditional 12, 13, 16 sizes. The smaller drums give a more focused sound that IMO translates better on recordings.

As far as heads go; I love the aquarian superkick 2 on the kick, evans EC2s on the toms, and remo coated emperor X's on the snare. There's no reason to pigeonhole yourself into one brand.
 
14x15 snare?

or is that 14x5?

Yes, must be 14x5... I just pasted the info they gave me on those drums, must have mistyped it.



Thank you guys for your feedback on this.

What about floating toms? they're supposed to sound better, right? the TAMA has all floating toms with an overall bigger size vs. the DW which has all floating but one which is a floor tom.

I'll try to fetch the dimensions for the TAMA...

Another techy question aside, I know this should be in "production related", but since we're at it... what's with the position of the china cymbal? I mean most drummers use it angled, like leaning towards 90º, shouldn't it be aiming up like the rest of the cymbals so the overheads get the most of it? I noticed that most of recordings I've heard lack china volume in the mix, so my guess was that... anyone knows?

Thanks again!
 
All the drumers i recorded had the china cymbal at about 70°-80° ... and i never had an issue with the volume of china cymbal.. actually it was always the loudest of all cymbals.