Testing Drum Hacks to See if They Actually Work!

[@rdavidr]

What are some other hacks you want to see tested? 🤔

[@GOOPgaminginc]

coins inside the snare 😅

[@alexflores-gu8zf]

alex

[@alanduncan1980]

If you put some rubber hose / tube into the vent hole on your Floor Thomas, you can change the pitch of the drum by blowing into said tube / hose / pipe, whilst sticking the drum. I've never tried it myself, but apparently it works.

[@SlyHikari03]

Coins on bass drum head/beater

[@ElliottEdmonds-z3k]

flood a drum kit

[@donaldlahoda8693]

You have to use helium in those balloons. It really elevates the sound.

[@ML-jk3sz]

Ba dum tssss....

[@thiex1412]

I think the drumset would fly away!! 😅

[@Woolmandrums]

Make load-ins easier too.

[@brimans3092]

If they got too high and followed the sun would they be ringo starrs? 😊

[@barblewarble]

I know this is a joke but I was wondering if the difference in the speed of sound in helium would change the tone.

[@DrSushiRolls]

6:17 the nut falling on beat is insane

[@hieronymus1288]

That's standard premium rdavidr editing

[@SamChaneyProductions]

Bucephalus Bouncing Nut

[@funkymichi1696]

I knew someone in the comments was going to mention it.

[@OmarGonzalez-re3jz]

Always the beeeeest freakyn editing

[@rickjohns689]

The balloon idea is great, the same vibe as the old cloth on the drum sound, but you get more attack. Great trick, and the toy on the hi hat stand is killer. These are the best yet.

[@craigstrickland1572]

That horn thingy needs to be incorporated into some Clowncore jams!!!

[@TheJargonKing]

fuck YES I'd love to see Louis doing this

[@kimjunkmoon2298]

The balloons too

[@jhicks8989]

Yes.

[@julianprzybysawski8543]

Every hack in this video fits right in with clowncore. The ballonakick, the honk snare, the wobble hats.. even the soup reverb

[@GabrielMartins-gs6rr]

hell yeahhhh

[@robthompson8285]

David's drum hack videos are like a solar eclipse. They don't come often but when they do, they're magnificent!

[@nafspark]

The groove at 12:08 is one of the tastiest things I've heard in a long time.

[@jamesadamgleason9471]

Same... Def practicing this

[@paradiselost9946]

just sounds like "demonoid phenomenon" to me...

[@ZappyOh]

The nails-thingy is golden. Someone should market a round one in metal, specifically to do this.

[@bettsdn]

You can bet Meinl is already on it 😅

[@ericstearns170]

​@@bettsdnOr Pearl

[@ColossusCo]

The balloon bass drum sounds like the perfect metal kick sample 😂

[@Doinstuffman]

That balloon kit sounds perfect to play Come Together😂

[@blujay9191]

I had the same thought.

[@FullOnRhinosaur]

Dude I was thinking the same thing. Like if i ever somehow found myself in a Beatles cover band (with a few thousand dollars for an acrylic kit), this is exactly what I'd do. Dry sound + a fun, psychedelic-ish look

[@driftliketokyo34ftw35]

They need to be all red to play 99 red balloons though

[@hoilst265]

Try filling the balloons with argon! Fewer balloons! More balloons! I reckon one highly-inflated balloon could subtly damp the sound - too many underinflated ones would simply add too much rubber mass.

[@mholda]

Fill the balloons with helium! For science

[@SamChaneyProductions]

I don't think it will matter much since as long as you have the baloons touching the drum heads, they are going to deaden the sound so much that there's not going to be any noticeable difference. Maybe if you suspended some balloons inside so they weren't touching the heads it would matter

[@trashpanda6770]

12:08 is crazy how nice that sounds

[@emilholmgrenmusic]

The biggest joy with these videos always comes from your playing, David. You always have such creative stickings and patterns, I wish I was half as versatile and varied as you in my playing.

[@ChaosPootato]

The balloon thing is definitely an interesting super tight sound. And it makes the drums look fun

[@c3h4ohcooh3]

Dude, the balloons look so cool. I don't even care how they sound.

[@holeesheet2021]

I agree. That would make a great wrap if you could visually replicate the look!

[@AfferbeckBeats]

I would love to see them smaller so they can bounce around

[@chrisanderson2368]

The nuts keeping the rods in the hoops is enough of hack itself

[@nickwallette6201]

Yeah, but that's about the only good thing, IMO. That's going to make tuning so much more tedious, and good luck tightening them without changing the tuning of that lug slightly.

[@rong4189]

2:52 I was sure you were gonna say Kip from Napoleon Dynamite. Looks exactly like him!

[@gammadrums]

6:18 the “air vent fill”. 😂😂😂

[@unclerhombus]

Man…that DW acrylic kit sounds incredible

[@francobuzzetti9424]

balloon kick sounded FIRE

[@dawggonevidz9140]

blue monday

[@trendin_brendan]

Man, the balloon kick drum lowkey sounded pretty good!

[@S4B3R117]

Love the way that acrylic set looked full of balloons, makes me wish for a wrap that looked like that

[@holeesheet2021]

SAME here! I love it too. I had the same idea! Wrap it baby!

[@lajollascott]

I really liked the balloon hack. And I love the dead tom sound of "Come Together" and so many 70s recordings. But if it were me--and I surely do wish I had a DW acrylic kit--I'd use the balloons on the kick and snare but generally keep the toms open.

[@koolBOY8323]

absolutely LOVE that you not only used a DW kit to test balloons, but you had to deface them by taking out the vents to do it. *chef's kiss*

[@OfficialDreamTheater]

The balloon "hack" for the bass drum made it sound like it was triggered almost. Pretty cool!

[@quanderingband]

This guy answers all the questions us drummer ask ourselves in day appreciate you!

[@Grease-Goblin]

That first guy talking about having a bandmate sticking stuff to the drums is perfect. I taped a copy of Avatar on each of our drummer's bass drums about 5 months ago. They're still there.

[@TheModdingWelshman]

You should use helium balloons and use just enough to cover the drum head. When you hit them they should drop from the impact but then float back to the top to mute the head. Could be a cool effect and look sick!

[@JulianFernandez]

the nail thingy was great!

[@ambiention]

The balloons look really cool. I could see a lot of artists requesting that for stage regardless of what it does to the sound

[@DarthCiliatus]

And it's a very usable sound anyway

[@ambiention]

@@DarthCiliatus probably even better if they’re a pop act running triggers anyway

[@MonoSuerte]

12:26 be interesting to see if having those pins contacting the around bell does something funky in a good way

[@DadBodDrumming]

The balloons sounded great and add a nice visual to the kit. I can see some great things for theme shows with that idea. Red white blue balloons for 4 of July. Orange and black for Halloween. Red and green for Christmas etc.

[@gray.wesley]

David uploaded a drum hack video and suddenly I'm happy

[@jerrystatic256]

I love your tuning. Need to do an updated video on tuning.

[@pixll9045]

The Ballon set sounds really neat 🔥

[@liveChef]

Those DWs are monster dude !!

[@postvaccologne]

Great Video with cool ideas: The balloons have great potential! Lugnuts: helpful for hard-hitters to come through a gig not having to tune after each song. Although, if you have to: mayhem 😂

[@kingmatthewa]

I like the balloon hack. You are creating barriers for the internal pressure wave to have to deal with, which slows it down. I've never been a fan of moongel, tape, wallet, or any other method of muting the head. This way, it allows the heads to still do their thing. I would probably do that for the kick and snare (but with less balloons, maybe). Love the channel, David. Cheers from Hillsdale, Kansas (KC area)!

[@xcxangel9948]

I absolutely hate the sound of acrylic kits and the balloons made it sound INCREDIBLE 😍

[@boutrosboutrosboutrosboutros]

the hi hat hack was cool. I agree, different metal sheets would have different sound qualities. Nice job

[@ghostboy4115]

I really like the sound of the kid’s toy thing! I wish more kits had something similar :0!

[@jimmybjurebrant8934]

Pin toy hi-hat shaker hack, the drum sound on that kit sound amazing, you HAVE to make sample packs of your sound, they sound sooo freaking good man 😊😊💪🤘

[@TerrorTroveTalesYT]

David: Remember what this snare sounds like. Me: *panics* Later David: *edits in original snare sound at the end of the video* ME: Oh, thank fuck.

[@miserirken]

My fav is the nails thing toy, sounds great. But the balloon filled set one is so impressive i love it.

[@nope-z5y]

That pin toy sounds amazing mounted on the hat!

[@davidadrian]

People have been sending me this video all morning, thanks for sharing/trying my nonsense ha... Although the air vent thing I did was a massive fail, the balloon thing I totally like, so much so that I recorded a full track using both (w/wo balloons) in the same track at the same time! ...Anyways awesome video as usual bro! 🤘

[@jeffreymorris5815]

The amount of work that went into this video is insane

[@magicdrummer411]

I can't find the video now, but I saw a guy that altered his snare rim to where he could just lift it off the drum and change to a different head (with different tunings. I imagine the lugs screwed into the rim only somehow to get the tension he needed. but it was a neat idea if you wanted to have different sounds in shows and only have 1 snare, or for electric to acoustic hybrids.

[@stevenbahena5956]

that bending hi-hat was genius!!!!

[@MR-vg7yn]

That toy on the hi-hat works a lot better than I would have expected. The sound, to me, is somewhere between those MIDI claps and a shaker. The groove you play with it at 12:09 is awesome.

[@miketheburns]

balloons in the acrolyte reminds me of '70s funk drum muffling. So definitely has value!

[@philipmccann2358]

Wow …that was much better than I thought it would be !

[@wjspade]

4:36 I think the nylon rope was muffling the sheet metal. My high school had a similar “effect symbol” set up on a hi hat stand. We used 550 cord to go under the pedal, but it was connected to the sheet with metal rings. If done right, it’ll make some crazy effects.

[@SoundSurrealStudio]

The balloon hack was excellent.. i wish i could get samples from that hack . The sound was so super tight.. perfect for the style of music i produce

[@marclewism]

That balloon hack is best in a music video shoot😂

[@nomadnomad1214]

Man. You should do like a transcript of your grooves with each video. On Patreon or something. Your grooves are always super cool and i think more reachable to learn and play then a lot of youtube drummers who just show off.

[@ahchv]

The mix of your drums is 🔥

[@ZappyOh]

Put a large spring between a drum's top- and bottom heads.

[@markitux]

that "ballooned" dw kit looks amazing 😍

[@Rhythm911]

Well I've had one of those Pin Sculp[ture Toys' sitting in a box for years and now I have the perfect use for it !!

[@bFOURdwZEROlf]

Oh it's not acoustics, it's Deadening, no way. Perfect.

[@jeffreyyoung4104]

The metal sheet hack seems like the musical saw trick, where the bend can introduce the tone and vibrato to the effect. You had more bend in it when you were testing it and I could hear the effect better than when it was on the stand. The pin device is cool, but reminds me of all the different devices with beads or stones or sand in a gourd effect... As far as the balloons go,they look cool...But they sound very muted. The jam nuts only keep the shafts tight, they can't prevent head stretch. Nothing prevents head stretch... Here is a hack for you, install a schrader valve in the drum air vent, and try different pressure in the drum! A schrader valve is the air valve in tubeless tires. In order to work, the drum has to be air tight...

[@jcarls44]

the pin shaker is unique because there's a slight delay as the pins jump and fall. it's great!

[@AntExe-ey5my]

Out of curiosity, can you take the toy thing from hack 6, remove the clear plastic part and replace it with a sheet of metal? See how that sounds.

[@RhysK94]

Just came here to say your kick drum (with no mods) sounds easily within the top 3 out of all your videos I have watched (quite a fair few if not all for the last fair few years) 👌

[@patdeniston3697]

I like the shaker thing on the high hats. Air balloons in acrylic drums.... cool. Especially if you like played weddings or something you could color coordinate the balloons to the event. Maybe water balloons 🤔. Ive seen another channel try it once and did notice a difference but id like to see what you could do with the aluminum foil lined around the inside of the kick drum like Bonham supposedly did.

[@riff1117]

As someone who went to college to learn the John M Woram methods back in the early analogue 80's, along with being an active drummer at the same time, I have always wondered the obsession with trying to mic the air escape hole in drums with the top and resonance heads on, especially the snare, a microphone simply catches the vibrations from the instrument on the diaphragm and converts it into electric impulses, the more air that blows on the diaphragm the less of the subtle vibrations in the sound wave you will catch, this is why we all learn that when placing mics on the drums that if you have a small hole in the resonance head of the kick drum, then you need to detune it and drill some air escape holes elsewhere in the head, or make the hole much bigger than the mic head, the more air that blows on a diaphragm the less instrument you get, lately I have been getting the best damn sound by using the DW head that has several 1/8" holes placed all around near the rim and placing a RE20 just slightly diagonal from directly pointing at the center of the resonance head, the tone and response are so much better I stopped using triggers!, worst drum nightmare ever.....trying to get a good sound out of North drums and the deepest snare I have ever seen...with a Duroline Kevlar head on it, the coffee cans and couch cushions I started with at 10 years old sounded much better than that Greek tragedy!

[@badwolfsat5]

The dude with the balloon hack looks like a long-haired Sheldon from Big Bang Theory!!🤣 Bazinga!!!

[@DashingGinger]

For the balloon hack, Sulfur Hexafluoride and helium comparison might be worth a check!!

[@ohmtronseedling]

that metal shelled kit sounds so nice. great vid once again, David!

[@standardannonymousguy]

That balloon hack was great. Nice to see how different the sound is, also keeping the tuning the same was important. Thank you for your scientific work. Would you consider renting the sound production from the striker side? I mean using a flat drum stick like a paint stir stick as a way to create more of a bassinet thwap. Cheers!

[@the6ig6adwolf]

For the snare and kick, the balloon muffling was fantastic.

[@SAIWFY]

That trombone really added a nice tone. Did not expect that at all

[@cave1958]

The so-called "jam nut" was used by Rogers on their Big-R Dynasonic snare drums in the early 1980s. They had a knurled nut that required no wrench. I still gig with mine and always wondered why no other drum company used them!

[@BillCoz]

I'd try the balloon muffling with just slightly fewer balloons so there's a little less dampening on the heads.

[@patrickfouhy9102]

I've used lug locks before, but I typically only put them on the lug(s) closest to where my stick hits the rim for rim shots since that seem to be the main lug(s) that comes loose. But only with triple flange hoops, don't really notice the issue on diecast hoops. The Balloon trick was cool, I might do some experimenting with that as well.

[@therealfakecaptain7978]

Yeah, on a triple-flanged hoop the lug closest to me always loosen very quickly.

[@PrantoKoX]

Well, if nothing else the horn fitted onto the snare and the balloons in the transparent kit LOOK exceptionally weird and cool - hello interesting music video! 😉😉🎥👌🏼

[@VON_RHEDBEARD]

Brass thumb jams are my fave lock, but haven’t used them in awhile, usually it’s my ludwig snares that loosen far more than any others

[@InzidenzPanik]

Carlos David using that español knowledge for the good of mankind.

[@Durwood71]

The balloon kit would be perfect for the next children's birthday party gig.

[@zacharysmithingell5460]

Next time I want to see the kit full of water balloons

[@chrisa1125]

That nail thing sounds awesome, and kick ass beat at 12:15

[@666dreamboat]

Okay the balloon hack would be so good as a trigger layer, it's a little too gated sounding alone but layered in with some round Robins you could make a very interesting drum sound, with some parallel compression bringing the tail up you could likely get some magic sounds.

[@JamesMcCormickIV]

The pin hat is cool

[@hasanmichael4966]

Pin toy: I had a things that was like a type of shaker but it was plastic with metal beads around the outside and sounded the same and did the same thing attached to the high hat. Store bought a long time ago. Don't remember the brand. Lock nuts: good luck tuning on the fly. And one more tool to carry around. I wouldn't use in that fashion for those reasons. However, I did like how it held the tuning lug in place when swapping heads. Maybe put a nylon insert lock nut on the lug but keep it just below the rim. That way it doesn't prevent you from tuning on the fly but when you change the head the lugs stay on the rim. Maybe put 2 together to make sure they don't walk, or just 1 and use blue thread locker. You would still need the nylon washer between the rim and lug since using the lock nut that way doesn't serve the purpose of preventing the lug from backing out.

[@LarkVsOwl-de3op]

Tama used to have plastic jam nuts. Needed them for my Artstar tube lugs. Got the last I could find anywhere and they work great for those drums.

[@bassplate]

Bubble wrap could be a good alternative to balloons. And it would be interesting to see how much the sound changes if nothing is touching the drum's heads (just some balloons/bubble-wrap inside the shell attached to the side but not touching either head).

[@oatechaosincycles]

At first that balloon hack was a little deflating, but then it grew on me and more ideas popped into my mind.

[@acousticbutler]

There are so many things that you could put on the inside of those balloons the possibilities are endless

[@squidcaps4308]

When it comes to soldering brass instruments: it is very easy IF there is no lacquer. If the instrument is shiny, it has a coating of lacquer. Now, the lacquer starts to burn a bit above the melting temps of the solder. You can most likely understand that it is not very easy to hit that spot... I grew up in an instrument repair shop, learning how to do it was one of the most difficult jobs. Luckily we had a ton of spares that i could practice on. The trick is to use wide butane flame and only feed a bit of air into it. We want to flame to be as gentle as possible, then heat larger area, much larger than you think, apply a bit of tension until things just snap off. Soldering them back on is more difficult, you just got to feel it. Using solder paste makes it much easier, it mostly serves as flux and you feed little bits of solder and let it wick in. It is a skill for sure, it is very easy to burn thru the lacquer or just slightly tint it darker.. which is almost more annoying since you can't see that happening.

[@brookstarkington]

A friend of mine marched Phantom Regiment back in 2008. He told me they had 13” O-Rings in the snares to damp the bottom head. So we tried it on our drum set and really liked it. But that was 18 year old me. I’m curious what 35 year old me would think now in a more controlled experiment.

[@soundshack33]

Dude the nut from the air vent hit that snare perfectly🤣

[@carson.strong_]

I can attest to the Jam Nuts. They do WONDERS. I slam my snare, but those nuts have helped a ton.

[@Vitalik_Sukin]

I know its easy to give a piece of advice, but for the metal sheet trick to work, you need a different sheet, thinner, a bit larger, and if possible, not steel, definitely not alu, but copper or bronze (the same as for any cymbal). Also zinc, silver and gold will be somewhat OK, kinda (gold wont resist the bending as much). You need to stabilize the middle, put it on a more solid holder so it stays as immobilized as possible. For the ends you need the thinnest cord you can get, maybe even a guitar string. Make a notch, a really tiny one for as much as possible, so it stays above the surface of the sheet an blocks the string from sliding off down, and not tighting it with a loop around the edge. Basically - the sheet larger, everything else around it smaller. I'll try to work on it myself.

[@mikekloepfer7424]

Now THAT gives a new meaning to the Vistalite "Jelly Bean Kit" ;)

[@krusher74]

Sonor started with very similar luglocks in the 70's that are very similar to the ones you showed on the ludwig, then in the 80's/90's they went to a snap ring in the lug that put pressure on the tension/friction on the rod and stopped it backing off and you do not have to loosen or tighten it to tune. Then in the late 90's on the flag ship designer they added a rubber outer with captive nut finger tighten luglock called tune safe. And now they have a plastic instert in the lug threads that apply extra friction to the rod thread to stop it backing out. (this mean to cant spin rods in/out with your fingers. So basically sonor have had a luglock of some design on there higher end kits sing the 70's.

[@DamnedEyez]

I kinda want to see a progression on those balloons. None. 1 each. 2 each. etc. Kinda seems like a Party kit, and having movement inside could add a fun bit to the set. (Different gases, maybe) Also...the lug locks seem useful enough just as retainers when changing heads.

[@HR2635]

favorite lug lock: purecussion made som many years ago in black plastik.. no rattle, fingertigtning (because there was a rubber seal inside). Now adays I either use an insert or Pearl metal locks. my own favorite "invensions".. well there are quite a few but my 2 favorites: small rubber o-rings (3-5 mmm) on each tension rod (never loose a screw again! and dirt cheap); Velcro dampeners (a bit like evans mini emad but just a lot better (more dampening options... might do a video on that some day) and way cheaper!)

[@s1sters118]

Think about it with the nuts on the snare, for sure it will stop the tension rods screwing in but that's never the problem, I've tried this and it doesn't stop the rods vibrating loose, it helps a bit if you have rods that are bad but the rod loosens through the nut the same way it will through the lug

[@itsDelfi]

6:18 earned a well deserved like and subscription for that edit alone 😂