Testing TIKTOK Drum Hacks (things got weird)

IG: / davidraouf
Support on Patreon: / rdavidr
Mix Notes about Piano Reverb Chamber:
First of all, shoutout to @TimBuell for the crispy mix on this video!
From Tim: "Basically I gated the piano mic so that when a kick or snare hit it opens up. When you aren't hitting the kick or snare the gate ducks like -15dB so it still has chaotic verb but it is way more controlled and usable. Then I added a bunch of saturation/distortion."
(Affiliate links below)
Music used (background & playalongs)
www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
Drumeo Edge Trial:
www.drumeo.com/rdavidr
Gear Used:
Sticks/Hardware:
Vic Firth Freestyle 5b Drum Sticks:
imp.i114863.net/045EO
Vic Firth VKB5 Beater: (used on the kit)
imp.i114863.net/5bL929
Mics:
Pair of Slate ML-1 (as overheads):
imp.i114863.net/vn663A
Austrian Audio CC8 (as rooms):
imp.i114863.net/yRvLOv
Earthworks DK7 Drum Mic Kit:
imp.i114863.net/mP25y
Lewitt DTP 640 REX Bass Drum Mic
imp.i114863.net/jW3Odn
Shure SM57 (snare bottom):
imp.i114863.net/DVeNMj
Austrian Audio Hi-X60 Headphones:
imp.i114863.net/kjvgKx
Lewitt LCT 440 Pure (piano):
imp.i114863.net/QOoGG9
Lewitt LCT 140 Air (Hihat):
imp.i114863.net/P0XAAM
Yall need to start posting more hacks on TikTok for me to test out haha. These werent the craziest or most viral tiktok hacks, but some were pretty interesting! Other though, well, not really worth the effort...
Hacks Tested:
-Sand bag floor tom sustain
-Bass drum mic as bass drum
-Cymbal clip hack
-Change in hihats
-Bird summoning cymbal
-Mini hihat hack
-Removable bass drum porthole
-Snare drum tuning hack
-Piano reverb chamber
Testing TikTok Drum Hacks

[@rdavidr]

What are some of your favorite drum hacks?

[@johndoemyco]

watch other drummers and feel like i’m at their level🤌🏼

[@idiotburns]

Number 1 drum hack is zipties gaffer tape in my gig bag

[@jakeklossing4352]

Using a collapsible wagon from Amazon to haul hardware. It folds up nicely and I find it convenient to only close up my cymbal stand's legs and leave everything else (clamps, boom placement, height, and other crap). I just place the full stands in the passenger seat of my car, 5 piece kit fits in backseat, trunk has space for other fun stuff like my giant cardboard cutout of rdavidr.

[@HR1YT016]

Can you try swapping the heads of a snare drum as an experiment pls

[@codyjasso5325]

I used a mic dust cover over one of my beater and it gave me a soft but heavier sound out of the kick drum

[@Miguel7456lmkuutti]

Cool! Now imagine someone playing the piano whilst simultaneously controlling the reverb of both the instruments with the pedal 🤯

[@MariusViken]

Would probably sound like something in the direction og Mouse on the Keys. Japanese band. Fucking awesome band

[@rawLmaobigDImEs]

Put a launchpad on the ground ✨BOOM✨

[@RodrigoTheHappyDog]

@@MariusViken Mouse on the Keys is fantastic, love their stuff with guest vocalists especially.

[@fitshamer]

I used to do this while playing my trumpet in a practice room with a piano. I would play into the strings while holding the reverb pedal and only the notes I played and the their overtones would ring in the piano.

[@Budch]

We could make impulse of piano

[@Mattiaskrantz]

I got some comments linking me this video so just wanted to say that I’ve been considering doing something with drums. But I’m thinking that since the piano hammers could be exchanged to drumsticks maybe the inside of the piano could have drums of different types. You know like when you pick ”drums” on a kids keyboard and you get triangle sound one key and a hi-hat the next etc. Now obviously it wouldn’t fit that well because I can see from this video that drums are kind of big compared to a piano hahah. But it does sound good in my imagination

[@mal2ksc]

You could take the hammers off an old piano and use cut down pieces of stick instead. Leave the rest of the mechanism alone, just glue stick bits in place of hammers. Of course I don't know how much of the mechanism typically works on the pianos you purchase for your projects... The low bass strings would provide mechanisms already designed to handle more mass and more kickback from the string, so those would be the natural choice for replacement with percussion. It would be pretty funny if you had an octave or a bit more that resembles the bass-and-snare octave from General MIDI, not to mention that people would already know how to write for it. You might need the "mic as bass drum" hack to pull this off, but I think that's still in the spirit of such a project.

[@Mattiaskrantz]

@@mal2ksc I’m thinking that even removing the hammer felt would turn it into some nice wooden mallets. But I also like the idea of using actual drum sticks, even if I guess it’s kind of just sticks

[@rdavidr]

100% approve this idea haha👌

[@sammcdouall4849]

Years ago I turned old wired headphone earbuds with the foam covers into mics and used these to record drums. One idea is to replace every piano hammer with earbuds (with foam, felt, cork or rubber coverings) to strike the piano strings and capture that sound. You will need a few audio mixing boards to plug a full piano of 81 keys. Another idea is to attach piezo pickups (or pressure sensitive switches) to the sides of every hammer and connect to a multi velocity sampling module (like Sweden's own 2Box modules) or program, a bit like the Mallet Kat (using eDrumin 10's). When using the 2Box modules with splitter cables the maximum inputs will be about 15 inputs per module. These ideas will electrify the piano with no chance of being electrocuted.

[@Quorkk]

ITS THE PIANO GUY!! Btw your vids are great.

[@themadkraken1912]

Oh god, I would be too scared to blow my microphones out to try the kick one.

[@rdavidr]

tell me about it... I was trying my hardest not to kill the thing 😂

[@mal2ksc]

@@rdavidr Is that why it wasn't bolted down? You'd rather your enthusiasm push it away than destroy it?

[@DOSStorm]

Yeah its a stupid idea unless you are using like a $20 Pyle mic

[@rayraybonne8469]

read my comment. mics not designed to be struck imo.

[@DOSStorm]

@@rayraybonne8469 I agree. Its a horrible idea

[@Kyle_Noonan]

With the piano hack, I've also seen producers tape down all of the root note keys that match the key of the song (with the sustain pedal down as well.) Love these videos dude.

[@jamesthomas3871]

That's clever! ... For the casual musician who doesn't feel like moving his upright piano just for the hack, I'm a little disaffected haha. Don't most people have them against walls?

[@squidcaps4308]

Just wrote about this 30 seconds ago.. Should've figured out it was not such a novel idea but obvious..

[@jdestrada6281]

Was definitely shocked by the piano one. But the mic stand thing was probably most practice out of all of them.

[@coda8640]

The mic clip hack might be my favorite...works in a pinch! Thanks for everything rdavidr... You were one of those individuals who got me so stoked on drumming when I was starting out. What an important time- thanks for being there, and being here!

[@mal2ksc]

The mic clip hack works best if you use somewhat softer clips on both sides to help reduce vibration, but obviously still tight enough to not slide down. When I do this, I use a little extension rod in between which originally went with a very small mic stand, and instead of a cymbal stand, it's clipped onto a music stand. Same basic idea though.

[@shaneelliott333]

@@mal2ksc maybe you could put a piece of fabric between the clip and the stand? not sure if it would work or not but it could reduce some vibration

[@coda8640]

@@shaneelliott333 reduce vibration and solve and fitting issues if your clips don’t match the size of your cymbal stand…in theory…

[@rayraybonne8469]

Just put painters tape or cotton fabric around the cymbal stand and clip it to that. No vibration! Also make sure your cymbal is isolated with padding from the stand itself. I like to use those sleeve cymbal nuts because they isolate the drum cymbals. You can always just use the plastic or vinyl sleeves on your cymbal stand threads before applying the wing nut. I still like to put a piece of tape around those too.

[@JerryBeansMan]

The thing about having wildly varying tensions on each rod is that it's a great way to warp the snare and/or hoop 😅 even if it did sound better (which imo it sounded much nicer beforehand), it's better for the longevity of the instrument to just learn how to tune for real!

[@morrron5]

Benny greb showed a trick where you loose 4 nuts on the snare, it sounds great after but yeah, i don't use it.

[@craigshewchuk9018]

Move the hoop around so it's not always in the same spot maybe

[@RedDogMamaHD]

You are definitely the man with the most drum stuff … I love when you open up the drawers full of pieces and parts!

[@doodlebobbeh8836]

The satisfaction of seeing well-organized drum bits and bobs 🤌🤤

[@JackofAllMinistries]

Dude, that piano reverb chamber was awesome! Obviously you wouldn’t record every song that way, but I could see some great applications for that…

[@ryanjabell]

100%. It's a really cool way to make a very cool garage band sound

[@ElCapitanGames]

You also could experiment with a lower blend and really get something amazing

[@angus4202]

this channel has made me want to buy drums again i miss my old set

[@1steeeez]

Do it

[@augustjschroeder]

I wonder what it would sound like if, instead of all the notes ringing out, you used the middle pedal (sostenuto) to hold out a chord, and then used it for the reverb effect. Only the notes being sustained would ring out and you would essentially have a tuned reverb. Your piano might not have this, though. It might just use the middle pedal for a dampening effect.

[@zacharysmithingell5460]

I want to hear this

[@afarmerhittingstuff3508]

@@zacharysmithingell5460 there is a plugin called piano verb by pspaudioware that does exactly this!

[@zacharysmithingell5460]

@@afarmerhittingstuff3508 good looking out, thanks! I'll take a look

[@JosephTavano]

Now this is the type of cool shit people should be experimenting with!

[@pRK747]

Glad to see the Acrylic Donner snare found some good use

[@klokmedia]

that piano hack is great. actually the piano mic without the sustain pedal already sounded awesome. i've also heard of putting an acoustic guitar in front of the kick and tracking the piezo pick up signal. this would be interesting to try with the strings open tuned to the key of the piece.

[@mikegrasso9736]

Love the piano hack. I've done that before and it makes for a cool sound. Side chaining the kick to a compressor on the reverb could make for some crazy sounds

[@DonChillum]

Video was awesome but I just have to say: Few things in music is as satisfying as hearing a skilled drummer play simple beats

[@thegrinder46]

The piano was very cool and had a really strong sound. Kinda like recording in a castle somewhere. Maybe in the circular 3 story stairwell or the like.

[@RedDogMamaHD]

*I am not an engineer* but I love watching Mattias Krantz videos!

[@IBitePrettyHardSH]

That "loose lug" hack won't work very well with DW True Hoops (which are 3mm thick and very stiff.) However, this trick definitely works with 1.6mm or 2.3mm hoops, I can confirm!

[@nuberiffic]

I think the piano reverb thing would be really cool for guitar. Put an amp right up against, or inside the piano, and it would vibrate sympathetically. You could even use the other damper pedal (if your piano has one) or put little weights on the keys to only have specific notes / chords reverberate

[@sauloviniciusf]

9:30 Pretty cool that you've chosen the same note that was about to be played in the music playing in the background.

[@nickferrence8593]

I love your channel AND absolutely enjoy your videos on drum hacks. Your way of presenting is great and keeps me coming back for more. Keep up the great work. Happy drumming

[@TylerCarson-yy8eo]

i recommend when connecting a mic to the stand like you did for the hat, use a shock mounting to absorb some of the shaking. Its a big studio pet peve of mine

[@maxstranahan6603]

I think It would be so cool to see you make a mega drumkit with all of your sets and cymbals added together - you have so many!

[@TimpBizkit]

A kid's dad asked me to deaden the snare for noise reduction so I stuck fleecing material to each skin and stuffed it. I quite liked the sound with just the fleecing material though. It sounded a bit lifeless with the stuffing but that was how they wanted it for quieter house practice. I'm not into ringing snares but the thin fleecing material stretched across each skin internally was quite nice. Kind of an electronic dance music snare sound.

[@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777]

@4:45 guy had been feeding the birds and associating the feed time with the cymbal sound. it's like a pavlov thing.

[@metisstudio]

Reverb Chamber trick is awesome! Thanks for sharing👍🏻

[@shock6416]

rdavidr is the kind of guy who can drill holes through a cymbal without even thinking about it

[@SeanGreezy]

“Use the clutch” what we call Forethought, keep the diddlers on the stump.

[@no_wrong_notes]

good video, love that reverb chamber idea.

[@javierlopeznaguil9092]

Love u man! You make an incredible (and funny) work. Keep it up!

[@CNder77]

Cool video. Great ideas. Your mini hi hat was my fave. Would love to have a set of those. Thank you for sharing this

[@mcmarine777]

His expression when summoning birds on the cymbal is hilarious.

[@MrAndrewKeyboards]

Decapitated, in the album "Carnival Is Forever", actually recorded drums using a full piano reverb chamber. That drumkit sounds insane!

[@brenthartman502]

Love your vids mate .. everyone is a gold mine 😃👍👍

[@joshbeer414]

Love your content dude

[@bentonchiez]

The change in the hihats is my favorite of all. It works especially great with Sabian Quiet Tones

[@bizzarehuman]

honestly the sound of the mic on the opposite side of the piano isolated was sick

[@snow_bruh20]

I really love how the 6" Flat Hat sounds. Obviously has a better tone than the 4" Diamond Blades.

[@spencerj]

I’ve seen that dumb SM57 strapped to a kick pedal meme 100 times. Not in a million years would I have guessed that it actually sounds pretty good. This is the best channel ever hahaha

[@patriotbarrow]

Did not expect the piano mic to sound this awesome. Heavy compression amd a gate would work a treat for trip-hop beats.

[@brandenlikesbeer]

The upright piano hack was epic!

[@isaiahrodriguez5408]

Sometimes I make music with my friends who actually have equipment so I’m glad to have stumbled on your account and learn a few things from you and TikTok

[@JMRSplatt]

I've actually had a studio tech use sand bags on my floor tom before! About 15 years ago in Boston, my 18" Pearl season is quite tricky to control the sound and sustain.

[@itgetsbetterheyhey]

Ive been watching some videos about DIY octobans. Out of PVC. I'd like to see your take on it before I try it myself. You are awesome Dave!!

[@mikeymcdrums]

Those Nicky Moon Modified hats sound awesome! 🔥🔥🔥

[@rafaelgonzalez7230]

Dude nice drum set 😮 🤘🏽

[@omarcortes5754]

Loved those big hi hats.

[@diminaband]

I did the snare lug detune trick on an album I played on and it worked perfect. Most of the album was metal but one song had a country vibe so I de-tuned one lug about 50% and it gave me a nice deep fat snare instead of of the more cracky snare I used on the other songs. But just one lug.

[@gethrules]

3:53 the relentless back to back puns killed me

[@ProdDJD]

That's a unique sounding reverb chamber, not spring reverb, but string reverb 🤯

[@antoninviolot]

The piano hack is crazy...!!! More than a reverb trick, it create super noisy/distortion harmonics, this is killin 🥳

[@TacoCrisma]

Nice tractor! I had a 1715 and loved it

[@jamielangford6534]

I use the snare tuning hack with my acryphonic - i loosen the 5 and 7 o’clock lugs to the point there is a crease which makes the whole thing sound really dry but still punchy - It comes out great in recording AND live sound, despite the fact i usually have my other snares cranked

[@RichoMaya]

Te ganaste un nuevo suscriptor con este video colega :) saludos desde México

[@crazyjoe1540]

I’ve always wanted to try that piano reverb chamber idea and now fuck I wish I had a piano that was so cool

[@TruthNTime]

The piano hack for a second or two kind of reminded me of Bonham's sound on "When the levee breaks."

[@nickwallette6201]

Yeah, it made me think of Autolux - Turnstile Blues. It's a pretty decent room reverb. Though one might argue that if you have enough room for a piano, you probably already have enough _room_ to mic.

[@craigshewchuk9018]

There is a good snare trick that the bottom two are loose, the top two are tight and the middle you can use to tune various ways quickly (like a gig if needed, I seen a video of a guy who does this for gigs and can get a bunch of different sounds tuning it that way)

[@rayraybonne8469]

two snares setup are good as well. Just like you changed tunings on a guitar I believe drums can have a variety of sounds to the ear as well. A different snare tone on different songs makes the song not sound like the same drum set

[@JacobraRecords]

3:56 your dad joke rant got me, had to sub

[@Mix3dbyMark]

excellent puns, well done

[@Terrible_Peril]

A whole roll of coin puns followed by Wu-Tang? Perfection.

[@trevorhansen4590]

The piano resonation chamber reminded me of a kind of Gregorian chant thing, having perfect fourth and fifth pedal tones, which could be a really cool n spooky sound to use intentionally

[@System.10]

That piano hack sounded sweeeeeet!!

[@ErickC]

I once watched a video where Steve Albini suggested using your keys as a simpler and probably easier alternative to coins. He was using it to cut the volume of the hats slightly while retaining the sound so they'd sit in the mix better.

[@tb7077]

I actually liked the piano reverb thing. Plus that bass was crunch funky. Could be useful at a certain point in time.

[@vdkylo7251]

loved the puns for the quarters bit

[@johnknight9150]

I much preferred the blade hats. I liked both, but the blade hats really hit my sweet spot.

[@SlyHikari03]

10:20 the band Red Vox used this trick on their song Reeling from the Rafters. They mentioned it at the 1hr12min12second in the Q&A live stream.

[@patrickfouhy9102]

I've seen that "snare tuning" one before, and I've seen some people use it with some success. The idea is that the one really loose lug becomes the primary pitch of the snare, but I think you usually need to have the snare fairly muffled to work. The issue that comes to mind though, if you have triple flange hoops, you will probably bend them if you do this enough. If you have die cast hoops you'll probably mess up the threads of your lugs/tension rods.

[@1toonhead]

Best reverb idea I've seen is by a drummer mate of mine Chris Webber where he does it in a car park tower. Sounded absolute mint.

[@brandonmclendon5368]

The piano hack sounds like it could be a cool effect for an intro of a song.

[@barny15]

That piano hack is crazy good. Hot damn.

[@pongboi]

This is a very great video

[@misterkite]

random note about sandbags.. they're heavy and full of sand. You can get "sandbags" that are designed to hold water and have a nozzle that you screw your garden hose into. That way when you're not using them, they're flat and weightless.

[@johnnixon2504]

Omg. The piano thing!

[@LuisEduardoBraschi]

3:53 You've reached the maximum amount of puns for the day.

[@crashdan0783]

Ok that mic clip idea is fantastic

[@leopoldbluesky]

Nice - instant sub!

[@mikkelerickson5424]

Wow those high hats actually sound really good with change… oh they are just good hi hats

[@Fantaman900]

The drum and piano together are a interesting thing to hear.

[@dontcryoverspiltmilk]

Random drum hack I've been using for years is leaving 1 lug all the way out of the floor toms reso head. Gives it a cool 80s pitch drop. Found it experimenting in highschool.

[@JasonJupiterandtheGlamRocket]

Remembering doing some recording in my guitar players apartment and high school Ringo Star taught me a trick where I would throw some T-shirts over my Tom's to lose such sustain and quiet it down a bit.. but yeah I'm halfway through the video and have learned a little...

[@Cucumber_132]

the amount of jokes you somehow fitted in into the penny hack.

[@itsn0g00d]

The sound of the piano hack was SO weird.. I can see that as a great recording experiment. Great video once again.

[@jasoncox9256]

PSP PianoVerb has been around for decades. Its a fun free plugin to get that crashing piano off a balcony sound with less mess.

[@diegobastiani]

lot of crazy ideas, if I had a kit I would test these things every day haahahaahh thx for the amazing video! +1 sub

[@johnathanrivard6614]

That snare trick with the lugs works for me. But I do have a brass snare. I way I found that out was really weird tho. It was cuz I was to pissed off because I really love doin them chuck noris rim shots but I was too lazy to keep that one lug tight.

[@ParallaxSound315]

The drummer for my old band actually used a few saw blades from a small circular saw or something similar (I'm not really a power tool guy myself) and got some really cool bell sounds from it

[@patrickallen2998]

David has done that. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h3TIqmuve8aGlas

[@TheEnergyball]

Piano Reverb was incredible.

[@nathanmonahan6157]

Both the little flat hat ideas sounded pretty good to me. Grinder disks definitely had a *knock* to them though, so between the hard hit and the intended use of the disks, it can't be kind to your sticks. 😂

[@zikandgroovefr]

"The studio is a mess, let's make it more mess." Thank you for the fun video.

[@ANNIHILISTIC]

You summoned Mattias?! You fool, that's pure elemental chaos, what have you done!

[@campbellmarty36]

The bass drum port hole would work PERFECT with Velcro around the edges!!!☝️👍👍

[@brendanerazo]

Closed Grand piano (miced) on the other side of a stage makes for an interesting reverb as well.

[@TreeAtmos.]

piano reverb chamber sounds insane

[@vercality6170]

I say it in all your comments, but you started this drum thing for me 8 years ago as a freshman. I'm sending the reverb chamber to my band before we start recording for our upcoming EP

[@NatureHeadSupreme]

Thanks for the entertainment, cool video.

[@vincentaugustus2748]

Those diamond blades give a super nice live trap hihat sound

[@justCedric]

I always love when I start subscribing a couple of youtube channels and start watching their videos and at some point I realise "Ohhhh .... they f*cking know each other"

[@cimfur]

Hahaha that felt beater segment.

[@TheCookiePup]

11:10 True, that's an awesome video idea!

[@yuzuruizumieggy]

3:55 Never thought that you could fit many puns into that one