In this episode of #NerdingOut, we are back at Blackbird Studios to speak with the iconic studios’ former operations manager and resident drum tech Paul Simmons as he shares what gear he would use to piece together a thrash metal kit.
From Blackbird’s modern custom titanium kits to their hardwood options, Blackbird comes equipped with everything you need to translate your vision and achieve your desired sound.
#NerdingOut is where we visit studios around the globe to ask producers, engineers and artists about their favorite tools of the trade.
The plugins that never leave their chain, the gear they would save from a burning building, or the instruments they bring to every session.
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TRANSCRIPT
We have fifty drum kits at, at our disposal, and then another twenty five in storage. So if a producer or an artist calls me and they have a thing they’re looking for, I know the drum kit.
If I were gonna build a thrash metal kit, oh man, my mind goes to Metallica. There’s a lot of attack, a lot of 4K snap on a bass drum, a lot of that, um, kind of pinpointed drum sound. So I would probably go for more modern kit. And we do have a kit that’s titanium. It’s unbelievable. It’s a custom kit that John (Mc Bride) had made that would work well.
They’re really loud, very bombastic. That’s comes to mind. But I have another kit that TOMA placed here for us. It’s really hardwood, bubinga wood would be fantastic for that. Tuning wise, there’s so many directions we could go put on some clear 2 ply drum heads, tight snare, but kind of dead, ’cause there’s a lot of that, this kind of stuff.
For me, I just really love to help them get the sound, get what they want. That’s the fulfillment for me.
