Lo fellow drummers....

Perhaps we could use this thread as an overall "tips and techniques" for drumming in general.

I'll start things off:

I have a feeling my pedals/bass/throne aren't set up too well, as I'm not able to make any progress with double-bass rolls. That's to say, I can roll, just very very slowly (and I've been practicing a lot). The action feels uncomfortable and strained, which leads me to think that I need to make some adjustments.

I've tried shifting the throne back, forward, left and right, moving the pedals apart, further back/forward and playing with the Cobras a bit. But no luck so far.

Anyone have any tips on throne height/position, pedal distance (away from throne and apart from one-another) and distance of bass drum (trigger in my case) from throne? And of course, how to set up the cobras for speed and responsiveness.

Any tips would be welcomed, as I'm not making the progress I feel I should be getting into rolls.

Cheers,

FYI - using a roland TD9 with TD12 mesh pads (including large mesh bass trigger). Using felt beaters on Iron Cobra PowerSlide twin pedal.

PS. If anyone is in the London area and would be up for helping me set up properly, that would be fantastic. Time/expenses would be paid of course.

Hi Alex.

right here's what seems to be universally accepted starting points for double kick work coupled with some of my own ideas.

Throne height - Leg at 90 degrees or more. I'd recommend having your upper legs parallel to the ground when your feet are on the pedals, or very slightly above this. Obviously your ankle angle will affect this. Have your knees a bit back from your feet, so your knees aren't right above your feet (i.e an acute angle). Have your feet half way down the pedals and touch the pedals with your toes.

Pedal spacing - Have the pedals set apart so you can comfortably rest your feet on them and don't have any stretch in your legs. You should find your feet just go to a certain "footing" so put the pedals there but keep them equally spaced on either side of the snare. This will ensure you use the same motion for each leg and don't do anything cockeyed Have the snare bang in the middle too.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking the pedals really have that much effect on the speed. The max speed you can reach is a result of your muscles being able to control the pedals, and you may find as you develop or change you need to change the settings on the pedals to match. I've used to use Iron Cobras and had the tension on the light side but the Axis pedals I use now are much lighter, so I use heavy springs as tight as possible with a bigger distance between the head and beater, just to get the feel I want.

I'd suggest not having the beaters more than 15cm from the kick head (distance from closest point of beater to head). Double kick drumming isn't about "big foot swings" anymore than guitar playing is about raising the plectrum over your head before picking each note You can hit very hard with a short stroke - think Bruce Lee!

Start by putting the spring tension to half way and go from there.

Leon,

Awesome tips!

I'm gonna put these into practice asap. I think the main thing I had wrong was the angle of legs/feet to pedals. I was straining and shifting forward to get any kind of real contact. I'm also limited by the width of the rig, but widening it a bit will help me to get the space i need between the pedals. I think they're a bit close at the moment.

I think one other issue is the actual pedals themselves and how they're set up. I'm using max tension on the springs which seems to help, and kept the distance of beater>head quite small but I think I'll widen it a bit for more control.

This sort of thing would be fantastic for the mag by the way... it's always good to read about the gear people use but the way they actually set up would be extremely useful!

Cheers again mate appreciate it!

No worries, with the width just go so your legs don't bang on the snare drum or touch it but aren't ridiculously wide apart. This is doable with the ic double from what I remember.

I can probably play a bit faster with the beaters 10cm from the head than when they're 15cm, but I prefer being able to have the feeling of hammering and straining the kicks at high speed nowadays.

You're right, we need to sort something out for the magazine, i'd do it myself if I had time!

yeh the IC go quite wide. I've had to widen them quite a bit, almost fully. But that has helped a lot.

Can i check something: if I make the distance between beaters and head smaller, I take it i will need to re-tighten the springs in order to retain some of the "feedback"? Because just making the distance smaller seems to be loosening them quite a bit, and they don't kick back responsively. They feel heavy and I think that's why I'm straining my ankles trying to play.

cheers mate

The spring holder (on the axle) should keep the same angle no matter the distance of the beater from the head, and the pedalboard should stay the same height, so the tension shouldn't drop. The pedal will feel different as the beater has less momentum, but I'd have thought it would make it easier, not harder. You could try adding/removing the beater weights and moving them up and down the beater shafts to find the best position, or loosening the spring tension

weird... im starting to think these pedals are a bit fucked... a lot of the screws and bolts were almost impossible to undo (had to use boiling hot steam and WD40 to loosen them!). kind of suggests they're not in the best condition... mhm