- Avant Series customer review by Drum Shack
I am a live and recording engineer and also manage a singer / songwriter, Katie Buckhaven. We are about to start work on a new studio album and, this winter, will be touring in the UK with a three-piece line up (Katie: vocals / acoustic guitar; Mark: bass / drums; Ronnie: vocals / electric guitar). I have been searching for a drum kit with specific requirements. We are working on the idea of the bass player playing kick and snare with his feet whilst playing bass. This allows us to travel lighter and provides something visually a little quirky ... which is never a bad thing ! But, also, for the studio work I have been searching for a kit with some real character, resonance and warmth.
I have to say, the Mini Kit is awesome. I absolutely love it. The 16" kick is small enough to enable us to travel light and compact on the road. It has a fabulous warmth which I fell in love with instantly. And the natural wood finish with inlay looks beautiful. I am really excited to get into the studio and start using it now. The resonance of the 14" floor tom is especially brilliant. We plan to use this and the 16" kick with soft mallets for some really great tom sounds in the studio. On the road, the 16" kick will give us both tom and kick sounds ... and we are also carrying a vertically-mounted snare, played with a foot pedal.
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Avant Series customer review[/caption]
As the pictures of the first rehearsal show, our guitarist, Ronnie, is now in charge of the Avant series kit, not our bassist, as first anticipated. We are easing the kit into songs in the live set as Ronnie gets used to looking after vocals, guitar and drums at the same time ! (I take back all my gags about guitarists !) The plan was to just take the kick and snare on the road with us, but we are also working on one number which uses toms too !
In the studio, the 14" floor tom and kick will feature heavily. I can’t stress enough how beautiful the resonance of these drums is !
I hope to be able to post some images / video of the kit in use soon. In the meantime, our most recent video shows Ronnie making use of the 16" kick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7y4V4fgsFs