Marcus de Mowbray
at
330 St. James's Road Studios

The dynamic range and responsiveness is extraordinary. When Jet Black of The Stranglers started using a spacer snare the sound engineer reckoned it was putting out 250% the level of a Yamaha metal snare. He was able to reduce the mic level and thus achieve better isolation, reduced feed-back and a cleaner sound, which the whole band noticed and liked.

Spacer Drums can be mic'd from above and below like normal drums but additionally from the side. With a mic fully inside the sound is incredibly large, with a very strong deep tone, ideal for slow heavy times. As the mic is gradually moved out to the side and away, the sound gets progressively crisper and funkier. From about 1" - 3" away from the side the tone is like a piccolo. The tone of the drum can effectively simulate a deep wooden snare or a metal piccolo just by moving the mic a few inches.

Spacer snares are now supplied with tone controlling foam blocks which can be placed inside, touching both heads; placed at the edge, they reduce ring; as they are moved towards the centre, the tone of a smaller piccolo drum will be produced. This can be achieved in seconds without retuning. New snare buzz control foam blocks are also supplied, along with a retaining bar. These can also be adjusted in seconds.

Spacer Drums are very responsive to different heads - a fibre-skyn will sound very "fibre-skyn" and a Rod Morganstein will sound very "Rod Morganstein"! In fact the inherent character of different head type is amazingly well enhanced by Spacer Drums.

The bass drums mic up beautifully, giving a clean dep tone, without so many "boxy" mid-range tones as normal bass drums. They have a distinct tone, putting out some very deep frequencies which will be below the normal hearing range if the head tension is too low. They are very sensitive to muffling. Many people are of the opinion that they sound best with minimal muffling, which produces a tone and volume to please Bonham fans. Also, like the toms an un-damped (or slightly damped) bass drum lends itself to Latin rythyms because of its sustaining "surdo" like tone

Spacer drums are normally supplied with black castings and lacquered brass spacers.