“What? Say that again please?” This is what I am sometimes forced to say, much to the dismay of whoever I am talking to, because I have a slight hearing loss from doing too many shows and rehearsals without protecting my ears. I have a constant, low volume, high-pitched ringing in my ears which actually gets louder if I am tired. In addition to the lovely ringing, I am sometimes unable to clearly differentiate T’s and D’s when listening to someone in a crowded environment. It’s not fun, for me, or anyone I talk to.

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While I was in the market for a new drum rug, which can be quite expensive, I stumbled upon these mini $2 door mats from Ikea. They were perfect. They were black, light weight, and they had non-slip rubber underneath. I thought to myself, “What if I could somehow string these together, and get them to fold neatly into a trap case?” And, that is just what I did.

I scooped up 8 of these IKEA BORRIS door mats, brought them home, lined them up in two groups of four mats each, and applied good old black duct/gaffer tape to them. I wrapped the tape around the top and bottom to make sure it would hold securely, leaving about .5cm in between so you could fold it with ease. When you need to use them, you just line the both of them up together and set up your kit. Works a treat. See figure A.

So, for $16 and a little duct tape, you can have a rug that folds up into one of your cases for those gigs where you show up and find the drummer’s worst nightmare… the slippery, hard wood floor!

A few months back I picked up an AUDIX D6 bass drum mic after using one at a gig. I have been using my trusty AKG D-112 for about 15 years now, but when the engineer plugged in the D6 my ears lit up with delight! So much so that I had to whip out the AKG mic to A/B the difference. What I found is, with the EQ flat, the D6 is sub-beast from hell. Great top-end attack with this fat bottom-end punch. It’s the perfect kick mic for live situations. I still use the AKG because some studio engineers still prefer its natural sound, but the D6 is my mic of choice. The price is an added bonus.

Audix D6 Spec Sheet

Although I mostly use and endorse Yamaha Drums and Grover Pro Drums, I recently picked up a silver sparkle Drum Workshop Mini Pro kit. I think it was intended to be a kid’s drum set, but when I heard it in the shop I was blown away. Out of the box… 16″ kick, 12″ snare, 10″ tom, 13″ floor tom, dw4000 bass drum pedal, dw4000 hi-hat stand, snare stand. throne, and a retro ‘off the bass drum’ cymbal arm!

It has an amazing sound, great for RnB gigs. The hardware is a bit too light. But, load-in and out can be done in one trip! The kick drum needs a proper bass drum mic which needs to go through a PA system. That adds the fat bottom to a really punchy sounding kick. Take one for a spin if you catch em’ in the stores.