ErgoSonic Percussion recently presented its patented, Balanced Projection Drum Kit at the 75th Annual Midwest Clinic in Chicago. The kit features an innovative angled maple shell design which resolves the inherent acoustic balance problems which exist with conventional drum kit design, allows for greater tuning capabilities, and provides improved options for miking the drums.
In a conventional kit, all rack and floor tom resonant heads face downward, while the bass drum head faces forward, resulting in uneven and unbalanced projection from the drums. The reimagined, angled shape of the rack and floor toms in the ErgoSonic Balanced Projection Drum Kit allows the resonant heads to face forward. In addition, the bass and snare drums have been specifically modified to match the volume and projection of the new tom design. The result is a drum kit with unmatched acoustic balance, projection and tone quality.
Beyond its superior balanced projection characteristics, the ErgoSonic Kit also provides greater tuning options. The resonant heads on the toms can be modified to significantly expand the drum’s tuning capabilities by porting them, or by installing Kickports or other tone control, muffling and dampening devices.
For recording and sound reinforcement applications, the Balanced Projection Kit also provides important advantages. On a conventional drum kit, microphones cannot be placed under the resonant heads because they pick up too much ambient sound and bleed from the cymbals and other drums, since the microphones can not be isolated adequately. Instead, the mics are placed over the batter heads, producing a predominance of stick attack sound, rather than drum tone. Because the Balanced Projection Kit has forward-facing resonant heads, microphones can be placed in front of the resonant heads, isolating the mics and resulting in a clear, rich tone quality.
“Conventional drum kits have significant acoustic drawbacks, and there has been so little innovation in this space that we’ve become numb to these problems,” said Ken Turner, president and founder of ErgoSonic Percussion. “Our Balanced Projection Kit overcomes these problems and provides unmatched sound quality and balance that is backed up by important research.”
After receiving a grant from New York State, the acoustic characteristics of ErgoSonic’s angled-shell design were thoroughly investigated through a series of tests in the Anechoic Chamber of the Acoustic’s Laboratory at Binghamton University. The completed study, A Computational and Experimental Investigation of the Acoustical Characteristics and Properties of ErgoSonic Angled Shell Drums, verified the drum’s superior resonating characteristics and expanded tuning capabilities. Prepared by Dr. Mahdi Farahikia and supervised by Dr. Ronald Miles, the study was considered groundbreaking acoustical research, and was presented at the 174th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.
To learn more about ErgoSonic Percussion Balanced Projection Drum Kit, Angled Shell Marching Bass Drums and other ErgoSonic Products, visit www.ErgoSonicPercussion.com.
