Have drums/drummers/drumming really changed this much?

[poserp]

An interesting (to me, anyways) comparison:

Billy Cobham/George Duke playing Red Baron from 1976:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN9Vaml0dZE

vs

Billy Cobham/George Duke playing Red Baron from 1998:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCcooFs5JlA

The drums have become "larger" for the worse IMHO. What happened? Perhaps it's the room acoustics or the FOH mix or some combination thereof. I'd like to understand what's changed because I'm interested in getting something similar to that older, somewhat drier drum sound for my own recordings. Maybe it has to do with changes in playing technique; it sounds like in the earlier vid Billy Cobham is playing more towards the bell on the hi-hat and not striking it as hard. Perhaps he's also striking the snare with less force and/or has it tuned differently. Whatever it is, I feel like much of the groove is sapped from the '98 version as a result of the changes in how the drums sound.

[bleen]

The headband stole Cobham's mojo!

But seriously, as a long-time drummer, I've always played "traditional" depth toms, even when playing heavy music. They speak faster, can sound just as fat/deep/wet/insert-fave-adjective-here, sound better in higher tuning ranges (like Cobham's in the first clip), etc.

Maybe that's what you're missing in the second one? The snare is also MUCH louder/deeper/verbed out in the recent clip.

[Seaneman]

Both videos have acceptable drum sounds for the time. A friend of mine in the studio last week said something very telling about modern drum sounds as I set up to get sounds and levels. He said, " I want you to sound like you really sound when we jam, not "good". .....

[poserp]

Another thing I noticed is I really prefer the older video's electric bass sound; it fits much better with the overall mix. In the newer video the bass is too boomy, sounds like a cartoon version of a real funk bass.

[dBDawg]

Interesting thread, since I've been interested in trying to figure out and capture different drum sounds. I found myself watching these two videos back and forth looking for shots that revealed new information. I like both for different reasons, but in terms of helping distinguish differences, here's a couple things I notice between the two, (technological advances in recording equip aside):

1) drum set material. the '76 video has an acrylic drum set. the '98 video sounds and appears to be a wood set. And yes, drums have generally gotten deeper contributing to more low end, which wasn't in style back then, but was achievable. Also, He might be playing softer as times in the '76 video but, I don't think this is a large contributing factor to the overall drum sound. I see him playing just as hard in both videos.

2) heads: plastics took leaps between this time period, contributing to sustain, tone, etc. You can also tune drums to have less sustain, comboed with a possible gate maybe will give that more vintage sound. I noticed the old video has clear heads compared to coated heads in the newer vid.

side note: althought the '76 vid has bottom heads on his toms, it was common in this period to have drums without the bottom head. It gives one less membrane to resonate, decreasing decay and very effectively changing the drum's response.

3)The '98 video has A LOT more room/audience mic mixed in, causing everything to sound washy and reverbed out. The '76 video is more direct sounding. I would even guess they brought down the audience mics substantially until the clapping at the end.

my two cents