Sergio Ponti (Tuesday, 15 March 2011 14:42)

After a few months of playing these new Volume Drums I feel I can give a honest and objective feedback on these babies.

I had a chat with Tullio and we came up with the idea of a set with very shallow rack tom depths: 8"x5", 10"x6" and 12"x7". More regular sizes in the floor tom area, 14"x12" and 16"x14", and a 20"x18" kick round off the kit. A 14"x5" completes the set just right.

For years I'd been thinking about having super short toms that would enable a quick and easy set up, but I always put off the idea with the thought that those little toms would end up sounding like a set of timbales.

We decided to give it a try and we were both pleasantly surprised with what we ended up with.

The more common 10" and 12" diameters sound simply amazing in their shallow depths, big and full at lower tunings, yet precise and sharp at the same time. I prefer a slightly higher note from them, and they really sing with great projection and power, without lacking bottom end when tuned higher. Either with Volume's original single-ply, clear heads or with clear Evans GPluses on them, which I am currently using. Still single ply, but slightly thicker than its G1 or Ambassador comparisons, they give these drums the perfect blend of highs and lows and mids.
Their little brother, the 8"x5" can sound like a timbale when cranked up for your latin gig or sound like a rototom for your prog-rock explorations.
Indeed, when tuned lower it easily integrates in a rock setting.

Not to mention how easy these toms are to set up. No more power-tom syndomes, where the racks never seemed to go down enough to provide a perfect playability.
They are even shorter than traditional sizes, yet posses the same exact sound qualities you'd expect from more common Volume configurations.

The floor toms provide a even fuller low-end rumble and the kick well, it just...kicks.
Tullio left a 4" hole on the lower right side of the shell that serves both for easier, double mikings (one in the front, one on the inside) and as a vent hole, allowing more air to escape at once, giving the bass drum a quick decay, full punch and attach. Playing faster double pedal figures also comes a lot easier since lot more air is going out of the bass drum, giving both heads a break.
This way, you can also leave your front head intact and at the same time make the sound engineers happy that they still can mike the kick with an internal microphone.

The snare drum has a great crack and a full-bodied sound, and works great at all tunings, sounding like the warmest maple snare and the highest-pitched piccolo. Let your hands and ears decide.

I was recently out with some great artists like Clive Bunker and Jonathan Noyce of Jethro Tull, Bernardo Lanzetti from PFM and David Jackson of Van Der Graaf Generator and they all commented on how well Volume Drums sounded. Give yourself some time to check them out!