E. Doctor Smith's Blog

Back in 2011, I embarked on building an " Indian Subsonic Bass Sound " Kit. This kit was inspired by the drum sets played by most notably, Trilok Gurtu and the likes of Pete Lockett and Selvaganesh Vinayakram. Although I was able to successfully build this kit, I hadn't been able to put it to good use in a live musical situation or recording session. Now, nearly ten years later I found myself performing the kind of world music that could lend itself to unique properties of this drum kit. A few years ago, I'd been invited to record with 7 string bassist Jason Everett for his "Moksha" project. For this recording, I used my Zendrum EXP, MIDI percussion controller. Jason had assembled an impressive array of world class musicians for this project as well; Guitarist Fareed Haque, Vishal Nagar, Suhail Yusef Khan, and the kanjira master from John McLaughlin's "Shakti", Selvaganesh Vinayakram.  E."Doc" Smith and Selvaganesh Vinayakram ...

In my last blog, I was preparing to build a replica of the Tama "Bill Bruford Signature Palette Series" snare drum from scratch, with all-chrome, authentic Tama parts. Most of the parts I was able to find quite easily, however the vintage Tama MCS50A Throw Off and MCS50B Butt proved to a real challenge to obtain. Eventually, I found them; (I even had to search as far as Athens, Greece and Lindau, Germany; Thank you Trimis and Thomann Music!). As I had mentioned before, Bruford's Tama snare was unique; A 14" x 6", 6 ply shell consisting of 2 ply Maple, 2 ply Birch and 2 ply Maple. My version would use a 6 ply Keller VSS Maple 14" x 6" shell. Not exactly the same, but as close as I could get. In fact, all of my Gretsch, Mapex and Yamaha snares were 100% Maple, each warm and wonderful sounding. As fate would have it, I happened to come across an unusual find; A 14" x 6" Bill Bruford Signature Series snare drum that was missing all of its o...

Bill Bruford's "rimshot" is one of the most unique and exquisite snare drum sounds ever heard. From his earlier days on his 14"x 5.5" Ludwig Supraphonic Super-Sensitive snare with Yes, to his brass 14" x 6.5" Tama Big Beat snare with King Crimson, Bruford's crisp rolls and sticking technique were a thing of beauty and a joy to behold.  In his later years, Bruford moved away from the metal snare drums of rock, to the jazzier sound of the all-maple 14"x 6.5" Tama Starclassic snare drum with his all-acoustic group Earthworks.  It was during that era that Tama offered the "Bill Bruford Signature Palette Series" snare drum, a customized, 6 ply Starclassic; 2 ply Maple, 2 ply Birch and 2 ply Maple. It was also outfitted with all black hardware; lugs, hoops, strainer and a custom "Black Metallic Sand Blasted" finish, with Bill Bruford's personally autographed and numbered decal. Listing for around $650, the snare quic...

Post #1 of 10... Well, this was my first time playing the "Ten most influential albums" game, thanks to one  Steve Woehrle , so  In no particular order, I will start off with Steve Roach and Michael Shrieve's "The Leaving Time", featuring  David Torn  and Jonas Helborg...  If you haven't heard this musical masterpiece, you really need to! This album is certainly on my "desert island classics". This was an interesting era, with guitarist David Torn's "Cloud About Mercury", Patrick O'Hearn's "River's Gonna Rise" and Mark Isham's "Castalia". Many of these same players were on these albums, along with Terry Bozzio, Bill Bruford and Tony Levin. Post #2 of 10... Billy Cobham's "Total Eclipse" remains one of the most influential albums in my life. I was fortunate to see this tour live at Washington, DC's Catholic University! The Brecker Brothers, Abercrombie, Leviev, Blake and Ferris...

The ZDS Shifter and Darin Kadrioski In my last two blogs, I looked at incorporating the Boss RC-300 Loop Station and the Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Foot Controller into my Zendrum EXP set-ups. Each have been baptized by fire in recent live performances with both Facing East and the Deep Energy Orchestra respectively. It was now time to look toward my own groups and solo performances. Enter the ZDS Shifter, the latest innovation by drummer, and programmer Darin Kadrioski. Most of us Zendrummers are already familiar with his apps for the the Zendrum; ZenEdit, his online editor for the Zendrum StompBlock, and Restomp. The ZDS Shifter, allows Zendrummers to change the MIDI notes and configuration of the Zendrum triggers with the touch of a footswitch. Like the StompBlock, the Shifter powers the Zendrum, and also features a USB port and mute function. Why was the Shifter important to me? Well, with the Boss RC-300 looper now in my arsenal, I really wanted to be able to seamlessly switch be...

In my previous post, I examined using the Zendrum EXP with MIDI Foot Controllers, specifically the Behringer FCB1010. Once I got past a byzantine learning curve, I was able to effortlessly control MIDI volume, program changes and the like. It was time to turn my attention to the world of Looper Foot Controllers.  Many of the musicians I've worked with are masters of these loopers, and pedal boards; Lexicon, Digitech, Boss and Roland. Their ability to build songs on the fly and in real time was both amazing and daunting.  They are not for the squeamish and if not played correctly, can be an unforgiving and unmitigated disaster. That's perhaps the biggest reason I shied away from them, and instead invested my time and energy in one shot samplers, like the Akai S2000. In the old days, I'd load my pre-recorded samples into the Akai with an Iomega Zip drive, and trigger the sample from my original instrument, the Drummstick, and later the Zendrum ZX. With the arrival of the...

I'm psyched to be starting off 2019 with new projects, like John Wubbenhorst's Facing East with Tom Canning and Steve Zerlin; and Jason Everett's Deep Energy Orchestra with Trey Gunn, Fareed Haque, Radhika Iyer, Phil Hirschi, Rachel Nesvig, Aleida Gehrels and Chaz Hastings! Playing with these great musicians requires not only lots of shedding, but also updating my live Zendrum set-up with some new gear. Gone are the days when I needed a rack full of gear, like an Alesis D4, Alesis DM Pro, Akai S2000 Sampler, and effects like Yamaha Rev 100 or Alesis MIDIverb, and a Mackie line mixer. The modules soon gave way to laptops, stocked with VSTs, and the gear has gotten smaller, like the new Zendrum Stompblock. The iPad Pro has supplanted my MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, and the new keyboard amps that come with built in EQ and effects have all but replaced all those heavy, powered speakers and rack mounted mixers. The newest addition to my set-ups are MIDI foot controllers ...