A New Approach To Shedding

by Chap Ostrander

It's fair to say that Remo's familiar tunable pads have traditionally been viewed mostly as beginner instruments. Understanding this, Remo director of product development Herbie May recently set out to develop a set of professional pads that could be used in a variety of ways. Along the way, stellar drummer Thomas Lang got involved, offering input from the viewpoint of a touring professional with the need to practice in different settings. So the new system was dubbed the Remo Thomas Lang Practice Kit.

What It Is

Rather than offer separate pads for different styles of practice, the Lang kit features an assortment of surfaces that can be interchanged on the same pad. Each surface has a magnetic coating underneath and is applied to the metal top of a baseplate.

Baseplates are sold in 8" and 131/4" sizes. The plates mount to stands using a standard 8-mm threaded receiver. You can also remove the receiver and attach three feet to the baseplate, allowing the pad to work on a tabletop. The 8" baseplate includes a strap so that you can use it as a leg pad. As a bonus, you can place the 131/4" coated pad onto the 8" leg pad base for brushwork.

Four color-coded surface pads are available. The Ambassador coated surface feels very much like a drum, and it lets you work on brush technique. The soft sponge rubber surface gives you less bounce, so you can work on speed and strength. The gum rubber surface gives the expected rebound, and the hard rubber surface can be used as a cymbal pad, or to work on drum corps playing.

The beauty of this system is that you can practice a technique on one of the surfaces, then quickly alter your approach by changing to another surface.

RP-1200 Comprehensive Kit

The RP-1200 setup—called the Comprehensive Kit by Remo—contains one 131/4" pad for the snare position and four 8" pads to simulate three toms and a cymbal. The snare pad is mounted on an omni-directional tilting stand. The "cymbal" pad gets a taller stand of the same design, and the floor tom pad goes on a shorter stand with teeth in the tilter. The stand for the two toms facing the snare has adjustable L-arms with threaded ends and locking wing screws.

The manual suggests that you use the Ambassador pad for the snare, two gum-rubber surfaces for the rack toms, the sponge rubber pad for the floor tom, and the hard rubber surface for cymbal playing. The benefit of this configuration is that you can hear different tones while you play making it easier to learn drumset patterns.

Since this setup is supposed to feel like a drumset, you need to mount your bass drum pedals so that they can be used quietly as well. The base for the RP-1200 consists of three pieces of aluminum that fasten to each other through the use of hook & loop strips. Small clips also serve to hold the parts together. Nylon straps go around the legs of your throne to keep the base from crawling away.

The bottom of each aluminum base section is filled with 1" polyurethane foam for sound isolation. The center section contains two large clamps that hold specially made stands, each of which has one fixed foot and two adjustable legs. The foot is clamped to the base, you adjust the other legs, and voila! The snare and toms are held solidly in place. The stands are single-braced to save weight, but they all provide solid support. A stick holder is also included. The brushed aluminum surface is attractive and nicely finished. When not in use, the base of the practice unit can slide under a bed or other piece of furniture for storage.

The outer sections of the base are sized to hold a single or double pedal setup. Remo supplies the hook & loop strips that allow you to position your pedals wherever they're comfortable for you, and then secure them in those positions. This system allows the pedals to be installed or removed quickly. Remo supplies beaters (with weights) that are placed on the pedals in an inverted position. The position of the beaters can be moved along the shaft to fit different-sized pedals.

The last part of the bass drum system is a clever V-shaped wedge that allows the pads to be placed in the downward path of the beaters. There's a central mounting hole for single pedals, and one fixed and one adjustable pad for double pedals. The beater target is a silicone pad set into a cup.

I first saw this pad kit on Thomas Lang's Creative Control DVD. As I watched Thomas play, I couldn't help thinking, "How can a pad set respond so well?" Now, having played it myself, I have to say that it does. If you can do any sort of bouncing with your feet, the silicone pads, combined with your pedals, will help you hone that skill (or anything else on the kit) in relative quiet. Add to that the differences in sound between the pad surfaces, and it makes for quite a system. You can complete the portability of the kit with an optional rolling case. The manual has instructions on packing everything into it.

RP-1100 Basic Kit

The RP-1100 Basic Kit uses the same base and snare pad as the RP-1200, but provides a single 131/4" pad and fittings for your single or double pedals. Where the 1200 has two 8" tom pads, this kit gives you a platform that transforms into several teaching/studying tools. For instance, it has a removable ledge that makes it a music stand. Or you can tilt it and attach an included mirror to the face to let you check your sticking. The platform can also be set flat to accommodate a laptop computer for practice with a DVD or music.

There are also two smaller accessory plates that attach to the back of the platform with clamps. One becomes a drink holder, the other has a smaller version of the music stand ledge so that you can place a metronome or MP3 player on it.

Conclusions

The Comprehensive Thomas Lang Practice Kit is designed more for touring professionals than for everyday players. It lends itself well to situations where the hour is late and you need to be quiet, or as a practice set for backstage, or on a tour bus.

I took the opportunity to use the two 8" pads on the double holder as a teaching tool. This allowed me to have one pad facing me with the other one for the student. If I mirrored the sticking pattern I was teaching, this let the student follow my movements. The two pads are also great for working on accents. I used one surface for the accented strokes and the other for straight playing.

I've struggled with my feelings regarding the cost of the Comprehensive system. You could purchase a low-cost drumkit for half as much, and put mesh heads on it for practice. However, a kit like that would not fit under a bed for storage. Neither could it be set up in the aisle of a tour bus. You also couldn't quickly change the playing response of the heads on a kit the way the pad surfaces can be changed on the Lang Practice Kit.

The bottom line is, a pad designed for one thing can't be changed into another. You can either buy more pads, or work with a system that includes all of them. The Remo pad setups contain them all in one package. Remo and Thomas Lang are changing the face of practice pads as we know them, and change is good.