Toca or Remo?

[djembeboy]

I have decided to get my hands on either a Toca Synergy djembe or a Remo tunable djembe. Any suggestions? Anybody with experience with either of them?

Reza

[Pedro]

You should buy a traditionnal djembe that comes of Africa.
The sound is more natural than a Toca or a Remo djembe.

[DrumNinja]

That's a great suggestion if what you're going for is traditional tone. From what I understand (having no "traditional" drums and having no desire to sound "traditional") there's a lot involved in maintaining traditional drums.

Both I (the percussionist) and my drummer have Remo djembes. They are rugged, durable, sound great, and are easy to tune. They also don't have quite the humidity problems that most natural skin drums have. Very high end slaps (especially the smaller diameters), and boomy bass. They do, however, have a slight plastic-overtone sound to them.

They are also easy to "strap on." My band uses them for a world-style cadence, where one or more of us strap the djembe around our waist. We do this simply by fastening a regular clip-style strap (such as for a duffle bag, or in our case, a DW double-bass pedal bag) to the tuners themselves. Simple. There are ways of strapping on the more traditional rope-tuned djembes. Check this site out: www.drumworksbychris.com/index.htm (http://) This guy makes custom drums, and sells accessories like djembe straps.

Ultimately, I still stand by this: take suggestions, but try everything for yourself. You might like the way the Remos sound, or the Tocas (I apologize for not knowing Toca very well). But you may also love the way the traditional drums sound, and cannot settle for anything else.

Have fun!

DrumNinja

[echoofformless]

If you really want to spend the extra money for some serious equipment, get an LP djembe. It's tunable and since it's made of the same wood as congas, it will have that warmth and tone of a natural instrument. But it is expensive and heavy.

[DrummerboyPT]

Hey i just bought a black, 24" x 12" Toca Synergy djembe. Ordered it sunday off musicians friend and was playing it all day thursday. This Djembe was $160 two weeks ago, then they lowered the price to $120. I went to a music store about an hour away just to look around.. I saw this djembe and started playing it. Great sound! Hand Carved Art at the base, Rope Tuned calf skin head. Great Drum. It was $275 there so i went home and looked at it on Musicians friend again and it was on sale for $90. So i ordered it and its an incredible drum at a low price. I plan on getting a 14" Remo djembe with a fiberskin 3 head in a couple months though. Not because the Toca djembe isnt amazing but i'd love to have another djembe. And the Remo Djembe has a wonderful sound, easily replaced heads, and a great paint job.. heh. But, the rope tuning on the Toca adds to its looks and gives it an outstanding sound. Rope tuning isnt as complicated as it looks. So its up to you man.. i just thought i'd tell ya alittle about the toca.. the remo is great too, a guy down the street from me has like a 16" remo i think and ive gone down there and borrowed from him when one of my bands is recording to add more percussion. He sadly enough uses it as a table and i have to tune it when i use it but it does have a great sound as well. Hope i helped.. keep drummin

[iplaydjembe]

Hey... I have an 18" Remo djembe, and nothing compares to that AWESOME bass, and the trademark Remo Twang when you hit the rim just right. I LOVE IT!!! I suggest getting a 14" if you are gonna lug it around a lot. I carry it everywhere, and it gets Really heavy. Also, that luggage strap thing works wonders. When I bought mine, I also bought a shoulder strap for $25, and it had NO back support. that sucked. I tried the luggage strap, and was mad because I wasted $25 that I could have used to buy other percussion stuff! I highly reccomend REMO.