Reference...Where's the Birch?

[eyedrum]

I think someone might have started a similar thread elsewhere but here goes. It seems that Birch wood is not so favorable in this new series of drums. With it's use somewhat limited to the Snare (6 plys) and the 8 x 10 tom (2 plys). I think also the 8 x 8 tom but I don't see it listed. Contrast this to Maple wood. It (maple) is an ingredient in all drums in the series with Mahogany being added to the larger toms and bass drum. Now, can we surmise from this information that Birch is a lesser favored material for building drums according to Pearl's R&D department? With the exception of snare drums and high toms.

I have owned a BRX (birch kit) in the past. I really liked the kit, however sold it because I couldn't get the bass drum or lower toms to sound to my liking. Now the snare, also BRX was very nice. Please know that my intentions are not to disparage the BRX/SRX line of drums.

Now I realize that other parts of the drum affect the overall sound of the instrument. Bearing edges, hoops, lugs, thicknes etc. If Birch is supposed to be so "naturally EQ'd", than why such a limited usage in this new Reference series? Is it revolutionary sound or brilliant marketing?

Please note that this thread is not meant to upset anyone. It's simply to provoke thought and exchange. I have been and will continue to be a consumer of Pearl products.

[Tallica/Sevendust Freak]

It's not about favourable with Reference. It's about each drum being it's own instrument with the best wood combinations that Pearl has researched. For this drum series, we can assume they have found that adding just the right amount of Birch with Maple (and Mohogany) will allow the drum to bring out it's most unique sound. Although they aren't using much Birch in any of the drums it is not because they don't like Birch, it's because that's what they found to best EQ the overall sound of each drum. I appreciate your provoking thoughts and I hope most of the responses are not "Because Birch sux0rz" or "Maple pwns". There are some adults here right? jk

[eyedrum]

It's not about favourable with Reference. It's about each drum being it's own instrument with the best wood combinations that Pearl has researched. For this drum series, we can assume they have found that adding just the right amount of Birch with Maple (and Mohogany) will allow the drum to bring out it's most unique sound. Although they aren't using much Birch in any of the drums it is not because they don't like Birch, it's because that's what they found to best EQ the overall sound of each drum. I appreciate your provoking thoughts and I hope most of the responses are not "Because Birch sux0rz" or "Maple pwns". There are some adults here right? jk

I hear you man, thanks. I totally understand the concept of the sum ingredients of the products being better sounding than the materials by themselves. Thanks again. :)

[valtemand]

i've just been thinking, using different woods mean that the different woods vibrate at a different frequency thus the glue would be under alot of stress where the wood changes, and after a while they would work their way to detaching from the other wood, meaning that these drums had a finite life, or is the glue to strong for this to happen, could somone with knoledge state wether this will acctually affect the drum noticably or not.

[Tallica/Sevendust Freak]

It shouldn't because the process Pearl uses for making shells can be put in to example like this.
if one ply's glue fails and the shell tries to separate. The other plys will still be intact because of the overlapping process they use. It's like an interwoven knot in the sense that because there is no exposed seem aside from outermost ply (under the laquer coat) and innermost ply (which is also held together by the drumhead lugs). The shells will compress on eachother but because there isn't anywhere for the tension to go it shouldn't or won't detach. I'm sure a Gene or someone in the manufacturing dept. could answer it better than myself, but that's how I understand their process which is pretty damn smart imo.

[Fixxxer]

the shells vibrate as a single peice of wood, not in dividual plies vibrating at different frequencys

[Earthdrum]

Every particle vibrates individually. Because these are different species of woods, they tend to vibrate at different frequencies. Wave refraction gives the illusion of one frequency.

[Panda Sound]

maybe the woods in the shell do vibrate diferent, and that is what gives the special/good sound to it..., the difference in the density of the mixed woods creates that "special" shell, but I don't think it would be too much as to bring the ply's to separate from each other, or detach themselves.
It's just an idea... some who really knows about this could help...

[Earthdrum]

The plys will not separate. Pearl uses state of the art heat compression molding systems. Remember, Reference kits are not the first Pearl line to use two difference wood types. Masterworks line has given this option and I positive many owners can tell you that they had no problem with ply separation whatsoever. MHX kits have maple reinforcement rings which probably wont separate in your life time, another with any other recent Pearl shell.

[Tallica/Sevendust Freak]

That's what I'm saying, they won't separate but it sounded contradicting. I'm just saying that because of the heat compression molding system each ply is not placed on the same seem as the next. So even if it wanted to separate by some act of a higher being, it wouldn't happen because there's no room for it to separate. Sorry if it sounded confusing or misleading.

[pelaminack]

The plys will not separate. Pearl uses state of the art heat compression molding systems. Remember, Reference kits are not the first Pearl line to use two difference wood types. Masterworks line has given this option and I positive many owners can tell you that they had no problem with ply separation whatsoever. MHX kits have maple reinforcement rings which probably wont separate in your life time, another with any other recent Pearl shell.

This is absolutely correct. There have been all kinds of mixed wood shells by many different manufacturers. Pearl's DLX series drums in the 80's mixed birch, mahogany, and some other wood I forget now. The first line of session drums mixed Maple and Mahogany. Masterworks drums, have been mixing woods for almost a decade now. Yamaha also has done mixed wood drums. Yamy's Stage Custom line blends Birch and low-grade Mahogany.

Any notion that the plies will separate is false. The woods have different densities and characteristics that produce differing tones. However, the actual vibration range differential of the wood is completely miniscule. Wood density has nothing to do with it's pitch, more so it's volume. If you look at the three most popular woods, maple, birch, and mahogany, you will see some interesting things. Maple has the greatest density, followed by birch, and then mahogany is the softest. As you would expect, maple is the loudest, followed by birch, and then mahogany. However, when it comes to pitch, this patern doesn't hold. Mahogany (the softest wood) is the lowest in pitch, while birch (a medium density) wood has the most high end frequencies.

The sonic frequencies of a wood have more to do with the chemical and molecular properties of a wood. The actual sound energy is generated by the drum heads which bounce the sound back and forth to each other through the shell. The shell simply acts as a resonance chamber and amplifies the sound according to it's resident timbre. Having different woods in the drum simply means that there will multiple voices resonating the sound energy generated by the heads.

The different plies of wood won't move differently, they will simply each interperet the sound energy differently. This logic would lead us to beleive that a guitar would split apart over time if you played more than one note at a time on a consistent basis. It might seem logical, but it has no scientific merit.

[Tallica/Sevendust Freak]

You get my Rep webster....jk :) But very informative and I like that. Thank you for that bit of information.

[Xplora]

Another perspective on the plies...

We REALLY shouldn't get too worked up over the woods and tones associated. People are getting confused as to how wood produces a tone. Material does not PRODUCE a sound, it actually filters it. Mahogany doesn't MAKE a warm phat sound, it strips away the harsher trebles. Birch strips away the mids to leave the EQ'd sound.

Multiple plies strip away different kinds of frequencies and different timbres. The Reference kicks will strip away a lot of the treble sounds, while the rack toms will take away the muddier bass tones that aren't needed for a cutting rack tom.

Does that make it easier to understand?

[BRIG6366]

i've just been thinking, using different woods mean that the different woods vibrate at a different frequency thus the glue would be under alot of stress where the wood changes, and after a while they would work their way to detaching from the other wood, meaning that these drums had a finite life, or is the glue to strong for this to happen, could somone with knoledge state wether this will acctually affect the drum noticably or not.

Most vintage drums were mahogony / poplar, maple / poplar, mahogony / maple or in some cases whatever was available at the time. Many of these drums have stood the test of time and still sound great today, so the fact that the Reference series uses different wood combinations is not a problem.

[pelaminack]

Another perspective on the plies...

We REALLY shouldn't get too worked up over the woods and tones associated. People are getting confused as to how wood produces a tone. Material does not PRODUCE a sound, it actually filters it. Mahogany doesn't MAKE a warm phat sound, it strips away the harsher trebles. Birch strips away the mids to leave the EQ'd sound.

Multiple plies strip away different kinds of frequencies and different timbres. The Reference kicks will strip away a lot of the treble sounds, while the rack toms will take away the muddier bass tones that aren't needed for a cutting rack tom.

Does that make it easier to understand?

Yes & No... Try taking two boards of each type of wood and slapping them together. You will get a very different sound with each wood. The woods do generate sound. Thats why a head stretch over a metal ring like on a roto-tom sounds much different from a head stretch over a solid maple shell. Or, why a violin sounds much different from a violin string stretch between two trees.

Granted, the head does most of the work. The head absorbs the energy and takes most of the force. But it then transfers that energy through the shell into the bottom head. The bottom absorbs the energy like a trampoline and bounces it back through the shell to the batter head. As this energy passes through the shell, it causes sympathetic vibrations in the shell itself. Each wood has a unique frequency spectrum that it responds to. As the wood responds to those frequencies it hums those frequencies causing what we call resonance and tone. This results in a louder, fuller sound than the heads wound generate on their own. The more wood involved (i.e. thicker or deeper shells), the greater the overal tone and volume generated and also the more energy is required to activate a response. The different types of wood will respond to different sympathetic vibrations, giving the different pitch characterisitics of the different woods. My mixing woods, you can change the ballance of frequency strengths a shell will respond too.

This process continues until all energy is absorbed. As energy bounces back and forth between the heads, it is absorbed by any and all obtrusive objects. Every hole in the shell causes energy loss, as does every object touching the shell. The bigger the hole, the more energy is lost. That's why large holes drilled into the shell for mounting brackets kill the resonance, they cause energy to be lost very quickly. That's why optimounts will let a drum resonant much more than the shell mounts on older drums. Lugs mounted to the shell also cause loss of energy for every hole drilled. That's why free floating drums like Pearl's FF Snare and Sleishman's Free Floating Kits have more resonance and tone than drums with shell mounted lugs.

By using optimounts and bridge style lugs to reduce energy resistence and by mixing different wood plies, Pearl has attempted to make a kit where each drum has the optimal frequency response range for its size and where there is minimal resistance to create a long and pleasing tone.

[eyedrum]

Yes & No... Try taking two boards of each type of wood and slapping them together. You will get a very different sound with each wood. The woods do generate sound. Thats why a head stretch over a metal ring like on a roto-tom sounds much different from a head stretch over a solid maple shell. Or, why a violin sounds much different from a violin string stretch between two trees.

Granted, the head does most of the work. The head absorbs the energy and takes most of the force. But it then transfers that energy through the shell into the bottom head. The bottom absorbs the energy like a trampoline and bounces it back through the shell to the batter head. As this energy passes through the shell, it causes sympathetic vibrations in the shell itself. Each wood has a unique frequency spectrum that it responds to. As the wood responds to those frequencies it hums those frequencies causing what we call resonance and tone. This results in a louder, fuller sound than the heads wound generate on their own. The more wood involved (i.e. thicker or deeper shells), the greater the overal tone and volume generated and also the more energy is required to activate a response. The different types of wood will respond to different sympathetic vibrations, giving the different pitch characterisitics of the different woods. My mixing woods, you can change the ballance of frequency strengths a shell will respond too.

This process continues until all energy is absorbed. As energy bounces back and forth between the heads, it is absorbed by any and all obtrusive objects. Every hole in the shell causes energy loss, as does every object touching the shell. The bigger the hole, the more energy is lost. That's why large holes drilled into the shell for mounting brackets kill the resonance, they cause energy to be lost very quickly. That's why optimounts will let a drum resonant much more than the shell mounts on older drums. Lugs mounted to the shell also cause loss of energy for every hole drilled. That's why free floating drums like Pearl's FF Snare and Sleishman's Free Floating Kits have more resonance and tone than drums with shell mounted lugs.

By using optimounts and bridge style lugs to reduce energy resistence and by mixing different wood plies, Pearl has attempted to make a kit where each drum has the optimal frequency response range for its size and where there is minimal resistance to create a long and pleasing tone.

:eek: OMG, I would say that this man is the know on acoustic science. That all makes good sense to me. On a different note, could you explain why drum head manufacturers like Aquarian "rave" about how their drum heads have a tone before placing them on the drum. It seems odd to me because you don't play the head by itself. Like the low "E" string on a guitar. You have to tune the string to the note. It just doesn't make that note right out of the bag. I'm not knocking Aquarian heads, I'm just curious and I know all about the different effects of head plys, dots, coatings etc. Thanks man. ;)