Gavin Harrison here!

Happy Birthday Gavin! Thank you for years of inspiration! And thank you for your warmth when meeting my father, girlfriend, friends, and I at the past several TPT New York shows! They say never meet your heroes, but it was an honor to meet you and the rest of this amazing band!

- Salvador
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1908.jpeg
    IMG_1908.jpeg
    451.2 KB · Views: 22
Boudewijn Lamper said:
Is the MacBook backstage, managed by someone else? When Steven or Bruce has a talk with the audience, who's pausing the backing track? And how is a smooth transition to the next track without obvious cues or awkard silences ensured?
Click to expand...
No I operate it. I stop it after every song and cue up to the start of the next one. When I feel like the singer has stopped yakking I start the next song on Logic.
Boudewijn Lamper said:
I guess you usually mic the ride from the top? How do you deal with cymbals or snaredrums bleeding into your ride mic when mixing?
Click to expand...
Yes having the mic under the cymbal sounds horrible to me. It has to be above the cymbal or you miss the attack. I have a Neumann KM184 pretty close to the top of the ride - pointing directly where I'm playing on the cymbal - but even so - you can still hear quite a bit of spill. If I play jazz swing on the ride - I might move the crash cymbals much higher and away from the ride cymbal.
Boudewijn Lamper said:
You seem to be using the AKG H85 mic holders for your hihat and ride. Did you notice any difference when listening back, and if so, would you say it's worth the extra investment?
Click to expand...
Yes I use those AKG suspension mounts for the mics on the Ride, Hi hat and all the toms to reduce 'shock' and the audible 'bangs' that might go into the mic from being on a drum rack - or just the mic stand shaking whilst I'm playing the drums.
Boudewijn Lamper said:
I noticed you're using AKG C414 XLII's for your floortoms. What's your reason for choosing these above the Earthworks DM20's?
Click to expand...
Much better low frequency response from the 414s. The Earthworks sounded great on the rack toms - where I wasn't looking for the low frequencies.
Boudewijn Lamper said:
Would you be open to giving private lessons (even if it's a one-time-only) in drum mixing?
Click to expand...
I can't say that I could offer any better advice than real audio engineers. I have learnt through 'trail and error' over many years - but I'm not a qualified engineer by any means.


Cheers
Gavin
 
Last edited:
Gavin Harrison said:
No I operate it. I stop it after every song and cue up to the start of the next one. When I feel like the singer has stopped yakking I start the next song on Logic.
Click to expand...
I see! Just had another look at PT's live in Amsterdam concert, but I can't see a laptop. Where do you usually place that?
Gavin Harrison said:
Yes I use those AKG suspension mounts for the mics on the Ride, Hi hat and all the toms to reduce 'shock' and the audible 'bangs' that might go into the mic from being on a drum rack - or just the mic stand shaking whilst I'm playing the drums.
Click to expand...
Right, is that the reason you don't use the regular tom clamps on the 8", 10"and 12"toms as well?

Thanks for all the replies, Gavin!
 
Hi Gavin. Could you share the heights of your drum throne, snare, hi-hat and floor tom?

Thank you so much for all the replies!
Best regards!
 
Dustondrums said:
Could you share the heights of your drum throne, snare, hi-hat and floor tom
Click to expand...
Drum throne (top of the seat) = 51cms
Snare drum (nearest top edge facing me) = 64.5cms
Hi Hat (closed) = 83cms
Floor tom (nearest top edge facing me) = 63cms

But bear in mind I am quite tall (6 foot and 1 inch)

cheers
Gavin
 
Hi, Gavin. I found this thread recently and it’s a treasure trove of info. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions and provide all of the insight and knowledge you’ve built over your career.

I’ve been a huge fan of Porcupine Tree for quite a while, but I’ve only recently tried learning your parts from Porcupine Tree’s albums. I’ve been playing for decades, and while I’m nowhere near your level of expertise, your thoughtfulness and creativity about composing drum parts is inspiring and learning them has given me a renewed interest in drumming. I’m excited about playing in a way I haven’t been in a long time!

My questions are about click tracks. I’d like to know what samples you use in your click tracks these days, and if possible, could you provide links to download them? I recently read your Sound On Sound article on building click tracks from 2003. How have your thoughts on that topic evolved since the article was written?
 
Last edited:
JohnJ said:
I’d like to know what samples you use in your click tracks these days, and if possible, could you provide links to download them? I recently read your Sound On Sound article on building click tracks from 2003. How have your thoughts on that topic evolved since the article was written?
Click to expand...
Here are the two sounds I use these days. The first one (Alesis click) I designed by combining some sounds on an Alesis drum machine. I would program that sound to be on the 'main beats'. The second sound 'The Urei Click" I would program to play some of the 'in between' subdivisions. As per that old Sound On Sound article - it depends on the tempo how many subdivisions I would want to hear.

best of luck
Gavin
 

Attachments

  • Alesis Click 1.wav
    17.3 KB
  • The Urei Click.wav
    828 bytes
Jim Bob said:
Hey Gavin, quick question. Any idea what happened to the kit you used on the Letterman show?
Click to expand...
If you are located in Kentucky, that kit could be close to you. According to an earlier post in this thread (# 7224) , Gavins 2008 Modern Drummer Festival kit is at Sonor Nashville! At least it was a couple years ago. That's the same Golden Madrone (discontinued finish).

e9c724eeb5636d1c1c1a2c2e85d40377_L.jpg
 
drumstu said:
Hi Gavin,
Just watched your interview with "DrumandStage". You mentioned something I've been looking to do for some time when you said you don't like mic's clamped onto the rim of your toms. The claw clamps you stated that are attached to the suspension arms - can you tell me the brand of those and do you have a picture of one on one of your toms that I can see?

I've been thinking of a type of clip that mimics the rim of a drum that I can put on a clamp and place that on the rack so it is totally isolated from the drum but haven't come to a solution yet. I like your idea and would like to try it.


Thank you,
Stuart
Click to expand...
Stuart, thanks for mentioning the interview with Gavin. That was a fun interview, and Gavin was amazing to work with on that! I hope you have seen some of the other content on the YouTube channel!
 
Hi Gavin,
could I ask you for some advice?
I’m a proud owner of your signature Protean snare drum 14x5,25.


How do you tune the bottom (reso) head? I often run into the situation where, when I tighten the lugs to ‘finger tight’ as a starting point, the four lugs near the snare bed end up being lower than the others. So after tuning, when I place the drum on a flat surface, the hoop is slightly warped. I’m worried that it might get permanently bent. Do you have any advice on this?

Could I kindly ask you if you could share which notes you usually tune your 14x5.25 snare to?
If you ever have the time and would be willing to upload a sound recording of each head separately on SoundCloud, it would really help me a lot to understand how it all works.
Thank you so much!

Thank you so much for your time and your reply!

P.S. The Pineapple Thief concert in Prague 2025 was absolutely amazing! Thank you for signing my Protean snare wire box — I was too shy to ask you for it in person, even though I was standing around backstage
 
Last edited:
FilipK said:
How do you tune the bottom (reso) head? I often run into the situation where, when I tighten the lugs to ‘finger tight’ as a starting point, the four lugs near the snare bed end up being lower than the others. So after tuning, when I place the drum on a flat surface, the hoop is slightly warped. I’m worried that it might get permanently bent. Do you have any advice on this?
Click to expand...
I have never worried about that. Tuning the bottom head is a strange one because it doesn't resonate (when the snare wires are engaged) - it's just there to pass on the vibrations (from the top head) to the wires. So it's tension makes a difference - but not in the same way it does on a tom.
I don't tune it to a definite pitch - just what my gut tells me from years of doing it.

So here are the recordings of my snare top and bottom - at least how they are today. Tomorrow the top head could certainly be different depending on what kind of pitch I need for a song - or how much it goes out of tune by playing a concert on it. I normally tune the snare up a bit during a show - and the next day I tune it right down to 'completely loose' and I start from zero and tune up the top head again. Of course when I tune it down to zero if I notice a crater in the middle - I would then replace the head.

cheers
Gavin
 

Attachments

  • SN TOP.mp3
    453.1 KB
  • Snare Bott.mp3
    462.4 KB
Last edited:
Gavin Harrison said:
I have never worried about that. Tuning the bottom head is a strange one because it doesn't resonate (when the snare wires are engaged) - it's just there to pass on the vibrations (from the top head) to the wires. So it's tension makes a difference - but not in the same way it does on a tom.
I don't tune it to a definite pitch - just what my gut tells me from years of doing it.

So here are the recordings of my snare top and bottom - at least how they are today. Tomorrow the top head could certainly be different depending on what kind of pitch I need for a song - or how much it goes out of tune by playing a concert on it. I normally tune the snare up a bit during a show - and the next day I tune it right down to 'completely loose' and I start from zero and tune up the top head again. Of course when I tune it down to zero and notice a crater in the middle - I would then replace the head.

cheers
Gavin
Click to expand...
Hi Gavin,
thank you for your reply. It really helped me understand the role of the resonant head more clearly. The internet is constantly discussing tuning heads to specific notes, and I was starting to get a bit lost in all that information. I just needed to "ground" myself a little.

What you said makes perfect sense. When the snare wires are pressed against the head, they can’t really respond to specific resonant frequencies that the head might be tuned to. So it’s pointless to focus on the tone of the bottom head at first – it’s more about the sensitivity, how the head transfers vibrations to the wires, and finding that sweet spot where the head and the wires really "talk" to each other.

Wishing you all the best, and thanks again.
Filip
 
Hey Gavin, hope you’re well!

1) Will Harrison/Johnston be touring?

2) When playing live with The Pineapple Thief and Porcupine Tree, are there any songs where you do not use a metronome? And do you have a preference between gigs without a click versus with a click?

- Salvador
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top