On October 10, 2018, as part of the grand opening of the new seat of the DrumCenter store in Bydgoszcz, Poland, a drum clinic was hosted by Dirk Verbeuren. The Belgian drummer focused the attention of music journalists and fans in 2016 when he joined the legends of thrash metal – Megadeth. We must underline that the man had spent over 20 years making a name for himself as an educator, session drummer and a member of Soilwork – Swedish melodic death metal specialists.
photo: beatit.tv
Oczywiście skorzystaliśmy z okazji, aby złapać tego doskonałego pałkera na spytki. Wywiad jeszcze przed Wami, a dziś zobaczmy, jak wygląda jego zestaw perkusyjny.
“I’m Dirk Verbeuren from Megadeth. I’m gonna give you a quick rundown of my drum kit.
I’ve been a Tama endorsee since 1995. I’m very proud to be playing Tama drums. The kit I currently use is a Tama Starclassic Maple. Obviously, I have a customized version for Megadeth. This is also a Matte Black kit, just like the one I use with Megadeth. I have 22” kick drums, the toms are 10”, 12”, 13”, 16” and 18”. The snare drum is my signature snare, which is a 14”x5.5” Tama S.L.P. Dynamic Bronze. Great snare drum. I love it! All my hardware is Tama as well, including the Speed Cobra 910 double pedals. They’re my favourites. I really love those. I also have Tama sticks – Tama Signature Megadeth sticks.
photo: beatit.tv
I’ve been with Meinl for many years as well. I believe since 2005. I mostly use the Classics Custom Dark series. This is for all the crashes, the secondary hi hat as well as the secondary china. As you can see, these are all customized as well, with Vic Rattlehead on there. I love these because they have a little bit less sustain than for example the Byzance or Mb20, which I used to play. This is really perfect for a live setting with the kind of music that we play. I also use a few Byzance cymbals because it’s one of the best series around. I have a 22” Byzance Heavy Hammered ride, which is absolutely amazing. I have an 18” Byzance china, also a killer. The splashes as well as the main hi hat are Byzance as well. Great stuff! I love Meinl stuff. It’s absolutely amazing!
photo: beatit.tv
Evans Drumheads. I’ve been with them for quite a few years as well and I think they really complement the sound of the kit perfectly. We have EC2/SST on the toms. These are mostly for live. In the studio, I tend to use thinner heads, e. g. G1 or G2, depending on the situation. For live, double ply heads are really good. On the snare, I tend to use either ST Dry or HD Dry. Nice, solid hits, perfect with this snare drum, giving it a lot of sustain and armth but also a lot of attack as well. On the kicks, I usually have the EQ3 these days. I had GMAD for a long time but I switched to EQ3 recently and I really like those. Again, a little bit more open sound to adapt to the drumming of Megadeth, which is a little bit more open and little bit less busy than what I did in Soilwork.
I’m also a Roland endorsee and I use the SPD-SX sampling pad, which you can see here. I use it for clinics to launch my tracks. It’s a new acquisition but it’s really great.I’m really enjoying working with it, it’s easy to work with. I also use Roland V-Drums at home for practicing, rehearsing, some recording, etc.
photo: beatit.tv
I have JH Audio in-ears, DB drum shoes, Wornstar clothing and I also work a lot with Toontrack – the Swedish company – for drum samples. I use that in conjunction with the Roland stuff. This is more in my home studio because I don’t really trigger anything live. It’s all natural sounds. Sometimes, we will use a safety trigger on the bass drum just in case we need it. Some venues can get tricky sometimes and this is mostly for the stage sound and the front of house engineer. I don’t need it, it’s more a safety thing.”
