Saturday, August 29, 2009

Step Back To The Beat!

Have you ever actually stepped back in time – really stepped back in time – well I have!

40 plus years ago I used to be a drummer and could also write drum music. A few weeks ago I visited a friend of mine who as well as being an excellent guitar player runs a company which organises events, especially musical events and he knows many of the current UK jazz greats.

His name is Alan Armstrong and in his ‘front room’ he has a kind of studio with a drum kit slap bang in the middle of it. He was under strict instructions to ‘get rid’ so I bought it from him and it is now sitting proudly in my garage! Right now I am learning to both play again and to read drum music. I can tell you that 40 years makes a hell of a big difference as to how my hands, arms, feet and legs now move! However it is totally therapeutic for me if not for my neighbours.

Alan, being a life time musician had the drum kit wired up to around six microphones linked to an amplifier which enabled him to balance the entire various different drum and cymbal sounds without any one sound predominating – I am not as lucky as I can not afford this ‘balancing’ luxury. So when friends call at the house when I am playing the drum kit, they first of all hear is the base drum beat and they can not hear the ‘hi-hat’ cymbals until they are outside my garage door. Why is that?

Well, it is exactly the same reason why our range of Primasonics Acoustic Cleaners is effective over such a wide range of process, power generation and bulk storage applications and plant sizes. Basically the lower the sound – the longer is the sound wavelength and the further it travels (base drum or PAS-60). The higher the sound – the shorter the sound wavelength and so it travels over a much shorter distance (cymbal or PAS-420). Look at the explanation in this link

By the way, I don’t think that my drumming ‘skills’ in any way match those of 7 year old Jacob Armen – but I really do try!