Popularity
Rockers and jazzmen alike enjoy the wide tuning range of acrylic drums, and the dry, but punchy and projecting sound. A criticism of Vistalite and acrylic shells in general is that some feel they sound brittle, artificial, and lack the complexity of their wood counterparts. It may be worth noting that some producers have been quoted as asking for Vistas as they are extremely forgiving in humidity variable environments, and seem to offer more consistent notes, session over session.
Vistalites are substantively louder than traditional drums with fewer overtones. With modern amplification and recording techniques, acrylic can be made to sound very close to wood. In a 2007 issue of Modern Drummer magazine (www.moderndrummer.com), one reviewer stated of the Tama mirage acrylic drum kit "When I close my eyes, I find it hard to believe it's not a wood kit."
Many professional drummers used Vistalites or similar acrylic drums in the '70s and '80s. Jazzmen like Billy Cobham, Lionel Hampton, and Bill Zickos were well known acrylic kit players in the 1970s.
In the electronic music scene, a clear ludwig Vistalite kit is featured in the award-winning Daft Punk music video Robot Rock.
Recently, drummer Mike Portnoy of the progressive metal group Dream Theater used a Tama drum company-built acrylic kit for a John Bonham tribute, and for parts of Dream Theater's 2005 Octavarium CD and DVD. As of Summer, 2007 Portnoy now plays a Tama Mirage dubbed "the mirage monster" to support his 2007 tour. This underscores the resurgent popularity of these shells, and brings them into the public eye. Dominic Howard, drummer for the band Muse, previously used Tama Mirage drums for live performances and studio recordings (After his contract with Tama ended in 2009, he switched to DW). Drum tech Jeff Ocheltree included a segment on tuning the new Vistalite drums in his DVD "Trust your ears." He describes them as having a very "live" sound. Originally, drummers favored single-ply drum heads with a center dot for these drums. But as Jeff Ocheltree describes, the sound improves with the use of two ply drum heads.
Austrian drummer/clinician Thomas Lang has toured with Sonor's new designer x-ray acrylics to rave reviews for his playing, and for the sound of these drums. In 2010, Thomas Lang stopped endorsing sonor and moved on to DW drums.
Changing the overall attitude of drummers concerning the sound of acrylic drums has been a focus of the review media. In 2007 articles and reviews, the magazines gave unabashed praise for the look and sound of modern acrylic drums. Superlatives like "fat" and "warm" were liberally applied. These terms are normally given to wood-shelled drums to indicate that they have abundant low and midrange frequencies. With the right combination of drumheads and tuning, acrylics don't have to sound brittle or artificial. European e-zine www.drummersdigest.com posted a very positive review of a Kirchoff Arctic series solid-cast acrylic kit, to include audio recordings that prove acrylics can sound as musical as other drum shell materials.
Read more about this topic: Vistalite Drums
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