Drum riser
A drum riser is a device that serves to acoustically decouple the drums from the floor and at the same time makes the drummer more visible to the audience.
functionality
The drum riser takes the complete drum set including accessories as well as the seat of the drummer. The instrument is usually placed on a non-slip surface, for example needle felt or a rubber covering, in order to dampen the vibrations that arise when playing. The size of the drum riser is determined by the mass of the equipment.
Construction methods
Simple drum risers are frame constructions made of wood or metal with applied screen printing plates . Rubbers are attached to the underside of the frame to minimize sound transmission to the floor. A slightly more comfortable variant then offers rubber-tyred wheels that increase the maneuverability of the drum riser. The wheels are blocked by a brake to prevent the drum riser from moving. The acoustic decoupling takes place via the wheel rubbers.
Professional systems are built as lattice constructions to ensure high stability with low weight and good transport properties. Here, too, rubber is used for decoupling.
Special drum risers
Around the mid-1970s, the drum riser gained a special meaning in show business: it was used in particular by rock groups who had paid special attention to visual effects in their stage shows and wanted their drummers to be the focus.
In the early days, the drums were simply raised at a certain point, for example during the drum solo. Muscle strength was often required for this, because the first drum risers were operated with winches or chain hoists . Later models then had hydraulic jacks. In the course of time, more and more sophisticated systems were developed: While it was still something special at the beginning of the 1980s when the lifted drum kit also rotated a few degrees to the right and left, a little later the complete drum riser was not only lifted and rotated, but also driven forward to the edge of the stage.
The groups Kiss (the stage represented a tank in 1982, the drum riser formed the turret and could be moved forward and turned left and right) and Mötley Crüe (1984 saw the drums during Tommy Lees ) achieved spectacular results in their efforts to create interesting effects Solo tilted forward 90 °).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tommy Lee drum solo on YouTube ( Memento from May 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive )