help me choose djembe for me

[john doe]

hey guys/gals , i am new here and i come with a question .i am djembe shopping and i hope you can help me decide on the right djembe for me and my playing style .
i have limited experience but i do like to play .i have a small toca rope tuned wood djembe and 2 metal darbukas i enjoy playing .one has a tambourine inside and i really like that one .i tried my hand at doumbek but didnt like it that much .i prefer the bass tones that the djembes and my darbukas give me .

i like to play along with music....when i play to music its mostly pop,hip hop,rap,dance...that sort of thing ,music with bass and beats that i can play along too.i listen to many more styles of music but when i play my drums its the pop,hop hop,rap,dance,old school thing .

that being said i am looking at getting a djembe with good bass tones. about a 14inch head .fiber or wood,whatever gets me what i am looking for .
i actually prefer the rope tuned look but wont limit myself to that.i do prefer that look as it looks good to my eye and makes nice functional art when i am not playing it .

i have been looking at the remo brand ,like the rare earth style,designer series....ect......

i have also been looking at the toca 14 inch black mambe freestyle rope tuned cannon.

i have listened to alot of djembes on youtube but you just cant hear the bass on alot of them due to mic limitations from posters.
i have heard some nice bassy remos on there though. the only good video i seen for the 14 mamba by toca didnt provide any good bass tone although i know that thing must put out some bass.

its a hard decision and i hope you can help me .i like rope tuned ,but i also like the remos,i hear they got good bass and a nice rimshot,and the rimshot can be toned down if you dont like it .

i will go thru the videos here and see if theres anymore help.

so what you think?for what i wanna do which is play along to music .

at this time i am stuck between a remo or the toca 14 inch mambe cannon.but i have not heard the toca in a video that had and bass response to it .

thanks for any and all help you can give me .

[EvanP]

There's been a lot of recent good press on Djembedirect's djembes, Wula, and Drumskull Drums. I have an DSD and have been very happy. The first thing you need to do is figure out how much you want to spend. There are decent entry-level djembes that are hand-carved and sound much better than Toca or Remo.

There is quite a bit of information on this site, and the major on-line sellers have quite a bit of good information as well (check Rhythm Traders in addition to the ones listed above).

Evan

[john doe]

thanks for reply and your welcome post in the new member area.

i been ebay shopping and the toca black mamba freestyle is only 139.99 shipped. and its a 14 inch rope tuned.
the remos are a bit higher.but like i mentioned i havent found a good video of the black mamba pvc that could show off its bass tones at all.

i,m gonna go look around at some videos here .thanks again and looking forward to more input.

[FreekAce]

as an advice, if you have the oppertunity, play the djembe before purchasing (hard to do online). i've made the mistake on buying before without having a good idea of the sound (even with samples its not always accurate) and regretted it afterwards.

also going through the info on this site (huge as it is ) is also really helpful and helped me make better decisions with my own purchases. people here are very knowledgeable.

[freefeet]

I do find that a djembe is a little too much for playing along to contemporary music. I love 'em for playing with other djembe/African drums, but i find they seem a little too overpowering for contemporary music accompaniment. Other's milage may vary of course.

My suggestion would be more along the lines of a nice hardwood bougarabou with a cow skin for contemporary music. Very sweet drums with very rich bass notes.

[john doe]

thanks for the input so far .i see alot of folks around here are using some expensive djembes .i am looking for something under 200.00 as it wont get used everyday .i do like to play along with music occasionally,couple times a week.
that being said i am not looking to spend a alot but would spend maybe up to 200.00 to get where i wanna be .

freefeet

actually i think the djembe with its deep bass tones would be perfect for the music i want to play along with .thanks for your input.

[Waraba]

At my school we have a remo djembe with pretty thunderous bass. It doesn't compare with traditional djembes from the top sellers (Wula et. al.) but it is what it is and comes in pretty colors.

[john doe]

when you say it doesnt compare are you saying the traditional djembes have better bass?i have heard all about the remo high pitch slap tones ringing ,doesnt bother me .theres a fix for that.

[Erny]

Hi,

if you are interested in Toca or Remo-drums which both are not traditional djembes I can give you some information on the bass of the 14" Toca Black Mamba and the 14" Remo Black Earth (both mechanically tuned). I played both of them and the bass of the Remo is much deeper than the one of the Toca.

Here is a link for a sound demonstration and video of the Remo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbLg2ciFYew

and here a sound-sample for the Toca:

http://www.tocapercussion.com/media/sound_check/synergy.html

To my mind there is no doubt that rope-tuned instruments are visually much more attractive than mechanically-tuned ones, but tuning and re-tuning a drum within 1 minute is also an advantage that can´t be denied.

Anyway I recommend you to play a drum yourselve before buying it!

Cheers
Erny

[john doe]

thank you erny thats the info i am looking for .
what size remo did you play?

thanks for the links ..i have watched that remo demo a few times befor .i like the response of that drum.
cant thank you enough for the toca site .i bookmarked that one .great sound bytes there .
does remo have a site like that?

[freefeet]

If you can do give the 10 inch key tuned remo a try out. I do own one and far prefer it to the larger remo's i've tried. It's the only synthetic drum i've ever tried that i wanted to keep.

Sure, it's ringy still, but i mostly play it with friends who own handpans/hangs and it does go really nicely with those kind of instruments.

[Erny]

thank you erny thats the info i am looking for .
what size remo did you play?

A 14" Black Earth, one of my drums.

thanks for the links ..i have watched that remo demo a few times befor .i like the response of that drum.
cant thank you enough for the toca site .i bookmarked that one .great sound bytes there .
does remo have a site like that?

No, as far as I know.

...
Sure, it's ringy still, but i mostly play it with friends who own handpans/hangs and it does go really nicely with those kind of instruments.

Concerning the typical "ringing-problem" of the Remos I found a very effective method to do away with it. The method should also work on a 12" or a 10" drum. If it´s interesting for you, just follow this link:

http://djembefola.com/board/tuning-care/damping-the-ringiness-t2485.html#p16472

Cheers,
Erny

[john doe]

there shouldnt be any difference between the black earth and say the flame job one they sell eh?same drum and head??just different packaging?

[Erny]

there shouldnt be any difference between the black earth and say the flame job one they sell eh?same drum and head??just different packaging?

As far as the so called "Designer series" is concerned, your assumption is right. The shape of the body is always the same, the difference is just the design.

You can look at it there:

http://remo.com/portal/products/6/28/721/dj_designer_series.html

If this also refers to the skins, I don´t know. I learned, that there are at least two different kinds of "skin" (Skyndeep, Nuskyn and Mondo as far as I remember) , but I think that only Skyndeep-skins are used in the designer series.

Cheers
...Erny