Customer Reviews

Trust Your Ears

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

OMG I cannot believe that anyone would actually be asking for money in exchange for this DVD. Jeff Ocheltree is either a complete impostor or completely unwilling to share anything of real value. While the Bonham completist may well find 10% of this offering interesting...the rest of us that want useful tuning tips, recording insights or anything else this video purports to offer should look elsewhere. It seems more than not to be to be a self-congratulatory money grab by a fading roadie. While it's only an hour long, it could have included intervallic ideas instead of "the bottom head was tuned up, and so was the top head" or "we chose these heads to add focus to the sound" where each quote was used in reference to at least 2 totally different situations. Tech details like mic technique or distances or sonic differences between heads or stylistic insights about recording...Man, I could go on all day..."putting on a drum head can be done in a bunch of different ways, it doesn't matter" or "whatever you do, it's gotta happen fast" sound more like advice you'd offer a kid you met in a bar that was gonna be a drum roadie for the first time. Perhaps the biggest insult to the viewer is "it's an art form, not a science, trust your ears"...when there are plenty of websites and other videos that have clearly established that tuning and recording drums are skills that can be taught methodically.
If this were supposed to be an expose on how to get John Bonham's 'sound' then why did he overlook possibly the most important element of all, the massive overcompression of room mics to create that monstrous Zeppelin drum ambience? This technique is pretty common knowledge to even amateur engineers nowadays-even SSL just released a free software plugin to create that same effect! Now, I very much respect Steve Smith and I am a Paiste guy, but I cannot believe Steve approved the final cut of this piece of tripe and would be very surprised if Paiste did not distance themselves from this guy once they watch it. The Paiste drums pushed here are gorgeous, but even if this video were not a veiled attempt to increase their market visibility, anyone with the cash to buy them would probably be far too experienced to not laugh out loud at the host's supposed "expertise". I'm glad I only borrowed it, as I would have definitely called in for a refund. YMMV... but only, I expect, by a few inches. Save your money.

The other negative reviews are quite accurate. I'm sure Mr. Ocheltree is a talented guy with a grand history in the business, but this DVD is worthless. Unless you want to hear mutual admiration "interviews" with 5-10 people he knows from the "old days", or watch a couple of average drummers play two drum sets (one being Bonham's green sparkle kit)for reasons completely unknown (what does this have to do with tuning or drum tech issues?), this DVD contains no usable information. Nothing. Well, OK, he shows how to place felt strips to muffle a bass drum head, but who (now days) would want to do that who doesn't already know how? Tuning? On the entire DVD the tuning advice sums up to "tune the bottom heads real tight". That's it. I was very dissapointed with this DVD. There is just no information, period. I'd be embarrased to have my name on it.

always been forgotten. Tuning!! this DVD is conducted by Jeff Ocheltree, the "drum tech" of a lot of great drummers, Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Danny Carey, and of course the Led Zepplin's John Bonham. what a "drum tech" do is like taking care of everything, from the setup, tuning, gear choice, mic placement, maintainence, etc., which is needed before the drummer actually sit down and play, and Ocheltree is said to be the world first "drum tech".

in this DVD, Ocheltree show ways that he used to tune Bonham kit, and also explained how he varies the tuning with differnet drummers/projects, he also tune up some of his collectible Lugwig kits, like the green sparkle kit and the orange Acrylic kit, once used by Bonham, and mike them, so we can hear the sound of every drumhead, top and bottom, of the Bonham kit, with make this DVD very valuable.

also, Ocheltree also show us the Drumtree drums, the collabration of Ocheltree and cymbal maker Paiste, using cymbal alloy to make drums, and Tool's Danny Carey with have a go on the kit...... you can see a lot of different drummers play different style in this DVD, and Ocheltree will explain how the tuning of every drummers different from each other.

so if you want to know more about how the man behind every drummers works, or you want to know more about different tuning you can use on drumkit, this DVD is one of the best one you can find in the market.

This video offers very little (nothing) in the way of real info. All Mr. Ocheltree keeps repeating is that there is no science to tuning drums it is all done by instinct, instinct born from his years of experience...the end...please don't waste your money.

I rarely provide negative feedback but this video was particularly disappointing. I find no usable new information here at all as it applies to me. At best it catalogs the head types, shell depths and cymbals of a few drummers, but it does not teach you how to tune a drum. He says over and over that there "is no science to tuning, it's an art form", and to use your ears to tune -what does that mean? You're the expert, teach me something! I am disapointed because Jeff could be such a huge resource but instead this video turns into an undisciplined hodgepodge of babble and short, pointless clips. My guess is that he doesn't want to give away any secrets of the industry. Self congratulatory, this should be a call to revise this video into something more helpful.

Great stuff, good drum parts with lots of drummers explaining things. Ocheltree is relaxed and a good teacher. To see Marc Craney is worth the price of admission!!

Unless you like hearing a bunch of people talking about how great Jeff is, don't bother. It's almost like he died and people are talking about him at his funeral. I bought this video specifically for the footage of John Bonham's kit being played. It amounts to less than 10 minutes on this video. I don't care about the drummer from Tool. John Molo plays for a bit and that's kind of interesting, but you can probably find all of the interesting parts of this video you want to see on Youtube. Save your money.

So superficially. Great purchase for Bonham fans like me, a little bit to add for non-Bonham fans drummers.

I got this DVD thinking I'd learn a lot of technical stuff about Drum Techs and it turns out its more like a DVD created to praise Jeff Ocheltree. I'm not saying hes not good enough, but I'm just saying if you ask me what I learnt from this DVD, I'd say practically nothing, conceptually a littly.
Don't bother with this DVD unless you're a fan of Jeff the man and just want to see him speak and hear people praise him while he quickly tunes stuff and barely explains exactly what he's doing...

I hate to say this but, it seems that 99.999% of drummers are retarded when it comes to drum tuning. I know, I couldn't possibly be talking about YOU - the genius who in an attempt to create that B*I*G "Bonham" sound bought "whatever" drums were the best deal at the time, put the thickest heads available, tuned them loose to get rid of the TONE(eeew yuck gross!), then further dampend them with "O" rings, tape, moongel and pillows to kill whatever posibilities existed for the drum to even have any TONE, then proceed to hit them like a 12 year old girl... do any of these things sound familiar to you? Then yes DUMB@$$, I'm talking to YOU - YOU need to buy this video! Then buy Bob Gatzen's video, then take some lessons on how to HIT those things!!!