I have been a Pearl Drums Artist for well over 25 years now. My kit of choice for the last few years has been the amazing Reference (and Reference Pure) Series Drums. Built on a “Composite Wood Shell” concept, these drums blend the best quality choice woods into some of the finest drum instruments in the world! The Hardware is second to none and the finish quality is always impeccable! I LOVE my Pearls!!!

I officially joined the Zildjian Family back in 1982 right around the time I joined the band Weather Report. But the real deal is that I’ve been a Zildjian Artist for as long as I’ve played the drum set! It just doesn’t get better than a Zildjian cymbal for me!

When I met Mr. Vic Firth back in 1983, I had no idea the impact on my drumming that his products would have on me. The level of care, quality and attention that goes into Vic Firth Sticks is evident the very moment you pick up a pair! When we collaborated to create my signature model (the “SOH”) I felt that for the first time I finally had the perfect drum stick for my work! I needed a stick that would be durable, well balanced and suitable for playing either Rock, Pop, Fusion or Funk. About 10 years ago I was looking for the perfect stick for playing the V-Drums and discovered the AJ-1 Model. Not only do I use that stick for my electronic kit but it is the perfect “Jazz” stick for me as well! It’s the main Stick I use on tour and in the studio with my group “The Trio of OZ”. Look out for my Custom Version of the AJ-1 called “The Rhythm Scepter” only available and on sale at omarhakim.com, very soon!

Back in 1997 I was reading a Roland User Group magazine and I spotted an article on a new product that Roland was about to put out called the TD-10/Roland V-Drums kit. There were screen shots of the software in the article and what I saw blew my mind! I knew this was the future of electronic drumming. An instrument that would allow drummers to have a versatile, reliable and Professional level electronic drum set that sounded great both live and in the studio! I was the first artist to take the V-Drums on tour with Madonna. 15 years later I still use the V-Drums regularly in my live and studio work. The most recent top line version called TD-30KV is the best version of this amazing drum kit yet!

One of the challenges of being a eDrummer is finding the proper speaker system to amplify your electronic kit in a satisfying and musical way. When I discovered QSC at a recent visit to the NAMM show in Los Angeles CA I was blown away by what I heard! My system of choice for the V-Drums is a pair of KW152’s and two KW181 subwoofers. My V-Drums have never sounded better!

I absolutely LOVE these mics! Excellent for both studio and live work, Beyerdynamic has created some of the best drum kit mics on the market today! Here are some models that I use that you should have a look at if you are shopping for mics for your kit: TG-70D for the Bass Drum, TG D57c or TG D58c clip ons for the toms, M-201TG for Snare, and MC 930 Condensers for overheads. Or to get a full set of excellent kit mics ready to go, complete with custom carrying case check out the “TG Drum Set Pro XL” system. FANTASTIC!!!

If you’ve never heard of this Swedish microphone company, do yourself a favor and find a dealer near you that carries these awesome mics and check em’ out asap! In particular the BDM-01 Bass Drum mic and the VM-44 Classic Condenser mic. Excellent!

Back in the early 2000’s friend and music shop owner John Haber of Alto Music turned me on to the model P11a speakers. He said put these in your car, take em home and live with them for about a week. If you don’t like em’ bring them back. Well… The moment I got these speakers home and plugged them in it was evident John wasn’t kidding when he told me “you are gonna love these speakers!” I called him the very next day with credit card in hand! Lol!!
I have used various ADAM models over the years and I’m always happy with the results I get with these speakers. I have a small cozy control room now, so lately I’ve been using a pair of A8X’s. Great for tracking and mixing! With a frequency response of 38Hz ~ 50 kHz you will hear all the detail across the entire range to help you get great sounding mixes… SWEET!

One of my Favorite mic pres is the Presonus ADL-600 Dual Channel pre! Featuring both VU and LED metering, and variable mic impedance switching you can find the right setting depending on the mic you are using. My “go to” pre lately for drum kit overheads. Very Cool!!

When I got my first Pro Tools rig back in the late 1990’s I was shopping around for plugins to take advantage of the then new TDM platform. I was attending an event sponsored by Digidesign called “DigiWorld”. And I met a really cool guy who was standing at his booth by himself very humbly demo’ing his products to anyone who would come by. Mr. Colin McDowell of McDSP gave me a demo that blew my mind and I’ve been using his plugins for well over 10 years now. Great Sound, cool GUI and AAX compatible, I won’t do a mix without em’! Thanks Colin! :-)

Recently my old friend, master engineer and producer Rich Tozzoli has been helping me track live drums for my upcoming solo release “We Are ONE”. After one of our sessions he gave me a clinic on the Sonnox Plugins that absolutely blew me away! Here are another set of plugin tools that the engineer/mixer will find invaluable!! In particular the Oxford “TransMod” and the Oxford “Inflator” are amazing! I’m hooked!!!

Rob Papen calls his software creations “Inspirational Soundware”. Inspirational is right! Great guy, great cutting edge products!