Drummers: Sound engineer for Anika's kit

[ROBB]

Have any of you noticed that the snare is not tuned tighter and doesn't have an immediate kick?  

 

Also it's interesting how she doesn't ride the cymbal on several parts of 1st Set; however she does more for the 2nd set.  She plays the hats on several songs where the Ride Cymbal should go?

 

Just curious.

 

they need an app for this forum for those of us leaving for the show soon!!!

[XanaD.E.W.]

Honestly, I like the deeper thud on her drums. Those bubinga Tamas are huge sounding!

 

Also I am glad she's doing her own thing on the songs while still playing the big expected fills. So she doesn't do Neil's ride pattern exactly, so she played straight eights instead of quarter notes on the hats--does it matter? If they wanted someone to exactly replicate Neil's parts they should've gotten a Hologram AI then. 

 

No offense to the question asked, but that's m $0.02.

[XanaD.E.W.]

So this cat from Australia was able to isolate Anika's drums only on the 1st night Tom Sawyer performance. Killer snare sound:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsafaGug8zQ

Edited June 13 by XanaD.E.W.

[Pressure/Hopenosis]

Welcome back TAMA!!! We all missed you!

[yyz305]

2 hours ago, XanaD.E.W. said:

So this cat from Australia was able to isolate Anika's drums only on the 1st night Tom Sawyer performance. Killer snare sound:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsafaGug8zQ

I think this guy's from New Zealand. Still down under, though!

[ROBB]

thanks for isolating

 

after seeing all 3 nights; each night the snare is "tighter" 

 

I'm sitting in Production Seats/Friends and family; I can assure you LIVE is much different than the vidoes circulating on youtube.

 

 

each night the snare is getting tighter and tighter and the kit overall sounds better and better

[singh99]

The drums (from the videos I've seen) sound good to me. I do miss the higher tuned toms sometimes. But it doesn't effect my enjoyment. 

She's a phenomenal talent.

[XanaD.E.W.]

this is Anika describing her drum tone, from the R50 tourbook:

 

"While digging into Neil's fascinating sound, playing style and drum compositions, I realized I've kind of fallen for his early drum tones. Those dry concert toms, that crisp, snappy snare, so good. I'll admit, I've always leaned toward a drier sound anyway, so I tried to steer this kit a bit more toward that early Rush drum era vibe. It's been built around my playing style and size, everything set up close, tight, and low. That's how I reach every drum and cymbal with minimal effort, maximum power and speed ... And there I go getting nerdy again :)"

[Todem]

Her kit sounds incredible live in person.....so deep and powerful. And her snare sound sizzled like Satan. Very happy she has Tama drums. All her cymbals are superbly customized. Her Ride cymbal is gigantic!!!

Edited June 29 by Todem

[WonderDude]

Details about Anika's kit...

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DaL4B_qkiu9/?img_index=4&igsh=MXF6cXhtbGlyODQ1Mg==

[WonderDude]

This would be pretty cool!  And I might really buy one...

https://x.com/RUSH_Roadtrips/status/2072694986466902502?s=20

[chemistry1973]

Loved the show, absolutely love Anika.

 

But I’ve got some notes! 
 

Subdivisions calls for adherence to the composed drum part. What Anika currently plays is not an improvement and how could it be. She has the chops to learn the part.

 

It’s not nitpicking. The song is suffering from her approach.

 

There I said it.

 

On other songs, what she does mostly works. Tom Sawyer is awesome. Freewill is awesome.

 

Spirit of Radio? Play it like the album please!

 

 

[WonderDude]

Speaking of Tom Sawyer, this is a pretty cool comparison: 

They are definitely different.  But both are cool!  I can't really say that I prefer one over the other.  I do find the bleed in of the crowd during Anika's solo part to be exhilarating! 

 

[JARG]

On 7/3/2026 at 9:14 AM, WonderDude said:

Speaking of Tom Sawyer, this is a pretty cool comparison: 

They are definitely different.  But both are cool!  I can't really say that I prefer one over the other.  I do find the bleed in of the crowd during Anika's solo part to be exhilarating! 

 

Very cool video. I wonder if one was quantitized to the other to get the tempos to line up.

[WonderDude]

48 minutes ago, JARG said:

Very cool video. I wonder if one was quantitized to the other to get the tempos to line up.

I believe there are potions taken out of the Neil video to keep them in sync.  I don't know if Neil played some extra stuff or not.  But if you watch carefully, you can kinda see where it looks like his video was cut and spliced.  At least that's what it looks like to me.

[XanaD.E.W.]

Saw this from Lorne:

 

 

Edited July 7 by XanaD.E.W.

[XanaD.E.W.]

Here's her cymbal setup if curious (courtesy of Meinl):

 

 

[James Bond]

She also just posted some excellent photos of her whole setup (not sure how to embed from Instagram) on her socials.

[WonderDude]

On 7/11/2026 at 8:50 AM, James Bond said:

She also just posted some excellent photos of her whole setup (not sure how to embed from Instagram) on her socials.

I share the instagram posts by clicking the share icon and then selecting copy link.  It seems to work for me anyway.

[lerxt1990]

On 6/13/2026 at 4:11 PM, ROBB said:

thanks for isolating

 

after seeing all 3 nights; each night the snare is "tighter" 

 

I'm sitting in Production Seats/Friends and family; I can assure you LIVE is much different than the vidoes circulating on youtube.

 

 

each night the snare is getting tighter and tighter and the kit overall sounds better and better

I was wondering about this, especially the toms.  I know she tunes them to not be overly resonant but they sounded a little dead and youtube videos are no way to judge that.

[WonderDude]

This is a pretty nice Anika view during 2112...

 

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

Here's what her kit sounds like in the room. Her snare still sounds snappy. Also a good shot of her foot rocking technique on the bass drum.

 

 

[XanaD.E.W.]

I hope someone can post her warm-up before soundcheck or even the gig, like how Neil use to warm up on a 4-piece set in a separate room. 

[TheHonestMan]

I thought her snare drum at the 7/22 show had an extremely powerful punch to it, even moreso than the other Chicago nights.

 

Perhaps it was just my seat location, but I remember commenting at intermission that her snare drum was uncomfortably loud even with earplugs.

 

[dtpoet]

I’d love it if they mic’ed the hi hat so it was louder.  There are certain parts in some songs like Bravado and Witch Hunt that the hi hat plays a significant role in the sound yet live - I could barely hear them.

 

Thats all I got.  Otherwise, I felt she was the energy onstage.  She definitely makes the other two sound better and you can tell they feed off her playing.