Super Tumba

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Super Tumba

Postby martingoodson » Sat Feb 11, 2023 3:20 pm

Is a supertumba a good addition to a set? Eg for Afrocuban jazz?
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Re: Super Tumba

Postby Chtimulato » Sat Feb 11, 2023 8:24 pm

Why not? As long as you can carry it... ;)
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Re: Super Tumba

Postby martingoodson » Sat Feb 11, 2023 8:37 pm

Just that I've never heard one and they are not really traditional. I've never played one in person. I've heard rumours it's rare to get a good sounding one.
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Re: Super Tumba

Postby Thomas Altmann » Mon Feb 13, 2023 9:32 am

Hi martingoodson,

I have played on a Gon Bops supertumba in 1980 and it sounded good to me; however, I was just a beginner then, and I doubt I had any criteria of distinction.

Anyway, what is "good sounding"? And what does it mean to you?

As I mentioned in another thread, I have my personal idea how to use a fourth, low sounding drum. You can always tune down any drum to the pitch you want to hear. But it changes the ratio of attack and tone. A drum with a larger diameter gives you a deep sounding drum while still preserving some identifiable tone. The skin should match the size of the drum. Again, it depends on what sounds good to you.

I suggest that you shouldn't make your decision on the basis of what might be beneficial in a particular setting, but on what you want to hear from yourself. Then you make it fit in the respective context. There are many styles of Latin Jazz, and you could play a standard two-drum set in most of them. But this is a relatively open type of music, and you are usually encouraged to bring yourself and your sound to it as your contribution.

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Re: Super Tumba

Postby martingoodson » Mon Feb 13, 2023 12:50 pm

Thanks Thomas

I agree there is an element of subjectivity about this question. But it's not *completely* subjective. Most skilled people would agree that my Cherrywood LP Valjes sound "better" than my first set of congas (Meinl marathon). They would also agree that the tones and slaps I make now sound "better" than those I made when I was a beginner (at least I hope they would).

I guess I'm asking whether anyone has recent experience of playing a modern supertumba and if they (subjectively) liked the sound, or felt that a conga of that size somehow doesn't 'work' as well. There are posts here suggesting that, due to the physics, supertumbas just don't sound good (subjectively!)
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Re: Super Tumba

Postby windhorse » Wed Apr 05, 2023 2:26 pm

Hi Martin. I appreciate your enthusiasm to generate more engagement at CongaPlace. So, I'll bite. I am lucky enough to own a 4 drum family of some of the last Sol Mahogany drums that Akbar made before he began his new career making the CA Gon Bops. I love the sound of these drums because of their distinctive low bass, and nutty dry tones and slaps.
I have drum cases which have places for labels, so I inserted cards with the words "supertumba", "tumba", "segundo", and "quinto". But, I could have chosen, "tumba" for the largest, then "segundo", "quinto", "requinto". I mean there's a rabbit hole here where whatever you call it, you still have 4 drums with big down to small. I guess most accurate would be 13", 12", 11", 10". Now that I think of it, I'll change it to that today. Problem with my system I have is that when people help with putting my drums into the cases they inevitably put the "tumba" my second smallest into the "supertumba" bag, and then I find my superT crammed into the tumba's case. They're just names anyway.

So, are you calling a 13" or above a superT? Or "14" and above?
What do you call the requinto? 9 3/4"? 9 1/2"? 9"? This rhetorical for me, as I don't care what any of the drums are called.

I like mine tuned low, and it might actually be why I fell in love with the sound of tumbadoras/congas in the first place. The low sound, that's where I gravitate. So, when I record my music I always have the low frequencies good and pronounced in the mix. Maybe you can see why I call my low one the Super Tumba if you listen below.
I just finished this project with 8 drums. The tumba, what I have called my super tumba, is the most present in the mix if you have nice speakers that play bass frequencies: https://vimeo.com/811053947
And here's a Palo where the lowest drum comes through:
https://vimeo.com/791340372
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