It was me! I said it! But I do love my RWE. Thats why I have two drums - and RWE and a Brendan White. The two drums contrast each other significantly. The RWE with its
Lambeg and the BW with its 'standard' skin. The RWE manages an incredible silky smooth bass, - and yes it get to the high pitches as much as any other drum - but that is down to hand technique. Where the two drums differ is that they are opposites. The BW has great attack and bite on the pops - and pops that sound great. But suffers in the bass department compared to the RWE. The RWE's pops are up there in pitch but are missing the attack and bite - they are dulled somewhat compared to the BW.
Would I change either - not a chance. But I do think the taping robs the RWE a little of what it might be capable of. And it is a very capable drum.
Its basically horses for courses. What makes me play one drum instead of another? simple - the sound I want to achieve. Ive just recorded a quick idea of a bouzouki melodic sequence - suddenly felt the need to put a drum on - I had the RWE to hand and wow. The bass end contributed to what turned out to be a real 'fusion' sound - with an incredible boom on the first beat of each bar which I never would have achieved with the BW.
The hardest thing about all this is knowing what you want - and I think to some extent not hoping to find everything in a single drum - as Rob says the skin softening is a question of point-of-compromise - and so much about the drum is that. Adding something in one place takes away from another.
The thing Ive taken from my recent experiences as a player is that the skin is a changeable thing. A new skin will never have the perfect sound - and there is much that can be done to change a skin's character even by us mere end-users (changing the taping, inserts under the skin, weighting on the skin, oil application etc...) depending on how brave you are!!
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