It's not often we have a drum kit in Gearwire, and for numerous reasons: neighbors, setup-time, micing requirements, Owen's complete lack of motor coordination, etc. . . But the Rhythm Traveler is special; you see, this compact kit ships with everything you need to start upsetting your neighbors, minus sticks, and takes up minimal studio real estate. Plus the set includes a set of muffle heads and silent cymbals that turn the Rhythm Traveler into a practice kit that feels like the real thing—you can even "tune" the silent heads.

The Pearl Rhythm Traveler is one of the easier kits to gig with, but it also sounds good enough for space- and cash-strapped project studios. For this video we mic'd the kit with an Audix FP7 mic kit, but did zero mixing other than panning the overheads and throwing a limiter over the kit bus. In another video we'll exact a little corrective mix-surgery to the Rhythm Traveler and see if we can't get a little more heft out of that kick.