Originally published in Modern Drummer magazine 248 · July 2000
Ask A Pro: Talking Timbales With Mike Portnoy
ArticleMike Portnoy1 min read
Q: I’ve been watching and listening to the Dream Theater video Images And Words: Live In Tokyo. I can’t figure out what type of timbales or timbalitos you incorporated into your kit. They sound great, and I’d like to get a set for myself. I’d be grateful if you could tell me what brand, model, and sizes you used in the video, as well as whether the shells are brass or chrome/steel.
Bill Fendel
Evansville, IN
A: Those timbales are actually Latin Percussion Timbalitos. They are chrome/steel, and I believe the sizes are 9 1/4” and 10 1/4”. That setup in the Live In Tokyo video is from 1993, so it’s a bit dated. However, I still use those same timbalitos in my current Dream Theater setup. I even used them as my main rack toms on the two Liquid Tension Experiment CDs. You can see more of my different setups in Dream Theater’s 5 Years In A Livetime video, as well as in my instructional video Liquid Drum Theater.