Have you ever experienced what’s called a paradox of choice? The more things you have to choose from – the bigger the headache you have. And you might not like spending endless hours looking through drums for sale and deciding on which metal hand drum to get. There are so many options. How do you choose? Hold on, there’s no need to throw everything out of your medical cabinet trying to find an Advil. If you want to get a professional instrument with amazing sound characteristics for a good price, take a closer look at the RAV Vast.

What is the RAV Vast?

Steel drums are on an uptrend. Everyone wants to try out these whimsical instruments that look more like a piece secretly stolen from a UFO. Professionals go crazy for the sound and first-timers love the instrument because it can be learnt so easily without countless hours of practise. A whole heap of handpan and tongue drum makers, from handcraft artisans to official instrument makers like Opsilon, provide their options of tongue drums. RAV founders were also mesmerized by steel drum music and started experimenting in search of their own unique sound and style. After much investigation and many prototypes, they created the RAV Vast – an instrument that will surprise you whether you’re a professional musician or just an enthusiast.

No one is better than you

The RAV Vast drum belongs to the idiophone class, which also includes steel tongue drums, handpans and steel pans. The aim of designing the RAV Vast was to create a unique instrument that would have the sound characteristics to surpass even the handpan while being much more affordable. Being a tongue drum, the RAV produces sound when one of the curved tongues on its surface is touched. The tongue vibrates and produces a note. This principle is an alternative to the mechanism of the handpan, where the whole membrane vibrates.

These guys used a totally new approach and  created a brand-new design of the tongue drum. The ribs inside the drum and the patented tongue shape are what give the sound its intensity. Unlike many other tongue drums that tend to have a thin shell, the RAV Vast shell is as thin as that of a handpan, making the music sound better and louder. The sustained length of the sound will simply amaze you. The sound lasts up to 25 seconds after the tongue is touched (compare it to an average length of 7 seconds on a handpan and 12 on other tongue drums). You get a symphony of different notes that go together in perfect harmony as all the tongues are harmonically tuned to go hand-in-hand with each other.

Each RAV Vast comes with its own type of tuning. A real paradise for even the pickiest musicians who have special preferences is that you can choose between a moody and cheerful chord, a dramatic and uplifting sound – up to 16 variations.

The RAV Vast is more compact than a handpan, which makes it more comfortable to play and will not require much space for storage. However, its surface is big enough

to produce a deep and rich melody. You may have seen the small tea-cup sized tongue drums that can easily fit in your pocket. However, these cuties will never be able to produce the tuneful and harmonious melody of the RAV Vast.

How to get one

The good thing about RAV is that these guys take care of all the maintenance for your new instrument. No matter where on the planet you are, your Vast drum will be carefully packed and shipped to you directly. If you prefer shopping in physical stores, you can check out Vasts at many music stores worldwide. The large community of musicians and professional tongue drum players will support you through the learning process with numerous tutorials and instructions (just check them out one of their Youtube channels or the company’s official website ravvast.com).