Actung! Drummers

[agent of change]

I muffle as little as I can , If I had wanted my drums to sound like cardboard boxes filled with pillows I would have saved a bunch of cash

das what da fuck I'm talkin abooooooot

Let's say it this way: A vast majority drummers who understand how to achieve great tone do not dampen.

What, you want your kick drum to go BONG

I'm not talking about stuffing it full of pillows or anything, but a little felt or a second skin ring gets that nice deep thud without twangy echo reverb bass.

[VOLVO)))]

I muffle as little as I can , If I had wanted my drums to sound like cardboard boxes filled with pillows I would have saved a bunch of cash

das what da fuck I'm talkin abooooooot

Let's say it this way: A vast majority drummers who understand how to achieve great tone do not dampen.

I think "great tone" is completely subjective, just like guitar tone. I don't like a metric fuckton of boom in my kick, so I put a little felt strip at the bottom of my reso it is somewhat dead, but not completely. I don't understand why you feel the need to defame other people's technique because it doesn't 100% agree with yours. My drums sound great, and I don't port, and I dampen, albeit minimally. So, yeah.


Edit: as Nate says, Im not the best drummer but i know my kit sounds good.

[mutantcolors]

I went around the blocks for a decade lusting after the best possible sound I could get, and that experience eventually led me to no muffling, single ply heads, a ported reso, huge sticks, thin cymbals and probably some other stuff that you might think are bad ideas, but they fucking work. If your drum goes BONG it's a tuning issue. Resonance is incredible...unless you're talking about a kick, for what I want out of a drum kit. The more dampening, the heavier the heads used, the less the drum has to offer. There's a lot more to a kit than THUD. Anyway... this horse looks beat.

No, I don't break cymbals if that's what is about to come up.

[VOLVO)))]

I've never broken a cymbal, either.

[RAGER]

I've actually broken 3.  But I also play with the butt ends of the sticks and the butt ends of girls.

/doing it wrong but don't wanna be right

[Metal and Beer]

I don't get it, it's almost as if different people like different sounds or something.



/sarc

[Jake]

Real drummers don't like different sounds.

[fallen]

When I still played drums I was a hard hitter and have blown out a couple of front heads on bass drums. It's only thin single ply plastic so it's bound to happen. The hole causes a weak spot.

A bass drum with a full resonator head minimally dampened sounds the best to me acoustically. The thud comes from the beater side and the resonator allows the low end to sustain. If you play a lot of faster stuff then you will probably want to start adding more dampening so things don't get too muddy.

So I would set up the drum the way I liked acoustically in the studio with a full resonator head and minimal damping and mic it from both sides and add in a room mic. Live I would just put on a head with a huge hole in it, throw a blanket in the drum and let the soundman put one mic inside the drum right up behind the front head.

These days with mics getting cheaper I would probably invest in a nice mic and permanently mount it inside my bass drum for the best of both worlds. Keeping a resonant sounding drum but allowing the mic to sit up right behind the beater for live.

Or I might just set up a trigger system like the death metal guys do now. Probably the easiest way to get a consistantly decent sound no matter who the soundman is.

[RacerX]

Real drummers don't like different sounds.

Real drummers can't hear different sounds.

*ducks*

[agent of change]

[Harm]

Real drummers don't dampen.

<- awaits some photo of a real drummer with a shitload of dampening.

It's actually not implying i am a real drummer that i reply (even though i believe i am lol) but i agree. Dampening the drums is making them smaller and if you know how to tune you can accomplish any sound and any reso.

[Harm]

I muffle as little as I can , If I had wanted my drums to sound like cardboard boxes filled with pillows I would have saved a bunch of cash

das what da fuck I'm talkin abooooooot

Let's say it this way: A vast majority drummers who understand how to achieve great tone do not dampen.

What, you want your kick drum to go BONG

I'm not talking about stuffing it full of pillows or anything, but a little felt or a second skin ring gets that nice deep thud without twangy echo reverb bass.

I found the trick is if you want your kick to sound short and dry and as loud as possible: don't dampen. Instead tune the resohead so tight until it almost breaks (as a figure of speech) and then you can experiment with the batter head to find the sweet spot. Doing this is absolutely worth it, because dampening the drum is like making the shell smaller, which means less volume.

[Discö Rice]

I found the trick is if you want your kick to sound short and dry and as loud as possible: don't dampen. Instead tune the resohead so tight until it almost breaks (as a figure of speech) and then you can experiment with the batter head to find the sweet spot. Doing this is absolutely worth it, because dampening the drum is like making the shell smaller, which means less volume.

^^^Oof.  There are lots of ways to tune your drums, yes, but imagining what that would sound like causes me physical pain.

I use an Aquarian Superkick II batter (which has a little muffling attached to it. It's a great sounding head for a deep, punchy, meaty, wet sound) and I think I have an EMAD reso on there, but Aquarian Regulators are my usual reso head. Batter is tuned up high enough that it doesn't growl, same with the resonant resonant head. There's nothing inside the shell of the the drum (no blankets or anything) and it's got all the punch in the world with just enough ring to fill out the bottom end like a pair of Apple Bottom jeans. Take some time and experiment with tuning your drum, and buy heads with descriptions that match the sound you want.

[RAGER]

My old drummer uses the Evans variety with the foam muffle ring inside and his 22 inch Pearl sounded godly.  But i figure much of that is because he is a godly drummer.  They're a bit pricey but next time I'm up for a batter head imma finna get one of those.

[Discö Rice]

Yeah man - light muffling at most on the head and nothing inside the shell is the way to go.

[Harm]

I found the trick is if you want your kick to sound short and dry and as loud as possible: don't dampen. Instead tune the resohead so tight until it almost breaks (as a figure of speech) and then you can experiment with the batter head to find the sweet spot. Doing this is absolutely worth it, because dampening the drum is like making the shell smaller, which means less volume.

^^^Oof.  There are lots of ways to tune your drums, yes, but imagining what that would sound like causes me physical pain.

I use an Aquarian Superkick II batter (which has a little muffling attached to it. It's a great sounding head for a deep, punchy, meaty, wet sound) and I think I have an EMAD reso on there, but Aquarian Regulators are my usual reso head. Batter is tuned up high enough that it doesn't growl, same with the resonant resonant head. There's nothing inside the shell of the the drum (no blankets or anything) and it's got all the punch in the world with just enough ring to fill out the bottom end like a pair of Apple Bottom jeans. Take some time and experiment with tuning your drum, and buy heads with descriptions that match the sound you want.

The tighter the reso the less the sustain, if that is of course the sound you are looking for. I like the sound of muffled kick drums but don't like anything in the shell. This is why i tuned my reso so high.

[Discö Rice]

  Well yes, when you over-tension a head, it chokes the resonance of the shell, so if you want a high-pitched, choked sound, that would do it. Might be cool for a high, small tom, but I like my bass drum low and loud.

[Pissy]

Put me in the category of liking a fuckton of boom in my kick.

[Harm]

  Well yes, when you over-tension a head, it chokes the resonance of the shell, so if you want a high-pitched, choked sound, that would do it. Might be cool for a high, small tom, but I like my bass drum low and loud.

I wouldn't call it over-tension, just as tight as possible and the batter head tuned lower which determinants the pitch. Also the kick becomes more punchy when the reso head is tighter. Give it a try, maybe you'll like it i know i do!

[Discö Rice]

As tight as possible = way too much tension for any drum that isn't a super-modern kevlar-headed marching snare. Too much tension is hard on your lugs and can contribute to your shells warping. All I'm saying is that there are less destructive and better sounding ways to control ring/overtones and add punch.

[Harm]

Tight as possible with a sense of course, i didn't guerrilla screw the damn thing and it sounds just awesome. Well, if you got better ways that suite you no problem for me, if i ever break my hoops i may try it too!