Reviving old drumset

[Revived Drummer]

Hello,

as my name and my title suggest, I revived myself including my drum set.

I stopped playing the drums a couple of years ago. I was simply too young and didnt know much about it. The sound of my set always bothered me.

I have a Sonor Force 2000 with an 10", 12", 14" Tomtom, 16" Floor tom and a 22" Bass drum + a 14" snare drum.

I would like to ask you for some advice on heads.

What heads would you suggest? I am planning to replace all of them. Some are equipped with REMO head which actually sound fairly okay, but I am aiming for a very mild tone of my set. I do not want much reverb at all. I always had the problem that my tomtoms sounded had this echo to them. I'd like to hit the drums and just have a short, damped and warm sound. That goes for ALL the drums, including snare and bass drum.

What heads would be most fitting for me, regarding my preferences?
There used to be some sort of "oil heads" from REMO. What about those?

What is the best way to eliminate those echoes and the reverb?
Especially my bass drum I find hard to damp.

Cheers mates!

[harryconway]

Evans makes hydraulic heads. They have oil between the 2 plies. Remo makes the 2 ply Emperior and Pinstripe, that might look like they have oil in between the plies (clear heads), but that's just light refraction, pretty rainbow science stuff. No oil. Both those Remo heads or the Powerstroke 3 head will reduce the overtone/ring considerably.

[dc's_finest]

I know the evans ec2's and ec1's are good for dampening rings. powerstroke 3's are good. the powersonic is good for the bass drum. If your current toms aren't too worn out you could just get some moongel to put on the heads to dampen out the ring. Or if you don't mind a low punchy sound just tune them really loose.

[Revived Drummer]

Thanks guys!

What should I do about the bottom "heads" of the drums? Just leave the standard sonor heads on them?

So you would suggest sticking to REMO and EVANS?

[harryconway]

No set rules. Some drummers want all the same head on all their drums. Others treat rack toms different from floor toms different from kick. I use Remo heads, because over the years, they've proved to work for me. Evans actually invented the plastic/mylar drum head. Just comes a point when I owned 5 types of Remo heads in one size that I decided I didn't need 5 more heads from another company, just to say I own 10 14" drum heads. You should replace the reso. (bottom) heads also, money allowed.

[will4given]

bass drum---- evans emad2 batter.....emad resonant on front ***** toms----evans hydraulics on batter side and g1's on resonant side ***** snare---- evans ST dry 2ply or HD dry single ply on batter side and either hazy 300 or 500 on snare side...................this will dampen all your drums and will be the easiest to tune in my opinion. Will....GodBless

[Revived Drummer]

Hello,

this is what I have come up with thanks to your help:

Tom 10" - Evans Hydraulic
Tom 12" - Evans Hydraulic
Tom 13" - Evans Hydraulic
Tom 16" - Evans Hydraulic
Bass 22" - I am still undecided if I should go with an EMAD 2 or another Hydraulic
Snare 14" - Same here, I was actually thinking of going with an Ambassador Coated and an Ambassador Reso

What is your opinion on those two?

cheers

Maybe this is a dumb question, but I still have the Pinstripes on the 12,13, and 16 tom...could I use them as Resos or is that a bad idea since they are used batter heads and won't sound too good as resos.

[dmb_drummer]

the ambassador coated batter and ambassador reso is a great pair! i have it a on my snare. you don't want the hydraulic on your bass though, it'll sound like a cardboard box. the emad 2 is amazing, lots of punch and click. for the toms, i wouldn't suggest the hydraulics. i used to have them on all my toms, it seemed like it sounded good at the time, but now i realize that they sound terrible. they will sound like hitting a tabletop on a recording. the ec2's or evans g2's are a better choice. you get more tone, and it's not overly resonant.
make sure you know how to tune properly, which is of most importence.

[drumtechdad]

I know the evans ec2's and ec1's are good for dampening rings. powerstroke 3's are good. the powersonic is good for the bass drum. If your current toms aren't too worn out you could just get some moongel to put on the heads to dampen out the ring. Or if you don't mind a low punchy sound just tune them really loose.

The damping rings on EC1s and EC2s do not cut much, if any, sustain; they reduce the higher overtones. The EC2s have a moderate sustain, about what you would expect from other 2-ply heads.

I'm presently using the EC1s and I can tell you they ring for days--quite the opposite of what the OP indicated he wants.

Since the OP is after a sound I can't stand I'll refrain from making head recommendations, but I just wanted to clear that up. ;-)