head selection for extreme metal

austin412

Member
hey i have a pdp fs birch kit and i was going to change my heads soon i have recently gottn into extreme metal (e.g. beneath the massacre, necrophagest, braindrill, etc.) so of course i will be using alot of blast beats.

through much internet research it appears that i will be needing as much mid range punch as i can get with the fewest overtones possible

i understand glued heads have more midrange punch so i've decided to stick with remos

i was thinking clear pinstripes on the batter and reso for the kick
clear or ebony pinstripes on the toms with ambassador resos
coated pinstripe with hazy reso on my snare

any help would be awesome on how i can focus the tone as much as possible and if u think glued heads wouldnt be a good idea let me know
thanks
 
hey i have a pdp fs birch kit and i was going to change my heads soon i have recently gottn into extreme metal (e.g. beneath the massacre, necrophagest, braindrill, etc.) so of course i will be using alot of blast beats.

through much internet research it appears that i will be needing as much mid range punch as i can get with the fewest overtones possible

i understand glued heads have more midrange punch so i've decided to stick with remos

i was thinking clear pinstripes on the batter and reso for the kick
clear or ebony pinstripes on the toms with ambassador resos
coated pinstripe with hazy reso on my snare

any help would be awesome on how i can focus the tone as much as possible and if u think glued heads wouldnt be a good idea let me know
thanks
Plan on using triggers.
 
i agree with sticking with remo, umm try a powerstroke 3 on bass batter and a remo coated ambassador(could even go with an ebony if you want) on the reso side of the bass drum.

I think your tom choices are good. Snare, i would suggest an evans coated 'power center', i believe they are called. The pinstripe sounds very dead on a snare drum, believe me, no matter how you tune it.

I bow to you, for choosing metal :), Metal is AWESOME!!! \\m//
 
By the way, Necrophagist is a great band to look at for technical metal drumming, they have a great drummer along with string players.
 
I have pinstripes on all my drums and they are pretty dead sounding. I use it for rock basically.

yes, clear pinstripes sound dead and very plasticy(i know), but ebony's have a slighty better tone, i suggest buying one of each and testing it out on 1 of your drums first, before buying a whole set
 
thanks for all the input

lol yea i know alot is triggered and thats the only way to get the sound i truly want i just wanted to get close

i have heard clear pinstripes before and they did sound dead but that guy didnt know how to tune
i thought with proper tuning it would be better but it sounds like its as bad as evans hydraulics (by being very dead)

but i was also thinking bout the control dot maybe that would be a better choice for my batters since it is supposed to focus the sound and then stepping up the reso with an emperor to kill more resonance since there is no underlying ring on the batter

so daphfz y would u suggest a coated reso? just wanted to know what differences in sound i would get

thanks again for all your help and yes everything bout necrophagist is fantasmic
 
depending on the skin, the coating would do different things. a coated ambassador would give you a greater punch of mid tone with a 4" port hole at the 4 or 8 o'clock position, than any pinstripe would. putting a pinstripe on your reso will completely dull the bass and you'll have to smack that bass with a baseball bat to get a sound outta it (just kidding), but yeah, i'd suggest a powerstroke 3 batter and a coated ambassador reso with a 4" port at 4 o'clock, and plastic beaters :), you'll get a nice click sound if you tune your ambassador up higher then the pinstripe :). hope this helped mate.

Btw to answer your question in a few words, coated = better tone. clear = dead as a broken door bell :p

Daphfz
 
Btw to answer your question in a few words, coated = better tone. clear = dead as a broken door bell :p

Daphfz


Sorry man, this is nonsense. Clear heads are used by thousands of drummers and are more resonant than their coated counterparts. Not "dead as a doorbell"
 
For metal I would go with clear heads on the toms, Remo Emperor top/ Remo Ambassador bottom is a good combo.

Coated is good for hard rock, but for fast metal when you are going to be doing a lot of single stroke fills, I think clear heads work better.
 
i currently have a smooth white power stroke 3 with the stock reso ( it has an underlying ring so i think it might be a ps3) and it did produce alot of punch (the heads are three years old so they sound horrible i moved away for three yrs so dont crucify me for neglecting my set i know its horrible)

but anyways the punch was nice but it needs to be focused more its just to wide open great for hard rock and numetal and the such but once i start blasting its gunna start running together i try not using extra muffling because alot of that (in my opinion) kills the tone of the drum but m not completely opposed to it

i went to this concert and this dude had this great sound i asked him what he used all i remember is that he used muffled heads as resos and his 16x16 maple floor tom had alot of controlled punch it wasnt very focused but i was surprised

does anyone have any experience with the control sound dot cause im thinkn maybe clear cs with coated ps3 resos and is their a difference between black, white, and clear dots

thanks again
 
Sorry man, this is nonsense. Clear heads are used by thousands of drummers and are more resonant than their coated counterparts. Not "dead as a doorbell"

Lol i know :), i just like to discourage against clear heads, im a coated guy myself, i love tone :)
 
hey everyone thanx again for all your input

so if u cant tell it took forever for me to get my drum heads!!!! part of its my fault and also my local drum dealer had some stuff out of stock but i finally got them and heres my thoughts

toms - ebony suede ambassador on batter and ebony suede emperor on reso

bass - ebony suede ps 3 on both batter and reso with a remo control sound ring on both heads no foam just the tray and 7 inch off center hole

snare - ebony suede ambassador on batter and ebony suede ss on bottom

the reason for suede is the increase in mid range punch and ebony bc of the very impressive look it has my drumset is flat black colored so it looks very nice!!

my set is all birch and sizes are as follows

8 x 10
9 x 12
12 x 14
5 x 14
18 x 22

toms - reso was tuned at the lowest possible tone while not buzzing and batter was tuned to a medium tension - when stuck it has a very pronounced cutting punch with a low very round rumble that follows with a medium sustain. its absolutely perfect i know some ppl may think that the head setup seems backwards but putting a single ply on top makes the drum very clear and aggressive and the 2 ply on bottom gives the drum roundness and plenty of girth - at band practice my band members said the toms cut much better and just sound awesome. the single ply batter also seems to give me lots of volume with very little effort which is nice for playing fast. when playing a single stroke roll on my toms at speeds excess of 200bpm all stick slaps are clear and focused with alot of presence - almost larger than life sound but can still hear whats goin on

snare - tuning is high wo choking and snare tension is very tight the suede ss def gives alot more snare response than a normal snare side. my snare cuts well and is very articulate with a nicely controlled ring- i do wish the drum was louder but im thinkn i just need a metal snare bc that birch just is not capable of volume i need from it

bass - tuned the same way as the toms insanely punchy with very little resonance and a very pronounced beater attack i do wish the drum had a rounder sound which i think can b achievable with a two ply reso but the drum is friggn loud!!! its much higher pitched than the drop a tuned guitars and sounds like a triggered drum it has that almost annoying high pitched whap with close to no low end at all

overall i love my drumhead selection and i have learned that if your playing fast metal all that really matters is single ply on top and two ply on the bottom of whatever material and brand of drum heads you wish

the only test left is how it sounds miced my band has a show the 28th of this month and ill let u all now how they sound
- happy drumming
 
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