Recording advice needed

madidus

Senior Member
Hi all

did some recording for the first time with my new Sleishman drums (every drum is free-floating, including toms and bass drum). The toms are amazingly resonant and sound awesome, even with the stock Remo UT heads (2 ply batters, single ply reso). BUT...

Listening to the recording we noticed that the 14" floor tom rings through the whole song by resonating the sound produced by other drums. Naturally this can be treated by using the digital recording software, but I prefer to get the sound right at the source.

I am wondering if I can eliminate this background ringing with heads such as the new Evans EC2 batters over Evans EC Resos or thin resos such as Reso Black. Or would something as simple as moongels do the trick?

I'd appreciate your thoughts or any other suggestions.
 
I'm not familiar with Sleishman drums, but 99% of all sound issues is directly affected by tuning.

Dennis
 
Hi there,I have heard some womderful sounds come out of Don Sleishman's unique drumsets over the years, he was certainly ahead of his time producing these drums.The less metal on the instrument the better. Metal can tend to contribute to ringing. Maybe some duct tape and cotton wool in the correct spot on the head will help......enjoy that resonance.
 
If you tune it differently, it won't sympathetically vibrate. Not to say it won't vibrate on another song in a different key. Or you could muffle it, but what's the point of having resonant drums if you muffle the resonance away? I'd go the tuning route for sure and only use muffling as a last resort, if at all.
 
These are indeed the most resonant and sweet sounding drums I've ever played. Coupled with my handmade Jarrah snare (also with Sleishman freefloating hardware) even the unmanipulated recordings sound awesome.

I definitely do not want to mute the drums, hence my question about the heads. I will try tuning the toms before using moongel, but any advice on heads would be appreciated: I have Evans G1 and Hazy 300 on snare, but Remo UTs on BD, toms and FT.
 
This is sympathetic resonance. This is often fixed by tuning the reso head slightly up or down, and if you are still getting ring, try tuning the batter head slightly up or down.

If all else fails, a little bit of tape, and perhaps a paper towel (if it is super extreme) should take care of it. This may deaden your tone though, so try everything else first.

Edit: this pretty much sounds like a repeat of previous advice. Let us know your results, man!
 
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