Drum Head/Tuning Questions

tortilla

Junior Member
hey guys,

Now im not good with drum terminology so bear with me.

i have a few questions about heads on my drums now, and im looking for recommendations on new heads as i feel the need to upgrade from the stock Evans g1 coated skins.

first up, my floor tom.

it has stock Evans g1 coated batter and just a clear Reso, when i strike the drum it rings (not a ring like a snare, but a sort of tone) for a good amount of time after i hit it. how can i get rid of that?

Second up, my snare

it to rings alot when i hit the drum...im going to admit, i suck a tuning and im not good at it. i used a buddies special evans tuning key and it worked wonders for a while but now my drums sound less than par.

anyways what is a good snare head? im more of a rock kind of guy if it matters. Im not hooked on evans, i will look into pretty much anything...

any advice will do on tuning and drum heads. I have heard that studio rings will reduce the ring on a snare, but i have one on my tom and it doesnt do anything to the sort of tone that the drum produces.

thanks
 
There are head choices you can make and muffling strategies you can use to cut down on sustain (your floor tom) or ring (your snare). But the first thing to do is become as proficient as you can at tuning, because good tuning takes an obnoxious ring and turns it into a pleasant ring. Lively (as opposed to heavily muffled) drums are more fun to listen to and play--you have many more sounds available to you.

I'd even take a couple of lessons from a drum teacher who can tune. But these vids can get you started:

Tuning toms

Tuning snares

Tuning bass drums

Why reso heads are important

Reducing snare buzz part 1 and part 2.

Finally, if you play out unmiked, you really do need open-sounding unmuffled drums to carry the sound through the band. If that sound drives you nuts in your practice space, you can always throw studio rings on everything there and take them off for gigs.
 
There are head choices you can make and muffling strategies you can use to cut down on sustain (your floor tom) or ring (your snare). But the first thing to do is become as proficient as you can at tuning, because good tuning takes an obnoxious ring and turns it into a pleasant ring. Lively (as opposed to heavily muffled) drums are more fun to listen to and play--you have many more sounds available to you.

I'd even take a couple of lessons from a drum teacher who can tune. But these vids can get you started:

Tuning toms

Tuning snares

Tuning bass drums

Why reso heads are important

Reducing snare buzz part 1 and part 2.

Finally, if you play out unmiked, you really do need open-sounding unmuffled drums to carry the sound through the band. If that sound drives you nuts in your practice space, you can always throw studio rings on everything there and take them off for gigs.

completely agree with drum tech dad you need to learn how to tune first. What kind of kit do you have?
 
Hi tortilla,

I like the Bob Gatzen videos drumtechdad has posted. Those are some of the best free resources available for learning how to tune. A teacher who really knows how to tune (i.e. - his drums sound good) would be even better. Especially working with your drums.

From what I can tell from your post, you might have a more satisfactory experience with slightly thicker heads. An Evans G1 is a good single ply head. Single ply heads can be more challenging for beginning tuners. Double ply heads such as Evans G2/EC2, Aquarian Super-2/Response 2 or Remo Emperor/Pinstripe heads are more 'forgiving' of iffy tuning. They also are more likely to give you a rock oriented sound.

I use a coated Evans G2 on my Pork Pie maple 5 x 13 and it sounds great. However, I have been using Remo Coated CS Underside Dot heads on my brass Yamaha snare and my Ludwig Acrolite and have been really enjoying them. This is a coated single ply head with a plastic dot on the underside of the head. A very popular head. I also like the Evans Coated Reverse Power Dot as well ( on my bronze snare). Just digging the Remo a hair more these days. :)

Keep in mind that a good, well tuned snare (or any drum for that matter) with quality batter and resonant heads, will still ring. It's just getting it to be good ring and not bad ring that is the goal. After that, you can apply dampening material in small amounts (bits of Moon Gel, Gaffer Tape, sections of studio rings). I agree with drumtechdad as well in that playing live especially out doors, your drums should ring as much as possible. The ring gets eaten up by the ambient sound of the band and you lose fullness when you muffle too much (or at all) in these situations

HTH

Jim
 
My 2 cents....

That "annoying" ring or sustain that you don't care for is what makes your drums sound like drums from the audience's perspective, assuming you are unmiced. If you muffle the natural overtones out of the sound, and stood out in the audience, I think you'll agree that the drums sound quite lifeless. Again this assumes that you aren't miced.

Muffled, unmiced drums sound like cardboard boxes to me. Yuck. Long live overtones!
 
I agree that you should definitely learn as much as you can about tuning because many drummers who just want to play in a garage band never take the time to make their drums sounds great...and sometimes that works, but if you think you'll be playing drums for the rest of your life and possibly making a career out of it you would be doing yourself and injustice if you didn't take the time to learn to tune your drums. There are many schools of thought on drum tuning, and you should be familiar with as many of them as you can. Youtube is a good place to start looking for how to videos - that Bob Gatzen video is great, but that's not the only way to tune a drum, and maybe not the best way to tune your drums. Here is another great drum tuning article that I found a while back that explains drum tone and all that good stuff in a lot of detail.
http://www.drummingweb.com/tuning.htm - Hope this helps!
 
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