Remo Controlled Sound Players UNITE!!!!

cobamnator

cobamnator

Senior Member
Seriously, just found out some very useful info (if you care for Remo C.S. Heads).

You know how they make "Black dot", "White Dot", & "Clear Dot" controlled sound heads? Well, it's more then just a color scheme...

The dots are 5mm, 3mm, and 2mm respectively.

The clear dots would make Great rezo heads.

Anyways, just wondered how many C.S. users are out there and if you used any different color dots ect. Peace...
 
As a guy who really started playing in the '70s - I keep threatening to go back to black dots, top and bottom and on the bass drum. I just might this time, but with the black dot on the white heads - I recall seeing the 1973 Slingerland catalog with kits prominently displaying white -black dot heads. I do miss that sound a bit!
 
I'm usually content with nothing more than a humble Emperor for both snare and tom batters. They currently reside on 6 snares and 4 toms and I have no plans to fix what ain't broke.

However, I really don't like the sound of an Emp on my maple free floater.....just can never quite get "that sound" out of an Emp on that particular drum. It's the only drum I own that has a CS black dot on it. I'm glad I bothered to try it out rather than just muffle the Emp and be done with it. It focuses the overtones nicely, yet there is still plenty left there to get some nice textures just outside of the dot.

I note that Brady snares come stock with a CS head. Love the sound of those drums as they are, so when I finally scrape together enough cash to complete my snare collection with a jarrah block, I'd imagine I'll see no reason to change that one either.
 
I've been a big fan of the coated CS with the reverse dot on my snares for a while. I like a medium to tight snare side head with a medium tuning on the batter, so I can get a nice crack in the center and a more open, buzzy sound outside of the dot. If you look at my main snare it has wear marks right at the inside of the dot on the left side (where I hit for most songs), another one dead center, and also just outside the dot on both sides (where I do ghost notes and buzz rolls).

I've never really tried them on my toms. I was happy with clear PS3's for a while, then went with coated EC2's, but they aren't really doing it for me. Back to the PS3 for me.
 
To My ears, the BLACK dot on toms gives the sound a "harder" attack, if thats makes any sense. Not necessarily MORE attack, just harder. (Think Jon Theodore, Billy Cobham, and half of the drummers in the 70's ect.)

I haven't tried the C.S. on snare for a while, I ended up ripping the dot off, so it was just an Ambas. :) But that was a while ago on my PDP snare...I will try it on my Acrolite shortly.

I am just dying to try the Remo Controlled sound Smooth White w/ White dots (Yes yes yes!)
 
I love the sound of a black dot on my snares. Never tried a clear though.
 
Actually, if you want to hear a great example of what black dots sound like, check out Tony William's solo on Sister Cheryl from the Live in Tokyo CD, maybe there's some YouTube footage on it, but the audible difference between the dots and regular heads is well, different. It sounds a little more flappy on some of his toms, but it sounds great.
 
CS Heads!!

I think the Clear dot has a fatter tone than the Black or White.
Does make a good reso on floor toms, or if you want a deep tone on toms.
I used a Clear Clear on a floor tom I wanted extra deep sounding, and it was perfect.
I think the Clear has the "softest" attack sound of the 3 colors, and I agree the Black is "hardest".

On the snare, I like the top dot heads better than the usual CS coated (underside dot).
The top dot is the same size as a clear CS (BUT, if I remember correctly, the coated with Clear Bottom Dot uses the smaller dot).

I use the Coated Emp with Top Dot on 8 of my 11 snares (coated Emp with Clear dot that's coated).

I used to play the Coated Amb Top Dot for a couple years, but by mistake an Emp came in and I loved it--that was 6 or 7 years ago. It's been my main snare head since.
One even lasted almost exactly a year on one of my BB's. It just still sounded good after all that time, so I never changed it.

SW with Black Dot on the snare...kinda "slappy" sounding tensioned to where I liked the feel for me with it.
Lower, it sounded cool, but the feel was mushy for me.

I have a SW White dot, but haven't tried it yet.

The Clear with Clear dot sounds cool on the snare. Fatter tone with it than the others I think...always sounded good on Neil Peart's snare...

Another cool sounding dot head is the old Carmine Appice Aquarian head (without the extra ring). The snare head doesn't have the extra ring, but the toms did.
I used them a long time ago, before they changed the film. They were a nice sounding model head. I liked them better after I peeled off the outside ring sticker.
 
KarlCrafton said:
CS Heads!!

I think the Clear dot has a fatter tone than the Black or White.
Does make a good reso on floor toms, or if you want a deep tone on toms.
I used a Clear Clear on a floor tom I wanted extra deep sounding, and it was perfect.
I think the Clear has the "softest" attack sound of the 3 colors, and I agree the Black is "hardest".
Click to expand...

Do you think the clear dot is Fatter sounding than just an Ambas? Any experience with clear dots on all tom batter heads?

KarlCrafton said:
On the snare, I like the top dot heads better than the usual CS coated (underside dot).
The top dot is the same size as a clear CS (BUT, if I remember correctly, the coated with Clear Bottom Dot uses the smaller dot).
Click to expand...

Ah yes, this is an issue that some drummers say doesn't matter...but I think it does! Does the Dot on the TOP give you more attack / focus? Maybe thats why I didn't like it on my snare (I got the dot on bottom)...


KarlCrafton said:
SW with Black Dot on the snare...kinda "slappy" sounding tensioned to where I liked the feel for me with it.
Lower, it sounded cool, but the feel was mushy for me.

I have a SW White dot, but haven't tried it yet.

The Clear with Clear dot sounds cool on the snare. Fatter tone with it than the others I think...always sounded good on Neil Peart's snare...
Click to expand...

Do you think Smooth white controlled sounds on toms would work good? clear dot / white dot?...

And yes, Neil swore by those Clear C.S. on his snares. Wonder why he stopped using them...
 
A clear Ambassador has a pretty "smooth" tone to me, and the dot head gives more character to my ear.
You can get different tones (at different spots) that's more noticeable to my ear.
...............

The top dot for me gives more of an overtone that I like to use over a regular head.

Most people seem to want that "one solid sound" without a lot of ring. I like to play just off the dot and get that "tonk", but, I still want it not too out of control.

Playing in the center of the dot head gets me that solid, "one tone" sound, but to my ear it's fatter sounding than a plain head.
........................

SW Dot heads always sounded cool on Cozy Powell's drums!
I haven't tried them on my toms yet, but I put them on my 10x14 (got a few different 14's to try out), and it sounded cool. A Clear dot bottom, will definitely sound fatter than a clear Amb on the bottom IMO.

A SW with white dot would give the traditional look like a coated, with more pronounced attack/cut--and the two tones sound (on & off the dot).

The Clear, Clear Dot is just a fat sounding head to me.
From having that head as a top, and trying it as a bottom, I think a CD/CD combo would give a throaty, softer cutting sound with a lot of thick tone.
....................
Neil started with the trad grip, and the Freddie stuff, so he probably wanted that Ambassador feel and classic sound. A standard head has more bounce too.
It still sounds like "Neil" to me, but it's not as fat sounding as the "Old #1" with the Clear Dot head.
His snares have more cut than before, but you can still tell it's him and his overall sound.
 
The Mapex Saturns I play at church have black dots on the tom batters and a coated reverse dot on the snare batter. They sound very good.

I had black dot heads on my Gretsch Catalina Club Jazz toms, but I did not care for the sound too much. I put a coated G2 on the floor tom batter and the coated G1 head that came with the set on the 12" tom. I am not a fan of coated heads, but that is what I had. I will go the EC2's over EC Resonants when finances permit.
 
KarlCrafton said:
The Clear, Clear Dot is just a fat sounding head to me.
From having that head as a top, and trying it as a bottom, I think a CD/CD combo would give a throaty, softer cutting sound with a lot of thick tone.
Click to expand...


So just say I want more "umph" and bottom end from my floor tooms (that currently have ambos as rezos heads), would using a Clear dot / clear Rezo or Clear dot / Smooth white Rezo give me that extra low end?
 
cobamnator said:
So just say I want more "umph" and bottom end from my floor tooms (that currently have ambos as rezos heads), would using a Clear dot / clear Rezo or Clear dot / Smooth white Rezo give me that extra low end?
Click to expand...

The dot head is going to have different overtones than the plain head, so it's going to sound more contained in the highs, and bring out the lows and some mids (like it's supposed to haha).

The Clear Dot has the lowest tone to my ears, so having the clear head with a clear dot is what I would use.
It did sound fat on the floor tom I used it on. It was on a 16 and it was a low, fat tone.
I had a Black dot on top to see what that was like, and that was a pretty nice sound.
Not as much attack and flat tone. It was a bit deeper, and I could keep the tension I liked with out it going "boing".

The smooth white head is kinda in between a clear and a coated reso.
Not quite as open as a clear, but not as warm as a coated.
The SW is pretty nice as a reso, but I wouldn't use it with a dot head on top.

The SW can get some different tones (after this while of using them) going, and they can get a weird tone in the mids if you aren't careful.
Overall, they are nice, but they can get touchy it seems. I'd rather not deal with it, so next time I'll just use a clear or a coated Ambassador reso again.

That's what I've experienced anyway.
 
Bo Eder said:
Hey all, here's an example of what I like so much about the black dots. Check Tony Williams out here, especially his solo at 2:10. That liquid-y sound can only be attributed to the dots, I say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awgw336guRE&feature=related

I'm gonna make good on my threat to go back to the dots!
Click to expand...
Not my kinda sound, but Tony's single stroke control on those toms was sublime. The tuning & head sound was perfect for the piece too. Nice link Bo!
 
Just want to give you guys an update.

Tried a Coated C.S. with Dot on TOP on my "Blackrolite" and it sounds AMAZING. Very Punchy, full at low volumes, and if I tune it up high, I can get that Chad smith / Stewart Copland "Crack!" sound. One of the most versatile snare heads out there IMO. Right there with a coated Ambo.

Ok now about the bass...Clear C.S. with Black Dot. Can you say punchy? It has a really...how would I put this, square, Hard attack. Yet has really good Bass response. This head has tons of personality. Not as versatile as my smooth White PS3, but definitely has a specific tone that I would not be able to get with my PS3. I love it.

Oh, and my Floor toms have some C.S. on the Bottom Side, the dot is see-through clear. Wow, all I am going to say is these babies RUMBLE THE HOUSE. It is almost as if these rezo heads took all the high end, overtone-y, nastiness, and then transformed that into sweet low end rumble. My floor toms are actually Louder (I don’t know how that’s possible.)

And of course I have already used the Clear C.S. black dots on my toms, and they have very focused, Hard, Punchy, Classic, Full sound. Just very classy sounding.

These Remo Controlled Sound Heads are Insane. No wonder so many classic drum tones have been Executed with these heads. TRY SOME!!!!
 
sorry to revive this old thread, but I'm really jazzed on the CS heads at the moment. Just ordered some white dot over clear for my old Superstar kit (so it looks like the catalog from the 80s now) for batter and reso.

I love a coated ambassador for my Ludwig Superclassics, but have a spare adhesive large dot that I plan on sticking to the underside of that. It will be similar to the PS3 they sell, without the dampening ring. I use a felt strip for that anyway.
 
First post here (!) from the GoPro over my head... CS black dots with several deviations over 41 years of playing. Ambassador on the snare these days.
The Remo Roto Toms have recently been replaced by real concert toms custom made by Precision Drum Company in NY. Finishing them myself to match the Candy Apple Red of my '85 Tama Superstars.
 

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Hi there!

I got some nice suggestions about heads in the thread I posted to get close to 70's sounds and Remos CS was one of them.

Do you confirm that it's the best choice for toms without their resonant heads?

Many thanks
 
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