Coated or Clear? What do you Prefer?

I like them both.

Coated on snare always.

I actually prefer coated heads as tom batters for the warmth and thickness in sound
especially for studio work,
but every now and then I'll switch to clear for a brighter sound,
then I get tired of that sound and go back to coated.
 
I go with a coated snare head (Emperor or G2) and clear tom heads and kick drum head. I like the look of the kit with the snare having a coated head and the toms clear, but more importantly, for rock, the clear emps or G2's I use just sound deep and powerful with a nice attack. I like coated heads as well, but to me, the clear tom heads sound more modern and punchy for rock and roll.
 
coated for sure

evans g2 coated on the pearl kit
evans onyx coated on the mapex
evans power center reverse on snares
 
I prefer coated heads on snare and toms with a smooth bass drum head.

I agree PFOG's statement about the smokey bars, sweaty fingers...etc...

Dust on cymbals will quickly transfer to the stick tips and then to the coated surface.
 
Just got my new DW Jazz series. Love it! 13", 16", 18", 24 bass, Black Ice w/ chrome hardware. Great resonance... addictive! The thing is that they come with coated heads on both sides. So I decided to try that... didn't like it. Switched to clear resos to open the sound a bit... NOT! Still didn't like the attack on coated. Decided to do an experience in putting the coated as a reso and a clear on top. Like it a lot. It send out a lot of opened-attack-but-rich-and-dark-boom I want out of such a big kit. Worth a try. Sorry for the bad pics, taken with a BB.
 

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I prefer clear heads on the toms, coated on the snare, clear on bass drum batters and black or coated on bass drum fronts. Peace and goodwill.
 
Clear heads are far too high maintenance. If you don't tune them just right they sound awful. But coated heads sound good no matter what because they're somewhat self muffled. Not to mention I think they have better attack than clear heads of any kind. It's all just personal preference. The only heads I use clear are bass drum batters and gong drum heads.
 
I use coated not only because they are easier to tune, they look better, and they sound better, but because you can also play brushes on them. I also find that if you hit softly on a coated head, you'll still make some noise, but on clear, I find you don't make any sound. Though coated will wear out in time, but this really only affects you playing with brushes. Though I'm sure other people think clear are better, it's personal preference. I use clear on Remo Pinstripe on my bass drum beater side, and coated Ambassador on my front side. I used to play Pinstripes on my Pearl set, they're good if you play rock, (in my opinion), they give a deep sound. Though I changed over because the floor tom sounded horrible no matter what. But it's personal taste. :)

EDIT: I use coated ambassadors on both sides of my drums.
 
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I just replaced my clear Ambassadors with coated on a set of vintage Milestone fibreglass drums . I have lost a small amount of attack but have gained a warmer, richer tone. Getting a big sound out of these puppies now!
 
Depends on the sound, really! I use clear snare heads for a lot of metal stuff (right now I'm using a Black Chrome, which has a clear top ply) and I use single-ply Evans G12s/G14s for a really meaty sound. I also use coated heads for more general purpose music, I'm loving G12s for a beautiful thick sound. I almost always use a coated G1 on kick, though.
 
For toms, I always begin with Ambassadors. Coated on top, clear on the bottom. I'll change them if the drum or music demands it. To be honest, I have no idea what any particular drum is supposed to sound like until I put Ambassadors on it and play it for a bit. I guess I need a baseline before I tinker, and Ambassadors are the heads that I'm most familiar with.

For my snare (you guys are going to hate me), I stick with the OEM Ludwigs. Coated medium on top, clear on bottom. I honestly prefer the sound of the Ludwig heads on my Supra.
 
I recently put coated G2s on the toms, clear G1s on the bottoms. This is the first time I've used coated tom heads since my first kit that came with worn out coated Remos. I have always used clear pinstripes on the toms before this switch. The jury is still out on whether I'll stick with them in the future.
I have used coated powerstroke 3's on the snare for years, but am going to try a reverse power center reverse dot next.
As for the bass, I used to use clear pinstripes on the batter, but have switched to a clear EMAD2. Reso is a black EMAD.
 
Depends on the sound, really! I use clear snare heads for a lot of metal stuff (right now I'm using a Black Chrome, which has a clear top ply) and I use single-ply Evans G12s/G14s for a really meaty sound. I also use coated heads for more general purpose music, I'm loving G12s for a beautiful thick sound. I almost always use a coated G1 on kick, though.
What do you think of the Black Chrome?
 
I prefer the awful ringy overtones of clear ambassadors top and bottom from 12 feet away. They bark and growl and flap and have character that makes a clean sound boring.

I think pure sounding drum tones are tepid unless it's on a baby bop set.
 
I generally like Coated on snare. I tried to like clear on toms but I could not dial out the basketball like ping from the sound. So, I use either coated or white suede batters. I am seriously considering going to coated or white suede on the reso side as well

Three years and a new kit later and I have done a 360 on this. On the new Concept Maple kit clear ambassadors are just killing it. I have not even tried anything else yet they are so good.
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I've liked all the heads I've had except tom and snare ut stock heads lol. And personally on my drums don't like remo coated ambassador on toms as they're too high pitched for me since they're 10/12/14. Black emp suedes are quite nice though! Have a set of coated emps waiting too.
 
I switched from Aquarian Super-2 clear to Coated response-2's on my birch set and I like the warmer sound. Less "stick" sound (attack?) with the coated heads also.
Have thin clear resonant heads.
Focus-X coated on snare- this head cuts some of the ring with out using a moongel or such.
 
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