Dampen your floor tom

DrummerMitchh

DrummerMitchh

Junior Member
Hey , guys im wondering how can i dampen my floor tom. My friend told me that to get an old skin for your tom and cut it out and place it on my floor tom he said it works but im just wondering if theres an other way please get back to me and another thing. my one tom that i use im trying to get the best sound out it any tips please comment thanks

DrummerMitchh,
 
Welcome to the forum DrummerMitchh... yes, that is the Old School way of dampening a tom. Works great. You can also try Moongel if you just want to get rid of some of those overtones. The Moon Gel is washable and re-usable forever and can be moved around to suit your preference in sound. The worst thing about Moongel is, they like to grow little legs and disappear sometimes. lol
 
An old trick (that's why I know it) for taming floor toms that have too long a sustain is to use a 2-ply head for the reso.
 
the trick about floor toms is that while behind the kit they seem to have a lot of resonance, out front, they really don't. The low end resonance also gets lost in the music as well. It's best to have the bigger drums more live
 
If I were President, I'd make it a felony to dampen any tom.
Different strokes though.
I just abhor that dead sound, yuck.
Just an opinion, not an attack.
Dampen away though if that's the sound that does it for you. Moongel, or remo rings work well. Duct tape w/ a folded up napkin, you can put a tee shirt over the tom, or a handkerchief.
You could use hydraulic heads (oil filled) with no damping and still kill the drum nicely though. Or if it's not dead enough, you could use hydraulic and moongels. Then you will really castrate your drum.

Overtones are beautiful, I wish people would stop damping.
Sorry for the sarcasm. It's like taking a beautiful woman and covering her up with a blanket.
 
larryace said:
If I were President, I'd make it a felony to dampen any tom.
Different strokes though.
I just abhor that dead sound, yuck.
Just an opinion, not an attack.
Dampen away though if that's the sound that does it for you. Moongel, or remo rings work well. Duct tape w/ a folded up napkin, you can put a tee shirt over the tom, or a handkerchief.
You could use hydraulic heads (oil filled) with no damping and still kill the drum nicely though. Or if it's not dead enough, you could use hydraulic and moongels. Then you will really castrate your drum.

Overtones are beautiful, I wish people would stop damping.
Sorry for the sarcasm. It's like taking a beautiful woman and covering her up with a blanket.
Click to expand...

Yes I agree totally, when I first started too play up till I was about 18 I used to dampen my drums but then I realized it really kills your drum you have to learn how to tune period.

now some types of music like reggae they like dampen drums a lot of true reggae drummers use concert toms I've been to Jamaica & that's all I seen concert toms could also be an option if that's what your going after and there cheap nowadays.
it's just not my thang LOL

Bonzolead
 
larryace said:
If I were President, I'd make it a felony to dampen any tom.
Different strokes though.
I just abhor that dead sound, yuck.
Just an opinion, not an attack.
Dampen away though if that's the sound that does it for you. Moongel, or remo rings work well. Duct tape w/ a folded up napkin, you can put a tee shirt over the tom, or a handkerchief.
You could use hydraulic heads (oil filled) with no damping and still kill the drum nicely though. Or if it's not dead enough, you could use hydraulic and moongels. Then you will really castrate your drum.

Overtones are beautiful, I wish people would stop damping.
Sorry for the sarcasm. It's like taking a beautiful woman and covering her up with a blanket.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm with you in spirit, but the constitution does not give the president that power. You should shoot for "king." ;-)

It should be said that some muffling--either built-in to the heads or added--is almost always required when playing under the mics. Many drummers don't know, however, that a kit thus set up will sound soft and lifeless when playing out unmiked.
 
drumtechdad said:
It should be said that some muffling--either built-in to the heads or added--is almost always required when playing under the mics.
Click to expand...

Why? Do you think the overtones cause problems? I play unmuffled and miced everytime I gig, and love the sound. I use clear G1's on top and Evans clear GPlus as reso's. I use 1 overhead condenser mic, a snare mic and a kick mic. I close mic when recording, each drum has it's own mic, and they are always unmuffled and don't have any issues there either.

I just love the sound of a drum with all it's glorious frequencies intact.
 
larryace said:
Why? Do you think the overtones cause problems? I play unmuffled and miced everytime I gig, and love the sound. I use clear G1's on top and Evans clear GPlus as reso's. I use 1 overhead condenser mic, a snare mic and a kick mic. I close mic when recording, each drum has it's own mic, and they are always unmuffled and don't have any issues there either.

I just love the sound of a drum with all it's glorious frequencies intact.
Click to expand...

Well, more engineers/soundmen are embracing a little ring and a more open sound these days.

Here's the thing. When you're playing out unmiked, a lot of sustain is a good thing, it's what gets you heard. But the audience doesn't hear that sustain--they just hear louder drums. But when you stick a microphone 1" from the batters it's getting all the sustain, and the traditional thinking is that it muddies things up. Sound guys want clarity more than anything, so they go for a clean, dry, short sound from everything on the kit.

Not saying it's right, but there it is. I like lively drums and I think you're hearing it a bit more these days both live and in the studio.
 
Mmmmm....... lively drums....... Oooowhoooo (said like Homer Simpson)
 
On my 16 and 14 floor toms I use Evans coated G1's on the batter side and clear EC2's on the resonant side. WHAT!!!! 2ply heads on the resonant side, you ask???? NEVER!!!! Well I thought so too, until I tried it as an experement one day and the results were amazing!. My floor toms now have the right amount of resonance and don't sound dead or boxy. Don't take my word for it, try this and you will be surprised.
 
drumtechdad said:
An old trick (that's why I know it) for taming floor toms that have too long a sustain is to use a 2-ply head for the reso.
Click to expand...

I tried that but 2 ply resos acually lengthen the sustain but lower the pitch.
A shorter sustain is achieved by a thinner reso but at the cost of higher pitch.

Taming floor toms can only be successfully achieved with a muffled head.
 
Personally i think that if you want to dampen your drum down then the best way to do it is to simply tune it down, i've got a floor tom that's tuned very low and even though there is no moongel and it's just a standard 2 ply head there is basically a lot of attack and not a lot of sustain.
 
to the original question... you can buy aquarian performance 2 heads.. but i would recommend learning to tune properly, as what eddiehimself said.
 
MadJazz said:
I tried that but 2 ply resos acually lengthen the sustain but lower the pitch.
A shorter sustain is achieved by a thinner reso but at the cost of higher pitch.

Taming floor toms can only be successfully achieved with a muffled head.
Click to expand...

2-plies generally have shorter sustain than single-plies due to friction between the layers. That's why the trick works.

It is true that thicker = more sustain, but that assumes the same number of plies.
 
drumtechdad said:
2-plies generally have shorter sustain than single-plies due to friction between the layers. That's why the trick works.

It is true that thicker = more sustain, but that assumes the same number of plies.
Click to expand...

You're mistaken. There's a difference between how a head acts as batter or reso.


2 ply batter = shorter attack

2 ply reso = longer sustain


If you don't believe it, try it out and listen. I did.
 
MadJazz said:
You're mistaken. There's a difference between how a head acts as batter or reso.


2 ply batter = shorter attack

2 ply reso = longer sustain


If you don't believe it, try it out and listen. I did.
Click to expand...

You're probably right, I've only been at this for 40+ years, and I never try what I recommend--I go by belief.
 
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