Do heads really matter as much as we think?

This analogy doesn't work - if a guitar is out of tune it's out of tune, period. Drums do not go by the same physics to produce sound.

On the main topic - I don't think all the heads are the same. It depends on one's expectations, what sound they are going for. I've found that equivalents of different brands don't work the same on a same drum kit... It's kind of a weird debate all this lol.

Okay, the guitarist is playing with clean tone, but the audience hears it with heavy distortion. Those open chords might sound good on stage, not so much for the audience. You get the idea.

I guess it's not a big deal if you play music with concrete parts where you're doing the same exact thing every night. But for music that's mostly improvised, you need your drums to sound good.
 
I was just talking about a live playing situation... If my drums are tuned so that they don't sound good to me, then I can't express those musical ideas, and my playing suffers. Therefore I need my drums to sound the way I expect them to sound.

It applies in a live situation as well, and I too play better when my drums sound the way I like them. But we cannot disregard the sound to the mics, or put it on the shoulders of an engineer. Drums sounding good to our ears and the mics is not (necessarily) mutually exclusive, and it's perfectly easy to make both sound great. In fact for typical jazz tuning, it should be quite easy. There shouldn't be an issue at all.

Bermuda
 
Most people couldn't tell you if the guitar player is using a PAF or a super distortion but are easily distinguished when A/b'd

LOL, there we go. I've been trying to figure out just how to say this for the entire thread, you nailed it in one try.

Yeah, sure, if you were to go around and ask if they could tell what kind of heads/cymbals the drummer is using the audience would be blanked out, but if you took a break and switched EVERYTHING out, they'd definitely notice.
 
A properly tuned drum with any quality head sounds good period. Thoughts?

True, but if you hear a certain sound in your head, you naturally want to achieve it in reality. Sound reinforcement can make up for a drum's deficiencies, but if you start with the sound you want, you have a better chance of amplifying it later. I've tried all makes of heads and always come back to Remo. Their heads have a certain roundness of tone that I need. Evans sound more brittle to me.

I play best when my instrument sounds right to me acoustically.
 
I recently purchased a Mapex birch kit with 5 1/2 snare I,m not happy with the snappy sound of this drum. I,m trying to achieve a warmer 'tock' tone. what sort of batter head should I get.
 
From a high-quality-to-low-quality standpoint, yes. Just about every low- to mid-high-priced kit you buy will have terrible heads on it. They feel and sound bad.

To be honest, when I drop serious cash on something, it's not so other people can go "Wow, that sounds good", or "Wow, that looks good". It's so that I can think "Wow, that sounds good", or "Wow, that looks good".

As for the differences between heads? Well, there is something in that argument. Especially when it comes down to the differences between Emps and Ambs, or G2s and G1s. I will always use G2s and Emperors simply because they're thicker. I play a lot of punk and metal, so I need heads that can step up and take a beating. I've hit holes in thinner heads before, and there's nothing more annoying than that, so I always go for thick. Not only that, but they feel nice when you hit them.
 
I heard a band about a month or so back that the drummer was playing a Tama bubinga kit. I knew right away that he was not plating the G-2 heads. The sound was more dead than my own kit. I was correct. He had on EC2s. I tried them on my own kit about 2 years ago and removed them as quickly as I installed them for that very same reason. So,yes,sometimes you can hear the difference from the audience.
 
I was about to give up on my Onyx heads after a brief honeymoon period because I couldn't tune them where I wanted to. Finally I replaced all my stock reso heads with Evans G1 clears, tuned 'em pretty much exactly where I had the heads the first time and BAM. The kit just WOKE UP. My heads went from having a thin "BOMP" to a giant "BOOM" with tons of attack, and I credit the new resos.

So... yeah. I think heads make a difference. Not so much between parallel lines of one brand versus another, maybe, but change out your 1 ply stock heads for some 2 ply Aquarian P2's and you'll see a HUGE difference.
 
I saw the famous Drummers of Burundi on the weekend and had a peak at their custom drums (e.g. a carver chopped down a tree, carved out the inside and then put a cowskin head on it using a peg system). Not one of the drums were completely round; and forget about a bearing edge! Yet, to the audience, they founded (and looked) fantastic!

It took me a while to realize, that 99% of what I do seems to be for me, rather than the audience. I don't gig very much, but I practice a fair amount. I am beyond having to be flamboyant. I keep the beat and not too much more. Bonham triplets ... only in practice/jams. Therefore, most of the gear tweaking and upgrades are for me; most of the audience will never notice.

GJS
 
I wonder why it's all being discussed in terms of LIVE sessions. Obviously a bunch of stuff doesn't make a huge difference in a chaotic situation like a live performance.
 
I think heads are one of the most important things on a drumset. I also think NEW heads are more important than what brand. I don't know how many times I've taken a beginner drumset and put new professional heads on them and made the kit sound exceptional.

My choice of brands is mainly a two fold decision. I have had bad experiences with remo heads pulling out and it has wasted alot of money and time on my part messing with them. I use evans heads because I've never had one pull out, and they are pretty widely available in the United States so when I'm on tour I can get to a shop and pick up my "usual" heads. Aquarian makes great stuff too but I cannot always find what I'm looking for even in my own town let alone out on the road.
 
I think you could ask a more general question... does gear matter as much as we think?

I think the difference between bad gear (and/or badly tuned gear) and ok gear is much bigger than the difference between ok gear and top gear.

Once you get into a reasonable level of quality, the thing that makes the biggest difference to the audience is the quality of the drumming not the quality of the gear. As long as the gear isn't audibly "bad" I think the audience couldn't give a toss whether you're using £1,500 or £10,000 worth of gear.

So I reckon it's 95% talent and 5% gear.

Better get practising...
 
I recently purchased a Mapex birch kit with 5 1/2 snare I,m not happy with the snappy sound of this drum. I,m trying to achieve a warmer 'tock' tone. what sort of batter head should I get.

I have the Same problem, I put a G2 head on it and it's alot better. Although If you want to make it even better I'd recommend puttign die-cast hoops on it. Hope that helps.
 
Bottom line is, aftermarket heads will make any drumset sound better. But a no name cheap set will never sound good, although it will sound better.
 
Bottom line is, aftermarket heads will make any drumset sound better. But a no name cheap set will never sound good, although it will sound better.

That actually depends on the kit.

Two examples. One member here sent me one of his band albums a while back. On the phone the other day, he informed me that it was a 'Sonic' set that had been tuned properly with decent heads. Would I have had ANY idea? Absolutely not - and I like to think I have better than average ears. Lucky? Perhaps, but unlikely.

The second example is another member who is sadly no longer with us (I considered him a personal friend and I miss him dearly). He bought a Yamaha Rydeen - not rubbish kit, but certainly low-end. A set of Fiberskyns later and that little kit sounded like countless professional kits.

At this point, it's worth me mentioning two more things. i) Snares are an exception to this and a good snare is a worthwhile investment and ii) the quality of brand construction now is better than it has EVER been. There are flaky, generic sets out there, but 95% of what major manufacturers put out now is great quality and as far as I'm concerned, if the quality is good, then the rest really just does not matter.
 
Yes!

Heads are more important than shells!

Bad analogy. Think of it more like distortion type or guitar model.

As a guitarist I'd say that is a bad analogy, distortion is an effect not part of the instrument, strings and heads are a good analogy and I can tell the difference in both
 
Back
Top