How to Tune to Control Sustain

Hey guys, I'm looking into getting some new tom heads and I was looking at the Remo Coated Emperors. My kit is a travelling kit so there aren't any resonant heads (weird I know, but they actually don't sound half bad) but the main reason why I'm writing this is because I wanted to know how to control the sustain of the drums. I mainly wanted to know if there was any better kind of drum head that I could use to get less sustain out of the drum without sacrificing the warm sound or durability of the head. And also is there any way to tune the drums to keep a short sustain?

Mr. meiste,

Let them ring. Let the drum make the sound it was made for. Get great heads for the drum. While you sit at the source of the sound the audience hears something different than you. Think on this.

With only one head you haven't got much control other than head selection. Try different heads until you find some that are dead enough for you.

Some drummers, in the days when single-headed drums were popular, used to use felt strips as they do on bass drums, only narrower--around 1" wide.

Moon Gel. Cut in half or thirds for the smaller toms. You could also try Evans EC2 which id a 2ply head (like Emporer) with just a little more muffling from a painted on ring around the outside. Remo Pinstripes are similar.

http://www.evansdrumheads.com/EVMediaDetail.Page?ActiveID=2949&MediaId=8159

An evenly tensioned drum will sustain. Basically, for the sound you're after, your choices are muffling or an unevenly tensioned drum head, which may or may not sound good enough for you.

I use a Rhythm Traveler kit a lot. The best heads that I have found for ring control with the RT toms are the Aquarian Studio-X coated.
They sound warm and there is a moderate amount of sustain with little ring.
I like my RT kit. It mic's up and records great also. No bottom heads make for easy EQ-ing of the toms when mics are over them.
Enjoy your kit.