Muffling - Do You or Don't You?

The first time that I was in a studio way back in the 70's I played the House Studio kit with muted drums and tape on the pies. I said to myself, Never Again!
I now play my drums in a studio just as I play them live.

Oh heck, I just play the studio kits. The drum sound isn't up to me, it's up to whoever is paying for the session, usually the producer of whatever little tidbit of nonsense we're recording for some advertising agency. Great music, that stuff!
 
Unlike a lot of folks who have responded, I haven't found the need to muffle my snare drum, but the band I am in prefers that I use Remo's rings on the toms for a darker sound. Sometimes in larger venues I can get away with taking them off, but generally they like them on there. Don't get me wrong, the drums sound good either way, even when mic'ed up, but it is simply a matter of preference, and it's not just my ears I need to satisfy...
 
Oh heck, I just play the studio kits. The drum sound isn't up to me, it's up to whoever is paying for the session, usually the producer of whatever little tidbit of nonsense we're recording for some advertising agency. Great music, that stuff!
No Way Man!
Every kit that I own is something that I have put together just for me,
I have made it my own!
My cymbals and drums are a part of me. We are one.
Every one of my kits is different.

I admit, I do play some crazy kits!
I take inexpensive drums and I combine them with great sounding cymbals and good heads and tuning to create "My Sound"
That is me!
I will not let someone violate that by putting tape all over my drums and cymbals because a quick and easy plastic sounding recording can be made.

I don't want to play E-Kits that are nothing more than a computer that makes a sound when you hit a sensor.
I just can't like it! I just can't do that.

I am not interested in playing drums for money. I have made lots of money repairing cars and investing. I don't care about making drumming a career.
I play for personal enjoyment. I only have to please myself. You can't put a dollar value on that kind of satisfaction.

I want my drums and cymbals to sound like drums and cymbals.
Drums ring, cymbals sing! snare drums buzz! Bass drums go Boom!
Those are the sounds that make drums sound real to me.
I prefer to let the natural sounds of the drums and the cymbals shine through.
My only vice is that I do use Aquarian SK II heads on my bass drums. I also use a small porthole on my bass reso. I do tune my bass heads on the tight side to get some boom from my bass drum.
 
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Evans O rings on snare and toms, and a rolled up Ghostbusters costume against the reso side of the bass drum (pre-muffled PS3 batter).

I'm still a beginner and suck at tuning, plus I spend the majority of my time playing exercises out of books, so I don't have a lot of crashing and overall busyness to cover up the overtones.

When I'm doing a lot of play-alongs i'll usually take the ring off of the snare. With the toms, even if i can get them tuned evenly, and get a clear, clean note out of them they stil sound boingy and plasticy, the rings focus the sound and lower the pitch a little (EC2 SSTs over G1s).
 
Unlike a lot of folks who have responded, I haven't found the need to muffle my snare drum, but the band I am in prefers that I use Remo's rings on the toms for a darker sound. Sometimes in larger venues I can get away with taking them off, but generally they like them on there. Don't get me wrong, the drums sound good either way, even when mic'ed up, but it is simply a matter of preference, and it's not just my ears I need to satisfy...

just in case, those rings are used for muffling
 
No Way Man!
Every kit that I own is something that I have put together just for me,
I have made it my own!
My cymbals and drums are a part of me. We are one.
Every one of my kits is different.

I admit, I do play some crazy kits!
I take inexpensive drums and I combine them with great sounding cymbals and good heads and tuning to create "My Sound"
That is me!
I will not let someone violate that by putting tape all over my drums and cymbals because a quick and easy plastic sounding recording can be made.

I don't want to play E-Kits that are nothing more than a computer that makes a sound when you hit a sensor.
I just can't like it! I just can't do that.

I am not interested in playing drums for money. I have made lots of money repairing cars and investing. I don't care about making drumming a career.
I play for personal enjoyment. I only have to please myself. You can't put a dollar value on that kind of satisfaction.

I want my drums and cymbals to sound like drums and cymbals.
Drums ring, cymbals sing! snare drums buzz! Bass drums go Boom!
Those are the sounds that make drums sound real to me.
I prefer to let the natural sounds of the drums and the cymbals shine through.
now thats a magic combination of words <3
 
I am not interested in playing drums for money. I have made lots of money repairing cars and investing. I don't care about making drumming a career.
I play for personal enjoyment. I only have to please myself. You can't put a dollar value on that kind of satisfaction.

Yeah, Bob, but you have to put a dollar value on having to play drums for money.

I rather miss having to play drums for money.

And I wish I could repair cars. Hell, I wish I could repair anything!
 
Yeah, Bob, but you have to put a dollar value on having to play drums for money.

I rather miss having to play drums for money.

And I wish I could repair cars. Hell, I wish I could repair anything!
last week when I changed the clocks back I accidentally tuned my clock radio to a Pop station.
I couldn't believe the music that I woke up to the next morn.
It was so bland and phony! There were no real drum sounds in the music. There were hardly any guitar parts in the music.The music consisted mainly of vocals, crap guitar parts, and dubbed in electronic percussion sounds.
Is this the, "Music" that people listen to today?
It was horrible!
It sounded like someone took random loops from a computer program and they had a singer sing over them.
 
last week when I changed the clocks back I accidentally tuned my clock radio to a Pop station.
I couldn't believe the music that I woke up to the next morn.
It was so bland and phony! There were no real drum sounds in the music. There were hardly any guitar parts in the music.The music consisted mainly of vocals, crap guitar parts, and dubbed in electronic percussion sounds.
Is this the, "Music" that people listen to today?
It was horrible!
It sounded like someone took random loops from a computer program and they had a singer sing over them.

For real music, I mean absolutely real no jive music, go here. It's happening right now. Roberto Gatto's doing it on the drums.
 
all that lady gaga bullshit is really annoying me
everyone thinks that all these famous electronic djs tiesto and guetta do music
it really annoys the hell out of me to hear those comments and to be surrounded by people whom think their so "called" mix or song is music
 
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I've done a lot of quick fixes for cheap drums and drums in bad shape recently at college and here's a few things I've found out. If you take a piece of duct tape (gaff tape works too, but it's not as sticky so that could pose a problem later) and make a patch: step one take a piece of tap and roll it over (think for sticking something on the wall) then placed the little rolled tape on the head near the edge and cover with a flat piece of tape to hold it on. The end result looks like a bandage or patch that you could vary on size depending on the size of the drum or muffle desired. This tends to have the effect of a moongel or internal dampener.
Another trick is to make a tape ring on the INSIDE of the head. I always tried this on the outside, but never had satisfying results. Make like an octagon around the inside of the head (if you have coated or colored heads you wont even see this tape from the outside) and make sure the pieces of tape overlap somewhat. Your head will still tune, but have a slightly dampened, but much fatter drum sound. It gives single ply heads that double ply feel and you don't have to worry about an e-ring flying off, getting bent, etc. It also leaves the drum still sensitive enough to play all dynamic levels. You also could experiment by not making a ring all the way around either. This works wonders on old heads that you may not be able to replace at the time too, or kits with stock heads. This creates a Powerstroke style sound for floor toms that you may plan on using for club kit kick drums too. The benefit again is that you dont have duct tape all over the outside of the drum kit making you look 'unprofessional'
 
A soundman and drummer who I look up to once told me drums should not need to be muffled to sound good. So I try to muffle nothing, except my kick, which has a pillow. Some of my snares have heads with built in rings, like an Evans Genera or a Powerstroke, and some of the older ones have those built in muffle pads that you can tighten against the head (Ludwig Supraphonic). WHen needs require and the snare mic has high gain I will use one or both of those. But I quite like a little overring on the snare. Some of it usually disappears when the whole band kicks in.

For toms, I use nothing. I have found it difficult to tune single-ply heads without muffling, so I tend to stick to 2-ply for the toms. At the moment I have Evans G2's on my toms. There is very minimal overrring on the toms with those heads.
 
Other than head selection (i.e., using an EMAD and a genera dry snare head (with ext. ring sometimes, ec2 SST on toms)...I don't muffle
 
Never on toms.

I use an Evans Pad on the kick batter with PS3's all around.

On occasion I will use a moon gel on the snare but usually not.


I find that because I use minimal mic techniques that the drums sound better when they are as open and resonant as possible.
 
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