moongel or e-rings?

Which are better. The evens e-rings, or moongel. I've heard a lot of critisism for the e-rings, but not so much the moongel.

moongel. you can adjust the damping much better with moongels, add a little there, take some off there.

remoking said:

Which are better. The eavens e-rings, or moongel. I've heard a lot of critisism for the e-rings, but not so much the moongel.

Click to expand...

Niether, both have this really annoying muffling effect on drums and keep you from hearing the actual sound of your kit...

(Obviously I like a little resonance)

Well said GARVIN !!!!!!!

I prefrer dampening rings much more. But its just opinion.

I just got some of the Moon Gel things after hearing so much about them. I usually do not muffle drums at all, but I've been doing some small jazz venues and a bit of dampening would be nice. One little square of the this stuff will dampen the drum enough without killing the playability of the drum like rings. (btw, if you ever want to make 'rings' of your own, take a razor to an old drum head before you get rid of it, it's mylar, fits the drums, and you don't have to pay for it) Of course the effect of the moongel depends on the heads as well. I noticed comparing the effects on EC2s compared with G1s. Moon Gel plus 'dampened' heads equals a pretty dead sound unless the drum is 16" or bigger. However on my other kit with g2s/g1s with 13,16,18 toms it works nicely. (It's great for when I use my 18" tom as a bass) It's great because you can just take them off, move them around, etc. for different songs. Unlike rings they last longer, rings can get crumpled or whatnot, these things just are gooey little squares. Wash them with soap and water, dry them and they are sticky and ready to go again like new (that is if they collect enough dust to stop being sticky) These also work for other stuff like cowbells, blocks, or other things you may need a controlled sound for

wait, you can wash them and they'll still be sticky afterwards? thats awesome! never knew that, think im gonna clean mine right now, they've been quite dirty.

Nah, no thanks...just good tuning.

lksdfjlskdjflskdjflskjdfldk

remoking said:

Which are better. The evens e-rings, or moongel. I've heard a lot of critisism for the e-rings, but not so much the moongel.

Click to expand...

It really depends on the sound that you are going for....moon gel adjusts some of the ring out of the drum - maybe just some of the annoying (if any) overtones. E-rings are going to dampen most of the overtones out the drum, giving a fat sound. I have always been a fan of the tom sounds on Bryan Adams' early records and I think that this may have included muffling in the form of the E-ring, precursor - cut the outer edge off of an old drumhead and tape it to the head.


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com

http://www.youtube.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.myspace.com/drummermikemccraw

I was moving my set one day and just so happens I put my Moongels in my "toolbox" that day which ended up going in the back of my truck. I think they were in the bed of my truck for about 4 maybe 5 hours. Anyway long story short, the sun beat down on the toolbox and gels melted together, now I have one really thick moongel. =P
good thing they aren't expensive.

If you decide to use the O-rings don't tape them down to your head. They need to float and vibrate with the head to kill only the unwanted overtones. If you tape them down they will completely choke out the sound of the tom. Rings are quite drastic, but if that is the sound you are looking for, they are quite effective.

None of that on toms. Tuning and heads should do the trick. I agree with Garvin completely but I like open and resonant also. I have a steel snare drum that rings like crazy and no amount of heads, snares, tuning gets rid of the ugly buzz (not the nice "growl") after smacking the drum; to get rid of it, I cut an inch out of a studio ring and tape it to the head so that it isn't taped to the head it's actually taped to the rim and floats on the head. An entire ring just kills the drum.

I have a e-ring on my metalwoks snare, it works good, but when i play without it, everything else just gets rid of the ringing sound. so really if you are playing live, the guitar/singing etc will cut out your overtones.

as for the toms this rule also apply, although i do admit the gels come in handy sometimes.

I like moongels.

I really like how you can choose how much you want to dampen. If you want to dampen just a little bit then lay the moongel so it's 1/2 on the head and 1/2 on the rim(this is what I typically do). For my snare I lay it directly on the head about an inch from the rim and I get a nice snappy snare sound that I like.

They are pretty much the same exact material as those little sticky hands that you can find in quarter machines... actually - that would be cool! I should get some of those...

Garvin said:

Neither, both have this really annoying muffling effect on drums and keep you from hearing the actual sound of your kit...

(Obviously I like a little resonance)

Click to expand...

Agreed, choosing the correct heads, tuning them and having a gig in a room full of noisy people to play for will negate the need for such things. You'll need that full resonance to compete for "ear space" with all the other stuff going on on the gig.

CAN YOU NAY SAYERS STOP BAGGING DAMPENING! If you dont llike the sound of drums dampened thats fine but there is no need to bag on people cause they dampen there drums.I dont dampen at all either, but i can understand people wanting to as i guarantee these are people who never take there drums out of the house and have strange accoustics or just simply want to make the drums not so loud(for the room there in)or they like dry attack with little resonance.Its like when i see a post from the same person ie.dont dampen your drums let them sing. then in another post :wy ask silly questions "trust your ears".total contradiction! I've had my rant.

Right on Cypriss. Hay i was just wondering wat moongels r lol? i've never heard of them till now, i've been living unda a rock .

I greatly prefer to let my tuning do the trick. I don't like a pillow in my bass drum, and I don't like stretching a strip of towel between the head and the shell.

That said, sometimes you need some muffling (live rooms, smaller bands), and for that, I adore moongels. I've had to put as many as 3 gels on my floor tom to get it under control (brick wall behind me and beside me, concrete under my drum rug). It's a nice fast way to get a "dry" sound out of a wet snare. It also works remarkably well on cymbals if necessary.

The really cool thing is that you can tailor what you take out of the sound by where you place the gel. On a cymbal, placing it by the bell takes out overtones. Near the edge takes down the sustain. I get similar effects on drums.

Sometimes, you can't tune a drum to get every single sound you need. That's when you need some other tools at your disposal.

I dont like dampening either..but there certainly is a time and place for it. You can't always let your "tuning" take care of things. A lot of factors go into dampening like the size of your drums and what they are made out of. Some dampening is good for recording, or even using mics sometimes in live situations, or just depending on the type of room especially if you have larger drums ( I have 16 and 18 inch floor toms which I only ever dampen those 2 drums when I do). That's just my 2 cents..

I have used moongels just not presently. I usually cut them in half and put the gel piece right against the hoop so as to just barely muffle. I have also used on my snare to get rid of the smallest amount of ring, a business card. Just lay it on the head next to the hoop.