It seems that the more experienced one becomes as a drummer, the need for muffling and muting the kit becomes less and less. I know for me, any type of muffling on my snare or toms takes away certain sonic characteristics that I find desireable.... the high end bite of the snare, the attack and full resonant tone of the toms. But, when I was a beginner, I muffled the crap out of my kit to get rid of any excess overtones that sounded unnatural and was perfectly happy. Obviously, becoming a more mature player, an experienced tuner and acquiring a "taste" for wide open sounding drums will lead most drummers to not use any muffling devices whatsoevr, but is there more to it than that? Is it better to not muffle your drums since most more experienced players don't? What are your thoughts?
One other aspect to add to the "debate" as it were...I think there is a HUGE difference between a soundguy who requests muffling because they have a definite idea of what they want to hear rather than some sound guys I've dealt with who are just used to one thing and frankly act like they don't want to be bothered. I have worked with both and the second type is pretty annoying usually spends very little time working on sounds at all.
i cant believe that this thread has persisted for three whole pages. what is left to discuss? wide open drums sound big and they "sing". thats cool. muffled drums sound dead and warm. thats cool too. GREAT! move on!
Not always.i cant believe that this thread has persisted for three whole pages. what is left to discuss? wide open drums sound big and they "sing". thats cool. muffled drums sound dead and warm. thats cool too. GREAT! move on!
You are very wise for such a young man; I do believe you are going to one hell of a jazz drummer. In my case it is the other musicians who are generally insisting on some sort of tone controlgood thread, that`s like "How can can I get rid of that dirt on my T-shirt? Throw it away or make the best out of it and experiment?"
I really never muffled drums, NEVER and I hate it. I hate the sound, this typical "bob"- sound, just awful. I think muffling drums extremly is just like making "make-up" on my face, it just hide the actual problems.
Better way would be to experiment with tuning till you find a good tuning and try out different heads. I think it`s good to explore how the drums react on different tunings, it will make you of course much more experienced. I had this problem a few days ago: My 12" tom sounded hoorible because of an awful lot of overtones...a good friend and guitarist said that I could "muffle away" this problem...just don`t like to do it, I kept up experimenting and reading some tuning guides et voilà: I got a good open jazzy sound.
So, just ask yourself: What gives me more experience? To muffle or to experiment till you find and to read? I guess it`s the second possibility...
Karl
Drum muffling as far as my recollections go (and I am 52 years old) go back to when Remo Weatherkings replaced calfskin heads on drums. While the Remos were great at holding their tune compared with calfskins, they put off the nastiestiest of sounds, a plastic ring or overtone, especially when tuned at higher tensions. I always figured the built in mufflers that drum makers went to during this era was to get plastic heads to sound more like natural hides. Those that do not understand why muffling may have been desirable should sometime play a set of calfskin headed drums, then you may see. I have never played natural hides that needed muffling, even at high tensions.