Low Volume Drums and Weird Noise - HELP.

Bertram

Silver Member
I usually play with a headset, with music, and it's dampened headset, so i won't destroy my ears. Im a bad tuner, but through my headset, the drums sound so incredible. When i take off my headset after practising i maybe hit a drum, and it sounds like a little worse, but much lower in volume. It feels like the drums are even at a higher volume through a dampened headset?! I don't know what the **** im doing wrong. I've spent ages of tuning, and i always kinda finds a sound that sound... well OK. And then stops, i retuned them after playing them without the headset again. My heads are fairly tight, but when i hit like i normally would, a little hard, it makes such a wierd noise - like a warping sound... warw, and then the resonance comes, The only high sound is the sound of the stick hitting the head like a.... DAK.. followed by resonance - which is MUCH lower than the impact of the stick - this bugs me. The heads are coated amb, emp and pinstribe - first time i changed heads, so i bought a 10 amb, 12 emp, 16 pin. The coating is gone on the 12 and the 16. Could that have an impact on the sound? Does coated heads make wierd noises? Some drum fellas says they preffer clear because coated sounds awkward... The Drums are Yamaha Stage Custom Birch. I've played clear stock heads before, and they didn't make this noise. I havent changed the bottom heads yet, but they're as thin as plastic bags or so. I could put a hole through them with my finger.... well... almost. When i replace heads, i replace the bottom ones too... SOON!

I Hope some of you can see what's wrong, im new at drums, and an obvious thing won't really be visible for me yet. Thanks in advance. Bert.
 
You said it yourself mate..... "im new at drums" and "Im a bad tuner"

It ain't easy and it takes practice....lots of it. Check the tuning threads here and the Bob Gatzen videos on you tube. Follow the process, keep practising and before you know it you'll start hearing some sounds that are more pleasing to you. Tune your drums so they sound good when you're playing them without headphones.
 
I cant drum without ear plugs- i hate all the overtones you get.
I think maybe you're experiencing something similar to this

I guess ear plugs or isolation headphones add a level of compression to the overall sound and thats what i have gotten used to over the years. If I play a kit without ear defence it just sounds too ringy for me
In fact when i try out new drums or cymbals i make sure to take my ear plugs with me as thats the sound I will hear when i use it on my kit
 
oh and one more possibility- perhaps as you are playing along to records you are hearing some of the drum sound from that and its 'blending' with your acoustic sound and hence why it sounds better to you?
 
I guess ear plugs or isolation headphones add a level of compression to the overall sound and thats what i have gotten used to over the years.

Exactly. They eliminate many of the frequencies that the drum is actually emitting.....especially the highs.

How anyone judges the sound of their drums or cymbals whilst wearing isolation headphones is a new one to me. I honestly don't get it....what about the sounds that everyone else is hearing? What if they actually just sound horrible.....as is the case with the OP? Surely you wouldn't keep playing them that way?

Learning to tune and learning that live drums simply do not sound the same way they do on recordings is the first step towards achieving a great drum sound IMHO.
 
I for one would never wear ear plugs or any other sound deadening device when I audition a new set of drums. There is just too much you can miss by not hearing the full frequency response and sensitivity of the kit. Then again, I'm not a drum basher by any means and I wouldn't' sit there and play the kit for any length of time either without full ear protection.

Being able to tune a set of drum competently is your best ally which every drummer should have a responsibility to learn. There are just too many people that are actually afraid to turn the drum's tension rods.

Dennis
 
Quote Bertram " I've played clear stock heads before, and they didn't make this noise. I havent changed the bottom heads yet, but they're as thin as plastic bags or so. I could put a hole through them with my finger.... well... almost. When i replace heads, i replace the bottom ones too... SOON"

You say that your bottom heads are real thin. Are they like Remo Diplomat tom heads thin, or are they snare bottom head thin?
I ask this because I bought a Tama kit used and when I brought it home and I tuned it,
It sounded weird.
I went out the next day and I bought new heads top and bottom.
When I took the stock heads off of the bottom of the toms I found that they were as thin as snare bottom heads. Problem solved!
I also bought a set of ddrum maple toms on eBay and one tom had a bottom head that was as thick as a snare bottom.
In both cases they were Chinese Remo stock heads.
 
Exactly. They eliminate many of the frequencies that the drum is actually emitting.....especially the highs.

How anyone judges the sound of their drums or cymbals whilst wearing isolation headphones is a new one to me. I honestly don't get it....what about the sounds that everyone else is hearing? What if they actually just sound horrible.....as is the case with the OP? Surely you wouldn't keep playing them that way?

Learning to tune and learning that live drums simply do not sound the same way they do on recordings is the first step towards achieving a great drum sound IMHO.

nobody else hears those extra frequencies either though unless you are playing alone in a room with lots of reverb.... once a band come in or you are playing through a PA system the audience won't hear any of those overtones you mentioned so really they are irrelevant

You dont need to tune your drums without ear plugs unless you are really really anal about every lug having exactly the same tuning. My kit sounds great (have heard other people play it too) and i tuned that whilst set up with ear plugs in.

If anything wearing earplugs/ isolation headphones behind the kit gives more of an accurate idea of what the kit will sound like out front imo

Wearing earplugs isn't suddenly going to make things sound good/ bad... you can still judge it pretty well i've always found and in fact things sound "horrible" to me without them in.

Oh and i'm not a heavy handed lout, I play smaller drums and have been often told "you're not hitting hard enough"
 
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