Frank
Gold Member
I copied these from another thread about someone wanting to muffle their toms. I thought these thoughts were worthy of a separate thread.
This is a topic in its own right that I haven't seen discussed.
Early on in my drumming life I took to placing cotton in my ears before playing, or when I don't have cotton I use a torn up Kleenex. I do it because I frankly can't stand how shrill the snare and the cymbals sound to me from behind the kit, although it also muffles some of the annoying resonance I hear from the toms.
The funny thing is that I never feel the need to plug my ears this way when I'm listening to another drummer play from as close as maybe 10 feet away, and I assume I wouldn't need to plug my ears if I could listen to my own playing from 10 feet away. But something about being right at (in?) the kit causes me to feel a strong need to plug my ears a little to muffle the sounds I'm hearing. In fact, I'm neurotic about it. I NEVER play without first muffling my ears (which headphones do too) and am always amazed that other drummers don't bother.
This of course doesn't speak to the larger issue of getting drums tuned and sometimes muffled to a drummer's satisfaction. Putting cotton balls in your ears isn't a substitute for getting the drums (and cymbals) to sound like you want them to sound. However, I'm convinced that what we hear when playing needs more muffling than what the audience hears.
I thought I was the only one that felt this way. Maybe we should start a whole thread on it.
I'm a drummer, yet - I do not like the sound of drums and cymbals from behind the kit. Not just mine. Everyone's. Everywhere. Everything sounds shrill and harsh to me. Just 10 or 20 feet away, and then it sounds beautiful.
I, too, now play with headphones often, and I let just a little of the drum bleed in with how I adjust the headphones on my head. That tone is then glorious to my ears, and that's closer to the tone that people hear from the audience.