Dampening a Drumkit

Farview said:
Those rings aren't glued to the head. It is basically another head ply with a giant hole in it.
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Yup.

Some of those shitty Aquarian heads have a foam ring glued inside of them though. They're great for that flat dead worn out drum sound that doesn't tune well or project at all.
 
I have never gotten a set of Aquarians to sound like anything. The kick head works ok, but I prefer almost anything else to it.
 
Farview said:
cafehonda said:
Those rings aren't glued to the head. It is basically another head ply with a giant hole in it.
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The damping ring does not tuck into the hoop. It is a ring glued to the bottom of a 10 mil ply.

From the Aquarian website:
Studio-X™: A clear, 10 mil single ply, medium weight drumhead with a light weight muffle ring adhered to the underside. This helps to eliminate some unwanted high frequencies while still maintaining a warm open sound.

They sound great, unlike those horseshit Evans Generras or a garbage Remo CS or Powerstroke Pros.
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cafehonda said:
The damping ring does not tuck into the hoop. It is a ring glued to the bottom of a 10 mil ply.

From the Aquarian website:
Studio-X™: A clear, 10 mil single ply, medium weight drumhead with a light weight muffle ring adhered to the underside. This helps to eliminate some unwanted high frequencies while still maintaining a warm open sound.

They sound great, unlike those horseshit Evans Generras or a garbage Remo CS or Powerstroke Pros.
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Are you talking snare head or toms?
Either way, different stroke. I like bright toms and kicks. The aquarians are always dark and dead sounding. For toms, I still use remo pinstripes. Power strokeIII for kicks. (I used to use the EMAD's, but went back to the power strokes)

I've always had a hard time tuning the aquarians to get any tone out of them, they were just deader than dead. If that's what you like, wonderful. Since most of my clients played metal, having dark sounding drums just didn't work very well.

I had a jazz guy come in with heads that looked like (could have been) actual calf skin. They sounded dead too, but it was appropriate for what he was doing and how he was playing.

I liked the Genera HD on the snare, because you could spin the head and get the amount of dryness you want. If you lined the holes up with the lugs, it was really dry, if you don't it would ring more.
 
Drum sounds are the most mysterious things to me. More than any other instrument, they seem really subjective. I'll hear someone say "oh this drum tone is amazing." I'll listen to them, and I'll think they sound God-awful. But then I'll hear some drums that sound gorgeous to me, like these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkPlwR3gr2s

and other people have said they sound like dogshit.

That happens with all instruments for sure, but it never surprises me the way it does with drums.
 
famous beagle said:
Drum sounds are the most mysterious things to me. More than any other instrument, they seem really subjective. I'll hear someone say "oh this drum tone is amazing." I'll listen to them, and I'll think they sound God-awful. But then I'll hear some drums that sound gorgeous to me, like these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkPlwR3gr2s

and other people have said they sound like dogshit.

That happens with all instruments for sure, but it never surprises me the way it does with drums.
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It is always a personal preference with drum tones.

But the common denominator with most every great recording is the fact that the drums are in tune, the room is worthy of recording in, and likely most important is the drummer playing. Tho....

The drum sound on AC/DC Back In Black may not work on another record. One of the worst snare sounds that stand out for me personally are Ozzy 'Ultimate Sin' record. But it somehow works for that album. Well, it sold anyway... Hell, pretty much all the snares on every OZZY record never sounded right to me.

I must say that it is quite amazing how many different sounds you can get from different drums and in the way they are used in any mix. Finding what works in any particular project is the key I suppose.
 
Bad tuning alone doesn't necessarily cause ringing.......there are number of factors that cause both overtones and ringing.

What the OP hasn't said, AND what no one has bothered to ask is details of the drummer's kit and this lack of information makes almost every reply useless.

The first thing when you build a drum shell is to test it for overtones, if it passes that stage then you have to decide what the bearing edge profile should be, this can affect a number of things, ringing being just one.......it goes on and on.

Farview said:
Are you talking about overtones, or excessive ringing?

If it is ringing badly, it isn't tuned properly. There are plenty of videos on youtube to show you how.

Glueing the rings to the head is the height of laziness and has ruined the heads.
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ausrock said:
Bad tuning alone doesn't necessarily cause ringing.......there are number of factors that cause both overtones and ringing.

What the OP hasn't said, AND what no one has bothered to ask is details of the drummer's kit and this lack of information makes almost every reply useless.

The first thing when you build a drum shell is to test it for overtones, if it passes that stage then you have to decide what the bearing edge profile should be, this can affect a number of things, ringing being just one.......it goes on and on.
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Um, who builds their own drum shells and what does that have to do with this thread?

Yes, a crappy drum may be impossible to tune, but that is a bit tough to judge without trying.

I think all of the posts here are very useful.
 
I'm assuming a low to mid-level kit, maily because most people who spend a ton of money on their drums would probably be more knowledgeable than to do something like this. So we are probably talking Pearl export/Tama Rockstar-type kits. They tend to have round bearing edges that are pretty forgiving, if you have them anywhere close to being in tune. Yes, it does also depend on the head choice and condition, as old dented heads are also impossible to tune.

Unless the guy has rich parents, anyone that would have a top of the line DW or something would most likely not be so lazy that he glues richie rings to the heads because it's far to hard and complicated to throw them in the cymbal bag when the kit gets moved.

Yes, I've come across certain snares that just ring no matter what you do or how you tune it, but standard toms on normal drumsets really don't fall into that category.
 
I had a cheap set of Pearl Export Select (the ones actually made of wood ply) that worked great live. Even in studio the toms sounded good with new heads and tuned correctly. The snare however sucked completely.
 
Yup. There was only 1 export kit in the last 20 years that I couldn't get a decent sound out of. It's the same with most mid-low level.kits, they never sound great, but you can always get them to work.
 
We are coastin off topic here but I will say I have had great luck with the PDP 'REV' kit. Cheap but sounds good.

I threw the Exports in the trash. They had a good life and it was time to go.
 
StrandedLegion said:
The drummer in our band has been trying to improve his sound, mostly by getting rid of the overtones from his kit. He bought some drum rings, which have worked pretty well.

I talked to him a few days ago, and he mentioned that he has glued the drum rings to the drumheads. He said he did this to prevent the rings from falling off when he transports his kit to practice (which happened last week).

My question is, does gluing the drum rings to the drumheads reduce the effectiveness of the rings? It seems to me like if the rings are glued on, they are essentially part of the head, and thus wouldn't reduce the overtones as well (or at all). I was hoping to get some clarification on this issue before mentioning anything to the drummer.
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The reason the rings work is because they float on the head to remove overtones, I have used remo rings for years. I also use Remo pinstripes which are oil filled heads, Evans are good also. What kind of heads is the drummer using? using gates is another way to remove ring and bleedover. Good luck with the glue job. never tried it myself, tried about everything else, tampons, maxie pads, my wallet, :D
 
Sorry...PTSD from a thread a couple years ago where some of us were trying to convince others that they weren't oil filled.
 
I've been tinkering with the sound of my Pearl VBL set ever since I got on here (got them used about 3 years before). They sounded horrid when I started...mesh heads/too much damping/way out of tune. Now that I've learned (from you wonderful people) how to properly tune them, the only damping I have left is about 3' of 3" foam in the bass (mainly to cut the volume). The Evans G2 heads I got to replace the old mesh ones with all the tape sticky still all over them and the lousy sound made a big difference. Maybe there's better head, maybe not, but they made a world of difference to my set. But the absolute best improvement of the sound was learning how to tune the things...:) Happy to be here, learning!

Next question. If it ain't broke don't fix it...should I mess with the stock Pearl bottom heads/logo head if there's nothing wrong with them? I mean do they last forever, or is there a point where they get brittle or something and there would be a noticeable improvement in the tone? Pardon me if this is a stupid newb question, but, hey, I'm still learning this stuff.
 
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