Taping Drum Heads?

[mapexdrums]

I have heard of people taping drum heads and such and I was wondering what effect does it have? Also what kind of tape?

[MadAudio]

Taping is usually done to reduce overtones/excess ringing from the heads. It's the same principal as the muffler that's inside many snare drums. My kit is a Gretsch with melodic toms (top heads only) and I use a combination of zero-rings and gaffer's tape to give the toms a more controlled sound. Some people use duct tape.

[mikeh]

Do not use duct tape - it leaves way too much residue. If anything use masking tape. An old method is to take a square of toilet paper, fold it to the size of about a silver dollar and then tape it down (with masking tape).

A better option is Moon Gel, a product that you can but at almost any drum shop for about $4.00. Little gels that are sticky enough to stay on a drum, but can be re-used over and over.

[Raaen]

Originally Posted by mapexdrums

I have heard of people taping drum heads and such and I was wondering what effect does it have? Also what kind of tape?

I picked up a thing called an Aquarian Studio Ring. Course, they cost some $$, but much easier on the drum than tape.

[crankz1]

One thing I've done instead of taping is to take one inch wide strips of cut-up T-shirts and stretch a strip across the shell an inch or two away from the edge of the shell.
Use some tape to hold the strip in place until you get the head on .... then as you begin to tune the head, stretch the the strip tight.

Depending on how much dampening you need .... you can experiment with placement of the strips.

Straight across the center of the shell will give the most dampening, whereas having the strip closer to just the edge of one side of the shell will offer minimal dampening. Also experimenting with different materials and the amount of stretch you apply.

This way you have no tape to interfere with where you may desire to strike the head.
You can do the same on the resonant head, though I find that slightly detuning one lug on the resonant head does wonders.

[Tim Brown]

Tape is for people who don't know how to tune.


Get a drumkey or two, and learn to tune.

Generally Tape is applied when th drumkit has really thin heads.

Invest in a set of pinstripes and you won't need to use tape.


Tim

[crankz1]

Pinstripes aren't going to defeat all overtones, nor will proper tuning. Depending on the style of music being played, some overtones may be desirable. More often than not, overtones in the studio can be a bear to deal with. tape or studio rings is a quick viable fix.
A properly tuned drum is going to resonate and create overtones. A coated head would serve better than pinstripes. At least thats what 25 years of playing has taught me.

YMMV

[Tim Brown]

Originally Posted by crankz1

Pinstripes aren't going to defeat all overtones, nor will proper tuning. Depending on the style of music being played, some overtones may be desirable. More often than not, overtones in the studio can be a bear to deal with. tape or studio rings is a quick viable fix.
A properly tuned drum is going to resonate and create overtones. A coated head would serve better than pinstripes. At least thats what 25 years of playing has taught me.

YMMV

The only time I've had to muffle my toms, was when my band was demo'ing some material. I had no separation in my bandroom/studio. We recorded everything live, at our regular playing volume - which meant, right next to my kit was a bass rig consisting of eight 15" speakers (a pair of 4x15" Community sound boxes) driven by 3,000 watts of power.

So, I wound up using Remo muff'ls on the toms. The muff'ls foam was sliced open, and a small piezo was placed inside each one...and then a jack was installed in the drum, and these were used to trigger both an Alesis Dm5 as well as a key on a noise gate that controlled each microphone.

I'll tell you what's amazing:

Two 100 Watt Carvin Heads with four 4x12" cabinets can actually compete with eight 15" speakers driven by 3,000 Watts of power.

Other than that time- I haven't used any muffling on on my Toms in almost 10 years, and I use pinstripes - so I guess it's just how I tune the toms.

And your right, a coated head does have less overtones than a pinstripe.


Tim

[RichB]

I'd have to agree with Tim. I've never put anything on my drum heads other then sticks. You loose so much stage volume and you start heading towards that cardboard box sound. There are so many heads on the market today that virtually eliminate overtones.
I use Evans G2 batters and G1 resonant heads. Tuned correctly you play these wide open.
On my old Ludwigs I use Aquarian studio x's. They seem to work well with that type of rounded bearing edge.