"Muting" Drums

Mr. C

Mr. C

New member
Okay, I'm not a drummer but do have a drum set (don't ask). Anyways a few weeks ago when I had a jam at my place the drummer asked for some towels to "mute" the drums because it gets very loud in my basement. My wife likes to sew and had an idea about making some covers for the drums to help "mute" them. I'm wondering what type of material she should use, thick like towels or something more like the thickness of suede? I know they sell drum pads or something to accomplish this, but what the heck, it will give my wife something to do. And if none this makes sense please be gentle, I only play guitar.
 
Take some old cracked drum heads and cut out the center of them so you have a nice even ring of plastic that you can lay on top of the drum that the head corresponds to. Put a pillow or towels in the bass drum. And don't worry about the cymbals - just tell your drummer to get in the habit of playing them softer when you're in the basement.

http://drumshopglasgowonline.co.uk/images/RO024400Rings.jpg
http://audiogeekzine.com/wp-content/uploads/zero_ring.jpg

The best solution - and what you should be doing anyway - is simply wearing hearing protection during practices. If it's really that loud, hearing protection should come first before trying to change drums themselves.
 
Quite possibly the first time in the history of history that a drummer has wanted to play quieter ;)

Towels on drums are actually kind of cool. Especially if you want that "70's snare". The old trick when recording drums back then was to throw the drummer's wallet on the snare drum.

Mr. C said:
Okay, I'm not a drummer but do have a drum set (don't ask). Anyways a few weeks ago when I had a jam at my place the drummer asked for some towels to "mute" the drums because it gets very loud in my basement. My wife likes to sew and had an idea about making some covers for the drums to help "mute" them. I'm wondering what type of material she should use, thick like towels or something more like the thickness of suede? I know they sell drum pads or something to accomplish this, but what the heck, it will give my wife something to do. And if none this makes sense please be gentle, I only play guitar.
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Greg_L said:
People were so stupid in the 60's and 70's.

"Hey let's put wallets on the drums!"

Idiots.
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Hello my name is L "Gran" Toro !! And I am new to the forum!
Please forgive my english i am not a native english speaker.

Ok to the point now. Greg you most be joking? IMHO The best drum sounds and grooves come from the 60's and 70's years. There's a reason why drums use to come with inner mutes. No?
 
LToro said:
Hello my name is L "Gran" Toro !! And I am new to the forum!
Please forgive my english i am not a native english speaker.

Ok to the point now. Greg you most be joking? IMHO The best drum sounds and grooves come from the 60's and 70's years. There's a reason why drums use to come with inner mutes. No?
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I'm not joking at all. Just like with cars, TV's, medicine, etc...we know better now.

Best drummers from the 60's and 70's? Sure. There were some awesome drummers back in the old days.

Best sounds? Fuck no. Hell no. Not even close. Drums came with mutes back then because the heads sucked and having dead lifeless drums was the trend of the time. Some drums came from the factory with no lugs for resonant heads. Stupid. Thankfully most people have moved past that ridiculous nonsense.
 
Kind of funny, I put new heads on my drums the other day. Vintage emperors on toms, tried CS Dot for the first time on the bass drum. Very, very little muffling in the bass ( a piece of plastic barely touching the batter head) and no muffling on the toms, just have them tuned low but not flabby low, and I'm totally getting a very 70's sound. No close mics on the toms either. But the drums still sound rich.

So it is possible to get that 'sound' without deadening stuff. Its all in tuning and playing. Heck, I'm not even using deadened heads like pinstripes or powerstroke 4's.
 
To tell you the truth, I really don't know why the drummer wanted to mute the drums. I've had other drummers use the drums and no one ever said the drums were too loud. It sure doesn't bother me, I just turn my amp up! Needless to say that drummer has never returned to jam.

So I guess I'll tell my wife to go back to sewing clothes for the kids and forget about the covers for the drums. Of course sometimes they do seem to get a little dusty...
 
Greg_L said:
I'm not joking at all. Just like with cars, TV's, medicine, etc...we know better now.

Best drummers from the 60's and 70's? Sure. There were some awesome drummers back in the old days.

Best sounds? Fuck no. Hell no. Not even close. Drums came with mutes back then because the heads sucked and having dead lifeless drums was the trend of the time. Some drums came from the factory with no lugs for resonant heads. Stupid. Thankfully most people have moved past that ridiculous nonsense.
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I mostly agree. Everyone raves about Bonzos drum sound on the classic led Zep recordings...I guess for the time it was a great sound(when compared to other drum sounds at the time) but it dosen't stack up against modern recordings. Bonzos performances on the other hand are epic and awesome. The best late 60's early 70's drum sound IMHO are Ringo Stars drum recordings produced by George Martin. They just sound better than the other thin sounding drum tones of that era.
 
jimistone said:
I mostly agree. Everyone raves about Bonzos drum sound on the classic led Zep recordings...I guess for the time it was a great sound(when compared to other drum sounds at the time) but it dosen't stack up against modern recordings. Bonzos performances on the other hand are epic and awesome. The best late 60's early 70's drum sound IMHO are Ringo Stars drum recordings produced by George Martin. They just sound better than the other thin sounding drum tones of that era.
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Yup, pretty much. Bonham was a fantastic player and is probably the Hendrix of the rock drum world. His sounds? To me, not so great. They sound like big floppy drums in a big room played by a great player. Good sounds for the time, but for my own drum recordings, not inspiring. Keith Moon is one of my all-time favorites. I love that dude. His sounds? Total ass on those old Who recordings. It's kind of weird with Moon....in his younger days when he played the wildest, the sounds were terrible. Into the 70's, the sounds got better, but he didn't play as cool. Then he died. Oh well.
 
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