To dampen or not to dampen...

[TelePaul]

That is the question. I've found tuning toms to be pretty tough in and of itself without having to worry about those ringing overtones. I'm tempted to go the masking tape route...what do you guys do?

 

[Greg_L]

I don't dampen at all. I use the right heads. Occasionally, I'll put a very small pillow in the kick just barely touching the batter head if I need a really tight kick sound. My toms are wide open. I might use a moongel on the snare right up against the rim, sometimes, rarely.

Most of the ring you're not liking is what gives drums a musical presence. Dead drums sound dead and lifeless in a full mix. And a lot of the ring you hear when playing the drums alone vanishes once you've got bass and guitars dancing around the kit.

 

[Yonce N Mild]

We use moongels when we're jamming but we pull em off when we record. I do think we left one on the snare last time but I'm not sure.

They sound better live dampened a bit but Greg is right that ringing really makes the toms sing in the mix.


If you do decide to dampen them get the moongels don't use tape.

 

[twsknight]

Most of the ring you're not liking is what gives drums a musical presence. Dead drums sound dead and lifeless in a full mix. And a lot of the ring you hear when playing the drums alone vanishes once you've got bass and guitars dancing around the kit.

I can't stress how important this is. Before you start dampening either have a jam with a band or do some recording and re-assess when you hear the full mix. I've been playing drums alone in my garage for a while now (think I've finally found a band though!) and when it came to doing some recording I realised that I'd completely ruined the sound of my drums by almost forcing them to sound how I wanted them to, rather than finding the best natural tone for the drum. I didn't realise how bad it was until I recorded and I could barely hear the toms.

Fortunately I've got things re-tuned, but I suck at tuning so it took hours; those hours I could have spent recording.

 

[dintymoore]

For sure you've got to have good heads.

At present I have no tape or anything on my drums using all calf heads. But when I was using Ambassadors I'd usually have a few pieces of masking tape and maybe a few small pieces of felt on the toms and snare. I have nothing against it except that it looks like shit.

But you need to judge the sound of a drum "in a song". Lots of drums suck "outside of a song". Musicians are like that There's guys that sound like Staney Clarke by themselves and suck in groups, and others that can barely play but blend and shine in bands.

 

[grimtraveller]

That is the question. I've found tuning toms to be pretty tough in and of itself without having to worry about those ringing overtones. I'm tempted to go the masking tape route...what do you guys do?

It really depends on what you want the druuuuurrrrrms to sound like in the song and how it blends with, as Greg put it, the bass and guitars dancing around the kit. Because all the other elements will dance round the kit in a mix and you may wish that the deadened "THOP !" was actually a ringing "TOOM !". Of course, it can work the other way too. Not so long ago, I got my drumming friend to slightly dampen the snare coz each time he hit the tom the snare rang in a way that seemed intrusive. But that hasn't been a problem since. I'm not sure what it was.
By the same token the way the drummer likes the sound of the drums may not be appropriate for the song. For yonks I felt the sound on the rack toms was too deep and didn't cut thru in the mix (though that just as easilly could've been my shitty mixing !). That's when I got into trying to tune them in my own amateur way.

 

[crankz1]

Wide open, with just an itty bitty piece of moon gel at the rim of the snare.
Very little in the bass too...

But yeah, context matters. Some songs want that dead cardboard sound...

 

[witzendoz]

When recording I prefer not to dampen anything, however it depends on the kit that arrives. The number of times drums turn up with old skins, out of tune (completely), tons of tape and muck, never ceases to amaze me.

If I do have to dampen a drum due to it being impossible to tune, as it has been over tightened all its life, I usually place a small piece of Gaffer tape on the bottom skin. I fold the tape so that it has some weight but does not take up too much surface area.

Another tip is on the snare, if it has a lot of ring (which is not always bad) and the ring does not suit the track I place a very thin and narrow dead ringer on it to tighten it up.

I find the best thing inside a kick is a small blanket folded neatly in the bottom just touching each skin, some drummer insist on having nothing, this is fine if they have the drum set up and tuned correctly for the sound. I hate kicks that turn up stuffed full of pillows, how the hell is that supposed to sound good?

Cheers
Alan.

 

[TelePaul]

Thanks for the stellar replies boys! Think it's time I submiotted my kit for another review from Gergles. I've found tuning toms is pretty damn hard, hopefully sound better now.