Hi all,

Hoping for a little advice, here's the situation: Got my first gig playing drums in a new band in less than a month, and up until recently my kit sounded truly awful. We're talking tissue taped to old non-tuned heads kinda awful, and I figure now is about a good time as any to get things sorted. I've been reading up a bit, but as I enjoy a similar taste in music with some of you, I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask for opinions.

The kit's a fairly worn Tama Rockstar 22,10,14,14, and the style/ kit sound I'm going for is kinda like a cross between Shellac, Dirty Three and Don Cab with a few breaks and jazzy bits thrown in for good measure. I want an open, natural sound that remains fairly articulate when playing fast or with brushes and a kick drum that doesn't get too sloppy when doing double kick stuff on a single pedal.

So far I've thrown coated Ambassadors on the toms and snare batter side and this has made a pretty big improvement already, but I definitely need to replace snare side and kick drum heads.
I've managed to avoid having to tune up until recently as I was practicing using black rubber silencer pads out of respect for the neighbours, but since I started using brushes, it's become much more necessary. Delved into the Drum Tuning Bible recommended in one of the other threads but I too found its explanations a little vague in places. Right now the resonant heads are sitting almost a half-step above the batter heads which sounds ok on the toms, not on the snare, but maybe it's just tuned too low for a wooden snare, maybe I just need to experiment more but at the moment free time is a bit of a luxury. Figure I'll have to make do with the cymbals or borrow some..

Not expecting miracles but I'm probably gonna take a recording and I don't want to be cringing over anything but the playing, so I guess I'm mainly asking:

suggestions for kick drum heads and snare-side head
suggestions for the best method of tuning to achieve a sound closer to that I want.

I know a lot of it's down to using your ears but all suggestions are welcome

thanks

I _LOVE_ the sound of Remo Fiberskyn FA (not FD) on the batter side of the kick drum. Resonant head I'd use a Remo coated ambassador (or another Fiberskyn FA).
Either that or a Remo coated Emperor (on the batter side).
Tuned right that will give you BAM BAM BOOM BOOM.
And oh yeah, if you got your kick full of quilts, pillows, blankets, etc etc - get rid of it. If you get an annoying ring, just place something light inside - don't go stuff fest.

Remo actually has special resonant heads for the bottom side of the snare. They're really really thin. Just ask about em at your local drum merchant and he'll know what you're talking about.

About tuning - first off, it's of course really important that the heads feel good to play. On the snare I always make sure it feels good to play, and then adjust the bottom head to get desired pitch. Works beautiful.

Thanks. At the moment I've got a Remo hazy on the resonant side of the snare, but it's pretty beaten up so I'm sure that doesn't that doesn't help any.

As for the kick, yeah, definitely a big open sound is what I'm looking for, as opposed to say, a metal click, just don't want it to loose clarity when playing fast along-side other instruments, but I guess that's where the tuning comes into play..

i really like the Evans (i can't believe i said that out loud) EMAD heads for batter side of kicks. kinda hard to make them sound bad. they work nicely if the kit is mic'd. just tape the foam in the ring at the top or it might come off while you play. i feel like they're very easy to tune to something useable and the dampening gives it a full but somewhat controlled sound.

i am way into the Remo powerstroke 3 with reinforcement dot for snare heads. i never liked the two ply heads or the emperor heads tonally, but the single heads always broke or dented quick on me. these have been the perfect medium for me.

Aquarian Superkick I or II on the bass drum beater side and an Evans EQ3 on the resonant side. Ambassador snare side on the bottom snare.


Jon

Ive heard good stuff about these Aquarian Superkicks lately.

otisroom wrote:Ive heard good stuff about these Aquarian Superkicks lately.

I have a cheap drumset. I have always had a cheap drumset. I am cheap. I have been using these bass drum heads for many years. They make the kick drum on my $650 drumset sound incredible. It pains me every time I have to spend $45 on a drumhead but damn if these heads are not worth it. If only I could compliment their sound with capable talent.

Jon

Thanks for the input guys, may have to see if I can go try some of these out at the store when I get the chance.

The Fiberskyn's a bit of a jazz standard, no? Quite like the idea of a (slightly) jazzy sounding kit, some of the jazz drummers i've been lucky enough to witness lately have had awesome sounding kits, though I've noticed they usually have a smaller bass drum.

Yep, a lot of jazz drummers use 'em, they got aaaaawesome tone.
If they weren't so expensive I'd use em for snare & toms also. On the kick you can just put on a Remo Falam Slam pad right were the beater hits, and then you can pound it til your leg falls off - it still won't have dented the head.

Coshhlocker wrote:The Fiberskyn's a bit of a jazz standard, no?

Well, here's what John Bonham used:

Coated emperor batter side heads for all drums.

Bottom snare head was a resonant Ambassador OR Diplomat, clear.

Bottom tom heads were coated ambassadors.

Kick drum resonant head was a "medium weight" head, which I assume is an Ambassador, since the Diplomat was the lightest head they made. There was no hole cut in the front head.

Both kickdrum heads had felt strips on the inside from top to bottom.

All of this and more info (including the sounds of the heads pitched at his tensions) is available here.

You may notice, watching that film, that even though you can look at those drums and know that this is indeed Bonham's ACTUAL kit, and know that the guy talking about them was John Bonham's ACTUAL drum tech, when he hits them, they don't sound like John Bonham is hitting them. This is because the guy's not KNOCKING THE PISS OUT OF THEM. Rule number one of wanting to sound like John Bonham- hit hard.

The ONLY thing I do differently is that I use Remo P3 powerstoke head on the batter side of my kick and I don't use the felt strip on the batter side. The P3 is a (relatively) recent design that mimics the sound of the head with the felt strip, only a little deeper in fundamental pitch and they provide you with a lovely little woven kevlar pad to cut down on wear on the head.

On the kit that I use for non-metal/punk gigs, I have a hole cut in my front head. This makes for easier mic'ing and greater definition of individual hits. It also cuts down on certain frequencies, most notably the squeaking higher end of a soundman complaining about not having a hole to stick a mic in. Don't get me started....

Tuning the resonant head UP on your drums, since they're smaller, is not as important as finding a resonant tone that pleases your ear. Tighter resonant heads make a huge difference on larger drums.

You may also consider having your bearing edges looked at by someone who refurbishes drums. Since I don't know where you are, I can't recommend anyone, but if you PM, I bet I can hook you up.

The bearing edge of a drum is where the head stretches over the edge of the shell. This serves the same function as the bridge and the nut on a guitar. If there is crap built up there or if the bearing edge is worn down, you can get a real degradation of tone. A lot of time, I have pulled bottom heads off of drums that guys have asked me to "fix" and a ton of dust, felt, woodshavings, and just crap has fallen out. When it's in there, trapped between the head and the bearing edge, that stuff's all muffling the tone of the drum.

If you find that the bearing edges of the drum are fine, you can further enhance the tunability of the drum by putting a little wax or some other lubricant on that bearing edge. This stuff works wonders. It's also great for lubing crunchy old tension rods, so you can get an honest feel for how tightly you have screwed down your drum head when you're tuning, as opposed to fighting years of corrosion in the lug.

If the bearing edges look chopped up or beaten up, there are drum geeks in most major cities who recut bearing edges. I personally don't normally go for the super sharp bearing edges that a lot of the Gretsch guys go for. I find the sound ends up too... bell-like. I like it just a little flatter, like the vintage Ludwig three-ply sound. This is not to say that I go for a thud sound, just less of that Dave Weckl drum geek pristine "all of these drums were recorded in different rooms" studio shit sound. Your mileage may vary. There's a great essay on bearing edge cuts here.

I find that a fresh set of heads all around, even/especially bottom heads, makes a huge difference in tone.

Drummers, if you're ever around Athens/Atlanta and need someone to have a look at your kit, PM and let me know you're coming. I have a little workshop and I can give it a little TLC.

Drum tone? I think about it a lot. Too much.