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by Donny Dee Dampening—should I or shouldn’t I? For the most part, proper tuning procedures eliminate the need for dampening (muffling). I use very little if any muffling on my drum Kit. If I am using an Ambassador Black Dot on the bass drum, I use a small pillow against the bottom of the batter side bass head and a “strip muffler” (a long piece of clothe about 4 inches wide, which runs up the one side of the head located on the left third of the head surface). Presently, I am using a Power Stroke Three, so, I have no dampening on my bass drum at all.
Likewise, on the snare drum I may use a small patch located on the part of the snare head surface that takes the harshest overtone out ... other than that, I use no other type of muffling.
So, before you clutter your heads with duct tape with pieces of paper towel attached to them, or even Dead Ringers ™, try learning to tune the drum kit effectively. Listen to other drummers who have a good sound. Attend drum clinics. Listen to recordings of good drums sounds. Using loose, floppy heads with tons of muffling will leave you with the sound of an expensive set of cardboard boxes. If you need a sound with less over tones, change to a pinstripe or similar heads. They produce fewer overtones and result in a warm, wet sound.
If these tips don’t help or you don’t like the results, you probably need to muffle somehow. Use muffling very sparingly. Remember, what sounds good to you while you’re playing may sound terrible at the other end of the room. Have someone play on your drums along with the band so you can hear how they actually sound.
Depending on the situation you are performing in, weather studio or live, you want to arrive at a good round sound. Dampening the heads could help check tonal ring, tonal bleed and can be used to make the duration of the sound of the drums equal. But, always keep in mind, that, just adding tape and padding to the drums at random, adds mass to the head and literally takes the life out of the drum. Remember, the less there is attached to the head, the better the sound will be.
So “if” you need to dampen your heads, you need to do it effectively. To do this, you must find the optimum spot to place the material. Placing tape and cloth randomly around the head doesn’t do the job proper1y. To find the best spot to place the dampening material, run your thumb around the inside of the head about an inch-an-a-half in from the rim. Apply constant pressure and strike the center of the drum at the same time. As you do this, you will find that certain areas dampen the sound more than others do. These areas are the most effective areas to dampen the drum. To dampen, you place a small amount of duct tape and cloth near the rim at one of these areas. Place only as much as you need to arrive at a good round sound. You can place dampening at more than one area if needed, but remember less is better. Use duct tape and cloth. Do not use paper towel, masking tape or adhesive tape as they cause more trouble than they’re worth. Tonality
The basic idea behind tonality of drums is applied mostly to studio tuning. However the basic concept can and should be applied to live stage tuning as well. The idea is to get the toms tuned to pitches and tones that best compliment the music being recorded. In a live situation, it would be very difficult to keep re-tuning for every song because of the amount of time it would take to re-tune. Even with electronic drums, it would take a considerable amount of time to re-tune. Most electronic drum setups have presets that you can program ahead of time with the sound you want. Having those presets would somewhat enable you to keep in close tune with the music your performing.
The methods I’m centering on are used for the conventional drum set and its tuning. In a live situation, try to keep the drums tuned within the tonal limits of the drum. In addition to a tuning key, you might want to try a Torque Wrench. The torque wrench is a wrench used to tighten (torque) all the lugs of a drum to the same tension, which is what you want to accomplish. It has tuning points marked right on it. Proper use of a torque wrench will cut tuning time way down.
This tuning instrument helps you to keep each drum within its tonal range. For instance, say you tune your 12”, 13”, and 16” toms with a torque wrench. You would choose the tonal range to tune to; low, medium, or high. You would tune each drum to the same tonal setting. After tuning each drum, the tonal range is automatically be achieved. Each drum would progress down in tonal range according to drum size.
Be sure to keep the pitches in the tonal range of the drum. Toms are normally tuned from the high toms to the low toms. Be sure to tune each drum to a different note. Try putting a towel over the toms not being tuned so that “sympathetic ring” (ringing caused by striking other drums) does not hinder you or fool your perception of pitch. Keep tuning until a pitch and tone quality is reached that is even and in tune to the situation your performing in.
Another way to tune is to the root chord of the music. As you hear that chord, tune the toms to the area that sounds best to your ear and the chord. then fine tune on your own. Usually toms are tuned to octaves, perfect fourths or fifths. Sometimes to sixths or thirds. Try to stay away from seconds or sevenths since sympathetic ringing can cause problems.
Kick drums (bass drums) sound best if tuned as low as possible being careful not to lose the tonal quality. Kick drums can be tuned surprisingly low and gutsy.
Snare drums are variable in tuning, crispness and width of sound. An important thing to remember is that no matter how high or low, wide or tight the snare drum is tuned, the life should always be in the drum, not in the sound system. The top and bottom heads work together with the snares to produce the sound of the snare drum. The tightness of the snares, regulates the width and can affect the pitch by dampening the bottom head if they are to tight.
Sometimes the top head is de-tuned almost totally at a lug to help eliminate ringing. Don’t use this method unless absolutely necessary. In a live situation, the snare should be tuned to have as much bite as possible without losing the bottom end. You will find that often the snare drum will buzz when a tom-tom is struck. This is normal. If it is real bad, try re-tuning the toms before you start adding tape and padding everywhere. Remember, tape and padding just adds mass to the head and takes the life out of the drum.
To sum it up, the idea is to get the toms tuned to pitches and tones that best complement the music recorded or the music you performing in a live situation. The drum can sound great by itself and lousy once music is added. No matter what style of drums you may want, the tuning of the kit will make the difference. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that just because you buy a good drum that they will sound good. They will only sound as good as you are able to make them sound through proper tuning and good playing techniques.
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