YamahaPlayer wrote:Henry II wrote:Funny, I keep the same heads on my drums for years at a time. To me, as long as I don't dent the heads (and I rarely do), the older the head, the better it sounds. I change batter side snare heads when the coating or texture is too smooth to get a good brush sound on it.
That is always interesting to me. On one hand you have super expensive, highly researched drums that are designed through numerous angles to resonate the most they possibly can.. PHX's for example. And players who are renown for having amazing drum sounds.. Dave Weckl for example.
And then you have people who really enjoy that muffled, dead(ish) drum sound. Which is totally cool.
It's like, as someone said previously in this thread, you get people with expensive drums and the most dead heads, it makes you wonder. I saw a PHX set with pinstripes and duct tape on it recently, it's like looking at a Ferrari with flat tires towing a trailer.
Then again, I've never been in a studio that kept worn heads around because they sound better *shrug*
I personally don't like a muffled drum sound. I play single ply coated batters and clear resos on all drums (with no other muffling), except my bass drum which has a built in felt muffle ring but no other muffling. There's just something about the sound of a well worn head . . . it's mellow. I don't consider that muffled myself. Double ply heads with large dots, muffle rings, moon gel, etc., etc., that's muffled.
Further, IMHO, maximum resonance doesn't necessarily make the most musical sounding instrument. In large part, it depends on the venue you're in. Bigger spaces swallow resonance and make the most resonant set up sound boxy from 20 feet away. If you're in a small venue, or in a very live, acoustically perfect, auditorium, and you're playing large drums wide open with new heads etc, etc, it's not going to sound very good or be balanced with the band. If you're playing amplified music and you're mic'd up, resonance is, at best, irrelevant and, at worst, unwanted.
Ok, ok! My real name is Go F. Yourself Facebook, III