Are those the special deal noble and cooleys that we have all been drooling over the past few months here?

Maybe swap out the stocker head and put an aquarian sk1 on there?  What's on there now?

I'm not sure it would muddy up your recordings a whole lot.  Unless you are experiencing something terribly unpleasant I find the phenomenon you are experiencing very natural and normal.  

You just got the kit right?  There is going to be a period of adjustment.  I don't know what you are into but it's a new kit and I don't know how you tune or what you are tuning for so have fun and don't sweat it.  You have a GREAT kit.

Oh, and try duct tape.  I find nothing wrong with a little dampening.  Some people might not dig it, but I don't know why not.  It's ok in the real world of not so new heads and quick tuning jobs.  We wrap it in a tight tube around here with the sticky side out.  

If you want to kill overtones to death and pay big money, go ahead and buy the moongels.  When they first came out everybody went ape over them.  U can use plastic bass worm lures (actually high plastisol loaded PVC) as well they are made from the same material.  Neither the moon gel or the bass worms will adhere well on your coated heads either.  If you had clear heads you would have better luck.  

Why not put tape on your noble and cooleys?  If it's good enough for my sonors, it's good enough for those things.

You just make a little tube of the duct tape like I told you.  Plus I'm not a big attack head fan because to me they are basically taiwan made remos...let me know if I'm wrong anybody?

Maple is so warm sounding anyways I would go with clear heads, why warm it up anymore with coated heads?  Just my opinion.  I would want to get as pure of a tone as possible out of those sweet N&C's

And I'm dead serious about your kick skin.  Just because you paid 5K for a drumset doesn't mean it's up to its full potential.

I second the vote for duct tape. It's the easiest, most portable, and won't fall off bottom heads. Often I find it's the bottom head that's ringing too much, and I'd be worried that a moongel would fall off in the middle of a song.

I use duct tape whenever necessary, on drums of all brands, regardless of price. I've almost never done a session where at least one drum didn't need a little tape. ANY good studio or sound company has duct tape available for exactly that purpose.

Don't buy into the "everything must be a product made for drums" mentality. Hal Blaine, one of the most-recorded session greats of all time, used cut-up pieces of bathtub appliques to muffle his drums - you know, those textured rubber stick-on daisies you put on the bottom of the tub to provide a non-slip surface. Whatever works!  

And I also second his vote about kick drum heads. Get one of the modern self-muffling heads, like an Aquarian SuperKick or Impact. You won't BELIEVE the difference.

You could also experiment by isolating the kick drum from the rest of the kit. Try draping a heavy blanket, like a packing blanket over the kick drum to keep it from causing the sympathetic vibrations from ringing the toms.

Also, you may have to do some tuning to remove the sympathetic vibrations.

Lastly, it's all part of the overall drum sound. Sure if you isolate each drum, you're going to hear all kinds of things you may not like. Play the full kit ... if the sound still bugs you ... well, then I would mess with the tuning, isolation, or drumhead combinations.

I'm also not sure what kind of a room you have, so there could be something going on because of where the kit is set-up. If you got a N&C drumkit for your studio, I'm sure you've probably got a nice room ... so that's more than likely NOT it.

I've recorded in a lot of different studios for a long time now (longer than I care to admit  ). This is what I have learned:

• Your choice of heads like the other guys have mentioned.
• But the biggest thing is tuning, tuning, tuning! Bart is right in that you have to tune out the sympathetic vibrations.
• Before I go into the studio, I make sure that I tune each drum seperately, and to itself. This is a good starting point for when you set up in the studio. You then can fine tune from that point depending on the studio environment.
• I use no dampening on my toms whatsoever, not even in my kick drum. I do use a ring on my snare drum. This of course is a choice that is personal to each player.
• If the drums are in tune with themselves then the engineer can work his magic to he proper eq for the recording.

I find that a lot of younger players hear drums recorded and want their kits to sound the same. This is all fine and well, but in today's recording environment, a lot of the sonic punch is derived from a combination of the choice of drums, eq, and effects used in the recording.

I hope this helps, and good luck. You have an awesome set of drums to work with!
Best Regards-

Dave Lemonds

grey duct tape is ugly...