Does anyone have any good tips on eliminating overtones (or decreasing resonance a bit?)  I just bought some new heads, and I'd like to get some tips before I start taping stuff everywhere.  I've used duct tape, and various methods in the past, I'm just wondering if anyone has a trick that's worked well for them that I haven't heard of.  Thanks.

Snare drum?  Toms?  Both?

Search the overtones out at the source.  Often, when tape, moongel, etc., become the solution, you end up "throwing out the baby with the bath water" - it's very easy to lose good tone along with unwanted overtones if that's one of the initial approaches to the problem.  If the overtones are coming from the shell, then target the shell for a solution, rather than heads and external muffling.

One technique that will work for either toms or snares - stuff the lug casings with cotton, if they're hollow.  Those little pockets of air can create some weird overtones.

For snare drums - specifically, metal snare drums, even more specifically, steel snare drums - there are a number of treatments, including stuffing the lugs.  Check out this thread for some good suggestions.

On clear heads I use moonjello and on coated heads I don't bother.  And with the smaller sizes being so envogue now, I would definitely not bother.  I only like a little bit for focus at faster stickings, but if you aren't playing faster sticking or want your rolls having less detail *sometimes handy* then forget about it.

I'm really geeked about going to some coated heads.  I'm sorta after a different sound than what I'm currently getting and I'll let you guys know how it works out.  The clear dots really don't sound pleasant by themelves, but it's amazing what happens when you get a few feet away and the music starts cranking.  

I personally don't believe in muffling my drums at all. I generally tune my drums to get the best resonance - but that's my taste. Tuned properly the overtone won't be heard by the audience - and for the overtones that I get to hear behind the kit - I wear earplugs  

Head wise I personally use emporers and pinstripes so that helps.But generally I have a small inch sized piece of duct tape at the top of the head ( over the remo logog to be precise ) and that has always wored for me.There is also a product called moon gel which are small gel pads that stick to the head to reduce over tones,and remo makes the RemOs ( the head rings ).There is a few routes but duct tape serves me best.

overtones are your friend!  

to be honest, on my smaller toms (8 to 12 diameter) i don´t care about overtones at all. the bigger ones (13 to 18) however can be a bit tricky when miked. in small clubs where i use only a microphone for the bassdrum and maybe an overhead, i don´t muffle my toms at all. it´s just plain unnecessary as long as they are well tuned.
the amount of overtones i hear won´t be audible for the audience anyway.
tonight i will be playing a gig with my robbie williams tribute band at a medium sized club (expecting somewhere between 350 an 650 people showing up). fortunately we had the opportunity to soundcheck an rehearse at the same club already yesterday.
drumset is fully miked and the sound-guy begged me to change my
aquarian performance 2 batter heads against a set of clear ambassadors. he idn´t like the aquarians at our last gig, because they really gave him no overtones at all(deadest drumsound he ever heard). he said that the wider the frequency spectrum he gets from my toms, the more he´s able to shape my drumsound so that it fits in our overall bandsound.
so i put on the ambassadors and after some fine-tuning (batter side slightly lover than resonant heads) and a little duct tape on the 14" rack-tom, he was happy as a bee. best drumsound i heard for years he said. well, on stage my drums didn´t sound bad as well, but i wasn´t going "wow". then our bassplayer hopped behind my drumset and as i heard my drumset from the audience´s side, i finally agreed with the soundman. what a big difference compared to what i was hearing sitting behind my drums.
to cut a long story short: alway listen to what the sound-guy says!(exception to this rule are all those wannabe-soundengineers out there who don´t know sh@t and just became soundengineers because they were not good enough to play an instrument in a band. there are still lots of those "could you tape some handkerchiefs on your tom"-guys out there. beware!)

Tuning.   The FREE way to muffle a drum.  

When two heads are tuned more closely to the same pitch they vibrate closer together.   The waves generated by each head are in phase with each other and vibrate together, allowing for more resonance.   Like this :

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  

-  note the high and low points are the same

When one head is tuned more and more out of pitch with the other the waves go out of phase.   Which knocks them together and cancels both waves out, decreasing resonance.   Like this:

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

- note the high and low points countering each other

Its like clapping your hands.   You bring them together by moving them in opposing directions and the movement stops.

It can take a while to really nail down when youre first figuring it out, but there it is.  

Of course if you have money, more muffled heads are always a viable option.   But the tuning is still good to know.

Jon E and 563 share my thoughts exactly...  Drums are built to resonate freely!!!  It kills me when I see a performer  playing and he's gots RIMS mounts on all of his toms, but he has duct tape, zero rings ect. plastered all over the heads.

I want my drums to sing out as long as possible, especially in a live situation.  Proper tuning is the key.  Bart has an excellent thread on his philosophy for tuning the kit.   Mandatory reading IMHO....


                                    Dave

Amazing.....the Voodoo.


When a drum is tuned CORRECTLY, it'll sound like Bonham's drums sounded.
The thing will sustain for an eternity, in close micing terms.
It will produce a tone that has similar decay qualities to that of a bell. As the pitch dies out, it doesn't change, drop off or waver. It dies out cleanly.
It will be extremely loud(even muffled, it'll still be loud).
It will have a very round warm sound with a defined attack that sits on top of this.

Forget what people tell you. That is, to tune out your 'overtones'. tune to produce the cleanest, most direct overtones you can get, from tuning to the drum's fundamental pitch. THEN muffle, if you want to close mic.

Use your RESONANT(bottom) heads to define that fundamental pitch of the batter head. Tune it tighter.
I just swapped an ambassador reso on my 16" floor tom over to a hydro- it works great!
There is no high overtone coming up from the bottom head that is going into the mic, the sustain is shorter and much more beefy, and my bass drum mic isn't picking up the sympathetic resonance off the FT reso, like it was with the ambassador on it.
Don't be afraid to experiment.

A puzzler for some more than others.

Once a drum is tuned to it's fundamental pitch, any diversion from it will weaken it's sonic properties.
Not only did Bonham tune CORRECTLY, you only have to LISTEN to the instrument to hear that it is sonically pure.
There is NO SUCH THING as a jazz tuning or a country tuning or blah, blah.
There is only the tuning that makes the drum sound the BEST it can, period.


If it makes you feel better, I suspect Joe Morello probably tunes correctly, also, though, I'd have to do more research to confirm this.

You can, of course, tension a drum however you like, but, there will always be  ONE tuning that is the BEST, it is also, correct.