On drums...

In an attempt to get my 12" Designer under control, I mounted a Fiberskyn A in the reso position, with an Evans G1 coated on the batter. The tendency to open up too much is mitigated, and I also seem to be able to tune higher without losing sonic impact. I remember mounting Fiberskyns on the Classix, where the effect was so muted that they came back off in an instance, but the maple light Designers are not affected the same way. Flipping the drum over and using the FA as a batter is a shade different from using it as a reso, a slightly softer hit and more focussed sound, but still very pleasant. I'm thinking now of mounting FAs on all batter positions around the kit to better fit into the instrumentation of Cupola. Stilll interested in DJ heads, but already have a set of FAs to work with.

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Gregory

Nah. FA on the batter is not so good. There is still plenty of tone, but there is a sound that I can only call "vibrancy" that is missing. Using the FA on the reso does not have that debilitating effect.

The Drum Tuning Bible claims that when using an Ambassador weight batter, if I were to mount a Diplomat weight reso (as opposed to an Amb weight), the duration would be shorter and the high frequency ring greater. It's worth trying, although I rarely want more high frequency ring.

It also states that coated Amb weight resos make sustain longer (since the head is heavier) and warmer. So why would a Fiberskyn Amb weight make the sustain shorter, or is it that the frequency of sustain has dropped and so is less intrusive?

Or have I changed little but think that, because of the muting quality of the Fiberskyn, the sound must be less woofy?

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Gregory

I find Fiberskyns to have more midrange vs the standard-filmed versions. Maybe it's just less low and high end, but they are midrangefull.

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Chris

I agree with that, Chris. The "vibrancy" I'm trying to describe is not necessarily just high frequency, but it surely involves high frequency.

This little 12x8 is one powerful critter! I have not yet figured out a system of tuning for it. Instead, I tune it to where it sounds good in the kit, but as soon as the music starts I have to start cranking the batter up to tame it. Makes me wonder if there may be a rule regarding the ability to tune heads to the same note: the closer the shell to square, the more it will benefit from equal tuning and vice versa. Probably not true, but interesting as an hypothesis.

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Gregory

I have to put quite a bit of work into my designer 12x8 too Greg. My beech and SQ2 kit are totally fine and tune like any other tom but that flippin designer 12
When I was new to the designer series I actually wondered if it was the lug construction/external tunesafe system that was messing it all up. It was however my first experience of slotted drum rods apart from my 590 so wondered about those too . I replaced the external tune safe parts with new ones but still I struggle to get a perfect tuning from it. The resonance is back after treating the issue I had the same as yours with the rubber being inserted through the shell incorrectly but still tuning is a BITCH.

Any thoughts gents?

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Ron

Ron, what problem are you having in tuning? Too much or too little resonance? Too much or too little sustain?

For my purposes, the drum will tune just fine, but tuning to the note I want, with top and bottom head tuned to the same pitch, creates too much volume and sustain, vis-a-vis the other drums in the kit. If the 16 did that, I would be happy as a pig in mud, but not the 12, which I need to be quick and articulate.

If I tune the whole drum up from that point, it begins to go flat... I mean, it sounds fine in the room and the woofiness goes away, but it sounds dinky in the music... not enough presence. Whether that is the result of the note itself in relation to everything else, or if the drum is choking, I don't yet know.

To combat it, I have been tuning the reso higher which gets rid of the boom but does not reduce the presence of the drum in the music, at least not from the drummer's chair. As to the fiberskyn reso, I think that may have been a move in the wrong direction, and I will be changing it out soon for experimentation. Right now, the 13x9 is mounted in the place of the 12. I put the 13 back together (after stealing some of its lugs for the 12 - shouts to Kelly for the lugs!), tuned it to an agreeable pitch without thinking much about it, compared it to the 12. I had tuned the heads to exactly the same pitches as the heads are on the 12. The drums sound almost identical, except that the 12 is slightly less vibrant, I assume as a result of the Fiberskyn reso. The 13 has an Aquarian coated batter and Sonor (Remo) Ebony reso.

My other 12x8, the Gretsch, also loves its reso cranked higher than the batter. Perhaps there is something about that particular ratio of width to depth that demands its own kind of tuning. I don't understand enough to be intelligent about all this, but I can say that it performs musically when I don't try to impose my tuning ideas on it.

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Gregory

Too little resonance and also too little sustain Greg.
I have yet to try other head combinations and actually still have original sonor reso heads on them from I assume when the kit was made!
Now I have this new house just ordering up a set of heads for a full kit especially reso side heads is a little more grudged.
Since moving house I have been trying tuning with both batter and reso equal. I have always tuned my reso that little bit higher through countless people telling me that is just how you do it but I have had great results with equal tunings on my SQ2 and BI kit. My 8,10 and 12" toms are all about 32 on the drum dial if I remember correctly and my 14 and 16" toms are a little lower.
I find it very frustrating that drums sound so different behind the kit to what an audience hears! I would love to have somebody handy to just play my drums for 10 minutes or so while I go out front to check how they sound and EQ them etc. We don't normally have anybody working the desk which makes things pretty tricky but my partner Bernadette has been trying it out as she attends every gig with me. Seems to have been doing a great job so far!
Any suggestions on tom reso heads gents? I have clear Remo ambassadors on my SQ2 toms batter side and Evans EQ2 batter heads on my BI kit. Both have original Sonor reso heads. I think my Designer kit has clear ambassadors too with original Sonor reso heads.

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Ron

That's rather the reverse of what I have been hearing, unless you are tuning higher than I am. 32 is not a reasonable tuning number on the DD, unless your dial is not set to zero. Somewhere in the 70s would be more like it.

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Gregory

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Cliff

River City Trio

What if we did all have the same opinions?

But thicker, heavier heads, once excited, will stay that way for a longer time, no?

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Gregory