What do you use for muffling?

[Jules]

In my younger years a roll of tape went a long way to getting my a really nice dead 1970's cardboard box studio sound. There was nothing more satisfying than the thuddy sound of a drum robbed of all of its sonic character and tone.

But, fast forward a few (hundred) weeks, and I actually haven't muffled toms in years with the possible exception of some drum dots on floor toms, and I routinely put a Snareweight M80 on the snare.

I also find that using a tune bot to really dial the tuning in helps eliminate lots of issues that you would want to dampen, rendering a strong fundamental with a great attack and tone that stays pure during the decay.

The bass drum also gets minimal muffling and this time round it's just a felt strip on each head.

In my current situation, there are no close much and I am quite a distance from anyone else so there is no need to tighten up the toms. As to the kick, I have done all sorts of muffing over the years and like the bass drum to be throaty sounding (not boomy) but fast decay.

A friend recommended Drops but they just didn't do it for me.

What are your go to methods to dial in your sound beyond tuning?

[Joe´s Drumgear]

I usually dislike muffling on my toms and snares, but sometimes floor toms ring a bit to long for my taste. Right now I‘m using the M1 on the 14“ and the M80 on the 16“. For the bassdrum I use a Pearl Bassdrumpillow.

I love the overtones of snares, I mostly use 1ply heads to get the maximum natural sound out of the shell. For toms I mostly use 2ply heads, so they are a little bit lesw ringy anyway.

[tcbetka]

I used to use MoonGel pads, back in the day. They worked well but after a while you needed to wash them with soap and water, to "rejuvenate" the adhesive property of the pad. But I like the looks of these new Drops but see they're pretty pricey. I guess I've never really done much muffling, other than the odd MoonGel pad here or there. Maybe two on the snare...something like that.

So are these new solutions any better then, compared with the old MoonGel pads? I like(d) them because while they will leave a mark on the head (big deal...), it's not like you have a bunch of tape GOO all over the place. Yuck.

[DaveInNZ]

I have all of the Snareweight options, a full set of BFSD Quesadillas (8-18) and one of the OG versions, some studio rings and gaff tape. I'll mix and match between depending what the drums, or the music needs.

The biggest game changer for me though was dropping cotton balls into the floor toms. I think I stole that off a Benny Greb post on IG. Zero impact on the initial note of the drum, just on the decay and you can 'tune' the decay by the number of cotton balls. For instance, on the 14, 16 and 18FT for the Vintage Series, it's two, five and nine cotton balls respectively and all three drums have a sustain which matches pretty closely.

[tcbetka]

I have all of the Snareweight options, a full set of BFSD Quesadillas (8-18) and one of the OG versions, some studio rings and gaff tape. I'll mix and match between depending what the drums, or the music needs.

The biggest game changer for me though was dropping cotton balls into the floor toms. I think I stole that off a Benny Greb post on IG. Zero impact on the initial note of the drum, just on the decay and you can 'tune' the decay by the number of cotton balls. For instance, on the 14, 16 and 18FT for the Vintage Series, it's two, five and nine cotton balls respectively and all three drums have a sustain which matches pretty closely.

I've been seeing a lot of guys using the cotton ball(s) technique. In fact when I bought this Vintage series kit, both of my floor toms have cotton balls in them--as does my 13" rack tom, as I recall. I will have to try it when I go into "full-volume" mode, but that won't be for a while yet. Meanwhile, it's Evans dB One low-volume heads (and cymbals) for me. The cymbals sound GREAT, but the heads...not so much. LOL!

[Jack]

Generally, nothing on toms. Snare, live it's usually wide open, will get a gel or two depending on if the song needs that kind of sound, only really in the studio. The only drum I definitely muffle is bass drum, and minimally so - Remo Weckl muffler/felt strips. But, it can change depending on venue and sound guy, so I try to stay flexible with some gels to hand. But most of the time it is above, and is my preference.

here's a quick sound bite of something isolated for the general idea of that !

[Jules]

Snare sounds great and the toms sing. Do you tune your toms by ear? do you tune to certain ptiches?

Apologies if you have answered this is a different post already.

[tcbetka]

Generally, nothing on toms. Snare, live it's usually wide open, will get a gel or two depending on if the song needs that kind of sound, only really in the studio. The only drum I definitely muffle is bass drum, and minimally so - Remo Weckl muffler/felt strips. But, it can change depending on venue and sound guy, so I try to stay flexible with some gels to hand. But most of the time it is above, and is my preference.

here's a quick sound bite of something isolated for the general idea of that !

Sounds great, my vintage marine pearl brother! Also love the stack-o-drums back there against the wall...

I wish I could find some pictures I had from back in 1996 or so, when I had two stacks of Yamaha RC drums from floor to ceiling , flanking my Hot Red RC kit. I was in medical school at the time, and owned like 30 RC drums at one time back then. I may or may not have diverted a "few dollars" of student loan money towards said purchase(s)... LOL!

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, and I remember thinking back then that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy drums like that for so cheap. So buy drums is just what I did.

[Jack]

Snare sounds great and the toms sing. Do you tune your toms by ear? do you tune to certain ptiches?

Apologies if you have answered this is a different post already.

Thanks Jules. Yes, I do by ear in terms of dialing the top and bottom head in against each other and making the drums sound good... not interval targets or anything. After quite a lot of years of doing it, I kind of know where I need to take the heads to get in the direction of where I like. No, not to specific target pitches - but I do keep it in mind for the end result, for some sort of musical spacing between them - again, not trying for specific intervals between the toms, but just something that sounds nice and ensure there aren't two drums that sound very close for example. If there was a drum that sounded like it sat too low or high in the range of toms, i'd move the pitch that way and redial it (top against bottom).

When I've kind of found the place I like for a given kit, I'll take tune bot readings and keep them just as a guide record. I don't find I have to be retuning often - it's pretty amazing how well the toms hold tune once the heads have been on for a little bit and settled, even travelling them around.

[Jack]

Generally, nothing on toms. Snare, live it's usually wide open, will get a gel or two depending on if the song needs that kind of sound, only really in the studio. The only drum I definitely muffle is bass drum, and minimally so - Remo Weckl muffler/felt strips. But, it can change depending on venue and sound guy, so I try to stay flexible with some gels to hand. But most of the time it is above, and is my preference.

here's a quick sound bite of something isolated for the general idea of that !

Sounds great, my vintage marine pearl brother! Also love the stack-o-drums back there against the wall...

Thanks! There are a few other kits not seen.... the snare are on another wall!