DRUMANDSTAGE FORUM

Hey everyone!

I had a little time in my drum room earlier, so I recorded 4x Sonor 12" tom toms, tuned the same with a tunebot with the same heads top and bottom. E604 on a stand, toms all on a snare stand with the basket open. It's a 'quick, rough and ready' video for now with no footage, but my intention is to put together an actual video (or several...) in the near future when schedule allows. I'm open to any and all suggestions of what might be cool to hear.... or anything you think could be good for the format of such videos from playing/mics/tuning etc.

I'm going to keep what they each are under wraps from this post for now, as I think it'lll be cool to hear people chip in from listening blind. RAW audio, no dampening or muffling.

Good job. I’ll comment on the individual drums later after have a chance to critically listen on headphones.

Cool! I don't have an idea of what all you have in terms of shells and 12" tom depths, but listening through headphones I have these comments:

Tom 1
Medium overtone
No harsh overtone at the end

Tom 2
More overtone than 1
Less pleasant decay at the end of the tone

Tom 3
More overtone than 1
No harsh overtone at the end

Tom 4
Least overtone of all
No harsh overtone

I will listen more later when I've rested my ears a bit. I presume the depths aren't identical, so I want to listen to that again. But I presume that toms 2 & 3 are deeper than toms 1 &4--simply due to the noticeably longer overtones. My least favorite of the four is definitely tom 2.

tcbetka wrote: Fri Dec 05, 2025 5:22 pm

Cool! I don't have an idea of what all you have in terms of shells and 12" tom depths, but listening through headphones I have these comments:

---

Tom 1
Medium overtone
No harsh overtone at the end

Tom 2
More overtone than 1
Less pleasant decay at the end of the tone

Tom 3
More overtone than 1
No harsh overtone at the end

Tom 4
Least overtone of all
No harsh overtone

---

I will listen more later when I've rested my ears a bit. I presume the depths aren't identical, so I want to listen to that again. But I presume that toms 2 & 3 are deeper than toms 1 &4--simply due to the noticeably longer overtones. My least favorite of the four is definitely tom 2.

Cool to read your thoughts so far. I'll keep it under wraps for a while!

Don't be afraid to chip in your material and thicknesses

Thanks for doing this. I enjoyed listening and analyzing. I am going to hate finding out my favorite one is the cheapest thing in the mix!!!

Tom 1
Overall good sound. Nice pretty even sustain and long decay. Sounds "Blue". There seemed to be stress in the timber. The pitch didn't bend, but somehow during the sustain it almost sounded like the shell was being squeezed.

Tom 2
Overall tom was good, but I didn't care for the quick and pretty sharp decay.

Tom 3 WINNER
This was easily my favorite. The drum sounded clean and clear and the :"stress" I heard in Tom 1 was not present in this drum. I appreciate the nice, even sustain, as well.

Tom 4
The tone was very good, but the sustain held briefly, then dropped out.

Drum notes:
They all sounded good, tonally. Tom 3 just seemed to have a more natural sound than the others and resonated truly, whereas with Tom 1, while there was a pretty even sustain, that sustain wavered a degree after the initial attack.

Personal notes: The irony of my preferring the longer sustain is that 25 years ago, I would have picked the deadest sounding thing I could find and then would have grabbed the tape and killed it even more.

The one thing I think would be a benefit is to go back and create a time line that takes you to a different single strike on each tom, that way, listeners can do a head to head in any order they like. That would allow for an easier comparison from drum to drum.

Cool round up there Jules. Thanks for listening! And thanks for the tip - noted.

Do you have any ideas to materials or shell types? Interesting your notes on tom 1.

Jack wrote: Sun Dec 07, 2025 9:30 am

Cool round up there Jules. Thanks for listening! And thanks for the tip - noted.

Do you have any ideas to materials or shell types? Interesting your notes on tom 1.

I will give it a few more listens before I start taking guesses.

Quick thoughts...

MAPLE - THIN
BIRCH
MAPLE
BEECH

TubThumper74 wrote: Mon Dec 08, 2025 10:19 am

Quick thoughts...

MAPLE - THIN
BIRCH
MAPLE
BEECH

Disagree on numbers 2 & 3 there... I don't think #2 is birch at all--there were too much sustain, IMHO. That drum seems maple to me. I could see your numbers 2 and 3 being swapped though.

I'd go in order fave to least fave: 3,1,4 and 2