8x12 or 9x12 Tom

  • Thread starter CherryClassic
  • Start date
    • This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
The sound difference between 8x12 and 9x12 is negligible. I have both sizes from the same builder...

But, here's my take on this:

With a 14" floor tom, choose the 8x12.

For a 16" (or 15") floor tom, use the 9x12.
 
I like the 8x12 over the 9x12 or 10x12 (I have 3 8x12s and one that is a 10x12 and I hate it!). I can alway get a lower open pitch with a 8x12. I even like a 14x16 over a 16x16, again a lower open pitch in the studio for me.
 
I like a 12x 8. But I have a 12 x 10 that kicks every other 12" tom to the curb, so I guess it's a drum by drum thing.
 
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
WoW!! Thanks for all the replies.

What I have now is a big kit; Ludwig late '80's with all big toms, 9x8, 9x10, 10x12, 13x14 FT, 16x16 FT, 16x18 FT/Bass and 16x22 Bass.

My normal setup these days is 10, 12 rack and 16 FT with 18 Bass.

If I go to a new all maple kit I want smaller toms but a little afraid of going too small. After reading all your replies I do feel better about the 8x12 size. Actually my 10x12 is maple and like troutstudio says; it kicks.

sherm
 
My 10x12 is an 80's DW keller. It was great in the 80's... but now? hmmm not my cup of tea.
 
I may be in the minority here, but I like 12x10 over both 12x8 and 12x9. My 12x10 has been better to my ear than every 12x8 or 12x9 that I have ever had (and I have had many nice kits). To me its the perfect blend of warmth, depth, body, tone and resonance. I sit pretty high and set up kind of flat so I have no problem with setting them up either. I see people make such a fuss over set ups, but that's never been an issue for me.

I actually like quite a few 13x11 too, most likely for the same reasons that I like 12x10. I have one that I use as a floor tom with a 10' rack, but I would probably run a 13x11 rack on a snare stand and paired with a 16x16. I'm pretty sure those are the sizes my next kit will be.
 
Marquisjohnson22 said:
I may be in the minority here, but I like 12x10 over both 12x8 and 12x9. My 12x10 has been better to my ear than every 12x8 or 12x9 that I have ever had (and I have had many nice kits). To me its the perfect blend of warmth, depth, body, tone and resonance. I sit pretty high and set up kind of flat so I have no problem with setting them up either. I see people make such a fuss over set ups, but that's never been an issue for me.

I actually like quite a few 13x11 too, most likely for the same reasons that I like 12x10. I have one that I use as a floor tom with a 10' rack, but I would probably run a 13x11 rack on a snare stand and paired with a 16x16. I'm pretty sure those are the sizes my next kit will be.
Click to expand...
You make a good point. While I'm a fan of 9x12, if I ever suddenly needed a new 12" tom, I'd be looking hard at the 10x12 toms. Why? They sound great, they're out-of-favor with the current drum market and used ones are competitively priced.
 
My Pearl Prestige Session Select kit has a 9x12 tom and both of my Gretsch kits have the 8x12 tom.

Myself after years of using both sizes I prefer the 8x12 for tuning and for positioning on the kick. I like my toms mounted on the kick drum and the shallower 8" I have more room with lowering the tom closer to the kick without it touching the kick drum shell and possibly scratching the finish.
 
12 x 9 and 12 x 10 are always practical to own when you need to slap together a mini-bop kit and need a floor tom :happy11:
 
To my ear, there is quite a sonic difference between 12x8 and 12x9, but that's if you have identical versions of the same tom side-by-side and conduct detailed listening tests. In a typical mix, I think it would be hard to tell one from the other. Having said that, under critical listening, a 12x9 is louder and has slightly more bottom end fullness and punch than a 12x8. Conversely, the 12x8 is a bit quieter and doesn't have quite the same bottom end fullness and punch of a 12x9. One advantage 12x8 though is, due to its shorter length, it's a little easier to position. This might not matter with a 20 inch bass drum, but it can be significant with larger bass drums. I've used 12 inch rack toms in 12x8, 12x9, 12x10, 12x11, and 12x12 sizes. They all sounded good and had different sonic attributes. Currently, all my 12 inch rack toms are 12x8. I like this size because it's compact and easy to position, and it sounds great.
 
Flatter/shorter toms speak better at low volume, and they have a longer sustain compared to deeper shells - at least when played quietly (jazz style practically). Deeper shells on the other hand have a stronger fundamental tone and more headroom.
see respective thread "what does drum depth actually do" for the debate.
With a traditional rack/floor combo you actually have two clearly different characters along these lines. With proportionate depths it's even; in-between ratio difference is just that.

Just thinking there's no real reason why the larger diameter should have a deeper shell, other than tradition/convention ( I prefer trad. sizes myself). In theory you could pair a 10x10 with a 14x11 and get a reverse kind of pairing. You'd need to hit the 10 harder to make it speak, and the 14" would be more airy.
 
Seb77 wrote:
Flatter/shorter toms speak better at low volume, and they have a longer sustain compared to deeper shells... (snip) In theory you could pair a 10x10 with a 14x11 and get a reverse kind of pairing. You'd need to hit the 10 harder to make it speak, and the 14" would be more airy.
Click to expand...
In my experience, neither of these things is necessarily true. A smaller diameter head has less material to vibrate, an intrinsically smaller air chamber due to the smaller diameter, and, with traditional depths, less shell material and less cubic air in motion. This drum will be quieter, have less body, and have less bottom end. Conversely, a larger diameter head has more material to vibrate, an intrinsically larger air chamber due to the larger diameter, and, with traditional depths, more shell material and more cubic air in motion. This drum will be louder, have more body, and more bottom end.

For a long time, I've thought the traditional diameters and depths are somewhat backwards. It actually makes more sense to have smaller diameters with longer shells (to assist with volume and in providing more body to the sound) and larger diameters with shorter shells (respectively, again, to better balance volume and body with the smaller diameters).

At any rate, using your example of a 10x10 paired with 14x11, this may be a more even pairing than a shorter 10. The 14 will be full bodied because its shell is plenty deep relative to its diameter. And, the 10 may balance better because rather than being short and stunted due to what traditional sizes dictate, the extra shell depth provides more volume and body to combat the smaller head size. So indeed, this is actually a better balanced pairing than traditional depths.

Would I choose this pairing? Probably not, though I love the 14x11 floor tom size. 10x10 sounds great, too, but a drum that deep is hard to position over a bass drum. So for that reason, I'd want the rack tom shorter and I'm willing to pay a sonic tradeoff. Then again, there's nothing that says the toms should balance perfectly. Maybe a shorter sounding 10 is exactly what someone wants. I'm just noting that for a better balanced sound across the toms, traditional depths don't actually make a lot of sense and should probably be reversed. Therefore, smaller diameters would be proportionately deeper, larger diameters would be proportionately shorter.
 
I see what you're getting at. If you want a louder small drum, deeper depth is cool. More fundamental tone (body as you put it), I don't think we disagree on this. My expereince is it doesn't speak that well at lower volume, a matter of diam./depth relation rather than cubic space.
What I meant, all kinds of set-ups can work somehow. I don't think of it as "should"-anything. It's not worth a thesis argument.
 
Seb77,

Fair enough and well stated. Thanks. :)
 
Slippy said:
I recently cut my 9x12 to 6.25x12. I am really sold on the hyperdrive toms.
Click to expand...
That's getting dangerously close to eliminating the sound of that drum. I do tend to prefer shorter toms because they allow easier placement over a bass drum. But, that said, consider what the toms of a Taye Go Kit sound like. If you've not heard them, I'll give you a hint: they sound like utter crap. Boink. Boink. Boink. No sustain. No body. No warmth. No volume. That's because at five and six inches deep (for 10 and 12 inch rack toms, respectively), there just isn't enough shell and air column to convey the sound.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top