Use snare as a tom? - help

[Pibroch]

My 14” FT has way too much ring and I need ideas please.

Kit is a Gretch Catalina Club Jazz with an added PDP 10” tom and DXP 16” tom.

All toms are fitted with Evans Calftone batters, with the 16 also being an Emad. All toms apart from the 14 sound good at the tunings I like: warm with minimal ring.

The problem is the 14 has way too much ring, and rather than add dampers / cotton balls etc., I want to try a different head(s) / drum solution. (Tried tuning the reso to just above wrinkle which helped significantly but not enough.)

Have noticed that Anika Nilles has used an 8 x 14 S.L.P. Big Black steel snare drum with an Evans Onyx head in place of a 14” FT for her tom fills.
Also noted Ralph Peterson using all onyx tom heads in the past:

Any other ideas ? (PS: I play mainly soft rock, blues, in a quiet gigging band, usually using brushes, but normally play with sticks at home for enjoyment.)

 

[JDA]

lower the bottom head you're getting "too much reflection" (ha wild guess that's all ))


tap the bottom heads of your toms in descending fashion and see where and or if, the bottom can fit in (tonally)better (by being) lower..

 

[JazzDrumGuy]

Try a coated emperor on top and coated amb. on bottom. The extra thickness deadens a little and thickens the tone.......

 

[Pibroch]

lower the bottom head you're getting "too much reflection" (ha wild guess that's all ))


tap the bottom heads of your toms in descending fashion and see where and or if, the bottom can fit in (tonally)better (by being) lower..

Tried your suggestion - subjectively the reso pitches descend nicely from 10 to 12 to 14.

However discovered this, after lowering the batter tension to where bouncing the drumstick for doubles is almost impossible: immediately after depressing the centre of the head a few times with palm of hand, with the usual cracking noises, the annoying high pitched ringing just about disappears. Then after minimal playing it’s back again. Pressing head again, (with attendant cracking), and it comes good. Maybe I have to keep doing this till it goes away?

Ideally though I would love a head that can go low enough and dead enough and still be reasonably playable.

 

[Drm1979]

I put an old 2 ply head on as a reso on my 16" ft and after some tweaking got it to where it sings and rumbles just enough without being overkill. It has a 2 ply Evan's g2 coated on batter and a 15 year old aquarian clear on the reso and it is still very playable.

 

[supershifter2]

put an evans hydraulic head on the bottom

 

[Seb77]

Remove whatever rubber feet are on the ft legs, maybe inverse one leg if the length allows.
I have used a piece of cloth clamped between two ft legs for some external muffling on the bottom. Unsightly but very effective.
Have you tried the drum in another room (with a higher ceiling) or outdoors? Sometimes standing waves make one drum ring for much longer than the others.

 

[Chasforeman]

My current setup is a 14” floor, a 14x6.5” snare and my single-tension 14”x8” snom with Evans Calftone.

First, I tried Remo Muff’l internally. It sounded too dead.

I bought a packet of window clings at the craft store to simulate moon gel and ring is now controlled for my room.

 

[JimmySticks]

You can also try Pearl Air Suspension Rubber Tips. I use them and they really did liven up, in a good way, my floor toms. They prevent premature sound decay from floor contact.

 

[cashmanbashman]

Holy cow, I just put a Remo black Suede Ambassador on a 14x8 Tama big black steel snare to use as a hanging tom and it was a perfect fit for the Steel kit I bought. Here I thought I was being clever but this Annika gal was way out in front of me.

 

[Freewill3]

I recently purchased this head for a snare but it sounds like something in the ballpark of your description.

Texture Coated Reflector Snare Series | Aquarian Drumheads

www.aquariandrumheads.com

 

[Pibroch]

I recently purchased this head for a snare but it sounds like something in the ballpark of your description.

Texture Coated Reflector Snare Series | Aquarian Drumheads

www.aquariandrumheads.com

Thanks - they do sound interesting and in the Sweetwater review are extremely articulate (being hit reasonably hard). Will definitely try one and then maybe a full set! In the meantime have ordered an Evans hydraulic and an Onyx to try on the “problem drum“ as top heads (or bottom heads with the Calftone on top). Am guessing they’ll sound warmer than the reflector and blend better with the Calftones on the 10, 12, and 16 toms. Those reflectors might work brilliantly when I change heads for some slamming drum n bass fun, I’m predicting.

 

[crash]

My favorite when I’m trying to pull the lowest pitches out of a shallower drum has been either a black dot(preferred) or coated Emp reso.

 

[BennyK]

 

[Lee Van Kief]

Might be counterintuitive, but what has worked for me is tuning the reso up pretty tight and batter just low enough so that you can still get a bit of tone out. Every time I’d try to tune to commonly advised batter/reso relationships, I’d find that most of the results with those techniques (fairly close in pitch, plus or minus a few steps on either end) is high resonance.

For use at home, gigs with close mics, and in the studio, the method I use tends to allow for a gated style sound without needing much or any external muffling. I’m a big fan of the feel, too. The toms feel a little more “alive,” like I’m playing into the whole drum rather than mostly feeling the tension of the batter head. For reference, I’m using Aquarian Modern Vintage II on top and Modern Vintage Medium on bottom.

 

[tillerva]

Just curious, why are you set against trying to dampen the current set up?

 

[Pibroch]

Just curious, why are you set against trying to dampen the current set up?

In the past changing heads has resulted in better sound quality than my dampening efforts. Plus I need spare heads for my 14" snare drums so those that don't work for the 14" FT might be useful for these.

(Also have been experimenting with dampening the problem drum and didn't want a long list of responses recommending things I've already tried. Plus there are any amount of internet resources with dampening suggestions. Have also found that setting parameters for help requests tends to help focus input and resulting discussions too.)

 

[Pibroch]

put an evans hydraulic head on the bottom

Just tried your suggestion - massive improvement thank you!

Also tried the hydraulic as the batter and prefer that option even more: it works well with the other calftone-headed toms at quiet volume and sounds more beautiful and musical.

Have now ordered hydraulics for the other toms to try as batters or resos, (as well onyx's to try as batters on all the toms ).

 

[Deafmoon]

Remove whatever rubber feet are on the ft legs, maybe inverse one leg if the length allows.
I have used a piece of cloth clamped between two ft legs for some external muffling on the bottom. Unsightly but very effective.
Have you tried the drum in another room (with a higher ceiling) or outdoors? Sometimes standing waves make one drum ring for much longer than the others.

Ah the old Keltner trick flipping one leg.