packing drums.

off.the.walls

Saw this done in a venue where the toms and kick had acoustic foam inside them to make them deadened down but still had a nice sound to them when they were being played.

Anyone ever done this for recording purposes and is it a good idea?

DamagedTrax

not toms as i usually like to get a nice tone from them but kick all them time.

we just put a double coated evans batter head on our kick in the studio. comes with 3 dampning rings that slot around the edges. gives the kick a lot more definition or deadens it totally, depending on your needs.

PaulBrewer

It's whatever works Off.

Damping drums does exactly that and will shorten the drums ring and probably reduce high end .

If that's a sound your after then it's the right thing to do.

drum!

I use to do something like this cause i like a low, tight sound out of the kit. I used to pop some cotton buds into the shell so they'd rest on the reso head and pack the bejaysis out of the kick drum until i realised it really isn't necessary and the drums don't sound as good. So i made some changes.

Firstly, buy the right drums for you. There's no point buying a super resonant kit (like a DW for instance) and then packing it full of foam, they're resonant drums, they're made to sing. Choosing the right skins makes all the difference. pinstripes, coated pinstripes, coated ambassadors (and the Evans equivalent too i'm sure) and EMADS all work well. I like a quick, low sound from my kit and can even achieve that on a DW Collectors with an ebony pinstripe on the floor tom and a Coated/Clear on the rack tom while tuning to the resonant note of the shell. Buy a kit with the right characteristics for less resonance and you'll have less hassle. Lastly, tuning properly will eliminate a lot of nasty tones that you don't want and remove the need for taping or packing drums. Tuning is your friend but it is bloody hard to get your head around it.

It should never get to the point where you are packing a drum so much that the reso head becomes useless. If you're doing this then you haven't got the right gear and you need to spend more time tuning.

PaulBrewer

Good post drum!