What is the purpose of a batter head?
Pre-Muffled The main purpose of these heads is to eliminate overtones and focus the overall tone of the drum. The most commonly used methods for pre-muffling a head include adding a layer of Mylar or other material to the top or underside of the outer edge.
Do you need to replace both drum heads?
On a more normal tour schedule where there are only four or five shows per week you can probably go longer. It depends on how hard you hit your drums. I suggest you change the heads on the bottom of your toms and snare once a year. Some players never change those heads, but a new set will help liven up your sound.
What is the bottom head of a drum called?
resonant head
Why do drummers remove bottom heads?
In short, the resonant drum head, or bottom head as it’s sometimes called, is exactly as it’s name implies: A drum head that resonate off the vibrations from the batter head. If you were to remove the bottom drumhead, you would hear a large amount of attack and tone, but have far less resonance.
Are snare and tom heads the same?
There is NO difference between “tom” or “snare” batter heads. There IS, however, a difference in a RESONANT head that’s labeled as “SNARE”. It’s thinner than the usual weight to promote better snare wire vibration.
Do drum heads make a difference in sound?
Coating on a drumhead tends to muffle the sound a bit. Clearer heads tend to sound brighter and more open. You can’t get that beautiful “sandpaper” kind of sound with a clear snare head and brushes. Coated heads on toms tend to make the drums a bit warmer, while clear tom heads will give you more attack.
Should resonant heads be tighter?
To a certain point, the tighter the reso head, the more resonance the drum will have. But after that certain point, the drum becomes choked and doesn’t sound too good. If you want to minimize sustain, detune your reso head until you find the sound you want.
Should batter head be tighter?
Since most drummers use thinner heads on the bottom of their drums, it is very possible to have it on with less tension than the batter head but for it to produce a higher fundamental pitch. if the reso is higher in pitch, then it is going to be tighter than the batter. just common sense.
What pitch should my drums be?
A good pitch relationship for the drum heads is to tune the lug pitch of the bottom head a perfect fifth higher than the top head (1.5 times higher in frequency, see Appendix).
What should a drummer do to reduce the pitch of a drum?
You can manipulate the pitch of a drum in three ways: 1) tighten the drum’s skin to make the pitch higher; 2) put a thicker skin on the drum to lower the pitch; and 3) strike the drum closer to the center to produce a slower vibration and lower pitch, which sounds more resonant.
Should drums be in Key?
If the song was in A major he might actually tune the snare so the ring (or any ring there might be) is in tune with the key of the song. If you’re not talking about the tone of your drums and are wondering about tuning them so they are even, then yes that is important all of the time.
Why are drums always in key?
This is because drums as a percussion instrument are perceived as having an indefinite pitch. Of course they do have pitch, but they are perceived by our brains as banging noises, and just like gunshots, falling debris, clicking heels and whatnot have pitch, but we don’t perceive them as pitched.