Pardon the indulgence, but I just have to get this off my chest.
Rant mode ON.
I just started voluntarily overhauling the beat up drum set in my church, and I'm in some sort of shock. I've played a lot of drum sets that aren't mine, and too many of them sound simply awful. The pastor in my church told me that some in the congregation had been complaining about the drums being too loud, and he thought of enclosing the drums in some kind of plexiglass cage. But the real problem to me is not that it is too loud, but that it sounds like crap because it hasn't been set up properly. A lot of this could be avoided if the drummer knew what he/she was doing.
The first thing I usually notice is the bad condition of the heads. Bald spots in coated heads are a simple indication of wear and tear, so this is to be expected specially in club drum sets. Stick marks and dirt are also a fact of life, and will happen even with the best maintained heads. But what bugs me is when the heads are so badly dented (even with 2-ply heads). In most cases, this is caused when the head is too loose. A few turns of the tension rods is usually all it takes to improve the situation, albeit slightly. So it irritates me when I see a drummer come to a gig without a drum key, then proceed to bludgeon a loose drum head to death, thinking that this will make him/her look "cool". I have walked out of gigs when I see this happening because it only makes the drummer sound bad.
Another problem is the overabundance of muffling. I've seen snares and toms with all kinds of tape, napkins (table and otherwise), and other objects stuck to them, and have had a hell of a time getting adhesive off my drum sticks. My guess is that in the quest for a "deep" sound and minimal ringing, many drummers tune the drums too low, and/or add too much muffling. What these people don't realize is that by taking out all the overtones, all that is left is a dead sounding drum with no character or dynamics.
I can understand if a song calls for a specific sound which can only be achieved with some modifications. Ringo Starr, for example, routinely used towels on his drums to get a short dry sound on many latter Beatles songs. But I don't remember him putting junk on his drums. In the 80's, Steve Gadd became famous for a dry sound, but he got this by using a Yamaha Recording Custom set, very heavy Evans oil-filled hydraulic heads, and very delicate playing technique. But even Stewart Copeland, who used electrical tape to spell out [strawberry] you" on his rack toms, used moderately high tuning, which resulted in a very rich, roaring drum sound filled with overtones. I don't have a problem with judicious and contextual muffling. But there is a limit. And when it kills the sound of a drum, it makes me want to throw up.
The same is true with cymbals. I didn't chose mine based on the brand reputation, or whatever was written on it. I chose them due to the unique complexity of the timbres. I once tried adding tape to my ride and crash-ride to limit the trashiness . But I took it off immediately because I realized the original overtone structure was what made them unique, the reason I selected them in the first place. Thankfully, all that remains of that moment of stupidity are some adhesive marks. I swore never to do it again, and instead committed to bask in the vibrance of their sound.
Some drummers say they are after something they heard from a recording. But the truth is that most recordings use a rich combination of close-miking, equalization, and signal processing to achieve that sound. But while there is some relationship between the natural drum sound (from the drummers perspective) and its recording, the two are vastly different. The same is true in a club. What the audience hears is very different from what the drummer hears. It is possible to tune a drum set that will sound good to both the drummer and the audience.
I like a drum set that is responsive. With my present setup, I can just tap it and it will whisper. Hit it moderately and it will "sing". Hit it hard and it will "roar". Hit it very hard and it will "scream". This kind of dynamic range is impossible with floppy heads and insane damping. It comes with good tuning, and an understanding of the natural tonal characteristics of each drum/head combination. I've used many types of setups in my lifetime, some I have come to regret. But I've never broken a head or a stick due to ignorance of the physics of sound and/or materials.
With all the information and discourse available on the internet nowadays, I would have thought drummers would be more informed as to how to set up their drums. But some people prefer to stay blissfully ignorant, then have the stupidity to wonder why a drum set sounds like crap. Music is sound. You can be great technically, but if you can't get your instrument to make even a subjectively decent sound, you'll have all sorts of problems getting people to listen to, or play with you. You not only rob the instrument of sounding even nominally good, but run the risk of destroying it for good.
Rant mode OFF.
