Your Resos Are Killing Your Tom Tone | Season Three, Episode 38

Don’t just reach for the tape/gel/muffling of choice. If you’re constantly frustrated by tom sounds then there’s a very real possibility that it’s due to the lack of love your resonant heads are receiving. This is more common than you might think- even with the top professionals and studios alike, and the first thing people reach for is some sort of muffling rather than a drum key. In this episode we demonstrate how to diagnose choked toms and fix the issue with tuning rather than tape.

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Signal chain:
Mics - Focusrite Clarett 8Pre USB & OctoPre - MacPro w/Pro Tools 12.8
Recorded at 48kHz / 24bit
Full kit: AKG C314 at drummer's perspective
Snare drum & tom tom close mics: Shure SM57
Primary Bass drum: AKG D112 centered on reso
Aux Bass Drum: KAM R3 ribbon mic ~10” from reso

Drums:
Pearl Masters Maple Custom Extra

Drumheads:
Snare: Evans G1 / Snare Side 300
Main Bass Drum: Evans UV EMAD / EQ3 Coated White reso w/port
Toms: Evans G1 clear / G1 clear

Hosted by: Cody Rahn
Production: Ben O'Brien Smith @ Cadence Independent Media
Production Partners: Evans Drumheads, Promark Drumsticks

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Leave your questions, comments, suggestions, requests down below and don't forget to subscribe!

*NOTE: Troll comments will be deleted. You're welcome to disagree with whatever you like but let's keep the conversation civilized and focused on drums.
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Sounds Like a Drum is a CADENCE INDEPENDENT MEDIA production

[nathanpoovey]

I'm shocked every time you guys release a new video that I'm actually getting this for free?? Such great information that's being delivered in an easy to understand way

[Gkm]

9:50: my strategy recently is to remove the batter head and hoop entirely, tune the reso so it’s maximizing the resonance of the drum itself, and only after that’s been executed correctly add the batter. It really helps with the coated batter heads that work best with brushes.

[jamespatrick]

44 years of drumming and I've never heard such an awesome explanation of reso head science. Just re- tuned my micro kit and I can't believe the depth I got out of them. Thank you !!

[PennyLarson]

Cody: Muffling is not the first place to go.

Me: PREACH!!

[queenpurple]

I love how he kinda looks pissed when hitting the drums with two high of reso tuning, like he’s thinking back to playing those backlined kits and how they ruined his gigs lmao

[jmb]

His sound 1:55 low reso 4:08 high reso 7:12 just in case you want to switch between the sounds quickly. My takeaway is that too low is not so bad but too high just kills the sound of the shells. As always... great video, great info.

[SirHiggalot]

Lessons I wish someone would have communicated to me when I first started getting into drums and really caring about my sound, communicated clearly, with no BS, and actually backed up with real playing and demonstrations (without any phony production tricks). This channel is such a great service to the drumming community and I'm so thankful for what you guys are doing. I became a patron yesterday :). Keep it up!

[Chiroman]

As a 69 YO, Rookie, Cody is one of the best Instructors on the Web. Holy SH^T, Never realized the the ART of tuning and fine tuning drums. When I played 0ver 50 years (15-18 ) ago, I never knew there was such technical advice about tuning. Anyway, I have a cheap Gammon kit and I have been experimenting with new Heads (tried 3 different ones) so I am simply trying to obtain the "best" sound I can achieve... Happy Drumming All, Be Safe

[bd]

This is about the clearest explanation I ever heard about the relationship between batter and reso heads.Great video.

[bryceng]

Definitely one of the most informative and well-executed music channels I've found. Everything is delivered in an easy to understand way, quite free of elitism and opinion. Such a multitude of different topics covered too, this entire channel should be required viewing for anybody who's serious about drums.

[emmanuel.a]

You guy honest have THE BEST timing on YouTube
Whatever issues I would have been experiencing you post a vid on!😂

[JCDRUM]

I've been playing for 40 years and over that time have fallen into the same routine of tuning my drums. This has been very informative, and it's changed my thoughts on tuning. I appreciate all the time and effort put into these videos!

[johnandrus]

Your comment about the drums “talking” to each other makes so much sense. It’s like the conversation gets blown out the back end if it’s tuned too low, and shoots back up at you if it’s too high.

[LucasSpurrell]

These videos are so to the point and detailed at the same time. No fluff or nonsense. Love it

[PNNYRFACE]

1st time here from random search just got some g2 evans coated heads coming this week for a thrift store kit I found.

Liked and subscribed.

Needed this video

[darklight]

Thanks to this channel my drums no longer sound like buckets with hefty bags duct taped over the top... excellent source of valuable information here 🤘💀🤘

[specialbeat]

That's amazing that the tones of the drums change so much just due to the reso heads! Great idea, thank you for sharing.

[PoloMucha]

Expend many years to understand this relationship, and even now I have learned a lot. So useful this channel. Drumeo have not all the answers 🙂

[tonynewell]

High school marching band drummer from back in the day. I could always get my snare sound preferences but my toms mostly fell flat and lifeless. I applied your advice to my kit. It made a world of difference. Thanks for the lesson. Some of us old dogs can indeed still learn.

[paulginaven]

This just blew my mind, I’m an audio engineer and by far drums have been the hardest thing for me to learn, not just recording but TUNING.

Your video here comes down to a crystal clear wire as to why we need the drum to work in conjunction, what I mean is that we need the toms heads to work together and thinking in that way makes you more apt to touch the reso head.

Thanks for this awesome piece of information.