Drum Heads
Holiday Season Buying Guide- Making sense out of Drum Head jargon.
Drum heads come in many different varieties. Here is the breakdown on what they are and what they do:
Batter Head: designed to endure repeated striking with sticks, brushes etc. These heads go on top of the drum. Most manufacturers have batter heads for toms, and batter heads for snare drums within the same product line.
Resonant Head – Toms: a very thin head on the bottom side of the drum, used to reflect the sound back and forth between the top head. Some people choose to use single ply, thin batter heads on the bottom instead of specially designed resonant heads. This is a matter of preference.
Since resonant heads do not get touched by sticks, they don’t need to be replaced very often. I have had mine on for years, and only minor tuning is needed every few months, or between severe temperature or humidity changes.
Snare Side Head: The thinnest of all heads. This head will break immediately if struck with stick. Its single purpose is to provide maximum sensitivity and response to the snare wires on the bottom of the snare drum. The thinner the head, the more responsive it will be. Be careful when replacing it, it can split very easily if uneven tension is applied.
Single Ply: These heads are constructed from a single layer of material. Because it is a single layer, there is virtually no dampening effect. The head is highly resonant, allowing the maximum number of vibrations, and allowing all tonal elements of the drum to be expressed (overtones). Use these heads when you want your drum to have a sustained ringing sound with an extremely responsive touch. Durability and warmth/ darkness of tone can be increased by increasing the thickness of the ply.
These heads are best suited for lighter, acoustic forms of music such as jazz, folk and ethnic styles. They also are quite effective in the studio when used on a high quality instrument, tuned carefully.
Two Ply: These heads are constructed from two layers of material, which when floating independently of each other act to dampen/ absorb head vibrations. Two ply heads are more durable, and will have less sustain than single ply heads, even less total thickness.
For instance, a single ply 12 mm head will still sustain longer than a 10 mm combined thickness 2 ply head. It may not be as strong though.
Specialty: These heads include built in dampening systems and/ or strengthening materials at impact points. Black Dot, White Dot, Oil filled, control ring etc.
In general, any additional material applied to or in between the layers of the drum head will cause dampening. Different materials and structures will dampen in different ways.
For instance a single ply head with a reinforcing dot in the center will be less resonant than the same single ply head without a reinforcing dot.
Some dampening materials are designed to target and control specific frequencies. The new Evans EC2 line has a thin multi segment ring applied to the underside of the head. This rings material and structure work together to dampen upper mid frequencies, where most overtones are present. The head still allows sufficient high and low frequency energy to develop, letting the attack and tone of the drum to speak clearly at a wide range of tunings.
One other point of note, certain drums just seem more difficult to tune than others. This usually has to do with the overtones that drum produces. Using heads that have dampening structures will enable quicker, easier tuning by removing unwanted overtones.
Coated or Uncoated?
Coated drum heads have a very thin layer of fine abrasive material applied to the playing surface. When played with a brush, that familiar jazz “swish” sound can be heard.
This coating offers a bit of dampening as well as making the head ever so slightly more rigid. This rigidity yields a sharper, more focused attack, at least to my ears it does.
Uncoated heads do not yield any swish sound when played with brushes, and are a little bit more resonant than their coated counterparts. All head manufacturers offer coated and uncoated versions of heads in most product lines.
A point of note: Uncoated does not mean clear. You can actually find clear heads that are coated. The Evans EC2 coated head is an example. It is basically a clear head with a translucent coated material applied to its surface. If you put your hand behind it, you might not be able to count how many fingers you are holding up, but you will be able to tell it’s a hand.
Conversely, you can find smooth white heads that have no coating and you cannot see through.
Summary:
So now what? If this is the first time you have purchased heads for a drum kit, my recommendation is to start in the middle of the product range and see how it works for you.
Drum heads are consumables, they have to be replaced. For this reason, experimentation should be embraced. If decide you don’t like the head choice after a month or two, it’s almost time to change them anyway.
As general suggestions, I recommend the following to start off:
Snare:
Remo Coated Ambassador
Evans Coated G2
Toms:
Remo coated or uncoated Ambassadors
Evans coated or uncoated G2’s
Kick drum:
Kick drum heads normally are sold in packages including the rear “batter” head and the front “Resonant” Head together.
I use an Evans EMAD system on my live kit and an Aquarian Regulator series on the resonant side and a SuperKick series on the batter side of my studio kit.
Each manufacturer has solutions to address specific playing styles and genres.
Although Remo does not market a specifc Bass drum head solution, they make a Powerstroke 3 head that is well suited for the batter side of the drum.
Resonant heads usually come from the manufacturer with the drum itself, and this is normally fine.
Have fun!
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