Drum tuning

[FTNK]

I was going to post this in the snare technology thread but didn't want to hijack it. So, I was watching some BD and Cadets shows from the 80s (like one does) and one thing that stuck out was the difference in drum sounds. I'm a bassoonist who marched tuba, so I don't know JACK marching percussion. Anyone care to give me a quick layman's explanation, and some examples of shows which point out the transition? I don't want to watch every show from 1988 to 2004 but... I've heard Kevlar is the devil and mylar is better, but what about the specifics of technique and construction?

PS: When I marched at Cadets someone told me the 1989 CBC drumline set a new standard in approach and tuning which was copied by many other corps. Wut?

[MikeN]

There are as many opinions on how to tune a drum as there are people who tune drums, really. There is no "one true way."

In drum corps, the Great Transition really took place in the late 80's and early 90's as kevlar heads came into wide use, and then free floating snares built to take advantage of them. That's about the time I got in to drum corps, so while I can't give a definitive history of the introduction of kevlar, I can speak about the changes in drums and give some listening examples.

In 1989, Star of Indiana used Premier free floaters, and BD tested a prototype Yamaha snare that was actually a Premier snare. (Listen to Star's Fantasia on the Dargason for some pretty good exposed snare passages and Blue Devil's Allegre.) By today's standards, the tuning on those are comically low and "wet" (much more snare sound).

In 1990, Pearl put out their FFX snare (Listen to SCV's "Carmen"), and in my opinion, tuning took a *huge* step upwards. Snares were higher (tighter), and especially tenor tuning got cranked up a fair bit.

In 1991, the Crossmen upgraded to Premier's free-floating snares and tenors, but (again, IMO) the tuning only increased incrementally. Star of Indiana used Premier free floating snares, but mylar heads. Listen to "Puma" (Crossmen) and the drum feature in Star's closer for contrast.

In 1992, Yamaha finally released their prototype sFz snares, and Madison and Cavaliers tested them out. Funny enough, Blue Devils did not, so if you listen to, say, "Funny" from Madison, "Peterloo" from Cavaliers and the drum feature from "Cuban Fire" by the Blue Devils, you get three very different interpretations from the same brand of drum.

Blue Devils upgraded to the sFz in 1993, and to me, at least, it's a pretty noticeable transition. The Cadets in '93 used a very choked-off sounding tuning on their snares that they stayed with for several years. Blue Devils in '94 also really "dried" (less snare sound) the tone of their snares. We can probably blame them for a decade of high school kids caving their drums in by over-tightening them. :)

If you really feel like getting into shades of grey, the Cavaliers in '95 used 13" snares in the "Mars" opener then 14" snares the rest of the way. ("Mercury" is a good example.)

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Kevlar's not the "devil," but it was the solution to a problem that DCI lines were having in that drum tuning was outpacing the strength of mylar heads. Instructors were looking for higher pitches to cut through ensemble sound, and kevlar definitely allows that. Unfortuntately, kevlar heads turned out to be stronger than wood shells on snare drums, and tightening the heads too much popped the lugs right out of the wood shells, or caved in the shells completely.

(If you look on eBay, just about every pre-owned "traditional" marching snare they have on there has lugs that are bent away from the shell.)

Kevlar heads also pose a bit of a health hazard, as they don't have the "bounce" that mylar heads do. Less rebound = less forgiving = more stress on forearms. In the late 90's, tendonitis started to become a serious issue for players.

Drum companies responded with "hybrid" heads that softened the construction a bit and improved response. That's where we're at now - those have been around for almost a decade at this point, and have greatly reduced playing pain. They also allow for a little more snare sound to peek through, and less of the "formica" sound.

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So, there's the armchair version. I'm sure there are folks who know much more than me about it who can also pass some knowledge.

Thanks!

Mike

[wonker]

Mike N.

Great post. Obviously took you a lot of time, but great layman descriptions and very helpful listening examples to follow along. Thank you!

[JKT90]

I think MikeN pretty much nailed it...I remember the traditional snares with the kevlar heads (Remo's Falaam was the first I remember), and yes it was like playing on concrete...and use tendonitis was an issue. I remember drums caving in under the pressure of those heads, and lugs popping all the time...it also around that time and I think partly because of the new heads we started seeing new approaches to the basic stroke...the down stroke went away as you can't play through a kevlar head and we start seeing more strokes introduced such as the natural rebound method or the velocity stroke. Interesting how a drum head can have such an impact on the drumming process.

[perc2100]

If you really feel like getting into shades of grey, the Cavaliers in '95 used 13" snares in the "Mars" opener then 14" snares the rest of the way. ("Mercury" is a good example.)

Think it's the opposite: they used red 14" snares for "Mars" and 13" snares for the rest of the show

[jonnyboy]

Great post Mike. You are right saying head tuning was outpacing head strength. We would spend much time daily cranking heads, rimming them and changing them. More than once a mylar bottom head would pop during pre warm up tuning and you would hear "aww" from the staff. More time changing heads. In 1989 we actually collapsed our two season old snare shells by cranking the mylars. It took a top Pearl sponsored instructor to get us new shells to finish the season. Kevlar was only a response to head cranking, not the cause if it.

Also, when snare heads went higher, so did the rest of the battery. I'm not sure when, but head companies started making "crimp lock" tenor heads and now make crimp lock bass heads. Previously the drum head material sat in a channel of epoxy, crimp lock is basically a metal ring that is harder to pull out under tension.

I remember The Cadets basses sounding great, but no low end BOOM. They would crank everything, that combined with great technique made for a superior bass sound IMO. The days of putting a new head on the bottom bass and just turning the rods once were over.

[2muchcoffeeman]

Great job, MIke, thanks. I'm nearly clueless on the technology. I was in an early-80's DCI drum line and I know only what my ears have told me since. We were playing just as the transition away from Mylar was beginning, and there were all kinds of goofy experiments going on trying to get more snare sound through the ensemble, such as slicing the snare shells in half, horizontally, creating a 2-inch slit between the top and bottom halves of the shells. Result: more snare sound out front, but inside the line, on top of the drums, the snares sounded like tenors.

To my ears, the early Kevlar days produced too much of a "dawk dawk dawk" sound in the snares, in contrast to the wet, "dit dit dit" sound of snares before Kevlar took over. I prefer the wetter sound -- the snares are supposed to be a soprano percussion voice, after all. And for all the effort in the 80s to try to get the snares to project more, I thought the Kevlar "dawk" sound failed to cut through the ensemble with the crispness of the wet "dit" sound of the Mylar snares of old. I found it harder to hears the snares in late-80s/early-90s recordings than in earlier recordings.

Happily, in more recent years, I think the "dit" has returned, somewhat, to the DCI snare sound, though I haven't a clue how. It could be that my ears are just getting older.

[perc2100]

Happily, in more recent years, I think the "dit" has returned, somewhat, to the DCI snare sound, though I haven't a clue how. It could be that my ears are just getting older.

Possibly because many drum lines are using the mylar/kevlar hybrid heads instead of the straight-up kevlar heads

[Jeff Ream]

one more thing to add is when the kevlar bottom heads came into vogue, it also helped change the sound