The Great Debate .... Mylar vs. Kevlar

[JohnD]

DCP columnist Allan Murray explores the age-old debate - "Mylar vs. Kevlar" in his latest issue of "The Beat".

You'll find the column here .... then let us know what you think.

Enjoy,

-john

[Peerno]

This is a great article Al. Lots of fond memories it seems. Kudos.

Me, I like Aramid Fiber heads, lol :-)

C

[Paul Milano]

Hey Al,

You hit the nail on the "head" (so to speak!).

In the different alumni corps I've marched in recently, we have desperately tried to stay to true to our "roots" by using Mylar heads. It is difficult to do so, however, with the constant changing of the heads (and the subsequent expense).

We've tried Kevlar as well, but while they were easier to tune and didn't need to be changed, they did not project well at all. And the heads are hard on our "old" hands and arms from the excessive tension. (Not to mention that if we get too carried away and start cranking them, the old Slingerland TDR drums we bought off eBay start to cave in!).

Tuning the Kevlar heads lower/looser is a bit of a decent compromise. But, in some sense you only get a modest degree of the positives (pitch separation, fewer head changes, and less damage to the hands from playing on "concrete") and you still get most of the negatives (less articulation and less sound projection).

Not ideal . . .

Even to my ears, which are very used to both the modern and the classic sound of a snare drum, the Mylar sound is now pretty muddy in comparison to the Kevlar. I can't imagine the young kids thinking it is anything but dirty, no matter how clean I know we are from time to time.

Oh well, maybe some VP of a major drum company will figure out a way to get his guys to develop a material that is less breakable but still soft enough to give off a crisp yet deeper sound that projects well, without constantly changes heads or damaging wrists and fingers.

If you know of such a guy, tell him I'll buy him a beer at the old Woodstock, Illinois show one of these summers. B)

Happy New Years to you and your family. You too CP!

P.S. As an extreme, the more I'm around modern drum lines these summers, the more I would be tempted as a drum instructor to simply put 16 folks in the pit (with four of them on drum sets) and every once in a while have six or eight of them strap on snares, quads, or basses for a few bars of a drum feature (which is what is done during today's modern "drum solos"). For all the effort that it takes to produce a battery today, the lack of sound projection and the difficulty of crab-walking at 200 bpm with forty pounds strapped to your chest, why not just give up the ghost and go with 80 horns. That way the horn lines can play as quietly as they seem to want to these days and still be heard. That's all hard for an old rudimental drummer to have to say, but it seems a more reasonable approach. Crawling back under my rock now . . . ^0^

[jonnyboy]

Great column, it made me think back to those pre-show warm-ups with lots of head cranking and changing going on. Just from a practicality stand point mylar is done for on snares. Who wants to spend that much time and money monkeying with heads when the competition is drumming?

I always liked the natural tendura heads, you know, the ones with no white film? They sounded prettey good and lasted a whole season. Even cranked tightly they never had the the formica feel of a Falams head.

Although Premier doesn't make them anymore, Andante drums of England makes a similiar head for their pipe snares, has anyone tried them out?

p.s. I agree with the previous poster, I just thought I couldn't hear the drumlines anymore because I was getting old.....lol.

[paradiddle]

I think most of the modern kevlar snare lines have no snare sound at all. It just all about tension, rebound, rimshots. Most of the DCI lines have them overtensioned too boot. My experience with modern drumlines came in alumni corps with BAC Sr (oxymoron I guess). When I joined we had a new set of Pearl FFX (1994) with the std. white kevlar heads. I remember we had played the Dixie Stinger in Baltimore in spring of 95 after a hard winter of practice. We had brought back a lot of the classic Jerry Shellemer BAC 60's drum solos. When I heard the recording after, I notice that the snare line had "disappeared". Later that summer I played with Mighty St. Joes in DCI Buffalo. They were using Premier Marathon mylar heads on Yamaha Field Corps snare drums. They sounded sweet, just right for a 60's retro corps. I came back to BAC Sr. and mentioned we should try one Premier head on a Pearl. Cisco, the instructor, liked it and we used them for the next 2-3 years along with my constant tuning. We then got a deal on Yamaha Sfz drums. We used the mylar heads that came with them as the Premier Marathon heads were hard to get. We then tried the new Remo Black max heads. They were a good compromise but eventually with all kevlar snare headed drumlines you get greedy with the drum key. Since then I have noticed our old snare sound starting to disappear again (too tight and high pitched). I think we need to have a torque setting that we shouldn't exceed. I agree Mylar heads need too much attention especially for drumlines that don't have someone to maintain the sound and replace heads as neccessary. I converted another alumni line with mylar on Dynasty snares because the snare line usually had only 2-3 snares. The sound was nice but maintenance became an issue. I switched to Black Max which worked out well (not too tight). We were also incorporating more modern snare drum techiques as buzz rolls and good rim shots at which kevlar excells. On another note,I listen to DCI drumlines warmup and they play some fantastic licks, out of this world. I'm usually dissapointed with the show as none of that parking lot stuff gets incorporated into the show. That's what I loved about the park and bark style corps that had drum solos. They would incorporate some standard and wild new rudiments. I want to say it's hard to really hear what you sound like to fans when you are on top of the drum. You "think" it sounds great but listen to it from a fans perspective and you may change your mind.

[Kansan]

I chose kevlar heads for longevity reasons. I tightened the heads to were I could still hear the snares. I can't wait to see what our new percussion instructor does.

I like to hear some snare form the snare drums.

[TastyWaves]

Ive honestly never understood why there has to be any "Debate" over it.

I think both head styles offer completely different ranges of sounds and ive always believed in chosing my drum sound to match the show were playing. In other words i dont think its possible to chose a general "Best" head of the two. Sometimes i think music calls for that deep rich "Snary" sound that a mylar head offers. Sometimes i think a brighter sound is called for. Even just among "mylar to mylar" or "kevlar to kevlar" there is so much difference out there that you just gotta pick and chose your sound.

Mylar heads are certainly harder to maintain. Tuning, double hooping etc. but man, that get great sound and really help teach kids (if you teach younger kids like i do) to grip properly, and control the stick.

The premier Marathon batter head was my favorite (only good thing premier ever made in my mind). For kevlar i tend to float toward to the Remo Black Max.

Good points in the article tho!

Tony

[drummerwalt]

I grew up on Silver Dots and Marathon heads all through junior and senior high school and was taught to play through the head and all wrist. After graduating, I starting marching college and drum corps and it was Falams and using the rebound from then on. So, I think I've been fortunate to be able to really experience both sides of the drumhead debate. Having said all this, I really like the Black Max heads the best. Yes, they a kevlar-type head but still have a bit of give to them. They feel great whether you play into the head or use the rebound. Plus, they sound awesome.

However, one thing that upsets me is that all the youngsters coming up don't get to experience the mylar feel and the strengthening required to play on mylar. I think it's something that every player should know. It seems like year after year, I see kids with less overall mechanical control of the stick and endurance due to growing up on kevlar alone. I don't know. Maybe it's just me. I would agree that it was cool when Colin had Glassmen on mylar in '02. The thing that sucked was, the judges didn't know the difference between a dirty kevlar sound and a clean mylar sound. Too fat for their ears I guess. I guess the head change time was a factor too.

Anyway, I vote for the Black Max head

[SKEK_SOP]

DCP columnist Allan Murray explores the age-old debate - "Mylar vs. Kevlar" in his latest issue of "The Beat".

You'll find the column here .... then let us know what you think.

Enjoy,

-john

Boston in 1967 was amazing and were lead by Tony and the d.base,

right from the first note of the show. Yes the drum that changed everything,

BAC drum lines back then...... were in a league all of their own

Edited January 4, 2007 by SKEK_SOP

[paradiddle]

Boston in 1967 was amazing and were lead by Tony and the d.base,

right from the first note of the show. Yes the drum that changed everything,

BAC drum lines back then...... were in a league all of their own

We made a double bass in BAC Sr. but never used it even though we were playing almost the whole 67 routine. I like the 69 show myself with the first playing of Conquest and the those marching bells and tymps.