I've been playing for 40 +years and I'm impressed with the cotton ball muffling!!! I love a resonate ton sound with sustain and tone and the gels seem to rob the tone too much for my liking. Thanks 👍
Insightful,informative & great playing in the beginning! Awesome video Kyle, video came recommended on my feed and stoked to see more videos in the future!
Yr getting a great tone from those drums. All of them. I’m partial to the Thomas Lang style of Tom/Kick tuning-when changing heads, push down on the rim at each lug location and tighten only using yr fingers-no drum key needed. I only use a key to tweak the final drum tones (with the exception of some snares that I keep pretty tight). But whatever works for the player is what’s best. Great video, by the way-informative, clear, and concise. I’ll be sticking around. Thanks for posting.
Damn, what a great natural sound. Thanks for sharing this, and an excellent video production. I’ve always been able to tune a bad drum - but it can only go so far before dampening is needed, and then the tone gets altered too much… which requires more post processing. I really like your technique, especially with the cotton balls. I bet it helps with the resonation between the small tom and the snare that we all experience! Since my studio kit is an early 1970’s Slingerland, it doesn’t have that fat sound like newer kits, so I’m looking forward to trying this out.
Thanks for sharing this. Tuning drums is a difficult art to master. I used to own an Arbiter advanced tuning kit which was amazing but of course it would not allow for esoteric tuning. Great video. Plus you remind me of The late great John Candy.❤
I had an Arbiter AT kit - and before that an Arbiter Autotune. They were great tools for learning how to tune as you could tune with one hand whilst playing the tom with the other. 👍
Arbiter as in Hayman Vibrasonic drums Ivor Arbiter ? I guess it would be his son or something. Anyway Vibrasonics are pretty much my favourite drums from the 1960s! Except for the snare. The toms and kick drum put lipstick on the old Ludwigs and take them to town. Used to be able to get them at half the price, probably not now. I still think the old Ludwigs are fantastic. But way to hyped up and expensive.
@@jobrothberg4679 Ivor Arbiter was responsible for Hayman, then Arbiter Autotune, Then Arbiter AT. All the same guy, I believe. There was a big tie in with Rogers, too, Arbiter made UK built Rogers drums for a while. I think he died about 15 to 20 years ago. Sadly Arbiter the company went into receivership not long after.
The cotton ball trick is essentially Dave weckls trick gone dollar store. Already in this video you can hear his heads aren't set. Get bigger drums if you like those pitches
Kyle great video! I was the original drummer for a band called Reel Big Fish. I was not so much a drummer as I was an artist🙄. Videos like yours help those of us who appreciate and love this craft. Thank you and God bless.
I've found my perfect combination is Evans EC2 on top and G2 on the bottom. Having a dual layer head on the bottom makes it sound exactly the way I like it.
I really enjoyed your video very informative. I like to know what kind of heads you use on your snare and what note you have it tune to. Thanks again for the video.
Most important thing for easy tuning is apex of bearing edge must make contact with the drum skin on the flatter part of the drum skin rather than the rounded part,Rob brown has the easiest most effective Tuning method just tune out the wrinkles and minor adjustments from there,just push harder in centre of drum head for a higher pitch or push softer for a lower pitch sound when tuning out the wrinkles takes 5 mins to do all toms top and bottom heads
Thank you for making this video. I really appreciated your clear and concise explanation and sound samples. I even appreciate your UW shirt; although I’m a Beaver….
Don't ever apologize for going-into "Drum Nerd" territory. God gave us a gift to speak and understand a language of our own! Everybody can learn how to order their drink from Starbucks, but only the chosen few understand the passion of a musician discussing their gear!
That lick right at 24 seconds! I've been trying to figure out what that is forever but don't even know how to describe it clearly enough to elicit more than a confused look. It sounds like an alternation of triplets and 16ths?
Seems like resonance with 12" rack toms is par for the course. I have the same issue and it's super annoying. I'll have to try the cotton balls one day
Trying to squeeze them through the vent might tear them apart. When I did my low tom I took off the resonant head and did it that way since it's easier for me to tune that side.
Great Sound, which I like a lot. I am sure that the detuning trick of the 2 closest lugs to the drummer is not working with diecast hoops! I have a TAMA Starclassic and it has diecast hoops.
I'm not sure how it would work with diecast hoops on toms, but I've done it a couple times on my TAMA G-Maple snare and it made a pretty big difference!
@@kylecokeleydrums I have the G-maple snare aswell and it has standard hoops. The "problem" with diecast is, that it is too stiff and too strong for such tuning tricks, I learned that in another video by the "drum-dogs".
@@kylecokeleydrums thanks, also interesting. My snare has the 2,3 mm "mighty hoops" (triple flanshed), didn't know that they have it with die cast aswell. Maybe I should try your trick with my toms then. Thanks for answering.
Are your drums all maple shells, and if I have all poplar shells in 12”,13,16 how many cotton balls should I try as I’m about to change out top and bottom heads on all my Tom’s ?
Yes, my kit has all maple shells. I can't speak to how it would be with poplar, but 3 or 4 cotton balls is pretty gentle (I use 4 in my 10, 14, and 16). I would start there and work your way up.
Wouldn't all this be easily be achieved by simply swapping to a thinner resonant? Less sustain, faster decay, overall a more punchy sound, and as an added bonus: better sound at lower dynamics.
You can definitely achieve all kinds of different sounds with different drumheads. I just find that there is a lot more versatility and cost-effectiveness that comes with making small tweaks to muffling and/or tuning, as opposed to swapping out all of the heads.
Thanks Kyle, that was some great tips. Your toms sound fantastic! Also, who DOESN'T love some drum nerd content. That's why this popped up in my suggested LMAO. Question though - it seems you have blankets covering your walls - as someone who struggles with cymbal bleed horribly, do you think it helps with that? I know it really comes down to "hit softer" etc, but even when I do that, I still have horrible bleed. Have you dealt with that before?
I don't have a before and after experience to say whether the blankets are making a difference with cymbal bleed. They definitely tighten up the sound in the room, so it's certainly possible. I mostly bought the acoustic blankets to keep sound from getting out of the room. I have a few neighbors who are fairly close by, and I didn't want the police knocking on my door every evening. 🤣 You've probably already tried these things, but moving cymbals a little higher and making sure that the close mics are pointing away from them makes a big difference. The hi-hat is usually the biggest culprit in my experience because it's close to the snare mic.
The cotto balls sure do the trick, but the detuning of the lugs only work on steel bent hoops, not die cast. With die cast hoops you will detune the whole drumhead if you do this.
Believe it or not, it actually works pretty well with diecast hoops too. I've used the tuning on a TAMA snare that I own with diecast on a few occasions. It makes a noticeable difference in the attack. You do have to be careful about putting uneven tension on diecast hoops long-term. They can warp over time because of their rigidity, especially with drums that are tuned high.
@@kylecokeleydrums Thought so, but never hurts to ask. I might pass on that then because my kit gets used for bands that tend to have a heavy tilt. Keep making videos and keep drumming.
It's a custom-built kit that I bought from my drum teacher back in 2006 or so. The shells are all-maple. I do have a TAMA G-Maple snare that I really love.
@@MaltZero they'll be floating inside, on the reso head. They act almost like a gate, jumping up on initial impact where they let the drum sing then falling gently back to the [inside] surface of the head, dampening some of the head's resonance and bringing the wee bit of lovely control we hear here. The same idea as attaching a small piece of felt, leather, flannel, denim, whatever to the rim of your batter head and letting it rest on the edge of the head itself. Each has its benefits and drawbacks, I suppose.
Not a dumb question! As others have said here, they rest freely on the bottom and bounce around, which creates a gentle gating effect. More cotton balls = quicker gate, fewer = slower gate.
I like my Tom’s a little on the lower side of the tuning scale. But I think I will try my two smaller toms a little higher. Might give them more definition
@@kylecokeleydrumsa rough number of cotton balls on the rack toms 10 & 12 verses floor toms of 14 & 16, eg, would be nice to be close on initial try as I would like to avoid pulling heads a bazillion times to increment up? Oh heck, never mind as you stated in the video 4, 8, 4 & 4, respectively. Thx!
They actually sound incredible
I've been playing for 40 +years and I'm impressed with the cotton ball muffling!!! I love a resonate ton sound with sustain and tone and the gels seem to rob the tone too much for my liking. Thanks 👍
Great playing and your drums sound fantastic. Nice work!!
Thanks for the tuning tips!
This audio is crazy clear. You got super good on the drums btw. Keep it up!
Insightful,informative & great playing in the beginning! Awesome video Kyle, video came recommended on my feed and stoked to see more videos in the future!
Yr getting a great tone from those drums. All of them.
I’m partial to the Thomas Lang style of Tom/Kick tuning-when changing heads, push down on the rim at each lug location and tighten only using yr fingers-no drum key needed. I only use a key to tweak the final drum tones (with the exception of some snares that I keep pretty tight).
But whatever works for the player is what’s best.
Great video, by the way-informative, clear, and concise.
I’ll be sticking around. Thanks for posting.
FYI - we only tune the bass drums like that. Typically the toms are tuned with a key. Or a drill!
Damn, what a great natural sound. Thanks for sharing this, and an excellent video production. I’ve always been able to tune a bad drum - but it can only go so far before dampening is needed, and then the tone gets altered too much… which requires more post processing. I really like your technique, especially with the cotton balls. I bet it helps with the resonation between the small tom and the snare that we all experience! Since my studio kit is an early 1970’s Slingerland, it doesn’t have that fat sound like newer kits, so I’m looking forward to trying this out.
Thanks for sharing this. Tuning drums is a difficult art to master. I used to own an Arbiter advanced tuning kit which was amazing but of course it would not allow for esoteric tuning. Great video. Plus you remind me of The late great John Candy.❤
Is that as good or better than the Tune Bot?
I had an Arbiter AT kit - and before that an Arbiter Autotune. They were great tools for learning how to tune as you could tune with one hand whilst playing the tom with the other. 👍
Arbiter as in Hayman Vibrasonic drums Ivor Arbiter ? I guess it would be his son or something. Anyway Vibrasonics are pretty much my favourite drums from the 1960s! Except for the snare. The toms and kick drum put lipstick on the old Ludwigs and take them to town. Used to be able to get them at half the price, probably not now. I still think the old Ludwigs are fantastic. But way to hyped up and expensive.
@@jobrothberg4679 Ivor Arbiter was responsible for Hayman, then Arbiter Autotune, Then Arbiter AT. All the same guy, I believe. There was a big tie in with Rogers, too, Arbiter made UK built Rogers drums for a while. I think he died about 15 to 20 years ago. Sadly Arbiter the company went into receivership not long after.
Excellent tips and demonstration!
Number one thing, turn off the snare.
During a song? Its a set....not marching quads
Mid C on kick?
Number 1 thing learn how to tune a snare so it doesn't react to the other drums
The cotton ball trick is essentially Dave weckls trick gone dollar store. Already in this video you can hear his heads aren't set. Get bigger drums if you like those pitches
@@rogerringold616listen to Danny Carey
Wow, this video popped up on my feed as i have Sugar Bowl Washington v Texas on 21- 21, 2rd quarter. Ok, back to the toms.
PLEASE PLEASE do a eq and comp video. This is GOLD. you gotta save me man!
Thanks very much for doing this. Great presentation.
Very good video. Drums sound great. I never heard about cotton balls before, but it makes sense and sound good!
Kyle great video! I was the original drummer for a band called Reel Big Fish. I was not so much a drummer as I was an artist🙄. Videos like yours help those of us who appreciate and love this craft. Thank you and God bless.
Wow! Thanks so much!
Hey Andrew! Big fan of RBF here, are you the guy who played in the Turn the Radio Off album? Loved how you play on the tracks!
Those toms really do sound amazing! Thanks for the tips
Love it. Thank you very much for sharing!
Amazing drum sound. Beautiful. Thank you!
You’re very articulate and a great presenter as well. Subscribed!
Great video!!! Thanks for all this info!!
Great tips
Thank you
Sounds great. Floor tom awesome!
That was very helpful advise. On a side note, you have a great radio voice!
I've found my perfect combination is Evans EC2 on top and G2 on the bottom. Having a dual layer head on the bottom makes it sound exactly the way I like it.
Great video, thanks for sharing!
I really enjoyed your video very informative. I like to know what kind of heads you use on your snare and what note you have it tune to. Thanks again for the video.
I love drum nerd, tech stuff and it’s great to take the time to actually listen to our kits. 👉🥁🤷♂️
Beautiful sound.
I'd woul like to see the process of tunning and cotton placement...
Thank you!
Wonderful. I use cotton only for the floor toms, but not in balls. Can you show us yours? Size and form. Tks
Most important thing for easy tuning is apex of bearing edge must make contact with the drum skin on the flatter part of the drum skin rather than the rounded part,Rob brown has the easiest most effective Tuning method just tune out the wrinkles and minor adjustments from there,just push harder in centre of drum head for a higher pitch or push softer for a lower pitch sound when tuning out the wrinkles takes 5 mins to do all toms top and bottom heads
Drums sound great!!
oh my god! your drums sound incredible!!!
Cotton Ball idea . . . genius!!
Sounds awesome. Please do a tuning video!
THANK YOU THIS WAS GREAT
Great Video! I use cotton balls on toms, very very very good!
Thank you for making this video. I really appreciated your clear and concise explanation and sound samples. I even appreciate your UW shirt; although I’m a Beaver….
I won't hold it against you. 😁
Thanks bro. I appreciate it!
#gobeavs
Thanks bro. I appreciate it!
#gobeavs
Thanks bro. I appreciate it!
#gobeavs
Thanks bro. I appreciate it! It’s going to be a great game Saturday!
#gobeavs
Great presentation
what do you do with the cotton balls you never said do you just throw them in the drum do you tape them inside outside
The cotton balls rest freely on the bottom head inside the drum.
Also pitch raise w more volocity...on initial strike....high to low slide in pitch.
Don't ever apologize for going-into "Drum Nerd" territory. God gave us a gift to speak and understand a language of our own! Everybody can learn how to order their drink from Starbucks, but only the chosen few understand the passion of a musician discussing their gear!
That lick right at 24 seconds! I've been trying to figure out what that is forever but don't even know how to describe it clearly enough to elicit more than a confused look. It sounds like an alternation of triplets and 16ths?
Seems like resonance with 12" rack toms is par for the course. I have the same issue and it's super annoying. I'll have to try the cotton balls one day
Yay Kyle!
Waw..awesome, thank you 🥁👍
Oh my God I used to put cotton balls in my drums in the early 90s! I’m glad I’m not the only one! 😂
Nicely done 🍻
Please don’t muffle anything. The drums sound great with no muffling.
Did you add the cotton balls through the air vent, or take off the batter head?
Trying to squeeze them through the vent might tear them apart. When I did my low tom I took off the resonant head and did it that way since it's easier for me to tune that side.
I took the batter head off to add the cotton balls. The vents would probably be too small, at least on my kit.
Do you like the clear heads better?
Great stuff!
You based in Seattle? I could use lessons.
Adding cotton balls how ?
Go Huskies! Lol i should go back and finish that chem degree
Rad man
What snare is that?
I feel like the tuning trick made the floor toms sound a bit less defined as far as the pitch goes. But nice tricks nevertheless!
you have a calm clear voice. must be the cotton balls
good man
That was a very impressive video in all regards! You seem like you're well-educated in music, in general. Did you study in school?
Thanks very much! I don't have any formal music education. I'm just really into all of this stuff. 😊
Unless it sounds like the Toms on Witch Hunt, on the moving pictures album it’s no help.
Great Sound, which I like a lot. I am sure that the detuning trick of the 2 closest lugs to the drummer is not working with diecast hoops! I have a TAMA Starclassic and it has diecast hoops.
I'm not sure how it would work with diecast hoops on toms, but I've done it a couple times on my TAMA G-Maple snare and it made a pretty big difference!
@@kylecokeleydrums I have the G-maple snare aswell and it has standard hoops. The "problem" with diecast is, that it is too stiff and too strong for such tuning tricks, I learned that in another video by the "drum-dogs".
Oh, interesting. My G-Maple has diecast, and the tuning definitely made a difference, but it's probably different from drum to drum.
@@kylecokeleydrums thanks, also interesting. My snare has the 2,3 mm "mighty hoops" (triple flanshed), didn't know that they have it with die cast aswell. Maybe I should try your trick with my toms then. Thanks for answering.
Are your drums all maple shells, and if I have all poplar shells in 12”,13,16 how many cotton balls should I try as I’m about to change out top and bottom heads on all my Tom’s ?
Yes, my kit has all maple shells. I can't speak to how it would be with poplar, but 3 or 4 cotton balls is pretty gentle (I use 4 in my 10, 14, and 16). I would start there and work your way up.
Thank you
A drum nerd and a Husky fan? Sign me up my friend.
What’s the vocal mic you’re using? Sounds great.
Thanks! It's actually just a cheap little USB mic that I bought on Amazon.
Wouldn't all this be easily be achieved by simply swapping to a thinner resonant? Less sustain, faster decay, overall a more punchy sound, and as an added bonus: better sound at lower dynamics.
You can definitely achieve all kinds of different sounds with different drumheads. I just find that there is a lot more versatility and cost-effectiveness that comes with making small tweaks to muffling and/or tuning, as opposed to swapping out all of the heads.
Thanks Kyle, that was some great tips. Your toms sound fantastic! Also, who DOESN'T love some drum nerd content. That's why this popped up in my suggested LMAO.
Question though - it seems you have blankets covering your walls - as someone who struggles with cymbal bleed horribly, do you think it helps with that? I know it really comes down to "hit softer" etc, but even when I do that, I still have horrible bleed. Have you dealt with that before?
I don't have a before and after experience to say whether the blankets are making a difference with cymbal bleed. They definitely tighten up the sound in the room, so it's certainly possible. I mostly bought the acoustic blankets to keep sound from getting out of the room. I have a few neighbors who are fairly close by, and I didn't want the police knocking on my door every evening. 🤣
You've probably already tried these things, but moving cymbals a little higher and making sure that the close mics are pointing away from them makes a big difference. The hi-hat is usually the biggest culprit in my experience because it's close to the snare mic.
✌️👍
The cotto balls sure do the trick, but the detuning of the lugs only work on steel bent hoops, not die cast. With die cast hoops you will detune the whole drumhead if you do this.
Believe it or not, it actually works pretty well with diecast hoops too. I've used the tuning on a TAMA snare that I own with diecast on a few occasions. It makes a noticeable difference in the attack. You do have to be careful about putting uneven tension on diecast hoops long-term. They can warp over time because of their rigidity, especially with drums that are tuned high.
Works ok on my die cast hoops.
@@kylecokeleydrumsgood to know!
Try removing the hoops for a great tom sound.
How do the rack toms sound tilted?
The sound is a little more dead with them tilted at a steeper angle, but it's mostly just because of where your ears are in relation to the drum head.
@@kylecokeleydrums Thought so, but never hurts to ask. I might pass on that then because my kit gets used for bands that tend to have a heavy tilt. Keep making videos and keep drumming.
No different if mic'd in the same place.
Tama drums?
It's a custom-built kit that I bought from my drum teacher back in 2006 or so. The shells are all-maple. I do have a TAMA G-Maple snare that I really love.
the first, have more than four mounted toms...
two, add more toms....
they sound lovely! dumb question: where do the cotton balls go? :)
are they just bouncing around inside the drum? or taped down?
@@MaltZero No tape needed. They're supposed to bounce to create a "gating effect" when the drums are played.
@@MaltZero they'll be floating inside, on the reso head. They act almost like a gate, jumping up on initial impact where they let the drum sing then falling gently back to the [inside] surface of the head, dampening some of the head's resonance and bringing the wee bit of lovely control we hear here. The same idea as attaching a small piece of felt, leather, flannel, denim, whatever to the rim of your batter head and letting it rest on the edge of the head itself. Each has its benefits and drawbacks, I suppose.
Not a dumb question! As others have said here, they rest freely on the bottom and bounce around, which creates a gentle gating effect. More cotton balls = quicker gate, fewer = slower gate.
This gets my noggin scanning for ways to use cotton balls, or even something else, in a way that's not affected by the tilt of the drum...
Tiny little bit difference in my ear.
Actually i have no idea how to tune toms 😎
I hate muffling
Your lieing ears....😂
Nice riffing BTW
Here's the thing. If you know how to tune your drums,no muffling is needed. The whole cotton ball thing kinda made me laugh.
Went to drum clinic to watch Benny Grebb and he has cotton balls in his floor tom and it does work....
I like my Tom’s a little on the lower side of the tuning scale. But I think I will try my two smaller toms a little higher. Might give them more definition
They sound great because they are not D.W.!!!
I love DW stuff. 🤣
He lost me at muffling
Are the cotton balls taped down on the inside of the drum to the resonant or batter head or are they free floating with the drum?
The cotton balls are resting freely inside the drum.
@@kylecokeleydrumsa rough number of cotton balls on the rack toms 10 & 12 verses floor toms of 14 & 16, eg, would be nice to be close on initial try as I would like to avoid pulling heads a bazillion times to increment up? Oh heck, never mind as you stated in the video 4, 8, 4 & 4, respectively. Thx!